This week's panel suggested by:

• Craig J. Clark
• Jimmy
• Jen and Derek Ash
• Travis Pelkie

CARL ON NPR?!

For those who missed it, NPR's Morning Edition on Thursday the 20th of January had a report on Online Comics. Though it started with StanLee.net, it quickly jumped to comments by Art Spiegelman and Yours Truly INCLUDING A DESCRIPTION OF CHOOSE YOUR OWN CARL!!

As always, suggestions are listed in the order they were received. Thanks for playing and please join us again next Sunday!

--Scott
Sunday 01/23/2000

What should Carl's Dad's Name be? Here are the final tallies:

BERT - 33 VOTES

FRANK - 29 VOTES

Guess we're missin' an "A" in there somewhere. Hmmm...

Dark Artist

Carl wakes up as Mom approaches the car, and he says to her...

• "Mom! I dreamed I died in a drunk driving accident!"

  This paves the way for Carl to become death-obsessed, or to join AA.

Bill Schlimme

• (This is really really painful, but here goes) Carl, awaking: "Whew! It was all a dream."
• (The answer that WILL NOT win) Goth guy appears in his dream, proclaiming: "I am Morpheus, and you have entered my domain!"
• (The obligatory Little Nemo suggestion) Carl, falling out the car door: "Mama! Oh Mama! Take it away, oh please let me go, Oh! Ma-ma!" Mom: "I knew it! You should not have drinken that Budweiser before getting behind the steering wheel!" (P.S., the really cramped Little Nemo word balloons would help getting that excessive dialogue in the panel.)

adam ford

• a) As carl lies sleeping in his car, a shadow approaches him... all sinister, carrying what seems to be a gun b) Carl wakes up with the imprint of the stering wheel on his face.

  I might once again take the time to flog my zine, DUCK FAT, which contains an interview with Mister Scott McCloud, in which he discusses many many many things to do with his career in comics and other stuff too. Anyone who's interested can email me at ihaveseenthefish@jahoopa.com and we can talk about prices and postage. yay.

Morgan Doninger

Hi again! This time the flu bug bit my gal, and I've been to busy dishin' TLC to disg death to Carl. I do remember suggesting the beer truck thingy, but of course I wasn't around to get my answer to can you still punch up the list of past winners. I promise I'll be back next week to end this one-sided Q & A session.

• CARL wakes up with a start, still in his car. CARL: "Whew! It was all a dream."

  This would be the only legit use of the forbidden phrase, so I strongly urge it's consideration. Thank you.

[Here's a secret: To see any of the past winners before they're all linked at the end just select the panel you're interested in and open it in a new window. Now go to the address line at the top of the window and replace"gif" with "html" Hit return and you'll go straight to the suggestions for that panel. I wait until sections are complete so as not to confuse readers with too many options, but if you're smart enough to do that trick, you're either not confused or, more likely, have come to accept confusion as this strip's native soil. --Scott]

James "DexX" Dominguez

Careful, Scott. You are treading on very dangerous ground now. Any future storyline that has passed through last Sunday's panel can now quite legally feature Carl waking up in the car, saying, "Whew! It was all a dream." You have been warned...

• Carl stands by the familiar RIP Carl headstone, with the faint outline of a ghostly woman beside him. "Carl!" she says, and Carl, shocked, says "Grandma?" (Hey, look! A new member of the family, beginning with G!)
• The "camera" zooms out, and we can see that several people stand around Carl's headstone - Daisy, Ethel, Frank (sure, I'm jumping the gun here), and a minister reading from a Bible. Carl says, "What's going on?"
• Daisy, all alone, places a beer can on the headstone, saying, "Oh Carl..." The ghostly form of Carl beside her says, "Daisy, I'm right here!" She doesn't hear him, of course.
• Carl dreams he is floating inside a half-empty giant beer bottle.
• Carl wakes up, in his car, saying, "I just had the worst dr- huh?" He is startled by the policeman standing beside him.
• Nice simple version - Carl wakes up in jail.

