Puck 435

Chapter: One of the Boys EpilogueCharacters: Colin Cy DaphneTags: bionic leg prosthesis terry fox
NEW VOTING INCENTIVE! MOVIE POSTER!?! Something new is up on TWC! It's bound to be stupid, so... VOTE FOR PUCK AND KEEP THE STUPIDITY ROLLING!!! ALSO... I recently put a bunch of work into updating the PDF collection of voting incentive images, and the results are finally assembled! This new PDF volume contains all the voting incentives from 2011 all the way to 2017 (including some that never even ran) in a print-ready high resolution! That's almost 200 pages of stuff! So if you'd like to buy a copy, please do! As for this comic… That's one of the things I love about comic books and comic movies: how loss of limb doesn't lead to a fundamental change in lifestyle and years of difficult adaptation. Rather, loss of limb invariably leads to SUPER POWERS. That said, it seems like everything leads to super powers in comic books and comic movies.

121 Comments

  • Nerd bros AND Cancer bros.

    Colin really owes Daphne for this!

  • I think Cy got Colin’s hopes up for a stronger bionic body part.

  • pat

    If anything, we know where others can get shirts like the ones that Daphne wears.

    • ElectricGecko

      If only the store existed.

      That said, there IS an online store that sells some of the shirts she wears! It’s MY store! SHAMELESS PLUG!

  • Now Colin needs to talk about his bionic ball that is 100 times stronger.

  • Susan Schroeder

    If I knew of a man with a testis 100x more productive than a 21 year old, he wouldn’t get a call back, nun-uh. All us gals would be avoiding him like the plague., not if he sent roses or orchids.

    But Nerd Guy (forgot his name) is right. If you get them to stand as strongly as they can, you can still tump them over with a pinky. Poor things

    • ElectricGecko

      The big catch seems to be whether the person has lost their knee or not. Below the knee, loss of mobility with a prosthesis is negligible. Above the knee, though, it’s a whole different story. Getting around suddenly becomes a lot of work.

      And yeah, 100 times the fertility is NOT needed. Not a selling point.

      • I walk with little difficulty on a robot leg. However, as you correctly observed, it makes all the difference in the world whether the amputation is below, at, or above the knee. Mine was below, which is the best. The prostheses for amputations at the knee are getting much better, but above the knee is still really bad. I see people with above knee amputations when I go in for Service on my prosthesis. They are often in wheelchairs, very overweight, and quite obviously getting little to no exercise. The prognosis for people like that is grim.

        • ElectricGecko

          Yeah. Really puts into perspective how crazy it was with Terry Fox doing the equivalent of two marathons every single day. Dude was DRIVEN.

        • Wyvern

          My uncle lost a leg above the knee years ago. He used to have a prosthetic that he used occasionally, but he didn’t much care for it; nowadays he gets around almost exclusively on crutches. (He has a wheelchair but he mostly only uses when he goes out to eat at a buffet, because it allows him to carry a tray of food.) He’s a bit pudgy around the middle, but no more than could be accounted for by middle-aged spread.

          He named the prosthetic Margaret, by the way. Can you guess the reason why?

        • SalemCat

          @Cap’n Ahab

          If you had a Robot Leg, a Whale’s Life would have been saved (meanie).

          BTW, can we choose WHICH ROBOT ?

          I’m going for ROBBY legs.

          Retro and awesome.

      • Susan Schroeder

        Not talking mobility, talking stability. Different things entirely. Yeah, folks with BK prostheses can get around pretty good, hence surgeons’ efforts to save the knee if possible. See all those Special Olympics. Course, with osteogenic sarcoma, it all depends on location

        • ElectricGecko

          I take it the knee is actually the place the tumour starts, so … kinda hard to save it. I’ve heard that they do manage to save the knee sometimes, though. Pretty impressive.

          • Susan Schroeder

            Nope. It often starts in the ends of the bones where new bone tissue forms as a young person grows. Bones in the thigh, upper arm, and shin are the most common sites, but osteogenic sarcoma can occur anywhere in the body. I have seen it in the tibia, the femur, and the humerus.

      • Charcoal

        Maybe it vibrates??

    • SalemCat

      @Susan

      Whatever U said is oddly EROTIC.

      STOP THAT !!

      Children are reading PUCK !

      (or someone in their city is.)

