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Presumed hard and left for absent. Friday, December 21, 2007 • read strip Viewing 249 comments:

Tron is perhaps most fitting for Roast Beef.

He does have that Tron pillow.

A comment left by neonaoneo was marked lame too many times and excluded. (marked lame by atom, Thorfinn, tibcoolbreeze, booger, zulko, GunsOfRay, Methadone)

A comment left by methadone was marked lame too many times and excluded. (marked lame by Overmedicated, Thorfinn, NeoNaoNeo, ketamind, M-E-Charm)

I was under the impression he was pulling his very own chest flesh off in sheer disgust and agony?

Me too.

A comment left by neonaoneo was marked lame too many times and excluded. (marked lame by jamb23, atom, Thorfinn, Methadone, M-E-Charm)

A comment left by neonaoneo was marked lame too many times and excluded. (marked lame by atom, Thorfinn, scion, Methadone, M-E-Charm)

It was a Philippe-style tattoo.

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No way - he yawned.

A comment left by neonaoneo was marked lame too many times and excluded. (marked lame by atom, mashisoyo, Sleaw)

...yawn?

A comment left by neonaoneo was marked lame too many times and excluded. (marked lame by atom, mashisoyo, Sleaw)

Wow, you really are defensive.

Damn...first saint comes back, now neonaoneo. Attitudes still on in full force.

I always thought they had painted on the various logos and names and such for the charity walk.

For the little boys edification, being as they were yelled at by their fathers.

Damn. I need me one of those.

You probably are better off without one.

wonder what Teodors says...

The Cure?

A comment left by rotating-dog was marked lame too many times and excluded. (marked lame by dayvancowboy, DukieShane, bobodante, Nessotron)

It will help remind him of eternity.

Please do not believe this to be false. On a recent trip to malaysia, I could not think of what to procure for my new girlfriend, whom I completely plan to become engaged to.

On the China Sea, as I was sailing around in a small 2 person Catamaran, I noticed something on one of the small islands.

We dug in on the beach and I retrieved it, and placed it into the sleeve of the catamaran's meshing.

It was a piece of driftwood, shaped somewhat like a very large arrow head. I wrote "The Cure" upon it, and snuck it through customs.

It now adorns the ledge above our bath.

This story is entirely true and I have no problem taking pictures if anyone disbelieves me.

A comment left by factorial was marked lame too many times and excluded. (marked lame by riotdejaneiro, NeoNaoNeo, neck_romancer)

A comment left by lucidz was marked lame too many times and excluded. (marked lame by sharksarecoming, riotnrrd, thedudeabides85, M-E-Charm)

FYI, in the background of the catamaran picture, over my shoulder, is the sultan of malaysia's palace. This picture was on the coast of the china sea in Cherating, north of Balok.

[IMGS OFF]

Oh man, you're one of those guys who never smiles in photos.

Still kinda hot though.

A comment left by tragicone was marked lame too many times and excluded. (marked lame by Overmedicated, mattbeetee, seren_tremio)

Mouse over his avatar, and you see him self-identify as a "top," which is a guy who finds other guys attractive.

When he looks at a woman, he knows he will never marry her.

i've tried enough times, you'd think i'd learn that i ran out of chubbies a long, long time ago.

Well, i suppose I was hoping against hope than.

That was my Laming right there tragicone. Rowboat, over to you.

Not necessarily - 'top' can mean many things in such a context, some of which I've seen apply to ladies.
Not necessarily ladies that are Lucidz' or Tragicone's type.

Do you think that it is rad to display your puerile homophobia, Tragicone?

Man I don't want to look at no nasty picture of you wood. Keep that stuff between you and God.

you=your


Though I wonder if the diction created by my error creates a slightly more interesting voice. Also I should not post on assetbar when hopped up on the 'Quil.

Yeah, I've felt that before. Those of us that regularly enjoy proper spelling and grammar are forced to use interesting words for effect rather than rely on charismatic misspellings and abbreviations.

Man, when I was in Malaysia I didn't get to see the Batu Caves. Were they awesome?

