NEW VOTING INCENTIVE!!! ANIME-TYPE FUN!!!
Yes, this voting incentive is inspired by Ghost in the Shell! The anime! Or the manga! NOT the Hollywood movie! Because … I haven’t seen that one! And remember, this voting incentive was chosen by special fans who donate $5 or more a month! If you want to join their controlling ranks, HEAD ON OVER TO PATREON and join the select club!
VOTE BECAUSE MASAMUNE SHIROW IS RAD!!!
As for this comic…
This is an accurate representation of the waiting room for my oncologist on any given day. Almost everyone there was very, very old, and very, very feeble, and you knew that they were all dealing with a host of various health concerns, then cancer came along and joined the party. They don’t really show you this much on the charity drives, but cancer is overwhelmingly a disease of the elderly. Sure, there certainly those notable cases where young people get cancer (I was one of them) but the cancer center was always a sea of white hair, day in and day out. I once had my blood taken in the cancer center lab by a woman who looked to be in her late thirties. She glanced at my info and said, “You’re younger than me. That’s not allowed.”
Shame on you Colin !
🙁
Well, he’s not in the best head space right now.
@EG
Yes, although I’m being harsh on Colin right now, his behavior is understandable.
We’ve all said and done things we regret.
At least that guy lived long enough to be old and gray.
@Bunmi
Yeah !
Well, that’s a ‘glass half full’ way of looking at it. But he might also be thirty-seven and things didn’t go so well.
I kinda figured Colin wouldn’t make it as far as “old and gray.” What with Puck and all…
Not to be too serious, but I suppose this is a good as time as any:
One of the saddest things to afflict Modern Civilization is our general lack of respect for the elderly.
Yes, they can be PITA, but for the most part it is their hard work that built our roads, sewed our clothes, advanced our medicine, grew our food, and have made our relatively cushy lifestyle possible.
Our lack of respect, gratitude, and compassion is disgraceful.
(well, I said my piece. sorry to be a downer)
Well, true. It’s the most broken part of modern western society, really: that cornerstone respect of the elderly that exists in most world cultures got totally chucked out the window when the worship of the new and shiny came into vogue at the start of the 20th century.
I agree with you. We should always respect our elders. I find it sad that a lot of us don’t seem to care even a little bit about them.
The hover over text, it read exactly what I said out loud as I finished the main comic.
Well, great minds think alike.
I like the vote incentive “Phoebe as Major Motoko Kusanagi from Ghost in the Shell”. Quite a few mangas have some interesting and unconventional clothing designs, although I think that particular outfit came from the TV anime, without pants (the pants look really good though). Y’know, I used to think Masamune Shirow was the best manga artist in Japan. Now, not so much. He’s still pretty good though, compared to most. What does everybody else think?
I’m not going to weigh in, mostly because Masamune Shirow could draw circles around me, and I wish I had an ounce of his incredible talent. Many manga artists are just insanely talented, and ridiculously productive, putting people like me to shame.
Does that mean I should look at a manga? Naw!!!!
Actually, the clothing in the comics is actually relatively realistic. Both in the original Ghost in the Shell, and the sequel series, Man Machine Interface. It was the anime that got some of the more…odd clothing like this.
*thought she heard a reply, but it seems it was just the wind*
I’d probably make the same request.
There’s a Superman comic I remember reading a while ago about suicide. He talked about how a friend of his committed suicide when she determined that she wouldn’t have any more good days, that her illness had gotten to the point where there was only suffering and that death was preferable at that point. He didn’t like it, but he didn’t stop her either. I think that if I got to the point where recovery was extremely unlikely and any treatment would just be an extremely painful prolonging, I’d definitely be leaning towards euthanasia.
Yeah, I can’t speak for the people in these waiting rooms, but what I saw was an awful lot of suffering, with not much hope of less suffering in the future. My opinions on that topic are greatly shaped by the fact that I watched two of my grandparents have very long, very awful declines – one physical and the other mental – and it gave me a rather grim view of old age. My wife, meanwhile, comes from a line of long-lived people who generally live to 100 or more and never have any major health problems. So her view is different.
How does she consider that “dark humor”? He’s being quite honest about wanting not to deal with that stuff if it takes a toll on his body.
I had a friend tell me to do the same thing when he was diagnosed with colon cancer a few years back. He made a full recovery, but he still requests me to do it in case he ends up (in his own words) “a cancer filled cripple that can’t do anything”.
Well, the one thing we can say is that with most cancers, the ‘cripple that can’t do anything’ phase is relatively short.
HAPPY COMMENTS! HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAPPY!
i could say something decidedly NOT happy to this topic, given that both my parents had cancer, but to summ it up more neutral:
1. the treatment sucks and may make you very well wish for everything to end before it (hopefully) starts working.
2. sometimes, the involved surgeries leave you crippled+in pain even after the cancer is gone, making ‘full recovery’ a bitter joke
3. nothing is worse then the slow but unstoppable decline of physical and mental health….took my mom *years* until she couldn´t delude herself anymore about ‘getting better again someday’. after that point, ‘depression’ becomes simply seeing things realistic…and your humor turns so dark it scares most people 😉
Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.
Well, I do agree with you. Though when the problem is permanent, and will steadily worsen with time, then my feelings are different.
Despair is a temporary problem
If you handle it the right way.
