Indeed Yes. Thats the look our cats Muffin and Blackie get when the wife gets upset and/or cries. Our old dog Sam got the same look as Deitzel when he knew “something wasn’t right”. Pets gotta love ’em.
one concussion and generally the hearing loss is temporary, as are the balance issues. ears can bounce back as long as you dont put them in situations where you’re continually blasting loud noises at them with no protection.
i had chronic ear infections with eardrum perforation when i was a kid, and i can still hear spectacularly. balance is gone from other issuesm but my hearing is still first-rate.
or, 3A, there’s someone around somewhere, who is very unhappy about something that Monica or Jin has done or not done lately, and chose to use an as-yet-unidentified source of potent energy to express some of that displeasure.
Yeah, I realize that narrows down the suspect list to, well, almost anyone.
OK she’s leaning on the arm, so likely not broken, but bet it’s sprained and she’ll be feeling it shortly … assuming the road rash on her chest doesn’t demand all her attention.
And poor Dietzel … he’s aloof in general, understandable considering what he has to cope with. But that look on his face says he is scared spitless right now and is really worried about M.
Monica won’t be paying much attention to the road rash on JIN’S BACK… she’ll be paying attention to the road rash on her OWN boobs…. JIN will be paying attention to the road rash on JIN’s back, and NOT on Monica’s chest…
I guess Monica’s “Tao of Instinctual Self-Preservation Poit” is still in good working order.
Her sense of “fine”, on the other hand, is probably far from being properly calibrated, and needs to go back to the shop for service, adjustment, a few hours of quiet screamng, and a nice little lay-down.
To quote Number 10 Ox, just after he survived a fight due to an incredibly improbable bit of luck: “Master Li, did any of the gods owe us a favor? If not, we’re going to have to go into debt, to buy thank-you offerings for the entire pantheon!”
there are quite a few people who have noted I’m being saved for… something.
I fought german measles 6 weeks at 4 years old. The docs kept telling my parents they didn’t understand how i survived (it was a serious childhood killer in the 1960s).
Since then, I rarely get sick (immune system permanently on “OVERDRIVE”). This enabled me to tend to the sick during an outbreak of yellow fever on my carrier WITHOUT inoculations.
You know how ALL recruits get inoculations entering boot camp? One such shot is for typhoid. this shot is so devastating, the US navy purposely gives the recruit company which receives this shot the next day off just to recover.
While the rest of my 200+ company moaned and groaned in bed that day (most couldn’t even get up to eat) and were looked after by corpsmen, I played chess with the only female corpsman assigned the watch and ate hearty meals as if I didn’t receive the shot.
Ow. My brain says ow. My skin sympathyses with theirs. My ears ache too.
M’s poitting skills saved them?? Is this like not letting the bullets hit her skin, or like falling from 30k feet? A subconscious safety-poit to avoid the pyroclastics and barely making it? Or is it just … luck?
And are two of our major characters now permanantly legally deaf? Or at least never going to enjoy the finer points of tube sounds again?
Oh, Deitzel, buddy, I hope the pizza place isn’t the only phone number you know. Good to see you back. (Thanks, Paul!)
They do. It is damage to the ear canal caused by a pressure wave. Blood can come when the Eustachian tubes behind the ear drum have enough pressure to blow open a small part of the ear drum causing bleeding. Hearing is affected but not too bad and it can heal perfectly in most people.
And, once Monica figures out that They have permanently compromised her ability to truly enjoy her fine vintage Sovtek amplifier tubes and Mobile Fidelity Ultradisc LPs, They will be in very serious trouble.
True, and being forgetful, and not putting in the state-provided ear-plugs, while watching -far too closely- a couple of Leopards going at it on the range, will “help” too.
@Jay-Em; Been there, done that, got the t-shirt and the tinnitus.
But my wife worked with F-4s on the flight line in Korea and I can hear far better than she can.
signed-M60/A1 tank commander
@Jay-Em
I’ve been blown up by IED’s twice in Iraq. Been shot at by various mortars and chinese made rockets both in Iraq and Afghanistan. And I have never worn ear plugs on the range, or manning any type of crew served weapon. And my hearing is perfectly fine.
….
WHAT???
What did you say?
I’m sorry, I can’t hear you? Can you speak a little louder?
Constant persistent ringing of the ears coupled with multiple cuts, scrapes, and bruises along with being scared outta your freakin mind. So much for enjoying a day of fun in the sun.
