Great minds think alike.

The injury-to-the-eye (or at least to-the-skull) motif was in full bloom this week, featured in about ten suggestions (mostly in the second half of the list). A fine idea, but it was bested by Douglass Barre's utterly unique and diabolical suggestion. Several close runners-up this time. Check below for some very funny and ingenious ideas.

As always, suggestions are listed in the order they were received. Thanks for playing and keep those suggestions coming!

--Scott
Sunday, 08/30/1998

frank episale

• an irate senator approaches carl with an axe, screaming "your funding has been cut you degenerate!"

Douglass Barre

• The panel shows Carl, as a thin old man, sitting in a chair staring obsessively at his psychedelic drawing. He's still dressed in the black t-shirt and has the pencil in his hand. Spiderwebs cover him, indicating that he hasn't moved for a very long time. A calendar can indicate a far future year.

Doug Waldron

• "Whoops! I just drew a picture of my own grave. Glad I'm not superstitious!"

  Sponsored by Americans for Carl's Well-Being CARL MUST LIVE (our new motto)

Michael Avolio

• Scott McCloud comes in and shoots Carl. (saying something like, "Get away from my drawing board!" or even, "I leave for two weeks and look what happens..!")

Jonathan L. Miller

• A superhero (preferably Zot!) Leaps out of the page and slugs Carl across the jaw, yelling something like, "I've got you now, Doctor Memory!" (Or insert nemesis as needed.) We hear a sickening *CRACK* as Carl's neck snaps like an old twig. (Well, he *is* supposed to die in this panel, right?)

Jeff Sharman

• Carl is holding a sheet of paper & a torn open envelope. Drops of sweat are radiating out of Carl's head. He says "I've been dropped by Diamond!?"

dan wheeler

• carl flying past birds through blue skies and white clouds towards a giant bottle

  "I want to feel this way FOREVER! I'll never stop drinking!"

Harry from Greece

• Carl, as expected, is being strangled by his drawings. A lot of people will suggest this, but I am going to tell you HOW to do it! It 'll be an expresionistic panel (and I'm not talking about Charles Schulz here). We 'll see the shadow of the agonized Carl on the wall, trying to protect himself from the "monster" he's created that is threatening to engulf his from above. Then again, it's your choice of course...

Jake Thompson

• Later Carl is getting very woozy, holding his pen point up and about to pass out on it.

Taylor

• A large bald scary looking guy strangles Carl in one hand, in the other hand is Carl's comic "mock". The large man says "Make fun of me in print will you!!!"

Lauren

• How about he is overcome by the fumes from his pen which are really carbon monoxide and he asphixiates.
• Carl on drugs (after avoiding elephant) hits Carl who is drawing and driving and they both die!!!

  Inquiring gnomes want to mine!

Sean Duncan

• Carl, all dazed and his vision obscured with colorful swirly things, walks out of his house saying "I need some fresh air!" just as a truck is very clearly about to run him over.
• Carl, all dazed and his vision obscured with colorful swirly things, gets one hell of a paper cut with the edge of the Bristol he's drawing on.
• Carl, all dazed and his vision obscured with colorful swirly things, realizes that the colorful swirly things are actually *real*, as they pounce on him and wrap themselves around his neck like some strange spectral anacondas.
• Carl, all dazed and his vision obscured with colorful swirly things, passes out face first in his inkwell and drowns.
• I'm not sure what's wrong with the "Help! I've burst into flame!" idea, now that you mention it.
• Carl, all dazed and his vision obscured with colorful swirly things, reaches over and mistakenly guzzles a jar of paint thinner instead of his beer.
• Carl, all dazed and his vision obscured with colorful swirly things, draws a Destroy!!-esque character which leaps off of the page and stabs him with adamantium claws.
• Carl tries to become a comics professional and starves to death.

Justin Savage

• Ever fallen asleep at your desk? Ever fallen asleep on your very sharp very thin hunt 102?

