NEW YEAR = NEW VOTING INCENTIVE!!!
It’s a new year to fill us all with dread! In honor of that, you can break out the bubbly and ring 2022 in with Puck, so…
As for this comic…
For those of you keeping track, this is another mandatory Scooby-Doo story beat that needed to happen. Velma needed to lose her glasses. In fact, this story beat actually shaped an earlier point in the narrative, because when I was first planning out this story arc, it was initially Puck who was going to occupy the Velma role. But seeing as Puck doesn’t actually wear glasses, the ‘loss of fake glasses’ thing didn’t make much sense. So I altered the plan accordingly.
As for Phoebe’s need for corrective lenses, people have sometimes wondered whether her penchant for glasses is entirely fashion-related or whether she actually needs them. It’s been a source of much speculation, especially considering the fact that she sometimes doesn’t wear glasses, like during the prom arc. But I think with this comic that we can canonize the fact that yes, Phoebe DOES need her glasses to see, and whenever she’s shown not wearing her glasses, she’s actually wearing contacts. (This explanation makes perfect sense to me, but I’m also married to a woman who definitely needs her glasses to see but also sometimes opts for contacts instead. So art imitates life.)
Is this how Miranda gets reunited with the rest of the group? Phoebe mistakes The Doughie for Daphne?
Well, she has to mistakenly misidentify something in this process. That’s a requirement.
The alt text makes me wonder if…….
If?
If irony is the part of the comic the readers don’t get?
Possible.
reading the description, I can see this as a tribute to your wife in the vision department.
Well, more a tribute to Velma from Scooby-Doo. But some real life parallels too.
…How the hell did she get separated from the van? Or did Tyler and Daphne run off into the woods and Phoebe try to follow them? (I thought they went in the van…)
I do like the fact that Phoebe wears glasses. IMO glasses nearly always makes girls look sexier.
She’s fairly close to the van here. An observant person would assume they went in the van, but I’m not sure Phoebe qualifies as that.
She has never once in the course of the comic even looked through her glasses, which are always perched on the tip of her nose, like readers.
So, maybe, just maybe, this may be psychosomatic.
Either that, or the macular degeneration from her undiagnosed and untreated diabetes has finally caught up with her.
Well yes, this IS a bit of a problem. But honestly, this has more to do with the fact that drawing glasses OVER a person’s eyes (you know, like how glasses normally function) is really hard and obscures the eyes.
And sorry about the comments getting flagged as spam. Not sure why. But I caught em.
The diabetes thing would certainly explain how she gets drunk on sugar…
I think that would more likely be “dead on sugar” in that case. But the theory is rather interesting.
Yeah, but it doesn’t make sense why she wouldn’t just carry them to begin with. Like this very specific situation where having contacts would’ve been useful unless you’re trying to tell me she was actually trying to play the role of Velma Dinkley and didn’t think contacts fit the character.
Most people don’t carry around contacts. They need to be stored in liquid once used, and while you can get little carrying cases, putting them in and taking them out is something most people want to do in their own homes. A smarter move is to bring a second pair of glasses. But most glasses wearers I know do not bring a backup pair on them. (Glasses are expensive, of course.) Phoebe seems to have endless glasses, though, so that’s not an excuse for her. But being a bit of a dingbat IS and excuse for her.
The obvious solution would be a chain/strap/string around her neck.
As a Canadian, it’s nothing different than mitten-strings, and -might- be in character for Velma to use one.
Very Velma. Not very Phoebe, though.
At this point you could’ve just gotten her to say Velma’s famous line: “Help me! I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!”
I think you’re thinking of that old lady from the Medicalert ad.
You’re absolutely correct on that one, but she actually said that exact same line in that 1999 straight-to-dvd movie, Scooby-Doo and the Witch’s Ghost.
https://youtu.be/okxBBBYWYAo?t=72
Honestly I find it a weirdly out of place line for Velma to even say that in the movie, but hilarious to hear it any way.
That’s wrong. That stupid joke should have died far earlier than it did.
Well, in that case, it was a ruse to get the flying goolie into position to be hit by a tree into a thing for capture.
Yeah. I think we’ve already reached a classic Velma trope with, “Oh darn, I dropped my glasses.” Followed by a humorous interaction with the confused monster.
https://archive.org/details/scoobydooandpenelopepitstop/02+Theme+2%2C+Take+8.mp3
Too bad you can’t include the appropriate background music.
That’s some good classic 60’s cartoon music. Makes me nostalgic for an era I never lived through.
To quote from one of my favorite movies.
“I can see fine, glasses allow me to see more.”
Chun, Remo Williams the adventure begins.
That’s one way to frame it.
And that WAS a glasses pun.
Meh.
Fair enough.
I once played a character in a role-playing game that had that as a physical disadvantage, and was slightly disappointed that the Game Master never made use of it.
A lost opportunity, certainly. But as an old school DM, I can say that it’s easy to forget about that stuff.
Feel around on the ground…when you feel and hear something go “CRUNCH!” you’ve found your glasses.
An inevitable outcome, surely.
Daphne is awfully close to the road. Thank goodness this isn’t THAT KIND of comic. Her glasses, however, are doomed.
Well, no one has driven by in hours, right? The glasses are probably fine. Unless she steps on them.
Well, no one has driven by in hours, right?