Good thing Monica’s “POIT” has an automatic fight or flight setting.
Even if the MIB are monitoring on a continual basis, they must lose Monica and company frequently. How can you follow someone who poits? And assuming that they are friendly (and we were led to believe that they are), then the monitoring is probably more like a probation officer monitoring a former prisoner, or perhaps a mom monitoring her twelve-year old on a Saturday.
Seeing the shorts made me wonder, at first, then wrote it off to my shaky memory. Now after reading this post I’ve gone back and looked … yep, she was wearing what looks like a one-piece in the first couple strips in the arc. I was going to write it off as bikini bottoms and a shirt over a bikini top, but it just doesn’t look right for that, and in today’s she has an actual bikini top.
::ponders::
I wondered if mid-draw Paul forgot himself and instead of shading in the torso (for a one-piece) he went with full bikini top, but then looking at yesterday’s, there’s already a strap on her back (see the knot?) from a bikini top, not a shirt or a one-piece, so dunno.
Think he just likes drawing M’s belly button, and not like we mind ….
Sure you have…in the imagined image of what Amanda and Monica’s lives would have been like if they’d swapped bodily “weirdness” (Amanda with big boobs and Monica the skinny nerd girl in a floppy 8 ball shirt). 🙂
Regardless, I think the shorts are appropriate, especially given the camera angle on that panel. Sure, we could handle the bikini shot, but for some reason I really like the idea of shorts. It seems more real to me that someone would be wearing them.
My ears are bleedin’. Burt! My ears are bleedin’!
*reaches into the short’s pocket and pulls out some petals*
Dietzle Petals! Dietzle Petals!
*runs off into the street and waves at all the people and an occasional savings and loan building*
I just checked back. A week ago Monica was wearing a One-Piece suit a la Pamela Anderson (Baywatch aka BABEwatch)
Now shes in a two piece w/Shorts? Breakout the Betadine and Burn creme for the back… If one of them had to go to the Hospital then how do you explain in an Iced-over Minneapolis your injuries?
Oh, and btw – i LOVE Paul’s art. On the one hand, it seems quick and gestural, and almost sketchy – almost like a Japanese brush painting, where a single, swooping line seems to convey so much, yet without fussy detail. And yet, on the other hand, you can sometimes look into a character’s mouth, and clearly see that their tongue is forming the correct shape to make an “L” – the end of the final words they have just spoken – as in Monica’s “WHAT THE HELL?!”
*looks at Monics*
WOW! Look at those rug burns on your bewbs! It looks like you need to rub some medicinal salve on them. Here…. let me help with that.
And while I’m at it, let me check you for breast cancer as well!
You can never be too safe.
y’know, it just occurred to me, who was it that was saying that the MIB were created for…someone? sorry, totally forgot. why don’t they just get the MIB to declare some beach to be private for division 6 (from the cartoon) purposes
Bruises, scrapes, damaged eardrums from the blast. Otherwise ok.
Love Deitzel’s look.
Yup. Poor pup has seen some pretty strange things, but this is Right Up There for worrisomeness.
At least he didn’t pee from the shock like that first time.
Good thing THEY didn’t pee … from the percusion …
We don’t know how much of their
preciousbodily fluids they left behind during the poit.Dave, a Dr Strangelove reference, really????
Why not? That movie sure ended in a flurry of noxious explosions.
Indeed Yes. Thats the look our cats Muffin and Blackie get when the wife gets upset and/or cries. Our old dog Sam got the same look as Deitzel when he knew “something wasn’t right”. Pets gotta love ’em.
“Damaged eardrums otherwise OK?” Potential hearing loss and balance problems? Potentially far from OK, I’d say…
one concussion and generally the hearing loss is temporary, as are the balance issues. ears can bounce back as long as you dont put them in situations where you’re continually blasting loud noises at them with no protection.
i had chronic ear infections with eardrum perforation when i was a kid, and i can still hear spectacularly. balance is gone from other issuesm but my hearing is still first-rate.
“Your ears are bleeding.”
“What? You want to plant a seedling?”
“Can bees squawk!? I don’t think so!”
Ow. Just, ow.
OK…
1. Safe at home!
2. Island go boom.
3. Volcanoes do not like Vimana cells nearby?
or, 3A, there’s someone around somewhere, who is very unhappy about something that Monica or Jin has done or not done lately, and chose to use an as-yet-unidentified source of potent energy to express some of that displeasure.
Yeah, I realize that narrows down the suspect list to, well, almost anyone.
