Truck Bearing Kibble - Latest Comments in Heaven

Re: Heaven

Off — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 02:43:53 -0000

Considering the nature of this comic, I think it's just an inevitable thing.

Re: Heaven

Eyegore — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 02:01:58 -0000

I see a recurring theme here: People having to explain what the comic means and why it's funny. Is that a good thing?

Re: Heaven

Crazzee — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 06:05:09 -0000

You know, I think everyone may be over analyzing this, just a wee bit. It's a slug, who, somehow, unfortunately, got onto a salt lick. Maybe he was on top of the barn, and fell through a hole in the roof! He just dropped in, landed on the salt lick, automatically assumed the fall had killed him, and that he was in heaven.
No matter what happened, it's an amazing example of dramatic irony. The reader/viewer knows something that the protagonist doesn't.
For all of the people who are thinking about this too hard:
Slug+Salt=Fizzle
Goat+Salt lick=Snack time
The slug just landed in an unfortunate spot, right as the goat felt like getting some of the salt off the lick.

Re: Heaven

DragonTHC — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 23:47:52 -0000

I really think that's a sugar cube. Goats love sugar cubes.

Re: Heaven

nothingman — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 12:43:58 -0000

Wow. Never has a slug's life been so hotly debated. Long live the cult of the slug.

Re: Heaven

Alexa — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 03:34:44 -0000

The art in this comic is, as usual, exceptional, and it is a shame the comic hasn't rated as highly as you would have liked - But if it helps, from a personal point of view, the comic made me laugh - mostly because of the slugs' cluelessness and the facial expression. Also the rendering of the texture of the slug squicked me out slightly (in a good way)...Especially in the second panel... XD LOL

Re: Heaven

Off — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 17:37:54 -0000

This comic didn't get rated too well but I'm personally pretty proud of it. It pleases me a great deal- though perhaps it shouldn't?- that people are writing up essays trying to interpret it.

Interestingly, the slug's line was going to be very close to what you suggest. On my original storyboard sketch I've got the line "Where am I? Is this heaven?" When I was finishing it up, though, I thought that "This must be Heaven!" implied that the slug didn't know where he was in fewer words, which is always preferable.

Re: Heaven

Off — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 17:26:48 -0000

Thanks! (Though it would have been more masterful if I'd gotten it right the first time. Doh.)

Re: Heaven

Off — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 17:24:20 -0000

Should be one next Monday. I've had a lot on my plate getting the new site up and getting prints ready to go.

Re: Heaven

will — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 14:02:00 -0000

Updates on Mondays; read the news article about the previous Monday.

Re: Heaven

Chris — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 08:31:37 -0000

Saaay... Isn't it time for a new cartoon?

Re: Heaven

themightykabool — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 08:28:10 -0000

haha the slug's so happy he creamed his pants

Re: Heaven

Alexa — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 07:45:59 -0000

Quite frankly, I think a couple of people are taking the interpretation of the comic a little to the extreme. The humour in this comic is well layered for all levels of understanding from the very basic 'Slug-on-a-salt-lick-stupid-ironic-comment' humour to the complexity of the satanic imagery.

Daniel: Seriously, it's a comic. Neurotransmissions in slugs? God god man! Granularity in the salt lick? Isn't a salt lick so finely grained due to the manufacture process that a hand-lens is needed to make out the crystalline structure? It's not like a lump of sugar!

Regarding the timeline, I am in agreement with Jen and it is my personal interpretation that the three panels all take place in the same moment of time. Therefore neurotransmission speed speculations are rendered a moot point. The first panel, in my interpretation, is a close-up of the slug's face and his ironic comment. The Second panel clues us into the fact that all is not as it seems. The third panel is the same instant of time as the first panel but a wide-angle view showing is the REAL predicament with the satanic imagery and expanding upon the irony of the comic. The only piece of evidence that may contradict this is the angle and placement of the slugs' eyes - the curvature appears different in the first and last panel indicating some movement of the eyes between first and last.

The changes to the strip to incorporate the characteristic 'foaming' have been well executed and the last panel additions clarify this well.

Earlier comments suggest that some clarification of the slugs' death would be beneficial to the perception of the comment. I concur to a degree. Perhaps a minor change of wording to something along the lines of 'What? Where am I? This must be Heaven!' may clarify that death (or indeed a change of location via some supernatural means) had occured. Then again, this being TBK, that would be labouring the point far in excess of the nature of the comic to encourage our own speculation and interpretations.