  The 29th Feb thing would be fun... if I wasn't 10,000km away in Australia. I have a cartooning friend who might keep me company. I just have to do some fast talking...

Mr. ?

• Carl is still dreaming of his gravestone, except now Carl's undead hand is bursting out of the ground.
• Carl dreams he rises from the grave as a vampire.
• Carl is still dreaming, but mumbling in his sleep: "Wait, if you dream that you die, does that mean you die for real?"
• Same as above, except at the end, Carl's heart gives out. Carl at the end: "Ack!"
• The ghost of christmas future is standing behind Carl, both looking down at Carl's tombstone. Carl: "Is that real marble?"
• A crow lands on Carl's dream tombstone.
• Carl wakes up. Carl "Oh what a nightmare" But his mom is standing above him with a stern look on her face!
• Same as above, but she also has a knife and is holding it over Carl meanacingly.
• Carl dreaming: "This dream sucks. I want the dream where I'm an olympic skater!"
• And the obligatory caption that makes you go 'hmm?': Carl finds himself in Anime World!

Taylor

• Carl wakes with a gasp and looks in horror at the beer can next to him. Perhaps he throws it away in disgust.

Dave Forsythe

• Carl is startled as the BUD falls into his lap
• Carls mother wakes him, reminding him he has to take the children (be they younger siblings, cousins or whatnot) to the skating rink
• Carl's head slips off the wheel and he hits his head, honking the horn in the process.

  Ok, so a lot of my friends are looking like they might wuss out on the leap day 24hour comic idea, but that doesn't mean I won't do it myself! If anyone lives in the Chicago or suburban area, feel free to email me if you want to do some 24hourcomicing... Deforsythe@yahoo.com

Travis Pelkie

ooh, neat panel

• The obvious comic geek suggestion is to have the Sandman appear, although of course those dang copyright infringement laws get in the way. So have "Dream Guy" or something
• Other less geeky suggestion is to have Carl convert to an alcohol free lifestyle. "I have seen the light!" Have a Jack Chick like religious experience, or something.
• flying monkeys
• Frank pops up in the back, with fangs bared
• Or Carl could dream of the afterworld, and meet his grandparents Abe and Beulah sure
• or the afterworld dream leading to the alcohol free conversion

  Since Aol now owns DC and Mad, do you think comics will now go mainstream at all, or will DC get sold off so AOL looks more adult? (Wait, DC can make them money, what am I saying?)

[At least we hope DC can make them money... --Scott]

Sky (age 6)

I'm back.

• Carl wakes up and says "I thought I was dead!"
• Carl wakes up sees the keys and runs away.
• Carl still asleep, but, in his sleep he sees lots of different people going to his gravestone.
• Carl wakes up right next to the gravestone.
• Carl thinks, when he wakes up, that he was near his gravestone.
• Carl dreams of another Carl gravestone running right next to it.
• Carl wakes up and sees 10 of his gravestones coming at him, and he runs out of the car.
• He wakes up and thinks he was dead so runs on top of the car.
• When he wakes up he sees a gigantic gravestone coming at him.
• He jumps on top of his gravestone when he wakes up.

  I can't believe we are on section 5 already.

[And I can't believe you'll be 7 soon. Sigh... --Dad]

Winter (age 4)

• He dreams about his gravestone.
• Then he dreams of Brian Boytano.
• And everyone said, "no no no" to Carl.
• "Hey look guys I have a pony tail", says Carl, and everyone says, "No, no, no, thats just a rubberband", while he's holding up a pony tail.

[Be still my heart...]

PJM

Carl Carl Carl Carl Carl

• As Carl sleeps, a shadowy knife-weilding figure lurches menacingly out of the back seat...

