![[0106] Woo’s Nightmare](http://www.sandraandwoo.com/comics/2009-10-26-[0106]-woo's-nightmare.png "[0106] Woo’s Nightmare")
While I had written a rough concept of this strip a long time ago, I only started working on it after reading this particularly stupid chapter of D. C. Simpson’s webcomic disaster Raine Dog earlier this month. One cannot believe it’s from the same creator who was responsible for the brilliant Ozy and Millie.
Oh, and whenever I see a lion pride hunting some zebra foals in an animal documentary, I’m always rooting for the lions (or, more generally, the carnivores). >:-)
- Woo: Hi Shadow, whatcha doin’?
- Shadow: Catching mice.
- Woo: You know what’s one of my worst nightmares?
- Shadow: No, what is it?
- Woo: Living in a cartoon world! If so we’d now get electrocuted by these mice, since vile predators like us would never be allowed to devour such super cute rodents!
- Shadow: Whoa! That really sounds like a nightmare!
- Woo: Tell me about it! I couldn’t sleep for two nights after watching a Tom and Jerry episode.
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Yay Woo’s forest friends are back in the strip!
+10 lulz for Tom & Jerry reference
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It’s frustrating when people don’t understand nature.
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Ah, this is the S&W writing and humour that I can get behind. Satirical, critical and yet light-hearted in delivery. Not to mention the delicious layers of irony heaped upon each other until it’s like a cake.
Good times. Good strip.
@ no space: Since humans are a part of nature, too, I don’t think it’s particularly “unnatural” when wild animals adapt to them to make the best out of their situation. Raccoons in cities often have a much easier life than their relatives in the wild and most of them are no longer afraid of humans since they know that the humans are usually no danger to them. But it certainly becomes a problem when a larger population of animal becomes entirely dependant on humans.
But all of this is not really related to this strip…
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Excellent strip. XD
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I’m more amused by the last panel. Now I’m not sure if this were intended and the old hedgehog here could be reading a lot into a simple cartoon, but examine the hill just behind Sid. With those two holes and the grass tuff as a mustach, you have a face that looks angry. Considering what the two did, the personified hill may well be lodging a protest to the invasion.
Then again, it could be an overindulgent imagination running amok.
As to the source of the inspiration, I may not think much of this cartoonist latest venture, but calling it inane hit me as a low blow. I do agree with you labeling it “a disaster” because this strip has yet to find a direction, which may be the reason you termed it inane.
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@ Cairne Destop: I don’t feel your imagination was to overindulgent. It was the first think I noticed about the last panel two. It kind of drew my attention away from Shadow and Woo.
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Its absolutly true and logical and I agree completly with the point being made in this cartoon.
Now I will go and quietly shed a tear for those poor mice.
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I’m glad I’m not the only one who thinks Simpson’s gone off the deep end. His (?) strips anymore have become more and more preachy, left-leaning and asinine.
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I watched Tom and Jerry for so many years, this is icing on the cake! The double irony is just too hilarious!
!
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Actually, the “electrocute the cat” gag puts me more in mind of a “Porky & Sylvester” adventure than “Tom & Jerry” – which i never found particularly funny, anyway.
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mmm…. Meeces….
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I think they had a little too much personification to be killed just a few seconds latter, but again, if they didn’t there would have been no message. No effect.
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Hee! Good comic, Powree and Oliver!
No Space: I used to camp in the Florida Keys, too. But instead of being invaded by key deer, our site was regularly invaded by… raccoons.
Much more clever than deer. And terribly cute. I enjoy this comic because Woo matches real raccoon personalities.
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Two words: YAY MEAT!
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What exactly about Raine Dog do you find so disasterous? Just curious.
Comic was pretty funny today, hehe. I just like it more because the mice were introduced as “real characters” rather than “food with a face”.
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I find Woo’s perspective of “Tom & Jerry” to be very funny and it would be true for a carnivore. :3
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Haha, great stuff. As simple as that.
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*reads the linked comic*
…wow. And here I thought the ending of Ozy & Millie was a little loopy. Man, how the mighty have fallen.
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With that said,I can honestly say Novil’s work has not suffered from that and I hope it never does,and even though I do not agree with his view it does not detour me from reading his work,mostly on the fact that I fine the artist whom he commented on work to be difficult to read at times.
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Wow, that’s a bit out there. For one thing, dogs are scavengers. All dogs, and relations to dogs are scavengers. So that’s a really unusual thing to see. Good comic by the way.
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Yay for raccoons!
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Every morning in Africa the Slowest Gacelle awakes knowing that she would have to run faster than any lion or she is dead
Every morning in Africa the Lion awakes knowing that he would have to run faster than the slowest Gacelle or he would die of starving.