Instead we did a river cruise surrounded by thousands of fireflies in Kuala Selangor. It was pretty sweet.

Withholding chubby for pics

I am now inclined to take a picture of my "The Cure" driftwood once I get home, if only for said withheld chubby.

Your girlfriend deserves a chubby (meant in the most honorable way possible, of course) for understanding and respecting the significance of a piece of driftwood with "The Cure" written on it.

include picture of girlfriend if you want my chubby

[IMGS OFF]
this is from two years ago. collected on the beach in santa cruz.

If Molly and Beef were people, they would probably look something like this.

I was about to express shock that this reply had received no chubbies, but then I saw it only went up nine minutes ago.

And that would be Ray trying to jump in the back.

Looks to me more like Todd.

he can even put his chin on her head!

That looks really familiar. Did you put that picture up on some other message board somewhere?

i tried to, on the original stoned under the table comic. it didn't seem to work though as i am new to BBCODE!!

santa cruz is my town
wooo, local wood!

A man drinks a beer in a parking lot whilst behind him, two cats fuck. In Santa Cruz, no-one would even bother taking a picture of this.

but this is a Mustang, baby! don't you wanna do it under a Mustang?

old, female ? Is there finally a face to the Towel/Poing name?


I want to marry you and have your babies.

ESPN?

going with the scifi/television entertainment theme, i think it says "V"

A comment left by drskradley was marked lame too many times and excluded. (marked lame by pmoney187, MrJames, proof_man, SenseiHollywood, grombly)

Everyone I live with says that ladies should wear bras, even if their boobs are crummy!

A comment left by mrclarinet was marked lame too many times and excluded. (marked lame by seven47, ppccd, norm, mrblank91)

Let us hope that it is merely ink of some sort running from his (temporary, therefore) tattoo. Ink that is running from Cornelius's sheer badassness.

This is now my hope too. But I fear the worst. I can just see Ray making some sort of explanation that getting real tattoos and getting them lasered off the next day is more worthwhile than getting temporary ones.

It's the tears making his tattoo ink run.

He is so badass that his tears can remove permanent tattoos.

No, man! That's the tears mixing with the temporary tattoo ink to make a blended water of relief!

yeah the way I read it, they all got temporary tattoos for the charity walk. star wars vs tron etc

Agreed. You can hear (read?) Cornelius gasp in surprise as he watches the ink run down his chest.

oh thank God

A comment left by deancain29 was marked lame too many times and excluded. (marked lame by scion, buzzylinguardo, Boyd, Mirzabah)

I'm guessing it's supposed to be a temporary tattoo, but that actually disappoints me. I wouldn't mind if all their tattoos were permanent. At least for a while, Ray could pay to have them all lasered off.

I think it's his tears that are washing away the ink..

A comment left by theboneorchard was marked lame too many times and excluded. (marked lame by Dovey, straw, CaffeineWolf, goocifer, Bartleby, Gumfish, Magb, Boyd, charchar, mendenbar, Audhumla)

oh god no more chuck norris jokes which are just a rip off of the Bill Brasky jokes which were funnier anyway.

And now the Chuck Norris jokes have been superseded by Jack Bauer jokes. This has been going on for years, attaching itself to popular Tough Guys of the era. In fact, I believe the first recorded joke was "The chief export of Beowulf is pain".

Who the hell is Jack Bauer? There is no way he could take Beowulf.

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Don't worry, you'll realize how wrong you are as soon as you sober up.

Man, them crazy Terrorists aint got nothin' on Grendel.

BEEEEOOOOWWWUUUUUUUULLLLLLFFFFF

"I! AM! BEOWULF!" is the new "THIS! IS! SPARTA!"

i'm sorry, neither hold a candle to the brute ferocity that is the phrase THIS! IS! CAKETOWN!

You indeed are correct, sir or madame.

if you mouse over his avatar, you will learn, that the gentleman, is a gentleman

Thank you for that...sir.

YES! That is a fantastic trailer.
" brush your teeth !"

He was one good king.

I'm wearing diapers.