Let us not forget the criminal group that they took the teleportation tapestry from.
Or it could just be coincidence.
Nah.
weapons testing on non inhabitated islands?
I was thinking the same thing! Weapons testing, bad timing.
Wapsi Square with a villain? Nah.
More important, it narrows down which island they want to use.
OK she’s leaning on the arm, so likely not broken, but bet it’s sprained and she’ll be feeling it shortly … assuming the road rash on her chest doesn’t demand all her attention.
And poor Dietzel … he’s aloof in general, understandable considering what he has to cope with. But that look on his face says he is scared spitless right now and is really worried about M.
On Monica’s chest? Check out Jin’s back.
Monica won’t be paying much attention to the road rash on JIN’S BACK… she’ll be paying attention to the road rash on her OWN boobs…. JIN will be paying attention to the road rash on JIN’s back, and NOT on Monica’s chest…
May not be roadrash on Jin’s back; looks like they poited out just ahead of the shock wave – may be a thermal burn from that.
If Jin ever starts paying attention to Monica’s chest, that would be a real game-changer for the web-comic.
And a guaranteed change of the target audience.
Paul wouldn’t do that… would he?
You never know.
Even if he does, as long as the story stays as good as it’s been, I’ll keep reading. I’m not concerned with who’s staring at who’s chest.
Are you sure about that? ‘Cause, you know, I can see it happening.
Ah, yes. The famous “Christmas goose came early this year?” strip.
I particularly enjoy the smirk on Jin-snake’s face in the following day’s strip.
I dunno, FPF, pop back to the link of Jin drinking the spaghetti milkshake, and the condition she was in at the time …
I’m thinking she looks at injuries like today’s as “meh … I’ll feel it tomorrow, maybe.”
Poor Dietzel! I want to hug him right about now. I can’t stand seeing that face on a dog without hugging it. 🙁
I guess Monica’s “Tao of Instinctual Self-Preservation Poit” is still in good working order.
Her sense of “fine”, on the other hand, is probably far from being properly calibrated, and needs to go back to the shop for service, adjustment, a few hours of quiet screamng, and a nice little lay-down.
heh, her sense of ‘fine’ is ‘my body parts are in one place, connected to where they should be!’ ….. 🙂
… but they will have little sleep, while trying to find a ‘not bruised’ area to sleep on!!! 🙂
Quiet screaming? How does that work?
It usually involved screaming into a pillow… when you really need to scream but don’t want to alarm the neighbors.
I’ve used that definition of “fine”. It means, “I’m remarkably uninjured, even though I should be pushing up daisies.”
been there, done that. at least six times (but not counting)
the “should be pushing up daisies” part.
Six-plus times??
To quote Number 10 Ox, just after he survived a fight due to an incredibly improbable bit of luck: “Master Li, did any of the gods owe us a favor? If not, we’re going to have to go into debt, to buy thank-you offerings for the entire pantheon!”
there are quite a few people who have noted I’m being saved for… something.
I fought german measles 6 weeks at 4 years old. The docs kept telling my parents they didn’t understand how i survived (it was a serious childhood killer in the 1960s).
Since then, I rarely get sick (immune system permanently on “OVERDRIVE”). This enabled me to tend to the sick during an outbreak of yellow fever on my carrier WITHOUT inoculations.
You know how ALL recruits get inoculations entering boot camp? One such shot is for typhoid. this shot is so devastating, the US navy purposely gives the recruit company which receives this shot the next day off just to recover.
While the rest of my 200+ company moaned and groaned in bed that day (most couldn’t even get up to eat) and were looked after by corpsmen, I played chess with the only female corpsman assigned the watch and ate hearty meals as if I didn’t receive the shot.
Ow. My brain says ow. My skin sympathyses with theirs. My ears ache too.
M’s poitting skills saved them?? Is this like not letting the bullets hit her skin, or like falling from 30k feet? A subconscious safety-poit to avoid the pyroclastics and barely making it? Or is it just … luck?
And are two of our major characters now permanantly legally deaf? Or at least never going to enjoy the finer points of tube sounds again?
Oh, Deitzel, buddy, I hope the pizza place isn’t the only phone number you know. Good to see you back. (Thanks, Paul!)
They’re both responding appropriately to what the other said, so at least they are not deaf.
Possibly have or will have a terrible case of tinnitus, though (for which I sympathize, having acquired a mild case a couple of years ago)
No kidding, my bell has been ringing ever since my wreck in 2001. Most of the time I can ignore it, but I can’t not hear it.
