This week's panel suggested by Markus Gerwinski with the "close enough" chorus:

• James Dominguez
• Zack Adgie
• Tod Caviness
• Ross Horowitz
• Bill Schlimme
• Kean Soo
• Anonymous (?)

Nailed it!

I liked this one. Though a bit obvious, it ties the two threads very nicely. Great suggestions this week, Guys. Keep 'em coming!!

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

--Scott
Sunday 10/17/1999

Nat Gertler

Okay, I admit it, I am at least partly to blame for our current dilemma.

• Extreme close up on Carl, eyes wide. "What are you doing with that wooden stake?"
• Thought: "What would Brian Boitano do?" (Well, if you can reuse the first and last panels, we can reuse some of the middle ones!)
• Nancy is carrying a tennis racket, and Sluggo says "You play tennis?"
• Carl tears at his own hair. "I'm sooo confuuuuuused!"
• "Meatball!"

  I don't care what we pick for this panel. The panel after this one is going to be sheer hell.

[(*groan...* ) Y'know Nat, you'd better be careful with that repeat-a-middle-panel suggestion. I know somebody whose job would suddenly be a lot easier if we started doing that! --Scott]

James Dominguez

To add to the many many many identical comments this week - bloody hell! How do we join these suckers up? Just to put it into perspective for everyone: Carl propositioning Daisy in a helicopter, and a vampiric Carl being watched by an angel as he sprouts fangs and is burned by a crucifix lead into the same panel. The blank panel for this week not only kills Carl, but also leads on to another, non-death panel. *cringe*

• After much thought, I have thought of just one that fits, but I think it does so pretty well. Carl and Daisy are in a helicopter in one panel, and Carl appears to be in Heaven in the other, so... A view of the ocean, with Carl plunging from a great height, maybe trailing steam, with a talk balloon from an un-specified source above saying "Cool off, Carl." That way, he can drown, to lead into the death panel...
• Actually... it doesn't have to be the ocean. To make the next panel more open, it could just be an unspecified body of water.

  That's all my brain could squeeze out... Hey, I'm due a plug! Pity I don't have a website... Visit http://www.sluggy.com/ and have a laugh!

Josiah Rowe

• Garrison Keillor is standing in front of a microphone on a stage. He says, "It's at times like these that you need Be-bop-a-re-bop Rhubarb Pie."

  Well, I had to have an outside observer to join the two threads, and it's the 25th anniversary of "A Prairie Home Companion"... Maybe I'll try again later in the week.

[Any more Norwegian Batchelor Farmers in the audience? --Scott]

Jennifer Stinsman

• NAR:Two weeks later Carl is in the doctor's office. Doctor: In the advanced stages of syphillis, burning is not uncommon.

Jesse Rimler

• Well, since the angel and Daisy look alike, we can have a sort of combination of the two. Crop some of Daisy/Angel out of the panel, have her saying "you will die for you sins, Carl" as Carl is burns

  I'm not an avid video-gamer, but the designers at the Nintendo-owned company Rareware are really quite excellent, and I always get excited when a their newest opus arrives. They have a new game coming out the 12th, a silly sort of action game called Jet Force Gemini that looks well designed, and one of the characters in the game is interestingly named "Floyd the Droid". He is a small, cute, flying robot that aids the characters. Sound familiar? When I saw this info, I was startled by how close the character comes to your own small bot from ZOT! and I am curious if you were aware of this. If you aren't take a look for yourself at http://www.rareware.com/recent/games/jetforce/castlist/ Weird, huh?

[Hmmm... Okay, everybody. What do you think? --Scott]

Tom Harris

I don't know how to get around this.. we have to kill Carl in one panel and connect to the "it burns" continuity...

• Carl erupts into flame, skrieking "Aieeee!!"

Michael Patrick

• Diagram of Carl's brain with a little red "x" over his frontal lobe. Caption: The stress of this moment suddenly brings on a massive aneurism.

Markus Gerwinski

... and give us today our weekly Carl ...