  Carl Carl Carl Carl Caaaaaaarl

Tim Nielsen

• Carl's foot slips onto the gas, which is conveniently in reverse as it slams through the garage door.
• A small homunculus crawls out of carl's forehead and starts eating the dashboard
• enter - Tyr, norse god, but not Thor, his brother, who holds an uncanny resemblance, but is none the less not Thor, he just get's confused for him a lot and doesn't appreciate it, so please stay off the subject or you'll find a lightning bolt up your a$$....
• three words - Carbon Monoxide Poisoning
• Carl dreams about brian boitano, I mean, what self respecting man doesn't dream about brian boitano?
• Carl dreams about his mom, the Lady with the keys, ummmhhh... better scratch that idea.....
• Carl's car gets stripped by those bug eyed aliens, or the zombies, or neo-nazi koalas, or maybe undead alien neo-nazi koalas, or....
• Carl dreams he is in a public place with no pants, or he is falling, or being chased by zombies, or having sex with a cactus, or any other Freudian dream.
• Carl stays asleep, just copy the panel again, but remove something, like his left arm....
• Carl dreams he has to fill one more suggestion line and can't come up with anything...

Juisebug@hotmail.com

• Have Carl dreaming about Carl dreaming about Carl dreaming about Brian Boitano.

  I saw Magnolia for the second time today. Man! The fisrt time I left the theatre stunned; not knowing what to think, but now I realize PT had it under control all along. Heck of a movie. Everyone else feel the same way?

[Did you notice the fire hoses on the roof during the beginning montage? They were in the shape of an 8 and a 2. How's that for foreshadowing? --Scott]

nick

• The beer can, tired of the anticipation of losing it's bodily fluids, sprouts legs(and maybe arms.)and exits the car, cursing carl for not quickly finishing what he had started.

  A Speech bubble from one of the characters would be appropriate, as to what words would occupy the aforementioned bubbles...leave me be, i have done too much already.

Matthew Murray

• Carl is visited by the hangover god

Gregg Lamse

• An undead/ vampire Carl sticks his arms out of the thought balloon and tries to strangle the real Carl.

  I am not Greg Lam's evil twin. Maybe we're both subsets of something bigger...

Wade Bowen

• Karl is jolted awake and reflects that "At least I've got a while before that happens," or something to that extent.

  Yes, perhaps a lame suggestion. Maybe a better one later

dan wheeler

• carl squirms at the thought of his own mortality. still asleep, he knocks the emergency brake and the car starts rolling forward.
• in carl's dream, daisy stands over carl's grave. "and i never got to tell him how much i loved him." she weeps bitterly
• in carl's dream, carl (oblivious to where he is) walks past his own grave & shudders. "whoo! creepy! I felt like someone just waked over my grave."
• in carl's dream, carl rises from the grave as a horrible flesh eating zombie and does a little dance like micheal jackon in thriller.

  fantastic suggestion, nat. i love it.

Lauren

• Drunken bicyclist hits carl and both die!

Mike Sugarbaker

this one's boring, but dammit, it would work.

• Carl asleep at the wheel. Ethel is tapping on the driver's side window and leaning down to look at Carl, worried. Caption: The next day... Ethel: Carl, wake up! It's about your father!

  See, I'm thinking that if Dad's name turns out to be Bert, then there must have been a character whose name starts with A at some point, the logical inference being that Ethel is not Carl's real mom. So I'm trying to nudge things in that direction. Do Sky and Winter watch Pokemon? Just curious.

[Winter more than Sky. Sky's too busy listening to Smashmouth and They Might be Giants (especially "Whistling in the Dark" from Flood). --Scott]

LuKas Chen

Been a while, but College Apps are killer on the creative spark. Those essays suck something outta our souls! Anywho . . .

