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Currently on hiatus :-(
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![[0269] Bad News](/comics/2011-05-05-0269-bad-news.png "[0269] Bad News")
The current story arc started with this strip: A New Adventure.
- Blacky: I don’t think your leg is broken.
- Woo: Whew…
- Blacky: What are you doing in this part of the woods? Are you looking for a new territory?
- Woo: No. I’m looking for my human.
- Blacky: You’re a pet looking for its owner? … I’m afraid I’ve got bad news for you.
- Woo: Bad news?
- Blacky: When a human abandons you on the roadside and tells you he’s going to come back to pick you up, he’s not going to.
- Woo: No, it’s not like that!
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Sandra and Woo by Oliver Knörzer is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. See the About page for details.
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I have a feeling Sandra’s gonna get one more pet when she finds Woo…
looks like a raccoon was left behind
Well, Woo wasn’t very specific… and it is in human nature to expect the worst.
It must be in the nature of raccoons as well.
They don’t?
Cause I’ve been abandoned in this forest for days now. (And you wouldn’t believe how tough it is to find internet access around here.) :[
“Sandra and Woo” has repeatedly demonstrated a Buddahist philosophy towards life. That being the case, it was fate that caused the eagle to snatch up Woo in the first place. Appearently , Woo didn’t have a good rebirth and was on the verge of reaching Nirvanna before the eagle… anyway woo is dead and Blacky is clearly a representation of his fears or something. In theory, everything that we’re seeing from the point the eagle killed Woo and carried him off was an illusion created to help Woo adjust to the afterlife. I’m not sure what’s going on because I never read the book of the dead and Buddahism is for fatalists. Personally, I think the philosophy creates more suffering.
Hmm…
Isn’t it interesting how you can learn alot about someone you’ve only known for a short while,
just by the things they say?
Melanie wrote:
Maybe not, by the way Blacky is talking, it seems like he was betrayed by a human.
I’m suddenly imagining the “When She Loved Me” sequence from Toy Story 2, only with a raccoon instead of a toy… and now I’m sad 🙁
Now we got a gloomy character with bad past with human, and Blacky could be a bad influence to Woo, as he can tell him his owner will leave him now presuming he’s dead.
For some reason, I think of an anime scene for the last panel. I think it might be because of Woo’s hand wave and the other gestures. I like how Blacky adds “and tells you he’s not going to pick you up,” :).
@ Gabrielsthoughts:
oh, dear god… cant we just say “a wizard did it”?
That Blacky character must have skills to avoid those incoming cars then.
gasp! he know our secret! Blacky must die!!!!!!
Gabrielsthoughts wrote:
You wrote that FF7 interpretation, didn’t you?
Melanie wrote:
Blacky reminds me of Mittens from the Disney movie Bolt, and The Tramp from… well… Lady and the Tramp lol. Same attitude towards humans, for the same reasons. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was resolved the same way, and Woo ends up with a new brother.
So, which of you is the brony?
so whos got money on blacky and the “hunter” having a history together thats probably not as cat and mouse as expected?
I for one absolutely love your comic series, but I got a question. Is there a special program that you use to shade and illustrate your comics?
Blacky may act tough, but he hasn’t chartered the depths of bitterness yet. That will be when Sandra comes back for Woo, when his owner didn’t. Most likely thought to pop into his head: “It’s not them… It’s you.” (it’s his human, quite possibly)
Blacky: When a human abandons you on the roadside and tells you he’s going to come back to pick you up, he’s not going to.
My Grandma did that to me once. It was fun. 😀
He’s either bitter, or has just seen it before.
My vote goes to the latter.
Menthe wrote:
If that’s true, I hope Sandra does adopt him.
Something wrong with the new layout. I’m running IE8. Open S&W and there’s no way to see the comments. The “Click here” bar doesn’t show.
If I go to “Previous” and then back to “Last”, THEN I can “Click here” to see the comments and leave this one.
Because being thrown from a boat along with everyone else is Such a pleasant alternative scenario.
Everyone’s assuming Blacky was abandoned. Maybe he simply knows a lot of abandonded dogs/cats. Because, let’s face it, the alternative is that he, too, is a talking raccoon
@ blah:
No, I’ve just been writing film analysis for close to five years. Plus, if “woo” is book of the dead, dead, people can compare it to the “death of garfield storyline” created by Jim Davis. Apearently, there is cause to believe that Garfield died sometime during the 80’s and everything after that point has been his personal heaven… or hell.
@ Gabrielsthoughts:
However, a little research reveals that the “Death of Garfield” storyline was not a literal death. Davis’s goal for the storyline was to write something scary for Halloween, and he’s certainly succeeded at that.
I actually +1’d your interpretation in your previous post, not because I think it’s right, but because I think it’s very interesting and rather chilling. I sincerely doubt your interpretation is right, because there’s no indication (by the very tone of this comic series as a whole) that things would take a turn in that direction. Nonetheless, it is a very interesting and thought-provoking look at the story 😀
I understand Blacky’s reaction, however how does he figure that’s what happened to Woo? The nearest road is what, thirty miles away? (More, probably.)
Putting down 5$ saying that Blacky is going to be shot by That hunter fellow we saw earlier. After all, Woo is a Title character and Title characters can’t die, even if attempting suicide they always make it.
My bet is that Blacky is remembering something similar happening to him, and he doesn’t want to see that happen again, to another naive raccoon.
However, we all know that Sandra is coming back for Woo.
