Trying to Decide

A four-paneler, because penultimate-panel silence is sometimes useful. You'd think, being all infinitely wise and cognizant of the goings-on of the universe, The Buddha would have expected that pun to fail and said something else instead. Then again, The Buddha is also very likely self-aware and enlightened to the fact that he's in a comic strip, largely for the purpose of providing puns, whether they're successful or not. And, having risen above the dualistic perception of puns as either effective or ineffective, he'd be fine making the pun in any case. Way to be The Buddha, The Buddha.

I'm sad that "protracted" has three syllables. If it only had one, the third panel would be much more reminiscent of the "Hero Boy" episode of Freakazoid! Specifically the scene in which Freak asks, "What's writhe mean?" Okay yes I realize no one else made that connection, and probably not many have even made it now, but it's there, and it influenced the comic a wee bit, so I thought it was worth mentioning.

I'm beginning to wonder about voices for the characters. Like, if this was a cartoon show, what would everyone sound like? I'm pretty sure Otto would have to sound like a less ridiculous version of the mages from Warcraft III. That snide, smug accent is just perfect. Brock seems like he'd need something low and breathy, as though speech is just as labored a process as is most of his thinking. Dido feels like a normal voice, but with the cadence and inflections of Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky the Fourth, and Ike...well, I don't know about Ike, really. Oh, The Buddha! Well, The Buddha can sound however The Buddha wants. I won't be picky. Something calm and even, hopefully, but one never can tell.

Anyway. Halloween is coming; are you ready?