This week's panel suggested by Bill Schlimme with a little help from Jeff and Ivy

Where's Matt Feazell when you need him?

Though tempted to go completely crazy (Bob Dole on a flying pickle comes immediately to mind) I have capitulated to the greater good and picked what I thought was the most functional connection panel. With luck, we won't have another juncture like this one any time soon. That was hard!

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

Have a great New Year, Everyone!

--Scott
Sunday 12/27/1998

bryan young

• wow. a tough one. Only thing I can think of is to have Carl jump off of another bridge and say "My only chance to survive is to jump into the river."

  By the way I thought your chess piece was very good. I can't wait to see the second part!

[Thanks, bryan. (I love it when people call it my "chess piece.") --Scott]

Addison Godel

• "Whew! It was all my worst nightmare!" ^_^
• Carl, as the monster wraps a tentacle around his neck (forming the noose for the next panel) "I'll ring the BELLS to summon help!"

Stewart Smith

• Carl discovers a bungee cord on the ground and exclaims "mom always said I should never put one of these around my neck." So, he puts it around his neck.

  Kids do the opposite a lot...

James Riley

• The monster gets Carl around the neck with a leash, and he runs away.
• The monster lassos Carl with a rope, while he struggles.
• Monster holds a scarf up to Carl, saying, "...And I've come bearing gifts from Grandma!"
• Monster grabs Carl in a tentacle, and holds him, saying, "You'll never escape!", as Carl struggles against the tentacle.

Douglass Barre (age 28)

You know, I have to join the many voices calling for you to illustrate one of Winter's suggestions, if not a comic scripted by Winter herself. I have no idea in the world what a "Cancel Adios" would look like, but, man, would I like to! (You know, dovetailing two stories as disparate as "Mom is a monster and I'm running from her" and "I killed Mom and am trying to kill myself from guilt" is nigh-unto Herculean. Where's Neil Gaiman now?)

• Momster aims a 50's sci-fi raygun at Carl. MOMSTER: "You'll never escape from our super-advanced science, Carl!"
• Carl reaches for a hanging "vine". CARL: "I'll swing away on this convenient vine!"
• Carl points his finger accusingly at the monster. CARL: "That's not my worst nightmare, silly!"
• God looks down from heaven at Carl, running away. He sighs. GOD: "Meliel, you'd better ready the skyhook again."

["Momster." I like that. --Scott]

Ender

• A bunch of oddly-dressed dwarves scream, "We're the non-sequitor police!" and throw Carl off a bridge(naturally, he has a rope tied around his neck for no apparent reason).

Michael Avolio

• I just realized: None of this has to make sense, right? So just put a of some guy smoking a saying "Ehhh" or a pisture of you drawing or a caption that reads "Later..." or a balck panel with a caption that reads "is this thing on?" or "We're experiencing technical difficulties" or have a of a spaceship or a bowl of fruit or or or...
• Or I guess you could just have him grab a rope with the intent of tying up the monster.
• Or have Carl flying. (It could all turn out to be a dream...)

David Goldfarb (age 30)

• It's obvious, isn't it? Carl grabs a nearby rope and leaps out a window to escape.

The Godfather

• Carl making a brave dash for it, jumping out a window maybe, grabbing hold of a rope.

  Carl: I'll escape that thing by climbing down this handy rope!

harrison!

• carl grabs a "rope" (actually bungee cord) and heads for a window to make his escape.

George Broderick, Jr.

• Carl runs through a Sporting Goods store (called X-treme Sports?) in an effort to elude "his worst nightmare" Carl (thought): I'll shake that monster in the Sporting Goods department!

Jonathan L. Miller

• I'm afraid I can only think of the obvious (want to get this in early before Christmas hits)...The monster shoots out a tentacle around Carl's neck, just as our unfortunate hero (?) manages to crash out through a window. It;s nice, it's neat, it leads directly into the next panel....whaddaya think?

Catt Jan Roxxanne

• Carl stops running, picks up one of those bazookas that launch grappling hooks and ropes, and sez "Oh YEAH, well i'm my BEST nightmare!"
• Carl stops and sez "Waitasec, my worst nightmare is to be the worlds first human yo-yo."

  You should make section 5 or 6 a strictly kids section, that would be reallly interesting. But then again considering all the death and stuff thats not a good idea...

Pete White

• We see Carl leaping for a rope dangling from above so that he can swing off and make his escape (a'la Indiana Jones)

Bill Schlimme

• Carl (Tying the bunji-noose): "Only the Big Sleep can end this wretched nightmare!"

dan wheeler

• carl swings from vine to vine in the jungle "Whew I finally lost her."
• carl grabs hold of one of "mom's" tentacles "You asked for it!" and pulls.
• carl takes off his virtual reality helmet. "That's not what was supposed to happen." or perhaps "What's wrong with this thing?" and yanks on the cord that connects it to his computer.
• carl chases a scared mom/nightmare with a fire hose "Now I've got you!"

Morgan Doninger

• Carl runs toward a rope hanging underneath a sign that reads "To Kill Worst Nightare, Pull Rope."

  Carl: "I'm saved!"

Jay Sabicer

• Carl pulls out a coiled, handy bullwhip (from the coiled, handy bullwhip drawer - where else?)

  Carl: Away foul beast from the underworld or you shall taste painful beef jerky.

Fast Freddy Pinciotti

• The monster's slimy tentacle crawls its way around Carl's neck. Undaunted, Carl shouts " I'll pull it off!" as he yanks on the tentacle/cord.

  This is an excellent site and this Carl thing is very fun (and funny).

Matt Ryan

• Carl running away, loop of noose visible just behind him,

  Thought baloon: "I hope she doesn't know about my fear of..."