Our reality is the only thats politically correct, while “Politically” is our own way to achive “Correct”
I hate every one who claims to have the right Truth, Right for who?
I dont Know who invented the Term Politically correct, but I would like to punch him in the face.
But Anyhows, our modern Slaugther Houses are unnatural and plain wrong, there are boundries you should and dont need to cross. I have Many friends that are vegetarian because they think that in the Slaughters the most humanitarian part is when the Cow dies, that aN also the Vegetarian people (NOT the Vegans) are more healthy.
To put the link to that patetic comic was unnecesary and lame, please dont do it again. The comic stands by Itself, just a lack of confidence or an great ego would need to humilliate a horrible artist, harsh words but if not then no one lisents. Also my eyes cant unsee that blue pseudo left wing (come on, there is no left wing in america) Dog.
THE COMIC IS BRILLANT!!! OPEN BUT PRECISE!!!! maybe the best of woo since the Hunting Arc and Pest control
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and I also like Tom & Jerry, Tom cant eat jerry because the show would end, but Tom did Wins sometimes.
Its tom vs jerry and who can humilliate more the other, on equal terms thats why I hate that Pitbull that appears in the show, Tom already have problems dealing with the trikster mouse, Why add a Dog?
What I really hate is when they become friends (tom & jerry), I dont mind when they form an allience temporally, but a mouse and a cat being somwhat of a Gay couple in their show… not thanks
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I’d like this strip more if you’d leave out the slam against another comic, especially when you’ve been pretty preachy yourself. I won’t get into the relative quality of your preachiness, but I’ll just say I’m more interested in what happens to the blue dog now than Woo.
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Love this strip! Predators need to eat too.
It depresses me horribly that for all the love I felt for O&M, the artist ended up alienating me for some political views at one point, though honestly for the life of me I can’t recall what it was. All I remember was that the artist wrote or drew something I found offensive and it was meant to be.
Anyways, I enjoy this comic as well, and hope it has a much longer run than the aforementioned one.
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While the strip is funny, the dig at Raine Dog seems a little hypocritical. Grumbling that a story that is designed to make a point, makes that point? Kinda silly.
Other than one minor “love interest” story arc, S&W has had little direction or story or point: I’ve been reading and waiting for the comic to “kick in”, but it’s becoming obvious that it’s designed mostly as a shallow gag-comic with wacky hijinks à la Tom’n'Jerry with a twist, and sunday-comic-style puns, and the occasional heavyhanded “environmental message”. All of which is fine – the comic’s been finding its own comic’s style, it’s settling into it now, and it’s a fun read.
On the other hand, RD is progressing apace with character development and backstory. I can see how a casual reader who’s not really been following the plot, and who has a chip on their shoulder about vegetarianism, may have read the vegetarianism of the main character as a cry to all readers to give up meat. Given I read it as a story arc, and don’t give a shit if people don’t eat meat (for any reason, ) so long as I get my bacon, I was able to read it as character development where the main character rejects the pull of what humans tell her to be, and later what other canines tell her to be, and eventually finds the person she personally is comfortable with being. The “I’m vegetarian now” bit was a kind of flash-forward in the flashback, to show how the falling in with the feral pack was important in shaping who she eventually became.
Is the friend she met for coffee vegetarian? Does she tell him he should be? No, it’s just a personal choice she makes for herself. Not preachy: character development. You could learn a lot about it from that comic, and maybe even try to do some yourself.
So far, S&W has barely even exercised any braincells in its readers. RD hasn’t preachily thrust answers at us, but it *has* asked us to think, to ask ourselves questions like: spaying and neutering pets in *our* world is unquestionably good. In the RW world, it’s unquestionably barbaric. How can we reconcile this in our own moral system? (my personal answer: intelligence grants responsibility; a dog is unaware of the existence, potential, or loss of ovaries, other than as a temporary healing pain. An intelligent being is, and with that awareness comes responsibility for all three) In the RW world, dogs can choose vegetarianism. In our world, they don’t have that ability. Should we choose for them? (my personal answer: sure, it supports those companies who want to provide for vegetarian dog owners at a premium, and the rest of us can continue to buy cheap meat).
Rayne Dog is a story about a person who happens to be an animal, while Sandra&Woo is a series of gags about an animal who happens to be able to speak. Both comics are good, even great, but reading either one through the goggles of the other will mean you will not “get it”. You have to judge each on its own merits, instead.
