A Respectful Awareness of Diabetes - 12/14/2006

[acoxcae]

Meh.  I think Ray's writing isn't entertaining unless he's writing about something near and dear to him, like liquor or women.

I would not read Ray's diabetes story.

I do like the idea of living life with a constant respectul awareness of diabetes though - like, every day in the back of your mind, just thinking, "Damn, diabetes sure is tough.  I better stay on top of that."



edit: somebody tell the phpbb people to STOP ADDING A DAMN CLOSE URL TAG WHEN I'VE CLEARLY ALREADY DONE IT.  This is not that hard.

[miles]

The whole "Fear of Diabetes" theme is pretty common in Achewood.  It's a dominant theme in my life, for which I'm mocked.

[antioch]

Points on the distinct sound effect for deleting. Take that, onomatopoeia!

[V-Adore]

The only way it could have been better is if it had been prefaced with "ker-" or "ka-." ker-DELETE!

This is a sinister story. Has Ray Smuckles Gray Rackles been genetically engineered to like Tough Customer Ham Pockets, or what? What kind of SCIENCE! has been worked here?

[Roger]

That's it, I permanently like this strip.
Don't the first two panels look like your traditional disposable/stand-alone syndicated comic strip... you know... first two panels?
(there's got to be a technical name for that)

[robot_god]

I like thought bubbles.

[mrchee]

Final panel and alt text: priceless

[aparrish]

Surely "Gray Rackles" is now a candidate to be one of those title thingies that you get for posting a certain number of messages (is there a name for that?).

Anyway, it's true, Reader's Digest is awfully powerful.  We had stacks and stacks of them in the basement back home and I used to read 'Life In These United States' before I went to sleep.  This was when I was in second grade.  Even to this day, my mom will call me up occasionally and tell me to stop eating giraffe, based on something she read in Reader's Digest.

[CortJstr]

edit: somebody tell the phpbb people to STOP ADDING A DAMN CLOSE URL TAG WHEN I'VE CLEARLY ALREADY DONE IT.  This is not that hard.

I'm guessing it's the buttons. If you open a tag with the handy buttons at the top of the screen then you must also close that tag with those buttons. If you click Submit first then the buttons will still close the tags for you anyway assuming you forgot. They're not smart enough to see that you've manually typed the close tag. Work around: either use the buttons exclusively or not at all.

So did Ray just forget to make up a fake brand name for Fritos? It's not like he thinks it's generic because he capped it. Random fact I learned from my current job: Bubble Wrap is still a trademark. Apparently we're supposed to be calling this shit "air cellular cushioning" The hell?

[misterqueue]

Diabetes is a running theme in Achewood, does Onstad himself maintain a respectful awareness of the disease?

Also, I am uncomfortable with my comics preying upon my hypochondria this much.  Between Beef's neuroses about protein blockage in a leg signifying a tumor, Ray's diabetes, and whatever the hell Phillipe has that makes him retarded; I'm either laughing or in the back of the room with a paper sack checking my pulse* every 20 seconds.


* also, for lumps.

[Null]

That's it, I permanently like this strip.
Don't the first two panels look like your traditional disposable/stand-alone syndicated comic strip... you know... first two panels?
(there's got to be a technical name for that)

I don't know the technical name for it, but many Sunday comic strips would make the first two panels superfluous so that they could be cropped depending on the comics section layout.

"Gray Rackles" made me laugh out loud.

[V-Adore]

whatever the hell Phillipe has that makes him retarded

I believe that's called "being five." Sure, he's never stopped being five, but he's a cartoon character. How long has Bart Simpson been 10?

[Roger]

That's it, I permanently like this strip.
Don't the first two panels look like your traditional disposable/stand-alone syndicated comic strip... you know... first two panels?
(there's got to be a technical name for that)

I don't know the technical name for it, but many Sunday comic strips would make the first two panels superfluous so that they could be cropped depending on the comics section layout.

Yeah, I guess I learned that from Bill Watterson. When he wrote in one of his books how he rebelled against all those sunday strip format constraints and all. Until then I guess I thought those first panels were just some sort of "pre-joke".

[misterqueue]

whatever the hell Phillipe has that makes him retarded

I believe that's called "being five." Sure, he's never stopped being five, but he's a cartoon character. How long has Bart Simpson been 10?

Oh I know.. I just don't like him unless he's being tormented.  I think it goes back to my hatred of children.  (And yes.. I also kick puppies.. before anyone asks.)

So really that last one was a dig, I appologize for the confusion.

[CortJstr]

I thought those panels were the throwaway joke.

V, don't forget that Philippe is in therapy for something. So there's more to him than just being 5.