  If thats too easy you could always strangle him with the colourful swirls coming out of his pen.

briaN jeNNiNgs

• Carl whips out his nifty little annoying cell phone to call home to his sweetheart.

  "I just wanted to call and tell how much I appreciate..."

  Suddenly, he wrecks and dies - just like everyone who tries to dial, talk, and drive with their heads cocked to one side should.

Mom

• he erases himself

lee dunnavan (age 6)

• god thought he was surprise.

beatrice dunnavan (age 7)

• an angel comes out of the drawing and says god wants him.

Joseph Anthony

• Carl screams, "AIIGHH! An Aneurysm!" Your choice as to whether his eyeballs burst all over his artwork, or he performs a clean and economical out-of-panel flop.
• Carl draws something that Human Eyes Were Not Meant To See. He screams "Cthulhu Ftagn!" and croaks. (It's okay for the POV to be from behind the drawing table so we can't see what he drew - I don't want anyone aside of Carl to get hurt.)
• Carl gets swept up and transformed by the curly lines on his panel into lifeless geometric shapes. "No! Too abstract! ARRRGHHH...!"
• Carl says, "I feel morbid. Maybe I'll draw my own grave!" Detail permitting, something like the final panel should be taking shape on Carl's drawing table. (Carl gets off easy this time!)
• Carl does NOT meet you drawing him from the other side of the paper, or reaching down from above to stab him or black him out with your own pen, or encounter you in any way. He beats his head against the fourth wall, fails to break through, and dies of shock and chagrin. (Not at all easy to get into one panel, but hey, you're the professional.)

  I hope I'm not causing you problems by presenting multiple ideas, even though some are just jokes. If you want me to back just one and drop the others, I'll stand behind #4. Well, maybe #3...

  [No problem at all, Joseph. I love multiples. --Scott]

Sky (age 5)

• He draws a picture of a lion, he goes into the panel and the lion eats him.

Winter (age 3)

• A tiny waist and a cricket. This is what you give me to work with. I've seen worse. And all of the things in Mulan

Johnny

• Ooh pretty...I'm gonna get a closer look at that pencil...ouch! my friggin eye! Dead.

Sis

• He picks up the blue ink instead of the beer, turns blue and dies.

DEKE

• "NO! This looks like a Liefield...the shame...AKK!"

Jesse Farrell

• Carl licks the pencil and says "Mmm... non-photo blue." Toxic levels of "blue" do him in.

Robbie Camp

• A mohawked midget pops out of the drawing board and, holding a tommygun, says "So, we meet again Carl."

Steve Rush

• carl passes out and lands on his pencil, jabbing it in his brain...ouch.

M. Damien Mako

• Carl impales himself on a #2 pencil

Erik Hallberg

• Carl, leaning dangerously back in his high-backed drawing chair. He's tipping his Bud to have a big swig -- but wait! That's not his beer! It's a cup full of very, very pointy pens! Already they're slipping... and heading right for his EYE is... oh dear heavens no... not a fountain pen! Carl's face has a split second to register profound shock and embarrassment. Bummer, Carl. We feel your pain. But not really.

Julian Holm

• He grabs the ink bottle and drinks it, mistaking it for a beer or other alcoholic beverage.

bryan young

• Carl hits a bump and the pencil gets shoved through his skull.

Amitai

• Carl accidently sticks his pencil into his forehead A deep red dot forms in the middle of his forehead... carl looks at it, surprised... But its too late for poor carl. He dies from lead poisoning.

Kean

• Drowsy, Carl slips and impales himself on a sharp (and pointy) pencil...

M. Damien Mako

• Fatal Drinking and drawing, huh? In one panel no less. You have just given me much more respect for the men & women who write the funny papers ever day. Of course you did give poor carl Bud, illegal in more than a few countries as sub-standard beer. Well, carl reaches for another tall frosty one and OD's on a pot of India Ink.

• Or he falls asleep and is impaled on a pencil, did someone say that already?