I hear you. I have had it since I had a concussion back in 81. I think that I would love to have a little silence once in a while.
They seem to be hearing each other just fine. That kind of ear injury is a pain, but I think people usually recover.
They do. It is damage to the ear canal caused by a pressure wave. Blood can come when the Eustachian tubes behind the ear drum have enough pressure to blow open a small part of the ear drum causing bleeding. Hearing is affected but not too bad and it can heal perfectly in most people.
There will, however, be some loss of hearing – one hopes not too much.
But every time the ears are subjected to such traumatic stress, there is some loss.
And, once Monica figures out that They have permanently compromised her ability to truly enjoy her fine vintage Sovtek amplifier tubes and Mobile Fidelity Ultradisc LPs, They will be in very serious trouble.
True, and being forgetful, and not putting in the state-provided ear-plugs, while watching -far too closely- a couple of Leopards going at it on the range, will “help” too.
(veterans will know what I am talking about :p )
@Dave – I look forward to watching her fury over that. 🙂
@Jay-Em; Been there, done that, got the t-shirt and the tinnitus.
But my wife worked with F-4s on the flight line in Korea and I can hear far better than she can.
signed-M60/A1 tank commander
Jay-EM: Naval equivalent, being too close to a three-inch gun without ear protection. (Never happened to me, but to a friend.)
In my own case, as a teenager, being way too close to a twelve-gauge shotgun loaded with birdshot used to discourage burglars…
@Jay-Em
I’ve been blown up by IED’s twice in Iraq. Been shot at by various mortars and chinese made rockets both in Iraq and Afghanistan. And I have never worn ear plugs on the range, or manning any type of crew served weapon. And my hearing is perfectly fine.
….
WHAT???
What did you say?
I’m sorry, I can’t hear you? Can you speak a little louder?
Father-in-law is 80% deaf due to “repairing stuff in the engine while it was running” … in aircraft… somewhere…
I love Monica’s expression in the first panel. Who knew goofy could be sexy? (Note the lower case “g.” Goofy is never sexy.)
Given the existence of Maximillian Goof, I’d say at least one entity disagrees.
I love you <3
Yah, I love that twirly eye look. Fits the situation so well!
OK M’s arm is not broken, I think. But that “wrinkle” about midway up the humerus is a bit … disconcerting,
And the look on Dietzle’s face is priceless. He’s soooo worried.
He should be worried. The situation is not at all humerus.
(drops seversl titanium pins into the Pun Jar)
Ooh.. Sharp! You beat me to it..
Thanks for the “donation”. Prior to that, I just thought you were a poor speller. I should have known better.
I think that “wrinkle” is supposed to be her elbow.
Given their clothing, and the thump before the island-shattering kaboom, I’m wondering if they just rediscovered Bikini Atoll
After thát kind of a “kathoom!,” it is indubitably going to be an atoll, be it a small one.
Assuming there’s anything left atoll.
(drops a plug nickel into the coin jar.)
Constant persistent ringing of the ears coupled with multiple cuts, scrapes, and bruises along with being scared outta your freakin mind. So much for enjoying a day of fun in the sun.
Good thing Monica’s “POIT” has an automatic fight or flight setting.
I know Jin said it … but did ‘M’ really do the poit?
Wonder what the MIB’s monitoring Monica think of what just happened?
Even if the MIB are monitoring on a continual basis, they must lose Monica and company frequently. How can you follow someone who poits? And assuming that they are friendly (and we were led to believe that they are), then the monitoring is probably more like a probation officer monitoring a former prisoner, or perhaps a mom monitoring her twelve-year old on a Saturday.
I wonder how Monica went from string bikini to shorts during that poit.
She didn’t. Sitting cross legged merely scrunched up the legs of the shorts in the previous strip, making it look more like a bikini type of suit.
On the March 7th episode she appears to be wearing a one-piece, so maybe it is adaptable to various conditions and modesties…
You’re right.
Seeing the shorts made me wonder, at first, then wrote it off to my shaky memory. Now after reading this post I’ve gone back and looked … yep, she was wearing what looks like a one-piece in the first couple strips in the arc. I was going to write it off as bikini bottoms and a shirt over a bikini top, but it just doesn’t look right for that, and in today’s she has an actual bikini top.