@ WolfieMario:
This isn’t a place to assert your dominance, nor is it your place to do so in a discussion about what an author “might” be thinking. It’s not like I’m speculating the will of God. Even then I would be well within my rights to question the nature of the universe I find myself in. furthermore, you are not God. I don’t even think you’re “blah.”
I didn’t think Woo’s death was a literal death either, I was just highlighting the fact that what is happening is similar to what I know about Buddhism (and to a lesser extent Klingon) religion. in effect, I was theorising, that that it is at the very least possible, that Woo is dead, or unconscious, and is having a spiritual journey.
However, if you somehow think the concepts of Woo’s abduction wasn’t scary, or at the very least worrisome in the same sense as the possibility that Garfield may have died, you have missed the boat.
Also, I like the idea of Blacky being a physical manifestation of Woo’s fears and darker motivations… otherwise I’d have to accept the fact that the whole ego scenario… cough… eagle scenario was outright “bad” in the sense that it was not up to my expectations and fell into Antonio Banderas’s “Missing Lynx” or Rodriguez “spy kids” territory, in that it was meant for either a younger, less sophisticated, or culturally specific audience.
Pet abandonment really gets me riled. We rescued a beautiful pup not long ago abandoned on the highway. She just ran up to the car and said “There’s been a terrible mix up, my family left me here, you’ve come to save me haven’t you’ then she jumped into the car and laid her head on my girl’s lap. You can’t say no to that. Found her a good home in the countryside with an English couple. She’s a beautiful,intelligent, loving creature, which is much more than I can say about the fiends who abandoned her because christmas was over. I can understand to an extent people who don’t like animals, but people who are actively cruel to them should be shot.
(sorry about the rant, I get emotional on this topic)
Wow!, that Racoon Blacky has Incredible!….
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Hairy Arm.
@ Kelsey:
You have a good point there, I didn’t notice that until you said it…
Heh wonder what will happen next you think woo could tell him that it was an eagle’s fault
@ Allypop95:
perhaps 🙁 🙂
@ Gabrielsthoughts:
In what way have I tried to assert any dominance? I don’t even get how I could be “dominant” when we’re all just readers of the strip. And I wasn’t complaining about you questioning the nature of our universe – I myself lack religious beliefs and have no problem with people questioning things. If you knew me you’d know I’m a very tolerant person; I’m not about to argue with someone that they shouldn’t believe what they choose to. And I never placed myself as “God” or “blah” or anything. I was merely stating my opinion on your interpretation (which, remember, is also an opinion!). I didn’t say “you’re right” or “you’re wrong”, as though I actually have any right to do so. I said “I think you’re not right”. You may have experience as a film analyst, but I’m still entitled to my opinion as well.
And I didn’t say Woo’s abduction wasn’t scary (particularly when taken out of the context that he’s the title character; if one imagines that he still can die however important he is to the strip). But in Woo’s abduction, it was quickly revealed, with his comedic antics, that his death was certainly not imminent. In the case of the Garfield storyline, there was nothing given to the reader to reassure them. In the end of that story, it explicitly said that the world around Garfield now was purely his denial and imagination, covering up the cruel reality where all that he once cherished is gone – thereafter, it’s really easy to believe that all strips following that arc are his imagination and that he’s died (the “I haven’t lived here for years” line really helps put that idea in the reader’s mind). The reason I don’t find Woo’s abduction an ounce as scary is because it gives us reasons to believe otherwise. Sure, it’s possible that the eagle killed him from the moment it snatched him up, and all that happened thereafter was delusion, but it’s also possible that what we saw wasn’t delusion and he is still alive and well. As I said, this is my personal opinion on the matter, so please don’t make it look like I’m claiming to be better than you or anything again: I’m not.
And I also like your idea that Blacky is a manifestation of Woo’s fears and darker motivations. That was the main reason I +1’d you. Your interpretation actually gave a reason to the eagle storyline, when I had already felt it was a “weaker” plot element and almost contrived (no offense to Novil of course), as that’s what it would have to be if it lacked any deeper meaning.
I don’t think I’m the author nor do I think I have any right to speak on his behalf. But remember that neither do you. Both of us are really just stating our opinions of the storyline; nothing we say will hold any gravity as fact. I didn’t feel like putting a “I guess we won’t be able to tell until Novil’s made more strips, so this is all speculation” disclaimer at the end of my last post, because I’ve gotten tired of writing that line. Of course nothing we say will change the plot. Of course Novil’s the only one who can say what is right and what is wrong in this story, but we’re all entitled to an opinion.
globalvillain wrote:
Agreed. I feel so sorry for Blacky, Cloud Should adopt him. First they adopt pets and then either give them, sell them or abandon them. These people should be Fined 10,000 Dollars + Imprisonment.
Blacky seems worldly. Past hurts included.
@ FriendlyPyro: I don’t see it being quite like that. But, this does feel like a lot of factors are going to come into play.
…and, in the back of my mind, I hear the theme song, playing… “…and the man in the back said, ‘Everyone attack!’ and it turned into a Ballroom Blitz!”
…wait a second…. there is color on the canvas but, not on his brush…. inconceivable, yet remarkably amazing
@ MCard:
lol wrong panel
@ Gabrielsthoughts:
Wow, really? Don’t bring your own beliefs into the comic. Woo is sort of the main character–do you think the creators would make him die? Psht.
Yet another selection of ridiculous drama-comments spoiling a perfectly good comic strip.