I'd just like to say that I appreciate the return to form of Achewood using atypical charity walks to resolve significant character tribulations.

I... what? Can we cite precedent, please?

Seconded.

I believe silver_lake was saying that this strip's use of an atypical charity walk to resolve significant character tribulations represents a return to form for Achewood. I don't think he was suggesting that this storyline is referencing any particular previous storyline.

Ray seems to be under the impression that James Gandolfini is a sci-fi feature in and of himself. I would be interested to see what this would be like.

If I were better at Photoshop and/or not a lazy prat, I would do a picture of James Gandolfini with as a member of the Borg collective. But this is not the case.

I'm also envisioning him as the lead character in The Electric Ant but I don't know how to visually render this.

Take away the irrelevant "with" after Gandolfini as you read this. That little fucker should never have been written.

Don't be silly. James Gandolfini is a star.

It's okay to use the Star Wars logo but to fully spell out James Gandolfini's name in a webcomic about a stuffed bear gettin a Star Wars tattoo violates hella Cosa Nostra copyright laws man which would bring a torrent of lawsuits and fists on your ass Guys in suits cold putting their cigarettes out on your eyelids The ones with the greasiest hair going "Oh the baby needs first aid" and using their pomade to salve your cuts which hella burns and when you show up at the mediation they all got worse beatings than you and they say you did it Man it is bad business Onstad really dodged several bullets on this one...

I'd like to add that I think your pun about James Gandolfini being a "star" as a science fiction feature vis a vis being in outer space has gone underappreciated by assetbar who have not lamed and/or chubbied you appropriately for it and if I had realized this nine hours earlier and had not wasted my chubbies on lesser comments I would have given you the recognition due unto you.

two mouthfuls have been said, either of which could feed a Nigerian family for two weeks.


sir, you have my respect for your command of the english language.

i chubbied you for the exact reason below.

i mean, above. crap.

One last addition I am reading Mervyn Peake's wonderful novel Gormenghast right now which I first learned of thanks to seeing the BBC miniseries starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers man that was some cold hot shit man.

I wonder if Ray thinks that "Gandolf" is just the familiar form of James Gandolfini. Having never seen the Lord of the Rings movies, he don't know that they ain't the same person.

That's the best theory I've heard thus far.

seconded

A comment left by nelsonater was marked lame too many times and excluded. (marked lame by DukieShane, doomsdaybadger, thedudeabides85)

He literally says "slices." He's talking about the worst tit dimensions possible. Flat as a cd, not even as thick as a CD case.

BAAAAAAD...

TIIIIIIIITS!

Dang, out of chubbies.
Your avatar really made those two comments come ALIVE, jordstar.

This lady has sex appeal of biscut with two shits inside

and i assumed he meant the floppy cosistency of bologna

I assumed he meant the scent

*barf*

Cornelius uses the Nevada lizardman scenario to shield himself from the far more likely horror of becoming a permanent denizen of science fiction conventions, walking down an endless concrete floor in a shirtless Wedge Antilles costume, ignoring the cringes and eye-rolling from even the most hardened geek spectators.

Dude, people who go to those things generally can't get tattoos because it would violate the pact they have with their moms over use of the basement and car.

You, weekendofsound, have the best avatar and name combination I've come across here. Just wanted that known.

Indeed, spring=heeled jack alone wins a billion internets.

spring-heeled* damn

Just so you are aware, I gave you your 555th chubby.

well I guess me or that magazine you found in someones closet all those years ago.

Yay verily!

A comment left by pebohead was marked lame too many times and excluded. (marked lame by Overmedicated, littleherrdoktor, DrSkradley, MrJames, rajib, billypooter, charchar, Wolfslice)

It's a crying machine. Ray knows this. He doesn't entertain an alternative for ONE GODDAMNED SECOND because he knows it's a crying machine.