::ponders::
I wondered if mid-draw Paul forgot himself and instead of shading in the torso (for a one-piece) he went with full bikini top, but then looking at yesterday’s, there’s already a strap on her back (see the knot?) from a bikini top, not a shirt or a one-piece, so dunno.
Think he just likes drawing M’s belly button, and not like we mind ….
They had plenty of time to loose T-shirts after choosing the (in)appropriate island, fetching the beer, etc.
Sorry, should have said *lose* T-shirts. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a *loose* T-shirt in Paul’s art…
Sure you have…in the imagined image of what Amanda and Monica’s lives would have been like if they’d swapped bodily “weirdness” (Amanda with big boobs and Monica the skinny nerd girl in a floppy 8 ball shirt). 🙂
Regardless, I think the shorts are appropriate, especially given the camera angle on that panel. Sure, we could handle the bikini shot, but for some reason I really like the idea of shorts. It seems more real to me that someone would be wearing them.
Welcome back to the comic, Deitzel.
Sorry that it had to be like this.
Welp, looks like Monica’ll be sleeping on her back for a while, and Jin will be sleeping on her front.
Her own front, not Monica’s. At least Jin’s built for lying on her stomach without funny posture or undue distress.
well if M needs to lie on her front, she’ll need one of those special beach loungers, with holes cut out 🙂
Wow..
I see. “Panic-Poit” [tm] to the rescue. Still..
WHAT THE HELL!!!??
God, I just hate it when that happens!!!
Monica has a Poity mouth!
also call ancient weapon activated by supernatural presence.
*points at pun jar*
I’m scared to ponder what might have happened if they chose the other island.
Gnarly roadrash! Good thing Monica’s danger-avoidance skills came into play… I’d like to know more about how that works.
My ears are bleedin’. Burt! My ears are bleedin’!
*reaches into the short’s pocket and pulls out some petals*
Dietzle Petals! Dietzle Petals!
*runs off into the street and waves at all the people and an occasional savings and loan building*
Ah, yes. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, a classic movie. 😉
I just checked back. A week ago Monica was wearing a One-Piece suit a la Pamela Anderson (Baywatch aka BABEwatch)
Now shes in a two piece w/Shorts? Breakout the Betadine and Burn creme for the back… If one of them had to go to the Hospital then how do you explain in an Iced-over Minneapolis your injuries?
Tanning bed…forgot to roll over.
Wrong kind of burns
The BBQ Grill TRICKED ME!!!! Honest… 😀
Gas oven had a flame out
“Tried to light the grill in three seconds”?
And thus we see the advantages of having an ablative layer of boobage… but seriously, OOWWIE!
Oh, and btw – i LOVE Paul’s art. On the one hand, it seems quick and gestural, and almost sketchy – almost like a Japanese brush painting, where a single, swooping line seems to convey so much, yet without fussy detail. And yet, on the other hand, you can sometimes look into a character’s mouth, and clearly see that their tongue is forming the correct shape to make an “L” – the end of the final words they have just spoken – as in Monica’s “WHAT THE HELL?!”
Dietzel!
Yeah! He is back… not dead… not forgotten!
Not hanging out with Pizza Girl.
Dietzel rules!
Dietzel’s done some growin’ – or they have shrunk?
Gonna shrug it off as a glitch, but it has me wondering.
That dog, and the angle of the doorknob… Things *may* be getting *really* interesting around here.
Person1: who chose bikini atoll as our new vacation spot?
Person 2: But it had bikini in the name. How could I go wrong?
Is it me, or is anyone else thinking “The sunsets and sunrises in the Wapsiverse are about to get spectacualr for a few years…”.
Monica’s emergency exit poit is on automatic.
Jin was lucky to catch the express as it was leaving the station.
She has her own poit, but 1 second later may have been too late.
*looks at Monics*
WOW! Look at those rug burns on your bewbs! It looks like you need to rub some medicinal salve on them. Here…. let me help with that.
And while I’m at it, let me check you for breast cancer as well!
You can never be too safe.
There’s something Chuck Jones-ish about Dietzel’s expression.
Dietzel is the last piece of this puzzle that Pablo hasn’t elaborated on yet.
I could be wrong of course, dogs that operate on a human level of intellegence might be the norm.
Are there any mayan dog gods I’m not aware of?
Maybe not DOGS, but there are canine (example: coyote).
y’know, it just occurred to me, who was it that was saying that the MIB were created for…someone? sorry, totally forgot. why don’t they just get the MIB to declare some beach to be private for division 6 (from the cartoon) purposes