NEWT FOR PRESIDENT!!! GET AWAY FROM HER, YOU BITCH!!!
OK, NOW I’m actually done with the JoCo Cruise Crazy 2 photo comics. I’ve had a ton of fun reliving that amazing week through the medium of sequentialized funny time panels, but I’m anxious to get back to drawing dudes talking about TV. EXCITING! This comic in particular was really a blast to create since I went into it with absolutely ZERO ideas of what it was going to be about. I just started placing photos and loose narrative started to form around them. Consider this an incredibly complex Rorschach test that reveals my latent abandonment issues with women, trust issues with my wife, fear of the water and intense frugality [none of those are true except for the last one, which is true enough for all of them].
Swimming with dolphins was a singular experience. It was INCREDIBLY expensive and certainly not something I would rush to do again, but it was definitely worth it, and I have no regrets concerning my ocean mammal frolicking experience. I hesitate to even describe it, since it’s one of those experiences you kind of have to… experience before the explanation takes on any greater meaning than, “WE WERE TOTALLY SWIMMING WITH DOLPHINS, BRO! IT WAS HELLA DOLPHINS ALL OVER THE PLACE!” We (6 people) swam with them (6 dolphins) for about an hour separated from the open ocean only by a manmade rock reef. The dolphins themselves were equal parts intimidating and childlike, but the overall situation was exhilarating. I think I understand Aquaman a little better. He’s still the worst super hero, but I get where he’s coming from.
COMMENTERS: Have you ever had an unusual animal experience or an experience with an unusual animal?
Frankly, with a choice of being Queen of the Dolphins, or being married to a webcomic creator, she made the wise choice.
Where to start….
I don't know if this is so much an "unusual animal experience" or "something that requires the attention of the ASPCA" but when I was doing door-to-door sales in Fresno, California this chihuahua came up and started nipping at me. It was about 8 inches tall and clearly not a Real threat but e wouldn't stop. even after repeatedly nudging him with my foot. Then he bit really hard right on my Achilles tendon and that made me angry. He didn't like me when I was angry. I kicked the thing pretty hard. Not as hard as I could but hard enough that he sailed 20 feet into a dumpster, bouncing off the open lid which slammed shut behind the dog. He seemed ok but I bet he never bit any more salesmen.
When I was a youngling of only 5 years of age, I dressed my mom's elderly cat Honey in a leopard-print leotard and put a pair of green underwear on Honey's head. Honey was not amused and somehow clawed her way out of my lovely leotard, ran out of the house – with the underwear still hanging on – and hid in our peony bush until my mom rescued her poor, bedraggled cat several hours later. I have yet to dress another animal in people clothes.
Closest I have ever been to swimming with dolphins was being alone in the room under the dolphin tank at the aquarium, where you can watch them swim. I didn't see any dolphins so I turned around to tell the husband we should press on when he said to turn slowly. All 3 dolphins were in the window behind me and they started mimicking my movements. So for about 2 minutes I danced with the dolphins by spinning in place. Then a bunch of kids came down the stairs and got all noise and banging on the glass and spoiled my fun. Also once a dog jumped into the river from a dock so I could pet him from the boat I was in. Apparently animals like me.
Swimming with sea lions on the Galapagos. They love to play with people. To them, playing is finding you under water, swimming very fast straight at you, then veering off at the last second like some kind of crazy game of aquachicken. Also, if you drop anything, they love to play keep-away with it.
I was home alone one time when I was a teenager, so I got out the peanut butter and whistled for the dog and… Wait, no one else can read this, right?
Nope, only your mother.
And no one from the boat got dolphin molested? I hear they like doing that.
Maybe they just aren't attracted to geeks. Or maybe that costs extra…
It was the cameras. No pictures and it's your word against theirs
My cat attacked a deer in the front yard once.
I looked out the window and I saw a yellow cat mashed as flat as he could make himself oozing across the front yard toward a deer eating my shrubs. The deer stopped eating, looked at the cat and stamped her hoof a few times in warning. #4 (the cat's name) rolled over onto his back and the deer went back to eating. As soon as the deer's head touched the shrub #4 pounced onto her neck. The deer jumped about 20 feet into the air and flung #4 about 20 feet in the other direction.
#4 has had a scar on his shoulder ever since.
He scares the ever living shit out of the dog.
Wow, Joel, just gotta say, I spent the last four days going through your ENTIRE archive. I will now shamble around making Wheaton Doctor jokes for the next several hours until the alcohol kicks in and I can manage something like normal spoken communication. (Seriously, though, this is a fantastic comic, and I <3 it)
I think my coolest animal experience was the last time I went to Israel; I got to swim in the Red Sea with the dolphins. I guess it's a big tourist thing there. My mom and I went scuba diving with them, and it was really cool interacting with them. Neither of us were stolen to be the Underwater Queen; maybe they knew your wife was coming along and wanted to wait for her?
not sure this counts as usual but the only strange experience with animals is that i was taking care of my cousin's puppy and sitting on my lap while i was animating and the puppy peed and puked on my lap. It wasnt a fun mess to clean up.
btw joel i know nerds fear the light because it burns you look really white
What my head did with Panel #13: This is a picture of Joel Watson getting kissed by a dolphin. Your argument is invalid INFINITY!
New post up already but for posterity's sake….
Most awesome dolphin tale was driving with family over/under/through the Chesapeake Bay tunnel/bridge and coming out of one of the tunnels to see a school of dolphins swimming by.
Most awesome up close experience was to see a Japanese serow (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_serow) casually walk right in front of me at this observation point overlooking a lake formed from an old volcano crater. This was in northern Japan. I've always said I saw a "kirin" which is a mythical animal but a word also used to mean giraffe.
I own several ferrets and had recently gotten a new one. He was a cute little guy (I think he is a guy). One Saturday, I let them out of their cage to roam the house and the new one, Guido, decided to crawl into my sleeve while I was watching Top Chef re-runs. The little claws they have are sharp, so I wouldn't have let my ferrets do this normally, but he was so small and cute and fluffy. He wandered around the inside of my clothing for about 2 minutes and then decided to fall asleep inside of my pants. It was the most adorable thing EVAR. Period. After about 45 minutes of adorableness he woke up. Since that, my life has never been so complete.
My brain while looking at panel #15: "I wonder how you would give a blowjob underwater…"
Aaaand I'm going to hell.
Are not. Also, just because you thought of it, a new fetish exists. Google it. Quantum Fetish Mechanics.
I was at deer camp, of all places, when two younglings walked into camp [a button buck and a doe].
They weren't afraid of anything. We petted them. Fed them [I know, "Bad Dougie!!"]. We even drove quads around them with no problem.
When they went ahead and tapped the keg, though! They had to take a hike. There's a $20 buy-in, here!!
…stupid, cheap deer…
I had a deer encounter too. I was working at a theatre in Ithaca, and there's this 2-mile trail in the woods between the theatre and the office downtown. While walking there one day, a deer walks in the path maybe 50 feet ahead of me. For a city girl who's only ever had cats, this was fantastic. She was huge (or seemed huge to my citified brain) and we just stood there; she scared to death, and me scared that she'll bolt if I move. She eventually walked away, but that made my "summer o' hell" a little more bearable.