      • Susan Schroeder

        @Salem: I cannot think of a thing less sexy than bone cancer or prostheses. I know some *GUYS* get off on amputations, but, yuck. Of course, many, many guys are yucky. Ask any woman. 😛

        • SalemCat

          @Susan

          I was referring to “If I knew of a man with a testis 100x more productive than a 21 year old, he wouldn’t get a call back, nun-uh. All us gals would be avoiding him like the plague., not if he sent roses or orchids.”

          (um – duh – 😛 )

          • Susan Schroeder

            @Salem: …uhhhh…, okay. So a solid turndown by fifty women in a row is a *turnon* to guys? I’ll never understand men.

            I just asked the bf if being turned down for a date was sexy. He said, no, he basically went and got drunk and never talked to the woman in question again outside of necessity. I guess it’s good I showed up at his apt and asked to spend the night, wasn’t it? 😛

  • Charcoal

    Cancer sucks but can I put it out there that The Fault In Our Stars is a crappy movie? It’s literally the same plot as the Titanic but with cancer.

    • ElectricGecko

      Yes, yes it is. Those ‘sick teenager’ movies are always maudlin, icky, and despite the serious nature of the subject, kind of trite.

      • MSG Bob

        And the format goes all the way back to “Love Story”. By the end of the movie, I was wanting to yell at Ali McGraw, “Just die already!”

        • ElectricGecko

          Yeah. Same here.

          • Charcoal

            People sometimes have horrible tastes in movies.

            Personally for me to like something, it has to either be really good, or so bad it’s good. I’ve started watching the legend of the titanic with my stepsister, and so badly animated it’s hilarious.

          • ElectricGecko

            I’ve seen clips. I don’t think I have the stomach for it.

          • Charcoal

            You don’t have the stomach for the animated titanic with a giant octopus? Trust me it’s hilarious.

  • Kaiser

    I had to look up “Osteosarcoma” as I had never heard of it.
    Until I looked it up and realized I had heard it but only in it’s non-medical name.
    My instant reaction: the PAIN.
    I do know a person that lost his left arm to that crap and got a robotic replacement recently. When I asked him if it was hard to adapt to his new arm, he just flipped me off.
    So I’ll take it as a no.

    • Jesse

      Eh, probably more of “Of course, and I’m, understandably, angry about it, and will now tell you that in as aggressive of a way as I can without going to jail.” D!(k move on his part, but somewhat understandable.

      • Kaiser

        Eh, he commonly fipped people off even before losing the arm (note: I asked him some four or five months after he had gotten it, so it wasn’t very recent).
        I wasn’t bothered by it; I just shrugged and assumed that he had no issue adapting to it.

    • ElectricGecko

      Robotic replacements ARE improving, I take it. I have yet to see a motorized one in real life.

  • SalemCat

    It’s Spring, and BROMANCE is in the air !

  • SalemCat

    What’s Colin buying with Robin’s CREDIT CARD ?

  • SalemCat

    In the fourth panel, CY should be doing the VULCAN SALUTE.

    Those things are hard to do !

    My Human Pet, “Baldie”, can make a mean salute – with the aid of SUPER GLUE.

    • ElectricGecko

      I have no problem doing the Vulcan hand thing. Just need to learn how to do the neck pinch.

      • Susan Schroeder

        Ooh, I would love to know how to do the Vulcan nerve pinch. I have a list of people who need on badly

      • Jesse

        Subclavian nerve. Find it and squeeze mercilessly. The pain will, if your grip is strong enough, cause them to pass out, maybe even causing that nerve cluster to burst.

        • ElectricGecko

          Uh huh. Something tells me finding that nerve is rather hard.

        • Susan Schroeder

          The subclavian nerve, according to my Boss’ “Gray’s Anatomy,” is purely a motor nerve to the subclavius muscle and contains on pain fibers. It does send a few fibers to the phrenic nerve, which is one of those “gets you where you live” nerves.

          • Jesse

            Maybe it’s the phrenic nerve, then. Close to each other, I take it?

          • Susan Schroeder

            Everything in the shoulder is close to each other. Lung takes up most of the space. The phrenic nerve arises from Cervical Nerve Roots 3, 4, and 5. It controls the diaphragm, which pretty much makes you breathe. Pretty important, that

  • Lucas

    Judging by how cool/better/weaponized robotic arms are in comic books/movies, I feel like people should just be taking a machete to themselves as an excuse (I know that when agent Coulson got one that had n x-ray inside I wondered what the point of organics was.

  • DLKmusic

    Sturdy as a wet biscotti? we’ve come a long way with prosthetics in the past 20 years, they used to be as sturdy as a rope ladder!

