Moby Dill

[Nick Lerman]

Moby Dill

Thar she blows!

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[Thaluikhain]

Oh dear.

On a related note, been going through old Dilbert comics and just came across this:

Spoiler

 

[nuba km]

I do have to say once a pickle goes white you should probably not eat it, hunt it for sure, but don't eat it.

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

Oh dear.

On a related note, been going through old Dilbert comics and just came across this:

Spoiler

'Dil'bert... 'Dil'l pickle? Giant cucumbers? Things are strangely linked...

OT: I liked this one! The context in the caption below made me chuckle!

 

[ZZoMBiE13]

Herman Melville would be so proud.

 

[Nick Lerman]

I felt close to him whilst making this one.
Moby Dick is a dense read but filled with so much amazingness!

I wonder how he felt about pickles.

?I know not all that may be coming, but be it what it will, I'll go to it laughing.?
-H.M., Moby Dick

 

[Clovus]

Liked the needle and thread ...

 

[lacktheknack]

Somewhere, in a parallel universe, this is actually happening right now.

 

[Tireseas_v1legacy]

I suddenly have images of the ships from Dishonored hauling massive pickles into port.

 

[crimsonshrouds]

I... don't get it. Then again i don't think I've gotten any of these... so yeah.

 

[Nick Lerman]

That pickle is larger than usual and therefore more dangerous.
There are some things you can't understand unless you are married to the sea.
Don't give up on me Shrouds, I am certain we can find some way to get through to each other,
in this life or another.

?Our souls are like those orphans whose unwedded mothers die in bearing them:
the secret of our paternity lies in their grave,
and we must there to learn it.?
-H.M., Moby Dick

 

[Olas]

Is there a joke here that I'm missing? I've never read Moby Dick (though I know the basic story) so it's possible I just don't get the reference.

 

[Dr.Susse]

I'm beginning to think that all colour pencil shavings that are a part of this comic are becoming haunted and possessing Nick's dust bin.

That or I'm really enjoying these.

 

[MrFinnishDude]

Hardest part of 19th century pickling was getting the jar open.

 

[Nick Lerman]

"Abstract" is the new "funny" guys. Don't you get it?
It's a good thing sarcastic condescension will never go out of style, eh?

Sarcastic condescension is one of the most stylish of internet lubricants.

Humor is fickle experience. When it fails it can illicit the opposite of its intended effect.
Clearly, my pickle has beached itself on your desolate shores.
Perhaps we will find amusement in our heroic future.

?A noble craft, but somehow a most melancholy! All noble things are touched with that.?
-H.M.,Moby Dick

 

[Clankenbeard]

I like dill pickles. And I like Herman Melville. (Anybody who can publish a book 33 years after he dies is okay by me.) It makes sense that I like this.

So, Nick. Have you donned the mantle of the scientific Frederick Cuvier for this cartoon?
Moby Dick, Chapter 55 (Of the Monstrous Pictures of Whales): But the placing of the cap-sheaf to all this blundering business was reserved for the scientific Frederick Cuvier, brother to the famous Baron. In 1836, he published a Natural History of Whales, in which he gives what he calls a picture of the Sperm Whale. Before showing that picture to any Nantucketer, you had best provide for your summary retreat from Nantucket. In a word, Frederick Cuvier's Sperm Whale is not a Sperm Whale, but a squash.

 

[Nick Lerman]

I like dill pickles. And I like Herman Melville. (Anybody who can publish a book 33 years after he dies is okay by me.) It makes sense that I like this.

So, Nick. Have you donned the mantle of the scientific Frederick Cuvier for this cartoon?
Moby Dick, Chapter 55 (Of the Monstrous Pictures of Whales): But the placing of the cap-sheaf to all this blundering business was reserved for the scientific Frederick Cuvier, brother to the famous Baron. In 1836, he published a Natural History of Whales, in which he gives what he calls a picture of the Sperm Whale. Before showing that picture to any Nantucketer, you had best provide for your summary retreat from Nantucket. In a word, Frederick Cuvier's Sperm Whale is not a Sperm Whale, but a squash.

What ho Clankenbeard! I worried you would not visit.

Your Melvillian kung fu is strong.
Here is the Cuvier image Ishmael was making fun of...

Perhaps squash was a bit hyperbolic.

If he saw my cartoon he would almost certainly knock my hat off and head back to sea.

 

[Clankenbeard]

What ho Clankenbeard! I worried you would not visit.

My vocation has placed heavy demands on my leisure of late. But I wouldn't miss your weekly scribblings for the world. This week's installment had me smiling to my back teeth.

SNIP

Your Melvillian kung fu is strong.
Here is the Cuvier image Ishmael was making fun of...
Perhaps squash was a bit hyperbolic.

I would say squash is asymptotic in my case. I approached the joke, but I didn't actually reach it.

You see, I thought the Cuvier squash reference might have been the hidden high-brow joke this week. My belief was that his squash-shaped whale illustration tied back to the pickle in your comic. The obvious joke is "Dick vs. Dill". But somehow I envisioned you reading through this passage of Melville and thinking, "A whale that appears as a squash?!?? Ludicrous! What name would such a beast have?" And a comic was born. However, a little after-research reveals cucumbers are not squash as I thought. So, you can't make a proper pickle from a squash. You can only make pickled squash. Which approaches a pickle but does not actually reach it. Asymptotic.

Off Topic: Your first two comics have the "PREVIOUS, NEXT, LAST, RANDOM" banners on them. But the three most recent do not. I don't know if you or The Escapist places this banner, but these comics all need them. I wish to flip through them repeatedly.