Re: Heaven

Jake — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 02:41:53 -0000

Oh, and I forgot to comment on the changes to the strip. Masterful.

Re: Heaven

Jake — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 02:39:16 -0000

I agree with both Jen and Margie. Whether time has passed or not, we're still hanging in the moment where the slug hasn't figured out his predicament. Who doesn't like dramatic irony when it involves such a gleeful look on a slug's face?
And sorry, but I can't help but disagree with Daniel's tirade. Assuming that everyone agrees with your definition of humor and the effect of different symbols on your conceptualization of it, maybe the comic is trash. But despite your efforts, you've yet to prove scientifically that it isn't funny. And please tell me more about neurotransmission speeds in slugs. Where do you get your funding?

Re: Heaven

Margie — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 00:07:37 -0000

I thought it had progressed, but only enough for the slug to look back at the goat. He hasn't quite *assessed* the situation yet, but he's getting close. It's that moment of 'Uh-Oh' - so satisfying for an audience to be able to appreciate it before the character gets there.

Re: Heaven

Jen — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 18:52:58 -0000

For those of you wondering why the slug is still smiling, it seems to me that the subsequent panels are just showing the same moment from different perspectives. Time is not actually progressing between panels, thus no change in expression.

Re: Heaven

Chris — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 08:30:55 -0000

@Tim-- Goats will eat ANYTHING. They have been known to munch on tin cans. I'm sure a slug or two has found its way into a goat's digestive tract...

Re: Heaven

LouisZepher — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 00:05:52 -0000

I don't think the Goat is licking its lips in anticipation of meal, but rather in enjoyment of the slug's suffering. *shrugs*

Re: Heaven

Tim — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 20:39:47 -0000

So, this is supposed to be slug hell? Also, are goats well-known for eating slugs or something?

Re: Heaven

Off — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 14:49:54 -0000

Whoa. How on earth did you find that? Man, I'm really glad that thing isn't cached somewhere. Whew.

Re: Heaven

Dan — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 11:15:13 -0000

i want to see the old Sluglands comic! The site doesn't work any more:

http://homepage.databank.com/~gakramer/slugland...

blast!

Re: Heaven

canardo — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 06:40:23 -0000

for those who live in the city and never go to the countryside :

salt lick :
a place where animals go to lick salt from the ground.
a block of salt provided for animals to lick.

( ref : The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English 2008, originally published by Oxford University Press 2008. )

so in every barn there's a salt lick, so no slugg eating...

always nice jokes btw, big fan of the site ! keep up the good work !

Re: Heaven

themightykabool — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 08:58:41 -0000

wow daniel, go to a poetry meeting man...
it's a little intense
got too much time on ur hands?

go read the threads about the spy on the motor boat

Re: Heaven

Daniel — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 01:27:28 -0000

Aciel: Your comments support my point.

In constructing fiction, an author selects actions and events in order to produce some effect on the reader, but also provides explanations for them in terms of the story's fictional world, in order to cover up the manipulation. The basic goal is to produce a world with its own logic and its own coherent system of cause and effect.

If we ask "why did character X do this" and the answer is too obviously "to make the reader feel Y", the author is having a bad day.

The goat is a representation of Satan...to human readers. The pitchfork, as you say, "is there to help [the reader] make the connection"--it serves no purpose within slug hell, only within the comic. "The white light is probably there to explain [to the reader] the slug's mistaken belief that this is heaven"--that is, to make the joke possible. "Satan was the angel of light"...with the power and inclination to make light stream in through the windows of any room he's in, even after his fall? The barn...if real goats live in real barns, then hellgoats must live in hellbarns...run by hellfarmers...regulated by the hellUSDA? The only point in making a hellbarn is to make things ambiguous for the reader by making the scene look sensible when it's viewed in non-supernatural terms.

It would be possible to fudge up reasons for these things within the fictional world. Maybe the white light is there in order to fool the slug itself, momentarily, in order to make the final realization of its fate more painful by contrast. The point is, if we have to look too far and make too many ad-hoc assumptions in order to find in-story explanations, the illusion will have broken long before then, and that's what happened here, and that's why it wasn't funny.

When I said "not hurting the slug" I meant "not causing the slug pain".

And yeah, the art was great as always.

Jake: assuming that pain in the afterlife still relies on the nervous system, having a less advanced nervous system might limit the amount or complexity of pain that could be felt, but having less processing to do should reduce the amount of time before the full effect is felt if anything. And yeah, neurotransmission speeds vary, but that slug shouldn't still by smiling by the last panel.