  • Dan Caggiano

    I have to ask. Why hasn’t anyone in the strip ever noticed and acknowledged Phoebe’s tail? The law of averages would have seen it stepped on, tripped over, caught in a door, ogled, stroked or pulled by now. I even thought the baby would have grabbed it and even bitten it. I’d also like to see her have a romantic relationship? I’m just putting these ideas out there for consideration. I love the strip.

    • ElectricGecko

      At this point, it’s sort of just a running gag or established convention that no one really comments on or reacts to the strange, otherworldly nature of the three female leads. I’m not sure I have a decent explanation for it, but it’s just a thing I do.

      And romantic relationship for Phoebe? Enh, it may happen. Eventually. May.

      Glad you enjoy the comic!

  • Wenthral

    See if I had a artificial arm or leg I would modify the living shit out of it. Need to charge your phone here plug it into the USB port on my hand I have several batteries.. Led flash light in one of the fingers. paint that sucker to look like Iron mans gauntlet. If the leg that would be a heck of a storage compartment potential. But you would have to deal with pants. Hmm, why isn’t there a market for this sort of thing? If life threw this sort of curve ball at you you’d think someone would want to make them as useful as possible.

    • ElectricGecko

      That would be rad. But also distracting. And attention-getting. And from what I know of people who have a prosthesis, the last thing they want to do is attract attention to their prosthesis. But I also kind of want to see this in action. Maybe at a convention or something.

  • Greg White

    I look forward to every vote comic on Puck.

  • Then there’s Senator Tammy Duckworth … double amputee (shot down over Iraq) … when a critic tried to dis her by saying she “didn’t have a leg to stand on” Duckworth calmly replied that she had two, both titanium.

    (Soon to be the 1st US Senator to give birth while in office. Definitely a ground breaker!)

    • SalemCat

      @rewinn

      “(Soon to be the 1st US Senator to give birth while in office. Definitely a ground breaker!)”

      I suggest she use a Hospital instead !

      😛

    • ElectricGecko

      Bad. Ass.

      • T'Renn

        After Lord Dampnut called members of Congress who didn’t applaud during his State of the Union speech “traitors”, she tweeted:

        We don’t live in a dictatorship or a monarchy. I swore an oath—in the military and in the Senate—to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, not to mindlessly cater to the whims of Cadet Bone Spurs and clap when he demands I clap.

        She’s savage. The best KIND of savage. I’m a bit sorry I don’t live in Illinois and can’t vote for her. But then, Illinois has an actual Nazi running for Congress, so on balance…

  • Susan Schroeder

    Happy Easter, all you Pucksters! Come hear our choir sing the Hallelujah Chorus!

    • SalemCat

      @Susan

      HAPPY EASTER !

      A time to reflect on the Lessons of Jesus (whether you believe in God or not).

      Peace & Justice to All Mankind

  • SalemCat

    We have a beautiful Sunny Sunday Easter here in Salem.

    And a beautiful INCENTIVE as well !

    Purrrrrr…..

    • SalemCat

      @Awesome Cat

      TRACEEE has a LAST NAME now ?

      TOPAZ – how fitting ! She is a GEM.

      When did this happen ?

      (nice pumps, too. I guess you can teach an old cartoonist new trix)

  • Susan Schroeder

    Hey, Heather and Tracee: your goddess Hera is calling. I have suggested a new title for Hera: Queen of the Gods, Wife of Zeus, and Goddess of B****hes. (I’ve been reading about the Twelve Labors of Hercules)

  • A friendship established I hope. But I think Daphne knew this was just what Colin needed.

  • Mermaidan

    Wow! You can keep the current Phoebe Voting Incentive picture up (or another like it) indefinitely!!!

    • ElectricGecko

      Well, I’ll keep it up for another week. Just for you. Or just because I don’t have another one to replace it. Either or.

  • BUT! With the addition of a cane, you can now have the opportunity get a cool cane-sword!
    Zatoichi cosplay whenever you like!

    (Might be worth looking up if those are illegal where you live. Some places classify them as a “Concealed Weapon”.)

    • ElectricGecko

      Probably illegal here. Most things are.

      • Actually they’re apparently legal so long as they are 60cm or longer (sounds weird, but I think that’s to ensure it’s not classified as a concealed knife, like a switchblade, which are illegal) and so long as there’s no mechanism like a spring that shoots the blade out, cane swords are legal in Canada.

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