Never overlook the "Obvious."

Many a fine suggestion this week (including a four-way tie for runner-up among those who tried to get Carl on the road in time for next week's "merging traffic") but for the second week in a row, our winner, however obvious it may be, was quite unique (though M. Robert Turnage came close.) Congratulations, David Goldfarb;you're this week's winner!

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

--Scott
Sunday 09/06/1998



bak

  • top of panel reads: "The next morning..." Our hungover friend Carl reaches for the empty bottle atop the bureau beside the bed as a (top)nude Dolly(from Family Circus), cigarette dangling from her mouth, attempts to rouse him with the distraught cry: "Wake up, Carl, wake up! DADDY'S HOME!!"


David Goldfarb

  • I daresay this will be the obvious choice -- Carl falls forward into his drawing board. (Hm -- that's maybe not phrased completely clearly -- I mean he gets sucked out of his reality and into his drawing.)


Martin

  • He runs out of ink(or the fumes get too much for him) and goes for a drive to buy more ink(or get fresh air) and runs into the store.


Michael Avolio

  • Scott McCloud walks into the room, returning to his drawing table after taking a break. Scott could say something like, "Carl? But you're just a character I made up! (I know, Scott, I'm obsessed with you meeting Carl, but why not?)
  • The woman from the first panel could come in and say, "Carl, would you run an errand for me?"


Sean "Help! I've Burst into flame!" Duncan

  • We see Carl at a comic signing, wearing dark shades and flanked by bodyguards. A box in the upper left-hand corner says "2 years later." An interviewer standing next to Carl asks "How does it feel to have won in every Eisner category this year?" Carl looks pretty damn smug.
  • Carl's at a very posh art opening, holding a cocktail while a swirly, multi-colored drawing is in the background. He has two or three beautiful women (dressed entirely in black) flanking him. Carl is the hit of the art world.
  • Carl is sitting at the drawing board, staring at a (drawn) mirror image of himself on the paper. Which, incidentally, stares back at him with a sinister glint in his eye.
  • Boring conventional suggestion #1: Carl says, "Hey, these are great! I should go mail them off to my friend Lou!"
  • Boring conventional suggestion #2: Carl draws a big pink elephant which leaps out of the page.
  • Carl draws a red dot on an otherwise blank piece of paper. He looks at it quizically, scratching his head.
  • Carl gets a nasty paper cut and says "Ow! I should go buy a band aid!"
  • Carl draws all sorts of swirly, colorful things on his otherwise black t-shirt.
  • Carl draws a car which inexplicably honks at him. He says, "Cool!"
  • Carl starts crying at the beauty of his work.

    Ok, they got successively shorter this time. Hope there's something here that amuses you, at least partially.


frank episale

  • carl in art gallery, surrounded by pretty swirly art and obseqious well-wishers and hangers-on. one holds out a champaigne flute and says "i'm so pleased you've chosen me to represent you, carl; the show is a great success. let's celebrate with some champaigne..."


dan wheeler

  • the top of carl's head falls open as if on a hinge and a tiny little carl jumps out. he's falling directly towards a car that big carl was drawing


M. Robert Turnage

  • Carl places his hands on the board and finds that push right through the paper. He mutters "Pretty... and temporal..." Swirlies abound.


Tony the Comics Guy

  • Carl is running out of the panel on the right side. We only see one leg and an arm rushing out of sight, car keys in his visible hand. Carl: "I've gotta tell my friends about this!"


Yannick Belzil

  • Carl sees colors coming out of the page invading his black and white world. -"Oh my god!!! What the hell is that???"


phil gregory!

  • Hallucinating like mad, Carl looks up over his drawing board to the window, and says to himself, "Hey, wow, I must be drunk, 'cuz there's like, a giant winged elephant flying towards my house at high velocity!" (Although I am forced to concede that spatial considerations may prevent our Carl from being quite so verbose)


Ben Rossi

  • Carl runs out of ink and decides to head over to the SUPER-MART to pick up some more.


Lou Graziani

  • Carl runs toward his car with his "pretty" drawing in hand saying, "I've gotta show this to Betty"!


Nick

  • ART: Drunken Carl sits at the drawing board shaking out the last drop of his last Bud

    CARL: Time for more inspiration!

    SFX: Hic!

  • ART: Drunken Carl sits at his drawing board. He's smiling and holding up a page of artwork. A stack of artwork sits on the table beside him. Carl' s face, his hands, the artwork, the drawng board, and the walls are all covered in abstract smears, spots, drips and splashes of black ink.

    CARL:My best work yet!


Howard Ian Schiller

  • Carl realizes its not good (is he sobering up) and says "I gotta dump this before anyone sees it!"
  • Carl pukes on the page from drinking too much!

aito steele

  • "Hey, maybe I can sell this." Carl becomes the next big thing.


Jim Steensen

  • Carl says "I bet I could sell this and get rich."


Claude Lalumiere

  • The pink winged elephant emerges from Carl's art page, wrapping his trunk around Carl's wrist.


Lauren

  • Carl goes outside to recycle his aluminum "Bud" can while licking his LSD filled drawing paper (cartoon). Carl thinks he is tripping off the acid when the trunk of the pink elephant appears in one corner of the panel.

    So the word balloon is "Recycling is Good! Wow, this LSD works fast."

    Something along this line of thought.


Morgan Doninger

  • A beckoning arm comes out of Carl's drawing ala A-ha's "Take on Me" Video. I use this suggestion purely for the fact that I've always wanted to use the phrase "ala A-ha" in a sentence.


Adam Ford

  • The swirls should come out of the page and strangle carl
  • He should spill beer on the page
  • the drugs give him the munchies


Jonathan L. Miller

  • Well, we have to make this panel tie into the next one, which has to tie into the one about the elephant, right? Ok...Carl grabs the bristol boards (which are still eminating beautiful colors), heads for the door and says, "These are amazing! I gotta drive over and show Daisy!" A mention of watching out for elephants on the road is completely up to you, of course.


Brad Chamberlain

  • Perhaps I'm thinking too far ahead, trying to figure out how the merge point is going to work. But we could imagine zooming in on Carl's drawing table to look at what he's drawing (using a large pen nib to indicate that this is what we're doing). What should be there? Either the car in some form (not so pretty) or a bunch of colorful winged animals (including our pink elephant) -- a blue giraffe, green hippo, etc.


bill farrar

  • ha ha ha i'm far greater than jack kirby or steve ditko for look at these huge breasts


Sky (age 5)

  • He draws a picture of a french fry.


Ivy

  • He draws a picture of an elephant.


winter (age 3)

  • He's saying the man steps on a car but he's in the car.


Jim MacQuarrie

  • Carl throws up on his drawing.


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