• The obvious one first: In the foreground we see Daisy, a wooden stake in her raised hand, shouting: "Bloody bastard!" or something. In the background Carl, a frightened expression on his face, muttering: "D-Daisy...?"
• Carl falling. From above a word balloon: "Go to hell!!!" (Since we don't see whose voice is represented by the balloon, this fits with Daisy and the angel either.)
• A sudden kiss by Daisy sets Carl on fire.
• Close-up of Carl: Daisy / the angel smashes Carl's head with the cross, saying: "Oh, shut up!"

Sergio Guillen-Pantoja

I'm at work right now, so bear with my suggestion...

• Carl spontaneously combusts, filling the panel with flames. CARL: ERP!

  Short, concise, to the point... and you can show a smoking Carl in the next panel like those WB cartoons :-)

Catt J. Roxxanne

• A flying hand gives carl a "Backhand-o-death."
• "It seemed like it was all over for carl, but then, the artist, weary from lack of sleep, decided to put some plain text in a box and go to bed. Oh yeah, Carl died too..."
• Carl dissolves into a pool of gunk. Someone is holing a cross right above it, saying "This cross has melted you and your hormonal antics! HA!"
• Carl is given a "SHOVE" into the middle of nowhere (like some sort of mountain road or something) as a voice calls back "Well, that's that."
• "Forgeting to say 'please' or 'thank you', carl explodes due to the insultion of being impolite."
• Close up of Carls head, someone's hand jams a gold-ish metal pipe/bar in his neck. A voice shouts "Take that!" as carl screams "AAGH!! FEELS LIKE CIGARETTE LIGHTER BURN!!"
• Daisy points to an angel behind carl and shouts "CARL! WATCH OUT! THATS THE ANGEL OF DEATH!" Bewildered by her comment and/or presence, carl mutters a "Huh?"
• "Allow me to put you out of your misery" says a voice as a pair of arms strangle Carl.
• A voice says "Thats it! I'm gonna have Dave Barry kill you now!" "Cool." thinks Carl.
• "Hey! Waitaminit! I'm in Heaven?! How'd I get here?!!"

  My GOD this is a hard panel....

Travis Pelkie

• Why is my first thought something about an STD causing burning? There's the panel, Carl on the floor, holding..."down there", and screaming "IT BURNS!" The transition from each of the "crossing" panels is an entirely different time frame, but hey, this be comix! Plus you get in that "sex kills" message that'll make CYOC an edgy-cashunul type comic. Maybe you'll get money from the gov't for conforming to their standards. (Whoa, wait, am I on hallucinogens? Money fRom the govern.#R$^#^?)
• Enough silliness. How bout Carl went to see that NYC controversial art show, and it hurt. "Can't ever think of sex or religion again!" Death scene.
• Or a death scene outta Shakespeare: "Oh, I die, I die, I die , oh, oh, oh."
• MAybe not. geez , I'm almost outta suggestions.
• Hey, that wasn't a suggestion! How about a big "Sex kills, and so do vampires" wordy panel? Makes almost as much sense as the big explosion panel earlier.
• Again, monkeys, in shirts, on fire. WHY NOT?

  Oh, to that person who asked if they could be an honorary Travis, well, no. Legal name change necessary to join the Official Travii of America Organization and Annual Bake Sale. Although you do get a neato badge and membership card. Whoa, silly. Scott, have you ever found any good explanation as to why Western culture reads left to right, while Eastern culture reads left to right? I've been thinking about this cuz of art history stuff.

[Maybe the pictorial nature of the language? (right/left brain schism?) I'm sure it's discussed somewhere on the Web. Try my favorite search engine, Google. --Scott]

Travis Pelkie

• Me again, howza bout Daisy punches him, but all we see are speed lines, one set knocking Carl into the gravestone panel (a harder punch) and the other set into the panel below. Forgot that it continues down below. Of course, this doesn't hook up with the panel above, unless, of course, we see that yellow thing, and a caption sez: "Lookout, a right cross!" I really should be studying, or something, that gag is terrible. I should write it down.

  Went back, saw who wanted to be a Travii, and found his (or her, who knows) name is Jimmy. Hey, stick with that name, it'll get you places. Remember, Superman's pal is JIMMY Olsen, not Travis. Although I think Beppo's "friend" was Travis, not sure (dang pre-crisis continuity) Hey, I'm loopy today, whaddaya want from me?