The pessimist in me feels that you’ve proven my point. Especially since noone is in a position to flag a car down.
Velma never broke her glasses, did she? Why should Phoebe?
I was going to commiserate with the poor girl, as almost all of us who wear glasses have lost them at some point – although less often by the side of the road in the dark and alone – but I could not help noticing Panel 3’s interesting visual explanation of Phoebe’s tail structure combining the typical extension of the spine layout with the enlargened glutes typical of humanoids, necessitating some special work with the skirt – solving engineering problems for female costumes is a theme of this comic – and a Phoeve having an ingrained habit of aiming the first part of the tail downward for modesty except when startled or in distress.
I also like the way Panel 2 shows the tail in a loop, indicating she is momentarily discombobulated. In contrast, the tail in Panels 1+4 shows her more in control, although unhappy.
Or maybe it’s all just the artist trying to fit things into the panels. Who can say?
Yeah, Phoebe’s tail poses unique fashion challenges. And that’s why she generally doesn’t wear short skirts. Her standard outfit is pants or sometimes a longer gown because with those clothing items, she can just cut a hole fo4 the tail and the garment lies flat. Short skirts are more a problem. With this one, she’s opted to just go with an unmodified skirt and let the tail come out the bottom. That is a little perilous, though, as panel three shows.
And I do try to consciously imbue some expression into the tail, while also fitting it into the panel. Nice to see eagle-eyed people notice it.
Thank you for attention to detail.
Brings to mind Johnny Bravo: “My glasses, my glasses! I can’t be SEEN without my glasses!”
Also, the post-apocalypse is gonna be rough.
Considering they’re going to a convention, perhaps next strip will have a Johnny Bravo also headed that way?
(I fully expect that a Scooby convention would have both Johnny Bravo and Winchester brothers cosplayers.)
They WERE going to a convention. But I don’t think that’s ever going to happen now. But let’s assume that convention had Johnny Bravo cosplayers for the fun of it.
I am of the opinion that most of us won’t survive a good week in the apocalypse. Though Puck and Daphne might have a hope, I guess.
I’m a little more optimistic. It takes about 10 days to die of thirst. Unless the apocalypse is the actively hazardous kind and/or the survivor is spectacularly lacking in survival instincts. Lack of shelter could speed things up through exposure.
If water can be found.. about a month before dying from starvation.
I think the estimate given was that if, say, Russia detonated a continental EMP over North America (which is a real thing – you just detonate a nuke in space and the result EM pulse will knock out a continent’s worth of electronics below it) half the population would be dead within six months. And that seems like a generous estimate to me.
Well, a classic Velma movement.
What about the Number Two?
KIDS!
Well, at least Denmark didn’t take them.
I am confused.
Velma frequently looses her glasses.
“Two can be as bad as one
“It’s the loneliest number since the number one”
Thee kids wonderd off for canoodling (presumably) and left poor Phoebe on her own.
This: https://satwcomic.com/the-wonder-of-glasses
Oh, and by the way. Phoebe may be badly farsighted and the dark is making her anxious and her sight worse. Also: Plot and Dressed as Velma.
I feel her pain without my glasses I can be considered legally blind.
My glasses are very low prescription. But my wife and my kids are pretty dang blind without them. So I know this subject well.
I’d like to get lost in the dark with Phoebe.
You’re thinking it’s likely more fun than it actually would be. There would just be a lot of her freaking out and screaming, I’d guess.
A damsel in distress.
A demonic damsel in distress, no less!
So, Colin and Daphne are off somewhere, Phoebe’s confused, Colin and Puck are panicking, Miranda is calm . . . everything’s normal.
Totally normal.
Also…if she’s dressed like that, maybe she should call for Fred and Shaggy and Scooby…
She could. Not sure they’d respond.
well let’s see what Scooby Do tropes we haven’t covered yet..
Scooby hasn’t stolen shaggy’s sandwich yet, (maybe too late for that one), the gang keeps running into each other while trying to run away from the monster (coming soon to a theatre near us, I’m pretty sure!) and mask still needs to be ripped off the villain to reveal old man Corruthers…
looks like you’ve covered everything else!
Daphne needs to get kidnapped too. Not sure that’ll happen.
And Scooby might be stealing Shaggy’s sandwich, depending on what ‘sandwich’ means.
What about doing something stupid for Scoobie Snax?
Is there a voting incentive archive? Because that would be an awesome gallery. 🙂
There is, but it’s on Patreon. There’s a lot of them.
Speaking of incentives. 🙂
Hey man. I got limited leverage so I gotta lean on whatever axle can operate on the fulcrum.
Looks like my previous speculation about Phoebe’s glasses being decorative was proven false. Glad to see that she’s not that vain.
It was a good theory, though. It explained why she didn’t actually look through her glasses.
The dark is not doubt also freaking her out. She may have a minor correction need that becomes a major need in the dark and panic.
It occurs to me that she is trumpetting her helplessness to any predators within range.
Poor Phoebe! She’ll way too high maintenance for this outing.
If I lose my glasses I’m like a Velma about the place :/ My mam has glasses too but her eyes aren’t as bad. She just calls it “Seeing in HD” 😀
I’ve had that experience. You put on your glasses and suddenly you can actually see individual leaves on the tree! HD indeed.