Comments on: D-Con: February 4-9, 2002

By: Darkstarr

Darkstarr — Wed, 27 Apr 2016 00:15:56 +0000

In reply to Joe Charneskie (mutant-sentry). Merely eating or drinking it? Nothing, since DNA is simply amino acids, sugars, and proteins (if I remember correctly), so it would just be digested. However, if you placed the dino DNA into a retrovirus that would then inject it into your cells, you'd change into a dino/human hybrid. (In real life, you'd have to modify every cell in your body, or the hybrid cells would probably be rejected by your immune system as foreign bodies. In the Narbonic universe, however, in a few minutes at most you'd either change into a Silurian from Dr. Who or end up looking like a reject from Jurassic Park. ^_^)

By: Darkstarr

Darkstarr — Tue, 26 Apr 2016 23:58:12 +0000

In reply to Joe Charneskie (mutant-sentry).

Depends on your level of sewing skill. If you’re halfway decent with sewing by hand, it would be simple–just get hold of black leather scraps of the right size or some black fabric at your neighborhood craft or fabric store. Cut out two triangles of the right size, create openings for the eyes & ears, and stitch them together. I could do it in an hour if I had one of the plushies…

By: Josh

Josh — Wed, 10 Feb 2016 23:48:04 +0000

I think you’re right! The import from the previous site worked _most_ of the time, I swear… I’ve swapped them now.

By: Amy Fiori

Amy Fiori — Fri, 05 Feb 2016 17:28:25 +0000

I think the last two strips are reversed. It almost wouldn’t be noticeable except that the commentaries for them aren’t.

By: Nick Alcock (nix)

Nick Alcock (nix) — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 19:35:45 +0000

Shaved gerbils in jello really are nasty torture-wise. Why? Because a lot of those gerbils will be unhappy. And when gerbils are unhappy, they *bite*, very very hard, and pretty indiscriminately.

By: Steph Shaver (onalark)

Steph Shaver (onalark) — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 19:35:44 +0000

The Dave Conspiracy made me laugh when I read it because at the time we had four guys named Dave at work, and there were rumors -- ugly rumors -- of a conspiracy.

Now we have a profusion of Mikes, outnumbering the Daves by a hefty margin.

I don't really care if it doesn't make sense. It's a comic with shaved gerbils in Jello, for goodness sake. Sometimes you need to disconnect your brain a little to appreciate the good stuff. Isn't that what mad science is all about?

By: Leon Arnott (l)

Leon Arnott (l) — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 19:35:43 +0000

"...subversion of conspiracy tropes..." Conspiracy tropes? But this particular conspiracy is only incidentally related to mad science. It's not really apropos.

"...a group that already dominates the world for Helen to battle..." This would be fine, if Helen at this point really genuinely wanted to dominate the world. At this point? I don't think so. And one of the defining attributes of Ancient Conspiracies is that they're functionally immortal - to destroy them is nigh-impossible, to fight them is futile. The most that our cast manage to do is infiltrate them and escape with the clothes on their back.

"...a richer set of types of "villains"..." Well, the problem is that an Ancient Conspiracy is omniscient, omnipresent, faceless and indestructible. These don't seem to be very suitable traits for a Villain of the Month, whose relevance to the greater scheme of things is about as much as, say, Dr. Narbon's.

By: Elaine Corvidae (elaine_corvidae)

Elaine Corvidae (elaine_corvidae) — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 19:35:42 +0000

I agree with others–Artie’s question is not only great, but very valid. I also found the Dave Conspiracy storyline hilarious, but then I’m married to a Dave. A Dave who works in IT, and with whom I’ve had arguments as to whether “henchman” or “minion” is more appropriate. Did I mention I’m a biologist? Of course I love this storyline!

By: Shaenon Garrity (shaenongarrity)

Shaenon Garrity (shaenongarrity) — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 19:35:41 +0000

Is Artie's line lifted from one of the Cat's in Red Dwarf? (If you're God why THAT face?)

Yes, and I even used it twice.

By: Daniel Barkalow (iabervon)

Daniel Barkalow (iabervon) — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 19:35:40 +0000

It makes sense to have a conspiracy because individual mad scientists are far too ADD to make a coherent plot arc, which Narbonic turns out to have, plausible. It’s not particularly funny that it’s guys named Dave, but it is ingenious that Dave Davenport, in particular, is actually a member of it, considering the particular plot arc involved.