There was this one time where I got dragged to a performance art-thing. They had an "alternative" choir there, which consisted of two guys who looked like anemia meets a pamphlet for a bi-curious city legislature, and these two girls who had allowed cocaine to devour every fat cell in their bodies. Anyways, they started their "performance," and one guy and one girl muttering to themselves (I think the guy was reading from a newspaper?) while the other two wailed and sobbed hysterically. Like, balls-out, cancer-bereaved tears. This was their song. They were a crying machine.

I think that if you made a CD of this, it's likely that Nice Pete would purchase it in order to soothe him to sleep at night.

...Oh, yeah, I think I may have made a previous comment about a performance art-thing I went to see. Before you ask, yes, it was the same thing. :(

If that was funded with public tax dollars, I will join in the weeping.

Because America just THROWS money at artists.

For some reason, at some point Massachusetts decided it'd be an excellent idea to have what seems to be a retarded sculptor (or several) craft balls of clay, and then they built them twenty feet tall in bronze and placed them outside of institutions, like UMass and a few museums.

However, the artists who have works that are... "visually appealing" tend to get brushed away.

There is a very similar sculpture in Kings Cross in Sydney. Pretty much looks like very round balls of turd stuck to horizontal sticks at differing heights. Shit on sticks. Sums up the area pretty well though I gotta say.

that concert:birds being burned in a box::Ray:ridiculously rich.

...i..i didn't think that one through too much. the first half, yes, the second...yeah, no.

If the art molestered you to the point of invoking a Nice Pete image then I gotta say... I'm pretty down with it.

I'm surprised that there was no conjecture that Cornelius might've rented " How To Weep The Weepy-Weep Way and simply left the TV on.

The sounds would be a little different, trust me.

A BLOO BLOO BLOO BLOO! A BLOO BLOO BLOO!

Yeah, sounds sorta like that, but with more Steve, and more partying.

at certain points they may quietly let out a little "woo-hoo" or "uh huh" under their breath.

A comment left by skoora was marked lame too many times and excluded. (marked lame by DukieShane, Qeramah, Snark, mrblank91, Ballofpain)

Portraying utter shame and remorse and then twisting that into feeling like a horse's ass isn't a copout.

It is PERFECTION .

The real tragedy, the true indelible stain, is Cornelius' submission to the double-edged stigma of his reputation as a hard man. He is left with the knowledge that his dark nights of the soul, his moments of doubt and pain, will forever be dismissed by his peers as a Stoic training gimmick.

Things you should never say to a man who wins the Badass Games, #1: "Are you ok?"

I don't know about cop-out, but I do feel like I've been played.

Commit to a tattoo and have to deal with a main character being constantly miserable about the tattoo in his strip.

Or "cop out", thereby ending the arc and leaving the door open for something else that is awesome.

It's not like he woke up and said "Phew it was all a dream." I get what you're saying, because we've all been bombarded with that most kindergarten-y of plot "twists", but the very-esoteric-charity-walk plot device is hardly as beaten to death as the all-a-dream one.

A comment left by wittyname was marked lame too many times and excluded. (marked lame by Solle, speccer, Jordstar, MollyBloom11, lateadopter)

Rather than get into a contest where we try to set distance records pissing out pure, shimmering streams of Achewood Knowledge... and also rather than sitting down with you at a big table over several days hashing out a fifteen-point scale to gauge the varying degrees of "main-ness" of characters in an online comic...

...I will point out that there were no cats to be seen in this episode.

Man that is an item of truth that the cats were not introduced to the comic until very late but in a comic such as Achewood with an ensemble cast in can be very hard to determine who the main character of the comic is. In my own personal opinion of humility I always thought of Teodor as the main character just because of his somewhat easygoing straight-man comedy B-type personality which is a commonality of many comics and other such works of literature. I was somewhat surprised to see the Achewood Wikipedia article calling Ray the main character of the strip because to me that is like calling Uncle Duke the main character of Doonesbury or calling Snoopy the main character of Peanuts they each had periods where they were prominently featured in their respective comic strips but the main characters they are not But hey that is simply a testament to the malleable-ass nature of serial comics as a medium of cultural expression of the arts Don't hate it till you bake it straight up and down...

