Comic 565: Insecurities

Ha ha, the security question was really from the police, who are trying to find dead bodies! Ha ha. It's funny because the man killed people but almost gave away how! Luckily, the police will prove nothing, as the man is too clever for them. Komedy Gold!

Why would anyone think that was, for a second, anything other than a trick? "oh hey, a security question that only applies to murderers, accomplices, and gravediggers! That's most people!" This whole comic's paranoia tone seems a bit too much like comic 525, right down to the reaction shot of the startled spies, wearing headphones, and looking at oddly shining displays.

This is one of those comic whose idea is ok, but it could have been done better. We know nothing about the characters or the situation, which I think makes it worse. We're just sort of thrust into this scene and get a little comedy out of it, but not much. Hint randall: this is a situation where a recurring character could be nice!

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Guys remember when someone got access to Sarah Palin's e-mail by just figuring out the answers to her security questions? Good times...

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Now something interesting happened with strip, from an art point of view. Take a look at it again. Maybe you noticed it already; I didn't the first few times. See it yet? Look at the chair. No, it's not the trademark hovering! Yes, the man's head is hovering over his body, which in turn is hovering over the chair. Look at it closely. Look at how the whole fucking back of the chair disappears for a panel.

Come on, Randy! You are, at this point, essentially a professional artist. You make a very short comic, and only 3 times a week. Can you at least take a little time and make sure things don't disappear randomly? That's like, a basic trait of the physical world. You might want to portray it in your comics.

Anyway, he did go back and correct it, as you can see on the site now. If you look real close you can see also added a little more detail to the chair in panel one to make it match - that little knob that attached the back to the chair wasn't there originally (come to think of it, maybe that's why the back fell off?). Anyway, with xkcd's usual not-my-fault-ism, there is no mention of the mistake. Randy never admits a mistake.

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(Fun story: so I linked to the xkcdsucks post about comic 525 above, and I was rereading it, and got to the part that says "I also push in all of the drink bubbles on fast food cups, but that's as a secret message to my family in case the place where I eat is ever gunned down to let them know I thought about being gunned down before it happened." And I thought, 'Wait a second, I don't do that. What the hell was I thinking?' And then I saw that it was Thomas's post, not mine. You'd think I would have noticed earlier.)

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Commentor Napoleon in Rags, below, links us to this oddly familiar comic from Nedroid.