Comic 42 - The Dreaded Lurgy
22nd Nov 2021, 8:00 AM
in Dunestock
Transcript
Preface/warning:Panel 1:
Reinder: Hello friends, this is the artist. I'm here to give you a content warning for the comic below. I've never done that before.
Panel 2:
Reinder: You see, I normally think that just about anything can be a subject for humor, and as a guy born in 1971, I have a high tolerance for edgy jokes even if I don't exactly make that my brand.
Panel 3:
Reinder: I never put content warnings on even the goriest sequences in Rogues of Clwyd-Rhan, and if this episode was set in that setting, I still wouldn't. It would work with a medieval bard catching the plague, no problem. You'd laugh.
Panel 4:
Reinder: But having lived through almost two years of a global pandemic, I know how raw people's feelings still are. Like if you've lost a loved one to COVID-19, that's gotta hurt, right now.
Panel 5:
Reinder: Well, maybe a few years from now, after we've conquered this pandemic, it'll be safe to joke about it like we joke about yersinia pestis*) and and the surgeons in their cool bird masks who try to treat it.
*)Footnote: it's not even gone! There are periodic outbreaks in areas that are remote to us, but not the people living in them
Panel 6:
Reinder: Until then, if you think it's too soon for this sort of thing, you may want to skip to next week's strip, which should be this way.
Panel 1
Seen in the tent:
Mac (on phone): Hey, er, sorry can't make it. Our singer Johnnie had to go to the hospital. Could you do us a favor and read a statement onstage?
Panel 2
Wide.
We see Mac Truck in the hospital, in full PPE, with part of a hospital bed behind him on which the feet of Johnnie Velcro, lying prone, can be seen.
Mac: "The Blues Dads regret that Johnnie Velcro can't make it, but be assured that he will soon be back on the highway for more beer-drinkin', honky-tonkin', makin' the ladeeez happy and bringin' you the best blues in these flat lands". When Mac says these words, we see him in the hospital, in full PPE, with part of a hospital bed behind him on which the feet of Johnnie Velcro, lying prone, can be seen.
Panel 3
Ernst translates the statement quickly.
Ernst: "Translation: Johnnie Velcro is on a ventilator and could die any minute."
Panel 4
Mac: "Of course not! What makes you say such a-"
Life support machine behind him makes a long beep.
Panel 5
Mac: "Oh fuck."
Average Rating: 5 (3 votes) Rate this comic
Author Notes:
At least you get a double comic out of the whole situation, sort of. I used to do this all the time back in the 1990s: comics in which I directly addressed the reader. That went by the wayside when I switched to webcomics. It's actually kind of nice to see myself do this again, albeit with a much older avatar of myself.
User comments:
As one who grew up in America and fed a diet of excessive gratuitous violence in the entertainment media, this is pretty tame.
I do not think it makes light of the pandemic. It was simply using a real event as a pivot point for your story.
Excellent page!