Comments on: Dr. Narbon: April 16-21, 2001

By: Darkstarr

Darkstarr — Sat, 09 Apr 2016 05:35:46 +0000

Pain? Yeah, that song wasn’t bad, although I prefer Nasty Habits myself.

Oh, you mean Forbidden Zone? great piece of filmmaking! You know that Rick is working on a sequel? http://forbiddenzone.com/

By: Darkstarr

Darkstarr — Sat, 09 Apr 2016 05:31:31 +0000

In reply to Chris Gleason (bkitu42).

Danny Elfman actually topped his own awesomeness on that song during their Farewell tour: “Would you like to hear a little story? …Have you all been good boys and girls? Noooo….! That’s what I thought!” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ssYZQnso4I

Then again, any group that can do this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgGQ4kRBPtU is just chock full of awesome…

By: Pygar

Pygar — Sun, 20 Sep 2015 06:23:07 +0000

Cowards heart penguins? Oh-kayyyy……

By: W o o d (wood)

W o o d (wood) — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 18:52:22 +0000

-> Metalfatigue : The tenth Homunculus was a miner. It was forgotten by the writer of the text I cited. I found more references for this story, and in english. I couldn’t find them earlier because the name of the count is spelled differently : “K?ffstein” or “Kueffstein” :

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/olympus/6581/magchild.html

And the story is even mentioned by William Somerset Maugham in his book “the magician” :

http://bythefireplace.com/read/1-Fiction—-General/2992-The-Magician/7/

By: Michael Suttkus, II (the_mess)

Michael Suttkus, II (the_mess) — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 18:52:21 +0000

Am I the only person wondering just why she carries a copy of her genome around with her? I mean, I know *I* do, but then I can't see why she would.

By: Metal Fatigue (metalfatigue)

Metal Fatigue (metalfatigue) — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 18:52:20 +0000

W o o d:
What about the tenth homunculus? What was it?

It shoulda oughta been a gerbil. Well, except then it would have been a cricetunculus, not a homunculus. But still.

By: David Harmon (mental_mouse)

David Harmon (mental_mouse) — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 18:52:19 +0000

Of course, Artie has no real assurance that the printout is actually Dr. Narbon's genome. (Aside from the whole Truth In Madness thing, of course.) Even so, his bemused silence in the last panel is almost as good as an extra punchline!

(Come to think of it, for all the evil schemers in the strip, I don't think anyone ever says "Fool, I lied, bwa-haha!"

By: David Harmon (mental_mouse)

David Harmon (mental_mouse) — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 18:52:18 +0000

Alternative explanation: Cartoon genomes are simple; they only need to specify where the outlines go.

LOL! That one could probably come in handy for a cartoon with more meta-play in it....

By: So It Begins (soitbegins)

So It Begins (soitbegins) — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 18:52:17 +0000

@Ed: I can’t help you with the poll results. You’ll note that Artie only beat Helen by one vote. Maybe you could have talked a friend who also reads the comic into voting for her.

By: Kevin Peckham (detailbear)

Kevin Peckham (detailbear) — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 18:52:16 +0000

As to the gene sequencing, chromosones have great long sections with little or no significant variability in them. They're 'background'. A list of every amino acid is the wrong level of detail for people, including mad scientists, to carry around with them.

Furthermore, not every gene has a lot of variation, and in doing genetic matching, there are only certain genes that are used. I imagine the sheets start off with something like "No variant genes from the Stanford Standard list except..." and then only lists the gene sequences which are unusual. This would be followed by a list of highly variant genes, but the format would be something like "T18A10.4", and that wouldn't take up much room.

For our purposes, 50 really significant data points would be sufficient to confirm genetic identity. ON two sheets, Dr. Narbon could list 1500 or more in a 10-point font.

(Apologies if any of my genetic terminology is incorrect. "I'm an IT worker, Jim. Not a doctor.")