This week's panel suggested by

  • PJM

with help from:

  • the marvelous patric
  • Steven Padnick
  • Lee K. Seitz



NEWS!

As of Friday, Zot! is back online for 12 Weeks!! Check my Main Page for the link. Also online is the second monthly installment of "I Can't Stop Thinking!" (ditto) Yes, for all of you who bookmarked Carl's page because you figured that nothing else was ever going to change at this site, you may want to check back at the main page a little more often. Things are hopping this year!

On with the Suggestions!

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

--Scott
Sunday 07/09/2000



adam ford

    part six, who woulda thunk? *sigh*

  • a dying Bert lies on the ground, eyes tearing over, looking up at edna and carl. "Thankyou," he whispers. "You have saved me..."


the marvelous patric

    wow..... this set-up looks tricky and/or fun.

  • vampire dad begins to melt from the holy-spray in a wizard of oz kinda way
  • vampire dad is melting as stake is plunged through his gooey form and, GASP!!!!! into carl!!!!!
  • i appear in the panel as a lame ratings grabbing cameo.
  • carl gets voted off the island.
  • elian's plane, en route to cuba, crashes by them.
  • bond. james bond.
  • Dad transforms just like a transformer on beast machines or beast wars, or whatever flavor transformer you like and is spared from the horrible death.... but what does he transform into????
  • "thwip."
  • the spray from the bottle gets mom, blinding her as she strikes.... nailing carl!!!!!!!!!! oh no!!!!!
  • dad's form melts away to reveal..... andy kaufman!!!!!!!! it was all a big joke!!!!!!!

    wow..... i've never filled allllllllllllll the slots before!!!!! go me. actually....i kinda like the kaufman one...


Markus Gerwinski

  • The obvious one first: Mom corks the holy-water-bottle with the stake. Dad: "Pretty good, darling."
  • Carl is gazing down to a heap of ashes: "...Dad??!"
  • While Carl is drinking out of the bottle, behind his back Mom and Dad are fighting. (Works with both paths: In the slapstick-like thread from the left we won't need an explanation where Mom comes from. And in the thread from above... to be honest, did we ever need an explanation where Carl gets a bottle from?)


Zack Adgie

  • I dunno why, but for some reason, the phrase "well done" just screams to be put in this frame. It's got a whole bunch of meanings in this frame, so i dont really know who i want to say it... but somebody should say it. Sorry... that's the best I can do for this one :)

    Hey look, nuclear war is forbidden... all things considered tho, it works in a pinch if theres no frames branching off from it :)


BLOTMAN

  • Carl's father bursts into flame, from an indistinct injury (could be holy water, could be a stake...), screaming "BUDQZ0 ICKRF!!" I mean, really, what else CAN you say when you're bursting into flame?

    *BLOT*


Addison Godel

    Probably going to be a lot like this...

  • "R.I.P. Dad." As Carl looks on weeping or something?

    A little too easy, but it does bring the two threads together...


Blake M. Petit

  • The monster is lying around, writhing in agony, with a balloon reading: "Aaaah! It... it... tingles?"


PJM

    Wayhey! Section 6...

  • Bert clutches his face in horror and pain... BERT: Aaaaaaaaaaaargh!
  • Bert removes vampire teeth... BERT: "Hey I was only joking! I'm not really a vampire!"
  • An arm reaches out and stabs Bert in the heart with a wooden stake...
  • Carl looks horrified... CARL: "Oh my god! Dad!"


Terminus

    Well here we have a collision between storylines, this could be messy.

  • Spray from holy water forces Vampire/Bert back into Mom with her stake, which impales him, Bert's line " But you know I like my steak rare.. Urk."


Morgan Doninger

    Good to be back. I promise to give it the ol' collage try (pun)
    and be here for all Carl's from here on in!

  • A panel of Bert with holy water flying at him from the left and
    a stake plunging at him from the up/right. Bert thought balloon: "This is
    gonna sting."

    I read RC, and have to digest it for a little while afore commenting, but I wanted to put out a special public thanks for the including of Moxy Fruvous on page 215! Very nice! If anyone in the NYC area wants to check 'em out, they will be playing the Bottom Line July 25th & 26th. Maybe they'd autograph my copy of Reinventing Comics. What else? Oh yeah! Zot?!? Back!?! Cool.


Lukas

    Read Reinventing Comics strait through the day I got it, didn't go to bed until like 5AM. Which was unfortunate, since I had school at like 6:30AM, but whatever. Very heavy on the comics industry, as opposed to the inner workings of comics, but hey, that stuff was already convered in "Understanding."