Zack Adgie

• At that moment, the other carl (from waay back in section 1) falls into the cockpit, and the cross he's holding lands on the other carl, burning him to ash.
• We see carl falling by the helicopter, and Daisy saying "No!". this could mean one of two things - either a very strong rejection, or shock and suprise at seeing carl falling from the sky.
• daisy and carl in the helicopter crash into the other carl, riding the purple flying elephant.

Aito Steele

• Daisy: "I don't mess around with vampires!" Then she stakes him through the heart.

Luna

• "What have you done to my hand?!"

Jen

Okay, I know this first one won't get used because not enough people would 'get' it, but I just had to...

• White background, in the panel is Carl and a girl who is smiling and offering her hand to him.... why, it's that cute little chicky Death!
• Or... Close up of Carl's pain filled eyes... Carl: Ow.
• Or... we see Carl's mangled body... Carl: Ow
• Or... Carl's mangled body... Carl: What a crappy day.
• Or... Carl's mangled body... Carl: All I can do now is dream of the sweet release of death. (little thought bubbles heading out towards the panel to make the graveyard panel look like a daydream)
• Or...Carl in a hospital bed or just his mangled body. Someone, a nurse, doctor or bystander saying something like "All he is capable of now is hoping for death" (little thought bubbles heading out towards the panel to make the graveyard panel look like a daydream)

  Since the first and only suggestion I made before this was picked I've been antsy about submitting more. Oh well, I might as well just post these silly things and get on with it. :-)

Regina

i couldn't help adding my ha'penny to the glory that is carl...

• daisy reveals herself as a vampire, bites carl, and he gets buried. hence the gravestone, and the 'it burns! it burns!'
• daisy stabs him in the back with a stake (or a steak, if your pun tolerance is high) and crows 'i knew you weren't telling me everything!'
• a very large black widow spider leaps out and obscures the scene. draw your own conclusions.

dan wheeler

• suddenly god appears! carl is almost completely engulfed in flames. god: feel my retribution, sinner! impure thoughts are an abomination! carl: EEYARGH!
• caption: much later. carl & daisy messing around under the covers in a sleazy motel. carl: i don't know, that burning sensation hasn't gone away. i still say something's wrong. daisy: i told you. you're the only man i've ever been with...
• carl is laying in a hospital bed in a body cast. beside the bed is a clearly marked O2 cannister & mask carelessly left on. *psssssht!* a cigarette dangles from carl's mouth which he is preparing to light. carl: thank god those 22 grueling hours of non-stop surgery saved my life from those grevious injuries i sustained! now only 16 months of painful rehabititaion to go before i can reenter society and live out the rest of my lonely days as a mutilated outcast. time to reward myself with a cigarette. carl flicks his bic. BOOM!

  feel free & edit that last one down a bit if you want to. i got a little carried away.

Matt Ryan

• From the heavens, a lightnging bolt strikes Carl with a great KA-BAM.

  (returning after long suggestion hiatus)

Tod Caviness

You, sir, are a sadist. This is the kind of thing creative writing teachers assign to punish tardy students, isn't it? Okay, lemme think ... fortunately, the angel looks a lot like Daisy with a perm or something, so:

• CARL: "Aaargh!" (As Daisy / the angel plunges a stake into his chest.)
• CARL: "Aaargh!" (As Daisy / the angel pulls a trapdoor lever which he falls through. A downward-pointing sign reads 'Hell: 666 miles'.)

Thom Marrion

• A shot of a flaming gold cross speeding towards the helicopter like a meteor from Heaven. From above there is a word balloon saying "Ooops!".

  Sure, maybe this suggestion won't get picked, maybe someone has thought of a funnier way to tie in two completely different continuities. (Cue in "Glory,Glory, Hallelujah") But I feel that none of that matters, as long as you try, as long as you can go back to bed at five in the morning and say to yourself with pride, "I did it. I came up with a somewhat amusing way to tie the two panels together, and nobody can ever take that away from me!"(End Music. Close Up of Flag. Roll Credits. Good Night)

Travis W. Howard

And behold, there shall be 3 Travii.. beware the 4th who rides upon a pale horse... ;)