Damn dog I put Doonesbury and Peanuts in italics but not Achewood man that is a hobo spittin' on the face of a man of means in the literary world The MLA is gonna have my ass in a sling for this one I will be the mailman of New England Not gettin' invited to the shiraz orgies Men in tweed coats cold grading my papers down Waking up with the head of Tom Wolfe in my bed...

I knew this guy once, who read Dilbert, and he totally could talk just like Dilbert.

I think Teodor was the closest thing to a main character at first, for the reasons you describe, but he's long since been supplanted by Ray and Roast Beef. I'd still call it an ensemble cast, but those two definitely dominate in terms of 'screen' time and character depth.

Chubby for the correct and appropriate use of the word supplanted in a sentence.

chubby for knowing said usage (i don't)

supplant , Definition number 2, part b :

to take the place of and serve as a substitute for especially by reason of superior excellence or power

You got to become the ruling body. There comes a time.

I'm just glad to be on the Achewood boards, where my use of semi-obscure words earns me praise rather than the more traditional derision.

..sitting down with you at a big table over several days...

that whole comment was totally something Ray would say.

i have no problem saying i chubbied it. very, very hard.

I agree: the two cats named Emeril and Spongebath are the main characters. All is seen through their eyes

L@@K AGAIN

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, man. That's some deep shit.

Yeah, but they are dead.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead?

Chubbies for literary references that make me feel all superior. Stoppard is your man.

Yeah, but they still got the last laugh. Turns out England really IS a conspiracy of cartographers.

Achewood: Where the resolution to your most bizarre nightmare is an even more bizarre reality.

Cornelius can't bear it.

mad props for punnage.

I have a crush on your avatar.

ahhh... scrolling, scrolling, scrolling, looking to see if someone had scored the pun opportunity of the century... well done, aaaaand Chubby.

I knew it couldn't be real.

That's a very specific charity.

"Wait... that was four years ago! You profiteering little misfit! How dare you? The outrage!"

"Little boys who got yelled at by their dads within the last three years" is pretty much all-inclusive.

I figure the only kids who haven't been yelled at have dads who are either dead, sedated, imprisoned, workaholics, traveling businessmen, lack visitation rights, or are on the lam.

indeed. my traveling businessman father was always too guilty to yell.

when you say it like that... I think we're gonna need another charity walk... for kids dad's who just don't care enough to yell at them

...is that not the saddest thing? or at least in the top 200 list?

I myself am a stepfather, to a child whose biological dad wrote many letters promising that someday he would be there to yell at his son.

Of course, he never showed. My stepson never got so much as a raised eyebrow from him, or that frown that indicates your dad's tenuous good mood has just slipped away because of something you did.

Now, I know that I can never really make up for all those years without yelling, but I'm trying to do the best I can with the time I do have.

I had two stepsons for a while, but I haven't yelled at them since I divorced their mother 15 years ago.

Dunno whether their sperm father yells at them.

Chubbied for 'sperm father'. Babies from his wiener etc.

Yeah, that's my scene too, Stepdad . . . and my kid hasn't seen his biological father in, um, 20 months, and he doesn't get calls or letters, etc. Weird thing: when they moved to a smaller place, his dad and stepmom sent us a cat. It turns out there is a service you can pay to drive cats for many states. I am sure Ray runs this.

[IMGS OFF]

so THAT's why i made this picture...i seriously couldn't remember why.

If the characters are all sporting sci-fi themed tattoos, then I would dearly hope that Teodor's is "V." If that is the case, then he certainly wins bad-ass points from me.

I was racking my brain to figure that out, but I think you've got it! Well done! You can recognize any sci-fi show, given only 15% of its logo.

Consider it a talent of mine.

I would be sorely disappointed if it wasn't "V." That show just didn't get enough props.

That could be Turk's Ability!

It was neither a tattoo nor a cruel hoax! My faith is restored.
Although, a charity walk for boys who got yelled at by their Dads in the last three years seems a bit chunkety-ass-nerd for Ray.

They had been drinking, though. It might be the sort of idea that sounded great after the tenth Stella.