EG, normally I’d vote for the day I read. However due to timing issues and such in relation to the dark humor, I’m going to refrain from voting a few days. I watched as an acquaintance succumb to his cancer. He seemed to have been spry for a near septagenarian up to this past year. Then he started going downhill fast. Personally, I didn’t think of much at first except that he got hit by old age rather hard.
It wasn’t until attending his funeral this past weekend that I realized how much I didn’t know about this guy. But I still think it may have been a bit foul of my wondering when the curve would be approaching infinity for him. So, out of respect for him and punishment for me, I shan’t be voting for a few days.
Good comic, btw.
Well, I’m sorry the comic’s content had bad timing. I should feel terrible too.
No, even the jester is correct when he’s not wrong. But like I said, maybe I shouldn’t have been wondering when he wouldn’t be around. But I have another problem. Not being able to come up with retorts because I’m trying to take in everything that’s going on.
Sorry, Colin. Dark humour came with you from home. You carpooled….
Very true. It’s hard to escape it there.
I like the comic, and I’m real glad EG is okay.
There’s a whole lot of rant I could supply on this subject. But I’ll just say I’ve seen that movie way too many times, and leave it at that.
There are times when morphine is our friend.
I could rant too. Instead, I’m just dropping some wry pseudo-humor on the topic by way of a comic. But we’re probably on the same page here.
Is this where the Death Panels have to make their decision?
You Americans and your fictional death panels! You don’t know AT ALL about Canadian health care. We hold our communist death panels in Tim Hortons and all vote using our cell phones. It’s an efficient system.
Do the Death Panels get a discount on the donuts?
Only when they buy in bulk.
The Death Panel gets to eat the Doughnutz of the people they execute.
awhile back my dad was diagnosed with cancer, three types. Lymphoma, leukemia and bone. all three were not good news but for one factor. As much as they were hurting my dad, they were also impeding each other. Which also made it difficult for them to treat. take one away the other two would go nuts. They waited until the couldn’t any longer to start chemo and said it would only prolong the inevitable by a few months.
then the screw up…
miscommunication between pharmacists resulted in the wrong dose given. this was caught after about week and a half later when his short term memory went out the window.
What the Dr. found at the time very nearly gave the doc a heart attack.
he was supposed to take a certain dose twice a day for two weeks, it turned out he was actually taking a weeks dose twice a day. all white blood cells were gone and the chemo was attacking red blood cells, the reason for the memory issues.
But.
it had a very delightful side effect. 20 some years later after his 3month prognosis he is still with us.
Miracles do happen, sometimes from the weirdest places. A bit of hope to all those affected by the terrible C.
Yes, there are some happy miracle cases. They need to be shared. Often. Thanks for sharing yours.
Cancer hits the very young as well. Leukemia is a cancer of the blood caused by problems with bone marrow, and that happens more frequently than we like to admit in young children.
That said, leukemia is very survivable, since people tend to take their young kids to the doctor with a certain frequency, because kids are more likely to complain about pain than adults are.
Snesticular cancer is another one of those young people cancers. Also, I’m sorry about your run in with cancer.
My mom’s stomach cancer, you mean? Yeah, coping with it is never easy, and there’s no right way to do it.
i dont blaim colin for saying that but man that was kinda fricking brutal to say it where that guy could hear
Heh. Yeah. Though I’m not sure he’s entirely aware of his surroundings.
He might wish he’d thought of it first, though…
have to disagree with you there.
When my Mother went in for chemo she would tell me that dark humor was everywhere.
It is a valid coping mechanism, I’ll say that.
You guys should sit at the doc tor’s table for lunch, as I do (occasionally with my boss’s invitation). You’d hear dark humor, all right. The other healthcare providers are not quite so bad. They usually just gossip
Humor has a dark side and a light side, and it holds us all together
I bet the old man has really bad lung cancer from being a heavy smoker.
“The race isn’t always to the swift, but that’s the way to bet.” -Damon Runyon
I wonder if
Miranda will ever find out
about the time in college
when her parents and Phoebe got naked.
how about no
@Buggle
Oh, I’m pretty sure when the time comes she’ll just cruise the Archive and be HORRIFIED.
One Word: PEANUT BUTTER.
(ok, two words)
Colin appears to be alive. Therefore it is not possible that he ever got naked with Phoebe and Puck, either drunk or sober.
For if it were while they were all drunk, Puck would have killed him after they all sobered up, and if it were while he was not fortified by hard alcohol, the combination of the two would have killed him with exhaustion. He’s only human.
Q.E.D.
@rewinn
Phoebe gets naked every day.
She does shower !
(and so does TRACEEE – purrrrrrr)
What’s the big deal about the being naked? It’s what you do after you get naked that causes trouble.
Hear hear!
@EG
Watch Watch !
@EG
Touch Touch !
Wade a minute – Touch No Evil was not something the THREE WISE MONKEES were concerned about.
So what Satan does with TRACEEE is perfectly OK !!
Purrrrrrrr………….
LOL I don’t think that Colin was going for humor there. I’d be shook sitting next to my probable outlook as well.
It’s really depressing. I mean, even if it’s not your outcome, it’s still really depressing.
That guy is probably 40+ years older than you Colin.
If living that long is a concern for you, as it happens, yes you CAN prevent that with a bullet.
Still scary.