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Dewimorgan – am I reading that correctly? Are you saying that it’s not okay to take issue with the point an author is making? Yes, from what I’ve seen of Raine Dog, that strip does fit with the overall point of the comic, but that doesn’t make the point a good one. Anyway, yes, that strip absolutely is preachy. Note that she spends the entire thing pontificating directly to the audience on…um, whatever exactly the point is supposed to be. Note the way the entire thing is framed like a damn public service announcement. Note the obvious lecturing tone of the monologue. This strip isn’t preachy like January isn’t cold.
As to what the point is…I dunno. Does Simpson think that critics of vegetarianism think it’s unnatural? I’ve never heard anybody make such an argument, and if anybody does, they’re too retarded to be worth responding to. It makes no friggin’ sense and stinks of a giant martyr complex.
I have no sympathy for someone who takes several hundred dollars from one of his biggest fans and then does not bother to send him the purchased artwork: see this thread at Define Cynical. Therefore I won’t hesitate to state my opinion that the comic D. C. Simpson is currently doing is terrible no matter what some people write here in the comments.
And anyway: What’s life without a little controversy?
Some people seem to believe that my characters have no personality of their own and that they are just my mouthpieces. I myself have high respect for anyone who is a vegetarian and not fanatic about it (!).
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Lol, of course we sympathize with carnivores.. we have a kinship with ‘em.
Though sometimes it seems like we have a weaker one with fellow omnivores like raccoons and bears XD they’re TOO much like us, we can’t have them around our stuff or they’ll get into it.
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commodorejohn: The monologue isn’t about vegetarianism specifically, it’s about natural versus unnatural and neatly summarized by her statement: “Natural only matters when we don’t have a choice.” It’s fairly obvious that vegetarianism is just a metaphor for something else considered unnatural. Something a bit more… important… in reference to DCS. Hm hm.
Mind, I think that the presentation about this point is terrible and preachy and the metaphor so thinly veiled that it’s basically trying to shove the point in your face. This is the same across most of the ‘present day’ strips where Raine breaks the fourth wall and talks to the audience. But that’s me.
Concerning the actual strip, I do love it. I was very much looking forward to seeing it when you first posted the concept on Define Cynical. Poor adorable mice… they seem kinda thin to constitute a decent snack.
Chaos wrote: Poor adorable mice… they seem kinda thin to constitute a decent snack.
I think you make the mistake to compare it to a decent snack for a human. Woo and Shadow do not weigh much more than 10 kg. Although their rate of metabolism should be higher than that of humans, they certainly don’t have to eat as much as a grown-up man who weighs 80 kg until they are full.
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I just found this site and I’ve gotta say that you got some great web comic here!
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I’d have to agree with Dewimorgan –
By the way, the strip presentation left a bad taste in my mouth. I would have just said that a comic had a dog be a vegetarian and that I thought that was unrealistic. That comment up there is neither objective nor an invitation to discussion, it’s a personal jab.
The note of the comments on DC also suggest that if I were to say I like Raine Dog, I would be disregarded per default. And likely deemed crazy in the process. The comments are arrogant and caustic, and that sort of thing doesn’t encourage discussion; it encourages mob mentality. So even if my comment ends up being clumsy and / or needing revision, I feel I have to post again.
Chaos, I actually had several associations when reading One For The Road. The question of what is natural and not applies to my own life in multiple ways. Let’s say, to someone who isn’t up to date on Simpson’s personal history, it may not be that blunt. And let’s face it, Raine’s a politician.
She’s bound to hold speeches.
…As for the dog pack, it seems obvious to me they have an idea they themselves conceived of how dogs are supposed to act, one that’s of doubtful accuracy and is supposed to come off as such. It reminds me of bits of The Plague Dogs. I don’t think it’s meant to reflect the way non-sentient feral dogs would act in reality. Compare it to an extremist group instead, for instance. I actually quite enjoy the fact DCS doesn’t write any of that on my nose.
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I`m so egocentric that Im going to quote myself but only the pseudo plitical parts, Yay for panfletarism::
“Every morning in Africa the Slowest Gacelle awakes knowing that she would have to run faster than any lion or she is dead
Every morning in Africa the Lion awakes knowing that he would have to run faster than the slowest Gacelle or he would die of starving.
[...]
To put the link to that patetic comic was unnecesary and lame, please dont do it again. The comic stands by Itself, just a lack of confidence or an great ego would need to humilliate a horrible artist, harsh words but if not then no one lisents. Also my eyes cant unsee that blue pseudo left wing (come on, there is no left wing in america) Dog.”
I want atention!, look at me! because I feel frustrated, only a few times Isay something that really think iks important and a moralist person (aka dewimorgan) its trying to lead this to a draw based on quality of comics, this is a situation that it has nothing to do with that.