Come to think of it, the entire charity sounds like something Beef and Ray would dream up in an alcoholic fug.

However much I doubt it, I'm leaving open the possibility of a tragically real tattoo and a breast rent in rage. If I got all crazy mad and drew blood on myself, I'd probably gasp in surprise.

A comment left by chuvak was marked lame too many times and excluded. (marked lame by professorhazard, littlefatdog, daverud)

At first I was put off by Cornelius breaking character and throwing around low words like "tits", but then I remembered that probably my favorite strip with him is this one from before his character was fully established.

that was one of the first i read and was my favourite for a long time, but yeah after the characters and stories got deeper i realized it was totally random and doesn't really fit anymore

Cornelius thinks words like tits, in his private moments, even though he would never be coarse enough to speak them aloud.

My emotions this morning are bittersweet:
As of this morning, I have finally finished reading through the entire Achewood archive.

Consider me yet another victim of Mr. Onstad's proselytization. I have steeped myself in this brave world of the desperately amusing and avant-surreal, and I am richer for having done so.

Just to get it out of the way: I'm not sure of the first strip I read. I just remember my bafflement, and the realization that I needed a broader base of Achewood knowledge to truly understand. So, I went back, witnessed Phillipe standing on it, and the rest is a history of near-Biblical proportions.

Theres no turning back now, welcome to acheworld. I just stumbled here about a month ago. Now I feel lost, confused, and generally euphoric. Life here is bittersweet: laughter and tears frequently birthed as twins, whose combined effect is like a symphony or skydiving.

I fucking love Achewood.

Thank you, small amber underwater sea-craft, for the welcome.

I too have just read through the archive lost_buoy, not my first time but first in assestbar. I don't have a clue of the first achewood strip either, (closed the tab quickly, kind of a visceral reaction to seeing a cat in a thong for the first time) although if someone put a gun to my head I think the first strip I ever read was this one . Wikipedia used to link to it I think.

For every star in Hollywood, there are a thousand Mixies who just didn't play their cards right.

Quickly, Mr. Bear! Regrow your dignity, similar to how a lizard regrows a tail!

I knew it!

Ondstadt is slowly breaking down the mythos. This is all part of his plan to keep everyone on their toes. Even if the other characters don't find out about the fact that Cornelius was shamed by a fake tattoo, there still exists the fact that he's spent the last two strips sniffling. Lame me if you want, but perhaps a real Badass would have simply called Dr. Andretti and slipped out under cover of darkness.

If you ask me, a real and true badass would have owned the tattoo and somehow turned it to his advantage, and become stronger for the trials involved in having done so.

He could use it as an illustration of the sort of thing he did when he was young and stupid, and carries it around with him as a form of self-punishment, like a kind of inky hair shirt.

I think the central agreement here is clear: whether he were to retain a certain level of bespoke class or if he embraced the total chaos the tattoo produces, a true Badass does not sit on the floor crying and hitting himself with a shoe. He gets up, and He acts like a Man about this.

You have put it more eloquently than I could have, my good friend.

This is undeniable.

I like to think Connie would have pulled himself together, but it's still disconcerting.

A true badass would have gone back to the parlor and had "Fuck" emblazoned above it.

I like you for saying that.

I was really hoping the alt text would identify Teodor's tattoo.

So Teodor knew that Cornelius would forget acquiring the tattoo and when he called it "ballsy" he was just fucking with him and indirectly reducing Connie to tears. That is pretty bad ass in and of itself. Does Teodor even know how bad ass he is though? Or that he reduced the Badest of Ass to tears?

Maybe it was a different thing that Cornelius did? It was Connie's idea to do the walk?

The things I would do to have a crying machine to ignore.

have a child.
they do that for a while.
a lot longer if you don't ignore it from time to time.

When I first read this, I thought Cornelius was rending his flabby chest open in panel five.

I'm very glad I looked again.

That was my first thought. Cold serving his chest up with a side of otter face.

yes.

dang it i am out of chubbies. *invisochubby*

I chubbied him for ya.

thanks a lot!