  • Just to tie it together, maybe a shot of Dad laying on the ground on his stomach, his hands grasping feebly at the air, and some "What A Cruel World" kind of dialogue.

    But WOW were there a lot of asterix and footnotes.


[You said it! If only those bits could have been linked instead those pages would've been a lot less cluttered on the bottom. --Scott]


Steven Padnick

  • Carl's Dad disolves (turns into a skeleton, bursts into flames) somehow reactes to the (duel?) attack of either holy water or flame

    The problem of course, is what to do in the following panels, because Mom is dead in the holy water senario but very much alive in the stake sequence. Course, the angel could turn out to be Mom or Mom could turn out to be an angel. I have noticed that Carl never seems to die a heroic death, and his one death due to old age seemed fairly pathetic. I suggest that the next panel has angel mom welcome her son to heaven, which mean either tombstone or a rejection of heaven.


Jeroen Dommisse

  • Dad lies on the ground, all frizzling and with a stake through his heart, moaning: 'diet Coke in my eyes and a stake through my heart - whattaday!'
  • Mom manages to stab the stake into the bottle neck, leaving Dad virtually unharmed.
  • Dad vanishes into, well, nothingness, leaving mom to stumble and fall into her own stake. Carl in background taking a slur and already starting to feel tipsy by the holy water (bubbles over his head).
  • Variation on all of the scenarios: Mom slips over the wet surface caused by the holy water, stumbles over dad (who remains alive) and the stake hits Carl in the heart. Umm, this would mean that Carl would die somehow. Unless he's immortalized by his heavy drinking pattern?

    Sorry. It's been a long day in office space ;-)


Dan Pollard

    I Don't know where I went wrong last time, but it would be nice if my suggestion actually appeared today. :)

  • Carls Dad, being hit by the Holy water backsplash AND carls mom's stake stands in a classic Vampire death pose. CARLS DAD Aaaaaargh, I curse you, I curse you both....

    Uum lets see, now I hit the submit button, right?


[*Sigh* I'm so sorry if anyone else's suggestions got lost in the "mail" this time. I had thought we'd taken care of these technical snafus but apparently not. --Scott]


James "DexX" Dominguez

    A friend has started (and is halfway through) his attempt at a 24 hours comic. he has been forced to break it up over several days, as his health is too poor to allow him to do it in one sitting. However, this has shamed me into thinking about my own 24 hour comic that never happened. Well, I still have almost two weeks of holidays before me. Hopefully...

  • A puddle of steaming slime bubbles on the floor, with Ethel and Carl standing beside it. Carl is looking at the sole of one of his shoes and saying, "Eww! I trod in it!" while his mother simply stands there looking proud of herself.
  • Is she a vampire in the thread of the story, well, if so... Ethel flies into the picture, slamming the stake right through poor old Bert. At the same time, the spray of holy water hits them both, one ARGH!, one talk balloon, two stems. :)
  • Carl's golden cross flares brilliantly. All we can see are the cross and his squinting face in close-up, and an ARGH! coming in from out of frame.

    Only three this week - it's a hard one. Hopefully I will get my comic done, scanned, and online by the end of next week. It's hard being lazy. *laugh*


[Hey everybody, dig this! --Scott]


Drew Melbourne

    This is hard.

  • Mom kneels over melting Dad, with a stake in him. Carl exclaims, "What are you doing here?"
  • Mom looks confused as Dad melts. Carl looks at bottle. "This isn't beer!"
  • Dad curles into a fetal position as Mom stands over him with a stake and Carl holds the bottle of Holy Water and the Cross. "Why does everyone always think I'm a VAMPIRE!" he cries.
  • Carl chugs from bottle. "Oh well." In the background: "AAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHH"
  • Carl runs from Mom, who charges him with the stake. "Why are you calling me BERT?!?"


Bill Schlimme

    You know, I was wondering what had happened to Ray Suarez: he was perhaps my favorite talk-radio host because, no matter how inane the questions the callers offered were, he would always try to make them sound perfectly logical, and even intelligent. And, a good portion of the time, at least, it worked. All I knew is that one day, it seemed, he was gone. Now I know where he went. Too bad I missed his interview with you and Neil Gaiman. Public radio is all the poorer for his passing to the boob tube, even if it is to the public boob tube.

  • Mom accidentally slips in a puddle of holy water, and accidentally plunges the stake into Carl. She says, "Oops."
  • Mom accidentally jumps into the stream of the holy water, thus inadvertantly protecting Bert from being neatly dispatched. (Extra points if you have a whole Wizard of Oz, Margaret Hamilton melting scene in there as well)
  • Mom: (as she's, er, staking her claim) "And that's for those child support payments that were always in the mail! And that's for running off with our babysitter! And that's for turning that cub scout troop into your personal army of the undead! And..." Carl, horrified, manages a meek: "Mom?"
  • Bert: "Like I like my women: BLOODY!" (er, that's sort of graphic, I guess, but you could always have Ray Suarez lurking in the background.)