• Carl dreams of actually BEING Brian Boitano, something along the lines of "WOW! I'm Brian Boitano!" and mebbe Carl's head changes into BB's, a la Saddam Hussein in South Park. (which would lead to Carl giving himself advice, but that's next panel)
• Dad wakes Carl up
• Carl: Huh? AAKK!! I'm BUFFY!!!
• Pic changes to Carl in front of tombstone, that now reads Carl SENIOR and Dad crawling out to get Carl

  Hm. Reinventing is coming out summer/Fall. Cool. but, uh, any word on the mess that is Zot Vol 4?

[Not yet, no... --Scott]

Lee K. Seitz

• Carl dreaming: I'm dead?!? Dad: 'Fraid so. Let's go get a drink!

J-P Voilleque

Heard you on NPR this morning, Scott, and thought I'd look you up. Hope it boosts your traffic. Amazing Site!

• Carl's Mom walks out the discover that Carl has filled the car to capacity with his own drool. "Eeewww! Just like his father on the morning of our wedding! CARL! Open the damn door and get me the hose!"

  First try, in case anyone missed the whole NPR comment.

Bill C.

Understanding comics was amazing! I must have read it 27 times, and it introduced me to Rene Magritte

• Have him wake up in a strange place, maybe a desert with tumbleweeds and continue the adventure from there.

  I don't know, you could always crash his car into a nunnery...

[Tell Rene I said Hi. ;-) --Scott]

Allen Rubinstein

Okay, now I've GOT to get a poster of this when it's finished (about three and a half years from now).

• Carl wakes with a start at the sound of him being mentioned on NPR

  Hey, hey, hey! Carl makes NPR! Whoah! You sounded great, Scott. Too bad about the Spider Man cartoon theme though. Better than using the 60's Batman, I suppose.

[Wish they'd used Moxy Fruvous' version. --Scott]

Ross Studlar

• Carl wakes up from his dream only to discover that, while he was asleep, the car had started, and had driven into a cemetery. He also finds that he is currently headed straight for a gravestone that bears the inscription: "RIP Carl."

Erik Hallberg

1. Sure, you'll get plenty like this, but more's the fun-- Enter: Morpheus! 2. Eschewing the whole Gaiman-worship thing, let's try a different tack: it's just really, really cold.

• 1. Carl is standing in the midst of a vast and hazy landscape. He looks sleepy and confused. The King of Dreams, shamelessly lifted from Gaiman, regards him coldly, and speaks in his own special funky reverse-type word balloon way. MORPHEUS: Carl? Is that you? CARL: Hrr?
• 2. It's night. Carl, still in the same position, now with huge bags under his eyes, realizes his tongue has become frozen to the wheel. There are little icicles hanging from the rear-view, the door frame, Carl's hair, etc. Maybe a frozen drool-sicle as well. CAPTION: Later... CARL (thought balloon): Ack! I'b Stubck!

  1. Only meant as a one-panel joke. It might be fun if the line that starts us down into Section 6 is a dream sequence...which could take Carl anywhere. If it's the right kind of haze, Brian Boitano could easily skate out of it, in the midst of a "Death on Ice" production. (Extra points if there's a big foam "Carl on Ice" somewhere up ahead.) 2. I know there's no good reason for Carl's thoughts to have the paralyzed-tongue inflection-- I just like it better.

Ben Grooters

• The car explodes
• Picture of the car rollong down a hill.
• Brian Boitano appears and asks carl for a ride to the liquor store
• The car rolls and crashes but Carl survives, thrown through the air, possibly still asleep.
• Carl's car transforms, into a giant robot.
• Carl's dad wakes him saying, "get up carl it's time for dinner" which might lead into carl saying Dad I thought you were dead which could lead into dad saying "Whya the hell are you always saying that!?"
• Asteroid falls on car.

