You know, I think everyone may be over analyzing this, just a wee bit. It's a slug, who, somehow, unfortunately, got onto a salt lick. Maybe he was on top of the barn, and fell through a hole in the roof! He just dropped in, landed on the salt lick, automatically assumed the fall had killed him, and that he was in heaven. No matter what happened, it's an amazing example of dramatic irony. The reader/viewer knows something that the protagonist doesn't. For all of the people who are thinking about this too hard: Slug+Salt=Fizzle Goat+Salt lick=Snack time The slug just landed in an unfortunate spot, right as the goat felt like getting some of the salt off the lick.
Quite frankly, I think a couple of people are taking the interpretation of the comic a little to the extreme. The humour in this comic is well layered for all levels of understanding from the very basic 'Slug-on-a-salt-lick-stupid-ironic-comment' humour to the complexity of the satanic imagery.
Daniel: Seriously, it's a comic. Neurotransmissions in slugs? God god man! Granularity in the salt lick? Isn't a salt lick so finely grained due to the manufacture process that a hand-lens is needed to make out the crystalline structure? It's not like a lump of sugar!
Regarding the timeline, I am in agreement with Jen and it is my personal interpretation that the three panels all take place in the same moment of time. Therefore neurotransmission speed speculations are rendered a moot point. The first panel, in my interpretation, is a close-up of the slug's face and his ironic comment. The Second panel clues us into the fact that all is not as it seems. The third panel is the same instant of time as the first panel but a wide-angle view showing is the REAL predicament with the satanic imagery and expanding upon the irony of the comic. The only piece of evidence that may contradict this is the angle and placement of the slugs' eyes - the curvature appears different in the first and last panel indicating some movement of the eyes between first and last.
The changes to the strip to incorporate the characteristic 'foaming' have been well executed and the last panel additions clarify this well.
Earlier comments suggest that some clarification of the slugs' death would be beneficial to the perception of the comment. I concur to a degree. Perhaps a minor change of wording to something along the lines of 'What? Where am I? This must be Heaven!' may clarify that death (or indeed a change of location via some supernatural means) had occured. Then again, this being TBK, that would be labouring the point far in excess of the nature of the comic to encourage our own speculation and interpretations.
This comic didn't get rated too well but I'm personally pretty proud of it. It pleases me a great deal- though perhaps it shouldn't?- that people are writing up essays trying to interpret it.
Interestingly, the slug's line was going to be very close to what you suggest. On my original storyboard sketch I've got the line "Where am I? Is this heaven?" When I was finishing it up, though, I thought that "This must be Heaven!" implied that the slug didn't know where he was in fewer words, which is always preferable.
The art in this comic is, as usual, exceptional, and it is a shame the comic hasn't rated as highly as you would have liked - But if it helps, from a personal point of view, the comic made me laugh - mostly because of the slugs' cluelessness and the facial expression. Also the rendering of the texture of the slug squicked me out slightly (in a good way)...Especially in the second panel... XD LOL
I agree with both Jen and Margie. Whether time has passed or not, we're still hanging in the moment where the slug hasn't figured out his predicament. Who doesn't like dramatic irony when it involves such a gleeful look on a slug's face? And sorry, but I can't help but disagree with Daniel's tirade. Assuming that everyone agrees with your definition of humor and the effect of different symbols on your conceptualization of it, maybe the comic is trash. But despite your efforts, you've yet to prove scientifically that it isn't funny. And please tell me more about neurotransmission speeds in slugs. Where do you get your funding?
I thought it had progressed, but only enough for the slug to look back at the goat. He hasn't quite *assessed* the situation yet, but he's getting close. It's that moment of 'Uh-Oh' - so satisfying for an audience to be able to appreciate it before the character gets there.
For those of you wondering why the slug is still smiling, it seems to me that the subsequent panels are just showing the same moment from different perspectives. Time is not actually progressing between panels, thus no change in expression.
In constructing fiction, an author selects actions and events in order to produce some effect on the reader, but also provides explanations for them in terms of the story's fictional world, in order to cover up the manipulation. The basic goal is to produce a world with its own logic and its own coherent system of cause and effect.
If we ask "why did character X do this" and the answer is too obviously "to make the reader feel Y", the author is having a bad day.
The goat is a representation of Satan...to human readers. The pitchfork, as you say, "is there to help [the reader] make the connection"--it serves no purpose within slug hell, only within the comic. "The white light is probably there to explain [to the reader] the slug's mistaken belief that this is heaven"--that is, to make the joke possible. "Satan was the angel of light"...with the power and inclination to make light stream in through the windows of any room he's in, even after his fall? The barn...if real goats live in real barns, then hellgoats must live in hellbarns...run by hellfarmers...regulated by the hellUSDA? The only point in making a hellbarn is to make things ambiguous for the reader by making the scene look sensible when it's viewed in non-supernatural terms.
It would be possible to fudge up reasons for these things within the fictional world. Maybe the white light is there in order to fool the slug itself, momentarily, in order to make the final realization of its fate more painful by contrast. The point is, if we have to look too far and make too many ad-hoc assumptions in order to find in-story explanations, the illusion will have broken long before then, and that's what happened here, and that's why it wasn't funny.
When I said "not hurting the slug" I meant "not causing the slug pain".
And yeah, the art was great as always.