    Awfully verbose this time; feel free to edit judisciously.


[ I agree that Ray was a terrific host. Even though Neil and I didn't have the best experience on TOTN (see Reinventing Comics) it could have gone a lot worse with someone else. --Scott]


Paul

    Oh no! The last section! Whatever will we do when it's done?

  • Carl's Dad lying in an open coffin with Carl and his mom standing over it. Carl: Whew! I'm glad thats over with.


mike farrar

  • "Mmmmmmmm, steak," says Carl. "I brought the wine." He holds up bottle of holy water.
  • "Forget about steak, Mom, there's the Goodyear Blimp!" Carl says and points skyward.
  • "You guys aren't gonna fight again, are ya?" Carl asks as Mom impales Dad with stake.
  • "This is all getting too weird for moi," Says our boy Carl, who slips away to drink his holy water.


Jon Delorey

    Wow, is this the last panel?

  • Wow, is this the last panel?
  • Carl's mother with severe case of cross cringe.
  • Carl's mother (as above) saying "OK Carl you may drink and drive"
  • "Opener" causes multiple cans of beer to be created from one.
  • Multiple cans of beer are created and one pizza fed all.
  • Carl says "it's been a blast for me!"

    It was a "Blast For Me!"


Lee K. Seitz

    What, no nuclear war? What's the world coming to? 8)

  • Bert's flesh melts away.
  • Running away wildly, Bert accidentally knocks Carl unconscious.


Chris Shumway

  • The picture of the grave, saying "R.I.P. Bert"
  • An angry Bert, wielding a broken beer bottle in one hand and making a "come here" gesture e.g. The Matrix with the other


Tad Ramspott

  • Carl, standing with hands on head and look of shock on face (staring off bottom of panel at implied body on floor?): "I can't believe this!" Carl's mom, holding stake-like object: "Carl, I have something to tell you."
  • ... Or, perhaps, bring Daisy into this? Carl: "I can't believe this!" Daisy, entering from right: "There you are! I have something to tell you."

    Not particularly clever, but ripe with possibilities.


Ross Horowitz

    I could make comments on Reinventing Comics, but I think I should read it again first.

  • Dad dead on ground. Carl and Mom: Way to go! High five!
  • Mom is soaked. Carl has stake in shoulder or other innoucuous piece of anatomy. Dad is lurking behind them. Carl and Mom: Uh oh!
  • Dad is dead on ground. Carl looks down in disbelief. Carl: Mom, you killed Dad!
  • Dad is dead on ground. Carl looks down in disbelief. Carl: Ok, I promise, no more drinking! Honest!
  • Dad is wet and has stake through body. He smiles. Dad: I like it rare, blood red rare.
  • Enter:Sluggy


Rick Ward

  • Carl and Mom rise up on angelic wings as vampire Bert falls clutching his chest. Carl exclaims "Yikes!", "Wow!", or a Matrix-style "Whoa!"

    Long-time reader, first-time writer.


Justin Bacon

    This is so cool!

  • Carl (or his mother) kneeling next to the body: "Wait a minute, this isn't Bert... It's Scott McCloud!"
  • Bert: "Before I die I must warn you-- >urk!<"
  • Bert: "Tell your sister... You were right... You were *right*. >urk!<"
  • Carl and Mother over the body: "Well... another one goes to dust."
  • Carl: "This happens to me every month!"


Jeff Clear

    We've got spraying water, we've got a stake. Hmmmm...it's like a Three Stooges episode, so.....

  • Bert ducks (or flies/jumps up?) Carl gets his Mom with the Holy water, she stabs Carl in the chest with the stake.

    Thanks for bringing Zot! back Scott. It's still my favorite comic book.


Nat Gertler

  • Dadbert says "Surprisingly, I feel fine!"
  • Confucious appears. "Our history has forked paths, as does our future. We only truly have the moment."
  • Caption: SOON. Dadbert lies there dead. Police van from the Vampire Defense Unit is there. Cop: "Someone killed this vampire -- and they must be brought to justice!"

    I hope everyone who comes to the San Diego Comic-Con stops by the Charles Schulz/Peanuts panels I'm moderating!


Travis Pelkie

  • The holy water sprays the angel, it turns into a vampire thing!

    Zot! looks great!



[Thanks, Travis! And thanks to everyone who's written in and posted on the CBR Zot! Message Board with their comments! The last few days have been truly exciting! --Scott]


zoom out