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It has to do with behavement and a just a little bit of ethics
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Gerardo: It has nothing to do with ethics, and dont quote yourself its pathetic and you ruin the idea you try to express
It is not good or bad to eat something or someone to live and its not good or bad to avoid been eaten.
Shadow have a family to feed, the mouse a family to protect.
In real life there is not black and white
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Forget my atrocius previous posts, quoting myself was childish and pathetic
This has nothing to do with etics,
it is not good or bad to eat something or someone to live, and is not bad or good to avoid been eaten.
Shadow has a famili to feed, the mouse have a family to protect.
Real world is not Black and White
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Having a *carnivore* saying “Go Vegetarian!” is silly. Humans aren’t carnivores. (No matter what Tim “The Toolman” Taylor may grunt!) Is vegetarian unnatural? I don’t think so.. but then, I refuse to give up my organic, locally grown, free range, tasty, tasty, meat either. So I’ll be a hypocrite and proud of it.
As far as Woo goes.. It’s not like he’s wrapped in a flag and crying “Think of the ranchers!” .. he’s just eating some mice.
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Interesting discussion. I loved Ozy & Millie (although I do have to see how it ends), but despite that, I did notice his personal views bent towards a liberal perception of reality. That said, he did do a good job of not being preachy or political in O&M for the most part, so that anyone could enjoy it. After reading the first few strips of Raine Dog, I arrived at the conclusion that it wasn’t going to hold interest for me, primarily because it did seem to primarily promote a sort of agenda. So the strip in question was not a total surprise to me.
I came across Sandra and Woo when it was less than a dozen strips. It struck me as having a feel similar to Calvin and Hobbes in nature, a comic I particularly loved for its imagination. One of the differences is that S&W does occasionally go into a brief storyline, which makes for a good change of pace.
And now for my opinion on the matter at hand. Like another reader commented, I haveno issue with vegetarianism per se. There are several good reasons why a person might opt not to eat meat, and that is perfectly fine. It’s when said people try to put heavy pressure on me to do the same that I take issue. The process of hunter and prey is a norm in this world, and that is acceptable. So long as one does not seek to harm others for sport, it is perfectly OK with me.
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Stopped reading O & M over a year ago. Thanks to this strip, I don’t miss it .
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Poor mice.
If this were a “sadistic” cartoon, the mice might have “hired” some black widows for protection, in advance.
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To be honest, I don’t see the reason for the kafuffle; Raine Dog is begetarian by choice (as the strip points out), but there’s no “Go Vegetarian” rant, no Vegan oreaching, no anti-meat sermons. You see the bag at the end of one strip, then have Rain admitting that it’s considered “unnatural” for her species to avoid meat.
Honestly, I had more trouble working alongside a Vegan. If this offends you so mightily, you must have a lot of time on your hands.
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atleast in the cartoon reality things make sense -_-
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This strip itself is funny, but the jab at someone else’s comic? Total turn off. Especially given how preachy some of your own strips are.
You’re allowed to have your opinion about someone else’s work, but using your own comic as a mouthpiece about it just cost you this reader
Bye.
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DC Simpson is somewhat like Norman Bates. When he was still doing O&M and I Drew This, the liberal preachiness was confined almost entirely to the latter, allowing the former to be a solid webcomic. But, as with Bates, the madness seemed to grow, and when the point of crisis was reached, namely I Drew This and O&M being brought to an end, it was the dominant, insane personality that took over for Raine Dog.
That said, the strip you quoted isn’t particularly bad. Okay, its sole point is preachiness which I guess is a problem, but the actual point that it makes, that people calling vegetarians “unnatural” are very silly, is a valid one. If you take it to mean “Screw you, carnivorous scum!” then you’re reading more into it than is there.
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I love your comics Knorzer. This stuff is awesome. I totally agree with your opinion on Raine Dog.
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I really like Raine Dog. Better than Ozy and Millie, in fact, which I felt had great potential but kept squandering it through humble absurdism and story arcs that were too short. I don’t get why anyone would consider Raine Dog horrible, but I can only guess it’s a reaction to the strip’s very left wing feel. D.C. Simpson is very much a liberal–see _I Drew This_. (She’s also a woman, by the way.) And yes, Raine Dog is a preachy strip–it’s designed that way. You’re missing the point, though, if you don’t see that it’s about a character preaching to an audience about a fictional world–one in which animals talk and have been leading their own civil rights movement.
The vegetarian strip is a perfectly decent one. Dewimorgan gave a very good analysis of it above (although I don’t really agree with the statement that Sandra and Woo hasn’t exercised its readers’ braincells). Raine doesn’t say carnivory is wrong; just that it’s her personal choice. She’s making a point about nature and civilization, which is a perfectly worthy theme.
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First I’ve seen where the mice are actually eaten. ^^