Comments on: Mell’s Major: July 9-14, 2001

By: BlackWolfe Coyoten (blackwolfe_coyoten)

BlackWolfe Coyoten (blackwolfe_coyoten) — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 19:04:20 +0000

I always felt the early parts of this storyline were awkward simply because Dave was our guide to the Narboniverse and he was conspicuously absent for a bit. I disagree about Dave's resurrection being a backpedal. It was inevitable. You can't have a mad science strip without at least one resurrection, and the Dave in Slumberland New Years' strip really cements his role as Virgil to the readers' Dante

By: Rockphed (rockphed)

Rockphed (rockphed) — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 19:04:19 +0000

Pwned!!

There, are you happy now Tiff?

By: Justin Grubbs (the_purple_knight)

Justin Grubbs (the_purple_knight) — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 19:04:18 +0000

Truthfully, I don’t believe that Helen needs a computer technician. Near the end of the strip she shows that she has complete knowledge of computers and when one of the characters points this out she tells them it would hurt Dave’s feelings if they told him. I think that she got a computer technician because she was looking for an experiment. I also think that Helen knew all along she was going to bring Dave back, otherwise she would go insane like when she dumped him.

By: Shaenon Garrity (shaenongarrity)

Shaenon Garrity (shaenongarrity) — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 19:04:17 +0000

Looking at this strip again, I’ve changed my mind. My actual favorite detail is the teeny tiny comic strips the CS guys have taped to their door.

By: Matt Katinas (nidoking)

Matt Katinas (nidoking) — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 19:04:16 +0000

I believe that this very image was used as the model for “Bullet Witch” many years later.

By: David Harmon (mental_mouse)

David Harmon (mental_mouse) — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 19:04:15 +0000

I'm with Tiff here -- Mell is never really a "fish out of water", because in this strip, the Madfolk are
the Real Ones, and everyone else... well, not quite stage props, but certainly any apparent authority they have is mostly a shell protecting them from The Truth.

Consider that the only reason that Mell actually needs to go down to campus is the pursuit of that magic piece of paper....

By: Tiff Hudson (tiff_hudson)

Tiff Hudson (tiff_hudson) — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 19:04:14 +0000

The panel works well for me because I don’t see Mell as a fish-out-of-water, but as the dose-of-reality in an insular world where “gaming” prowess is mistaken for the real thing. If I was 20 years younger, I’d say “pwn3d!”

By: Leon Arnott (l)

Leon Arnott (l) — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 19:04:13 +0000

Saturday's Comic: So she just somersaulted through the doorway and squeezed the trigger for a full minute, while twirling madly in a manner similar to that girl in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (a film that was released not seven months prior to this strip airing)?
...and in those heels?

I just realised that in these past two days Narbonic and Mell have spontaneously returned to the soil from whence they sprouted: zany college roommate comedy, complete with cowering foils. However, today's single-panel devastation still strikes me as a little forced... mainly because of how tame its Fish Out of Water premise is.

(But I don't think this is really indicative of Mell's character's solo comedy/storyline potential, or limitations thereof. Yes, despite the fact that I'd pegged her as being merely a goofy animal sidekick in human form. Shush.)

Single-panel devastation: 3.

By: Sean Duggan (duggansc)

Sean Duggan (duggansc) — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 19:04:12 +0000

Hey! I own one of those shirts... It was all very funny when I lived in Newark, OH where I was the only person who understood the shirt and therefore it was a private joke. Then I go and attend CMU and every day I wear it in, I get either some Japanese girls glancing at my shrit and giggling or some Japanese guy walking up and asking if I knew what my shirt said.

And no, I never managed to pick up any Japanese girlfriends using that shirt.

By: Ed Gedeon (eddurd)

Ed Gedeon (eddurd) — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 19:04:11 +0000

Now no longer belated, the Big Freakin' (tm) Gun count stands at 10. My bedside clock stands at a quarter to one. Why do I always do this before driving to Chicago?? It's that cursed cartoonist's fault! Darn you, Shaenon K. Garrity! Darn you to Heck!