We can blame faithful reader Chris B. for this one, I think. The idea spawned out of a previous comment thread, and I figured it’d be fun.

Also, it gives me a chance to try out some more of the caricature style. This isn’t a full-fledged example, but caricatures are something I’ve just started dabbling with, you can see a lot of examples on my Deviant Art page. It’s something I want to develop, but it’s rare that it’ll show up in the comic, because the styles are so different. They are a lot of fun, though. I bet I’m the only person I know who will go to theme parks, and just watch the caricature artists work, rather than going on the roller coasters, which I’m sure annoys all my friends. Such is the price of being my friend, I guess. (insert wicked evil laughter and flashing lightning).

EDIT: So, I should have said this before, but this joke originated when I drove past a place that actually had this sign — there was a real building that just said, “Alternative Veterinary.” And I racked my brain trying to figure out what in the world that could possibly mean… I thought this was a funny interpretation for what it could be. So yeah, this is real. But the real one is probably something more like the holistic healing thing. I certainly wasn’t brave enough to walk in there and find out. –End Edit

I’ve gotta admit, my first instinct for today’s joke was to make Chuck’s comment be about cats. But actually, I kind of like cats. I like that they’re independent, and don’t feel like they need you. A dog is like a mindless slave robot that loves you no matter what, but a cat is like, “meh… I could take it or leave it.” When a cat does show affection, it means a lot.

But none of that was part of my thought process. I went straight from, “no, cats are kinda cool,” to “man I’m not a dog fan. Whats the worst kind of dog? A tiny yipping dog that never shuts up — it’s so tempting to kick it hard, ’cause it’s small, and would travel so far, but I can’t kick it, ’cause thats like, inhumane or something…”

By the way, no animals were harmed in the making of this comic strip.

A big and hefty thanks to all the readers who commented and/or emailed me right away, letting me know that the term for a lack of smelling is “asnomia.” I had no idea there was such a thing! And apparently, neither does spellcheck, which is telling me it’s not a word (ironically, “spellcheck” is also getting red-lined, even though I think it should be a real word by now).

So, can you say that if you can’t smell, you’re “asnomic”? Luckily, I think the strip still holds up, because, while the punchline is another chance for Bob to take a jab at society, this was more a joke about our boy’s ignorance than anything else. Which in a way is also my own…. oh well, I stand by it!

But seriously, I love that I have awesome readers that will write in and tell me stuff like this, awesome job guys!

Everyone, be sure to come back on Monday for the start of something interesting, we’ll be kicking off a new storyline that will probably be pretty long, I might actually break it into chapters or something, but it’s something I’ve been wanting to do for a while, and I’m pretty excited about it. I hope you’ll enjoy it — till then, have a great weekend everybody!