Jake: assuming that pain in the afterlife still relies on the nervous system, having a less advanced nervous system might limit the amount or complexity of pain that could be felt, but having less processing to do should reduce the amount of time before the full effect is felt if anything. And yeah, neurotransmission speeds vary, but that slug shouldn't still by smiling by the last panel.
Also, let's not forget that slugs don't have the most advanced sensory systems. I'm pretty sure he can't immediately feel that he is on a block of salt. I think that the slug's smile in the last panel is one of obliviousness. He still hasn't realized that he is not in fact in slug heaven. Brilliant.
I didn't entirely get it at first glance, but most of it fell into place pretty obviously, and lets be honest; one doesn't read this kind of thing just to get it immediately, there are a bazillion other webcomics out there that make everything perfectly clear at first glance.
which is to say: I think the joke works perfectly, especially since it becomes even funnier/more satisfying when you make all the connections.
(the goat is definitely an animal representation of Satan, the pitchfork is there to help you make this connection, the salt *is* hurting the slug though the steam/smoke could be seen as just the trail, and the white light is probably there to explain the slug's mistaken belief that this is heaven, Satan was the angle of light... oh and barn => again with the theme of "animal hell" and that being where goats/satans dwell. probably.)
I think this is a joke that didn't quite work. Instead of the final panel's bringing all known facts into a new perspective, it raises at least as many questions as it answers. We're left with:
-slug on a white block. Salt lick? No granularity visible even in panel 2. Also, it makes slugs smoke. Also, it's not uncomfortable for the slug to be on this block, because it's still smiling after three panels have gone by. None of this suggests any better answer than "salt lick, with consequences not well thought out".
-Then the wider scene...okay, on first glance, it's a barn. With white light streaming in the windows. And a pitchfork leaning against the wall. And a light-grey goat licking its lips. Is the goat going to eat the slug? Do goats eat slugs? It's looking at the viewer more than at the slug. Goats and pitchforks are associated with Satan/Hell, plus if the slug thinks it's in heaven maybe it knows that it died, which we otherwise have no way to know...on the other hand, if this is slug hell, why does it look like a barn, and why is the pitchfork leaning against the wall and not being wielded by demons? (Besides which, it's not a very suitable instrument to hurt slugs with.) And why is there white light streaming in the windows? And why is the salt not hurting the slug? Natural or supernatural, it doesn't really work.
I just learned from Wikipedia that despite the popular misconception of goats eating just about anything, in fact they're picky eaters that prefer specific clean, healthy plants. However, unfortunately for our nearsighted slug friend, this is no ordinary goat.
The joke would probably be clearer if there were a preface panel or two in which we saw the slug dying...it needs a little more setup. As it stands, I thought the slug was just sitting on an ordinary salt lick, rather than sitting in Slug Hell.
Assuming the slug died earlier, if he was in hell, he probably not die from his wounds, assuming that once you are in hell you can feel pain but just can't die from it. So when the shock of beleiving he's in heaven goes away, he'll realise his true fate...
The slug must have very poor vision to mistake the top of a salt lick inside of a barn for Heaven. I'm trying to picture what would have occurred just before the first panel... Did the slug suddenly wake up right there? And why is he so slow to notice that he's being burned(?) alive?
Tom: "i thought a slug melts?" I'm pretty sure the slug dies because the salt removes all the moisture from its body. For accuracy's sake the slug should be shriveling, but it's funnier this way.
I have to agree w/Cow-Man - no need to act like a pretentious twirp. We're all here to enjoy the artist's ingenious creativity, not throw salt licks at each other.
A salt lick block on a table top might have made the setting a bit clearer. Farm animal salt licks are normally about a foot square (and bright blue), not three foot high rectangular white stylized blocks as we see here. I love the beautiful detail on the snail! Well done!
I think it's pretty crummy that people have to get compared to morons for not understanding this week's comic. Making comments like that makes you an elitist creep (Sampson I'm looking at you).
This works well without all symbolic mumbo jumbo. A snail who for the moment is happier than ever will gets his ass, if a snail has one, whooped! The goat licking his mouth is priceless xD
I didn't get it at first, but then I looked again and the pitchfork jumped out at me. Then all the symbolism of the surroundings clicked into place. Always takes a bit of work getting the most out of a TBK-comic... :]
You're a great artist. Seems like every comic you create requires a lot of thought to understand and appreciate, though... maybe if you went even deeper with these things you could offer a reward to whomever figured out the symbolism the fastest! Haha, just kidding.
I had no idea what was going on until I read the comments. Once the path has been illuminated, it's kinda funny. Although if he referenced the fact that he died in the first panel, it would have been a lot more clear.
i dont get it. Slugs smoke when getting in contact with salt? i thought a slug melts? also whats with the goat? goats dont eat slugs? why is there some halo-ish glow aroud the goats head?
Most of you are getting it, I think. I think I need to update the middle panel a bit to make it more clear that the slug's tail is smoking from being in contact with the salt lick. After posting it I realized it could be mistaken as the slug's trail.
seriously, that goat is the scariest representation I ever saw of satan. I don't know why, but this is the first time I ever got scared of a drawing like this.
No, no, no. The slug died right? Then it looked around it and saw this white area and thought: is this heaven? Then the perspective zooms out and the slug realizes that it is actually in slug hell- on a slab of salt, with a hungry goat about 3 feet away.
what? so how did the slug get on the salt lick? why would he say its heaven, doesnt salt kill slugs? what is that goat doing? is it going to lick the salt or eat the slug? what what what
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