Charles Sumner

• Carl, who is fleet of foot, is about to escape when the creatures says, "You may be fast Carl, but can you outrun my bungee cord tongue?!!" and goes into a Gene Simmons impression.

Marek

• Carl starts to run away from the now monster who can shoot out lines of bungie cord like a spider than do silk and traps Carl and hangs him up from the bridge knowing full well he is completely scared of heights and that he cant swim!

Matt Ryan (writing again)

It's hard to imagine panels other than the lamely obvious to connect these two together. Yet, it feels against the spirit of the game to permit a panel's content to be forced by those bracketing it. The forced panel wouldn't be adding anything to the whole. Also, the other entrance to the bungee-cord panel is not a chase scene, so how would we proceed from there? I'm trying to imagine what kind of panel can break the action-to-action sequence and still feel like it belongs...

• Realistic drawing of a hand turning a dial all the way to "absurd". (other end of dial reads: "straight").
• Word-only panel: "Moment of unspeakable [insanity/absurdity]."
• Word-only panel, bordered by thought baloon: "Wait, my nightmare, thats it! I understand everything now, the MEANING OF LIFE, it's..."

  (The above could merge particularly well with the other entrance to the bungee panel.)

M. Robert Turnage

• Carl whips out a giant lasso and hoops it around the monster. "This rope will stop you!" he shouts.

Patrick Downey

• Carl: No, my worst nightmare is the one where I'm falling and falling....

Thomas Dougherty

I thought about a possible panel for a long time and could come up with only one way of having it make SOME kind of sense. Its a bit contrived:

• Carl running along a bridge monster giving chase, spots a rope (later we find out its a bungee cord), says, "I'll swing to safety!"

  I don't know if I spelled all that correctly... oh, well.

  Have a lovely Christmas!

Nat Gertler

• Carl speaks to the monster: "No, wait, my worst nightmare actually is..."

Kenneth Applebaum

• Carl's nightmare, from off-panel or in the distance, wrap around Carl. "Gadzooks!" Carl exclaims (or some similarly nonoffensive interjection). "It's got ahold of me! Maybe if I pull hard enough I can snap its grasp and make it to the safety of the river!" (See how this would nicely merge with the other storyline?)
• or (since I'm sure everyone else is thinking along the same lines)
  Carl: "I should have listened at Woodstock and laid off the brown acid! Bad trip, man! What do I *really* have wrapped around me?" ("Darn! Bungee cord! Just my luck!" Except for the "darn", Carl's expression is neutral enough. Or does this count as "Whew! It was all a dream"?)

Howard Ian Schiller

• This may work, it may not... Carl gets grabbed by the aliens tenticles, trying to pull him closer to the monster. Carl says something like "I'm stronger then these Tenticles."

  A Happy Holidays for you and your family, Scott. Thanks for all the fun. It's a great gift!

EricR

• Nightmare chases Carl

  Carl: Ah, help!

  Nightmare wraps tentacle around Carl's neck just as he runs off a cliff.

Elan Trinidad

• He runs into the vines of a bungee tree (there'll be a sign that says "BUNGEE TREE") away from the monster.
• There's a helicopter up above with cables streaming out for Carl to grab on. PILOT: "QUICK CARL! GRAB ON!"
• Or, instead of a helicopter and a pilot, there's reindeer and Santa. (It's Christmas, I'm drunk on eggnog)
• Or, instead of that, Bob Dole on an flying pickle.
• Bungee cords fly out of the monsters head, trying to grab Carl.
• Carl twirls a lasso over his head like a cowboy, about to capture the monster.

Jeff

• Carl runs to a bridge, ties a rope around himself, thinking "I can use this to jump to safety"
• One of the mosters' tenticles wraps around Carl as he is trying to jump to safety.
• As Carl jumps off a bridge to get away, the moster shoots his/her/its tongue at Carl and it wraps around him.
• Carl is on a bridge with a noose saying "I would rather die than let you catch me" (or something to that effect).
• As Carl is running away from the monster, he heads toward a cliff. A plane or helicopter flies by and drops a rope hanging from it. Carl jumps off the cliff and catches the rope.

Joseph Anthony

Not much latitude on this one, if we want to preserve continuity:

• Monster lassoes Carl's neck as he says, "I'll jump off the bridge to escape!"
• Monster pushes Carl off a bridge. Carl says "Now I can die in peace!" Or, Monster says "I'll push you off into heaven!" and Carl says "Great!"
• Occurence at Carl Creek Bridge. Carl is jerked back from the monster fantasy by an unexpected hanging (this probably violates the 'no dream' rule, but it _is_ his 'worst nightmare', after all.)
• Carl grabs a rope lowered by an unseen benefactor from above (helicopter or someone on a skyscraper). "Saved!"
• Monster has turned back into Carl's mom/aunt/friend/whoever. "Sorry to scare you! Here's a nice necktie!" "Cool!" says Carl.
• Carl is on a motorcycle, looking back and shouting "Got away!" He doesn't see the rubber cord at neck level coming up...
• Carl is pulling at a cord around his neck. "I'll use my inflatable Carl-O-Vest to float away!" The end of the cord is snagging on something...

Josh Dahl

• Carl tries to escape from the monster by grabbing a nearby rope and leaping off of the building they are on Die Hard style. He won't find out until the next panel that the rope is actually a bungee snapping right back into harm's way.

taylor

• Carl is in a cave with all kinds of hanging snakes.

  "I'll escape by swinging on these snakes like tarzan!" says carl.

sky (age 5)

• The monster gets Carl

Winter (age 3)

• The monster dives into the sign. Carl steps into the water.

Ivy (age witheld)

• Carl at a precipice: I'm trapped! Thank god, it's a rope! as he lunges for said rope .