• [Draw this panel to where it would line up with the one above it] [Yellow cross line continues into next panel below] Carl B [from other thread] says "What's this?" and begins to touch the obviously electrified yellow line. Future panels will show what's on the other end of the yellow line.
• A huge cartoon cloud covering the panel with the word "POOF!" written across it. Daisy in background worried/confused saying "Carl??"
• Close up of blue angel above [Angel, looking somewhat vengeful] "Pay for your lifetime of drinking and debauchery, sinner!"
• Carl, aflame says "You set my harmones on fire Daisy!" Maybe make this an animated fire scene please?? :P
• Diagonal line from upper right to lower left. Upper panel shows the traditional tombstone panel. Below, almost peeking upward annoyed at the tombstone panel, Carl says "Hey! It's not time for that yet!"
• Carl thinking "Guess this is punishment for all those Linda McCartney jokes.."
• Closeup of Blue Angel who says: "Carl! Whatever you do.. don't...." with a look of someone who's just said that and sees someone still walk into a door/wreck a car/etc.
• Daisy as blue angel, "Carl, I'm afraid you've failed the test.. I'm sorry.. goodbye.."
• Enter: Gary Coleman as an angel. "Whatchoo talkin' bout Carl?" (sorry, when it doubt, go with Herve Villachez or Gary Coleman)
• A panel reading "Due to unforseen circumstances, Carl must die. Thank you for your patronage. Move along, nothing to see here.." Maybe put this text inside an arrow which points down to the final thread.

  Yet another tough week.. working on the web page.. soon as I do, I'll post the link to my 24 hour experiment.. hopefully Matt Feazell'd be proud :P You'll see :)

Josiah Rowe

Scott, thanks for the links to previous sections! The only thing I might suggest is an arrow or something to indicate where the other sections are in relation to the current one... This week is a doozy... hence the many "scene-to-scene transitions" below.

• Image: a brain in a vat, with electrodes attatched. A label on the side of the vat reads: "Specimen #4: `Carl' " A voice from off-panel says, "Doctor, #4 is fibrillating badly!" or "Doctor, we're losing #4!" or something like that. Perhaps a screen next to the brain shows the previous panels in quick succession, suggesting that the virtual reality in which the "Carl" brain is being held is breaking down.
• If you don't want Carl to be a brain in a vat for the next two panels, the same effect could be reached by drawing Carl with some sort of VR helmet over his head, on a hospital bed; a nurse could be monitoring his vitals next to him and say the lines.
• Two figures: one is Carl, the other an ambiguous, vaguely female figure, which might be the "angel", might be Daisy, and might be a demon (maybe the same shifting of images as in the "whole...life...flashing before my eyes!" panel?). The figure says, "No, Carl... you're in Hell! And there's no nookie here!"
• Caption: MEANWHILE... A bearded, villainous figure holds his hand over a red button. He says, "At last, my archenemy, Carl, is destroyed! Bwa-ha-ha!" (Is he about to press the button, or has he already pressed it? We don't know!)
• Caption: Many years later... An aged Carl is lying on his deathbed, grasping his chest as he speaks to an interviewer. He says, "She told me never to tell a living soul about it... but now it doesn't matter... aah!"
• Caption: Many years later... Same scene as before... but Carl says, "And that's when I got really burned."
• Big sound effect á la "CRASH!" from Section 2: SLAP!
• Close-up on Carl as he thinks of his (late?) mother. In a thought balloon, his mother scolds him: "Shame on you!" As he remembers his mother's voice, he grabs his chest...
• Monkeys in shirts. The guys are right on this one.
• I'm *really* tempted to put in the "Whew! It was all a dream." and/or "Carl dies, um...somehow." here...

[The arrows are a good idea, Josiah, but I may be even slower than usual making that sort of update in the next few months as I finish Reinventing Comics. --Scott]

Ross Horowitz

Is there anyone else out there who wants Carl to have at least ONE happy ending. I feel so sorry for him.

• Carl falling from sky in flames.
• Enter: Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
• Enter: Muffin the Vampire Baker. (as per Sluggy Freelance, is it not nifty?)
• Carl buys himself a vampire puppy to cheer himself up.
• Daisy stabs Carl with a wooden stake.
• Carl in Hell. Devil: Out of the frying pan...
• Carl in Hell. Devil: Should have kept your mouth shut.
• Angel smacks Carl. Angel: Now you're gonna get it.
• Daisy douses Carl in cold water. Maybe cold holy water, hmmm...
• Big sign covering up commotion. "Censored by authority of the Comics Code Authority."