Greg Apessos

Just brainstorming at The Triangle trying to come up with a suggest. Read us online at www.thetriangle.org

• Carl's mom comes out with a gun aimed at the sleeping Carl and says "That's the final straw..."
• Carl dreams: He puts on a black mask and grabs a gun. Carl thinks "I need some quick money."
• Carl knocks the car into neutral while sleeping and the car drifts down a hill...towards the liquor store.
• An image appears in Carl's dream and says "Carl, Beware of Boitano..."
• A big monster steps on Carl's house and mom.
• A big truck slams into the back of Carl's car.
• Carl just robs the liquor store for money. Plain and simple.
• Carl wakes up in his car on an iceskating rink in the middle of Lion King on Ice (or some other Disney movie translated to ice skating)

  My friend Ben and I were working on the suggestions. But we didn't cheat. We came up with our own suggestions...only his suck! (Hehehehehe)

Matthew

• Carl: Wait a second i havn't drank anything at all yet!

Patric

• Rip Van Carl. Carl awakes in the future, with flying cars, etc...
• Carl's dreamland where there are many dancing beer cans and such... (maybe this could be a musical)

  i'll prolly never top dancing beer....

Kean Soo

• Carl wakes up, sweating. Carl: "Gah! I may not have much time left on this earth! Hmm... I've always wanted to try figure skating..."
• Carl: "Whew! It was all a dream." (Some of these panels are really set up for the obvious...)
• The car, with Carl still dreaming, starts to roll down the driveway...
• Carl wakes up. Carl: "Maybe I should try a profession that's a little safer..."
• Mom slaps Carl on the back of his head. Mom: "How many times have I told you, stop dreaming about things like that!!"

  Here's something completely off-topic -- It really sucks to have your house broken into. Luckily, nothing too important or expensive was taken, but now I've got the hassle of replacing all my clothes and CDs... *sigh* At least my comics were untouched :) Now that I've got that off my chest, back to the regular Carl!

[Sucks indeed, Kean. I'm sure everyone on the board and I wish you a quick financial (and emotional) recovery. --Scott]

Jimmy

What is this drawing between panels stuff all about?!

• Carl dreams he is competing in the ice skating Olympics.
• Carl dreams that he rises from the dead. A decomposed hand sticks out of the dirt.
• Vampire Dad, who has been hiding in the backseat, leans over Carl's seat, ready to bite his neck.
• We see Carl's Dad through the window; he's got fangs!
• Carls' tombstone with thought balloon above it: What would Brian Boitano do?
• Carl on Freud's couch Carl to Freud: I've been dreaming about my own death. Freud: This means you want to kill your father and have sex with your mother.
• Carl dreams that he is pulling a grand piano stuffed with the carcasses of two donkeys.

James Whitelaw

• Scott lapses into an alcohol induced coma. All efforts to revive him fail until an experimental procedure involving the injection of mutated braincells revives him, but with side effects of a grossly enlarged head, super intelligence and a insatiable taste for beer.

Craig J. Clark

• Carl wakes with a start. "What a horrible dream! I need a drink!"
• Carl wakes with a start. "That's it! No more alcohol for me!"
• Carl's mother appears at his window, holding a gun to his still-sleeping head. "What did I say about drinking and driving?"
• Carl's father pushes him into the passenger's seat and takes the wheel. "I know just what you need, son."

Jen and Derek Ash

• Scary, spooky eyes look in the window of the car as he sleeps. These are the eyes of Carl's father, the vampire.

Sebastian Ricco

• going sideways:
  first box: carl dont drink and drive...
  2nd box: carl says: "why drink and drive when you can smoke and fly!" carl is lighting a joint in his mouth
  3rd box: we see carls car flying off a precipice
  4th box: we see carl with an out of this world face screaming " weeee!"
  5th box: rip carl
  
• going down:
  first box: carl dont drink and drive...
  2nd box: carl says: "Ill drink and run over people then!"
  3rd box: we see the 4th box from above..."wee!"
  4th box: carl running over ppl
  5th box: police cars chasing carl
  6th box: police cars ram carls car
  7th box: rip carl
  
• going sideways from 5th box from above:
  1st box: police stopped carl, carl saying: it was daisy!
  2nd box: daisy shoots carl out of hatred
  3rd box: rip carl