I hope Onstad reveals Teodor's tattoo in the next strip, which presumably would follow their antics to the charity walk.

I believe that Teodor's tattoo is of the tv series "V"

[img ]https://moviepatron.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/v_tvmini.jpg[/img]


It's not "V" man ... That's a hard edged "Y" of some kind. Maybe it says "RAY" in big bold letters.

Fourth panel is the biggest tear jerker in Achewood history.

The best part about this comic is that you can tell who is saying what through the closed door without having to see who the speech bubbles are pointing to.

I love how they believe in Cornelius's badassness enough that they would rather believe he had invented a crying machine instead of actually weeping.

Now he realizes he must live on, as testament to the faith they have in his asskickery.

Goddamn, I salute you Cornelius.


Good strip

...really?

Any mention of James "The piledriver, barstool smasher, atom cracker" Gandolfini gets an instant 5.

Unfortunately, Onstad has actually mentioned James Andolfini.

oh thank god

James Gandolfini is not a movie.

Could it possibly be blood ? from him rubbing it not his tears melting off the henna ink ?

No.

Notice how they have the Weed Eyes.

They are all high as hell. Suddenly, the charity reason makes so much sense.

They are not high, they are dead tired from partying all night long and having to be up early in the morning.

That's what i thought at first, but i think they are just tired from the long night of drinking. The high eyes are usually the tired lines and the / \ eyebrows, which Ray is showing here (maybe he's high and tired) but the other two aren't. Also , the time beef got high he freaked out and was pretty wide-eyed the whole time.

Silly Ray. Cornelius would've gone the extra mile and bought a blubbering machine.

I'm surprised no one has brought this up yet, but it's possible that Ray is simply being extremely tactful. It's a long shot and certainly "crying machine" fits with Ray's silliness, he also seems to have demonstrated the capacity for just this sort of intuition on a few other occasions.

*BUT he also

I can't believe I didn't notice the first time that Connie's "tattoo" is running off. Durr.

Somehow, even with the revelation, this arc is extraordinarily sad.

Am I the only one who thinks these are special temporary tattoos that can only be washed away with tears (perhaps only with your own tears)?

It is very possible that you are the only one.

Nobody has even begun thinking that a man who PAYS ATTENTION would not have realized that Cornelius was indeed crying, but rather than emasculating him with his knowledge, he proposes an alternate scenario that in fact does the opposite?

correction: words 12 and 13 should be "would" and "have" respectively, and the resulting surplus of the word "have" should be disregarded.

well, i think we saw that Roast Beef is how Ray pays attention and seeing's how Beef usually goes along with what Ray says as well, if there was ever a crying machine made, it is because Ray submitted the idea to a company (which produced six million units) and Cornelius was the only guy raw enough actually purchase it.

...but i may be over-reaching a bit here. (read: TONS)

She looks familiar.

Someday I hope to be so badass that people assume that crying coming from my room is being produced by a machine rather than by me.

But won't everybody's "tattoos" sweat off during the walk?

Tron and James Gandolfini,

these are two of my favourite things!

In Panel 7 - are they stoned or hungover?

I'm leaning towards stoned, cause a charity walk is exactly the sort of thing you'd blaze before. But I've been wrong before.

Is Cornelius actually of the Greatest Generation? I had it in my head that he was older than that, and he dresses like a Progressive.

I work with the female(?) in panel three.

As much as I love this little story about Mr. Bear waking up with an unfortunate decision on his chest, I've gotta say it. "Fancy new cryin' machine"? "A machine to help him practice ignore cryin'"? This is hell of weak.

The idea that even someone as dumb as Ray would skip over the concept of "the dude is crying" and go straight to "a machine that makes crying noises" because he just can't possibly imagine Mr. Bear ever crying, that sounds like bad fan fiction from the people on AssetBar who saw the Badass Games and subsequently insist that everything Cornelius has ever done reflects somehow on his BadAssness, like he's the new Chuck Norris or something.

IT'S A JOKE ABOUT IGNORANT MASCULINE ATTITUDES!!!!!!