Craig Matthews

I just discovered the site - here's my first try! Feel free to use the spirit of my suggestion if you don't like it exactly.

• Sudden, foreboding change in the male character as he says, "...Since I have been playing the role of this mortal long enough!" Off panel voice (assumed to be angel reading down, Daisy reading across) then says: "But then that means Carl is..."

Greg Lam

• Carl, on fire, with a woman in the background shying away. He screams: "I was just kidding!"

  Probably everyone will have something like that.

Bubba

• A booming voice from the clouds above shouts, "Thou shalt let go, Carl."

Hobby Jones

Carl stands at a mirror, looking down, his hands below his waist and just out of frame.

• Caption: Later... Carl: This topical ointment should take care of that burning sensation!

Harry Lagoussis

• A William Blake-ish God shouts "Sinner!" and throws a bolt of lightning at Carl.

Jimmy

It's just too difficult, Scott!

• Carl is on fire, somehow...

  That's all I could come up with.

Bill Schlimme

• Carl plummets to earth, pushed out by a disgusted Daisy, burning up in the atmosphere.

TimmyC

Oh boy.

• Carl says, "Help, i've burst into flame!"

  Well, it's better than 'Carl dies, um...somehow.'

Kean Soo

• Carl falling quickly towards the ground, kicked out into sky by The Angel/Daisy. Clouds whiz by.
• "Help! I've burst into flame!" (wow, a forbidden suggestion that works... kinda)
• Caption (from either Daisy or The Angel): "Get the heck outta here!" Panel consists of a foot kicking Carl in the butt out into the sky.

Anonymous (?)

• Okay, let's start with the easy ones: 1. Daisy pushes Carl from the helicopter. I suppose the line could be from the rapidly plummeting Carl, saying "I guess that's 'No', huh?"
• 2. Daisy has that cross I mentioned, and Carl turns out to be the flaming vampire, same suggestion. Daisy could be thinking "Desperation is the world's worst cologne."
• 3. Daisy parachutes outta there, and Carl goes down in the Helicopter, having (apparently) failed his helicopter pilot 101 classes. Daisy could be shouting "Only if you can catch me."
• Now come the slightly more colourful, though still slightly obvious (to me) suggestions: 4. Daisy says "Oh, what the heck. What can it hurt?" All this while the gas gage shows empty.
• 5. Daisy practically dives on Carl, screaming "Oh YES, Carl!", as the helicopter is shown about to crash into a mountainside. I guess the Oh Yes bit would have to be coming from the helicopter exterior.
• 6. Daisy accidentally pushes them both out the side door, in her effort to get over there fast enough. More like, Oh YES Carl...Oops! Actually, this works better if only he falls out. You could show Carl falling out backwards, either from over Daisy's shoulder, or from just a few feet outside of the helicopter, with her reaching for him, and him just dropping out of sight at the bottom of the panel. (This actually leads to the rather interesting possibility of him merely dropping into the next panel, directly below. Just a thought.)
• Finally, the weird ones: 7. Carl touches Daisy and his hand immediately begins to incinerate, as he looks on in horror, exclaiming, "Ah, sulphuric acid! I thought it was cashmere!"
• 8: Carl has a violent allergic reaction to Daisy's perfume, or perhaps her blouse, again, and throws himself from the helicopter, screaming "Ah, Rayon!" or "Ah, Dynasty!" as he goes.
• 9. Carl instantaneously combusts, belowing cryptically, "Ah! Too Late!" as he disintegrates before Daisy's eyes.
• And Finally... 10. Daisy turns into the angel seen in the panel above, and, with anguish on her face, says "No, you musn't..." But it's too late. Carl has touched her, and is vanishing right before our eyes, as if in a flash of blinding light. This could lead to the scene in the panel below revealing the light was really from an as yet unexplained source, like a plane flying by, or a UFO, or perhaps just a pen light that Carl accidentally switches on as he tries to get closer to Daisy. But that's...another story.

  Hey, was my second attempt any better than my first? Can't wait for your new book, Scott. The last one is still CANON, in my library.

[Thanks! My next one'll be Can(n)on FODDER, I'm sure. --Scott]