Seriously, those things are the best
August 8, 2011
12:00 am
Spent all weekend traveling so it’s another quick one this week.
Manly Guys Doing Manly Things
Updated Mondays or whenever I feel like it
Spent all weekend traveling so it’s another quick one this week.
I keep wondering how he stays with the agency. :p
I am also amazed that I’m first, for once.
Mr.Fish must be even more useful than we think.
You’re failing to see the important point in here. he had bought em fer his KIDS… and he happens to have bought some for Jared too, HE HAS ADDOPTED JARED “DI FACTO”!!!
that’s why he’s still staying there, hes kinda the Boss’s (figured) son!!!
It DOES kinda seem like Jared has become some kind of weird adpotive son of Commander.
No, no, I’m wondering how *Jared* stays with the agency.
because he’s kinda the Boss’s (figured) son!!!
Comander has forged an emotional bound with him. he can’t kick Jared off and, lest face it, it’s not like Jared could find another job (exeption made for a place in The Escapist’s staff).
What about team rocket?
nah, team rocket want to capture rare pokemon and control the world.
jared`s got no interest except for gaming and MR. fish would eat all the rare pokemons anyway :p
earlier he called him his son, he said sarrogut(probly i spelled it wrong) but it is basically means adopted son
Maybe Jared reminds them how it would be if they weren’t manly men.
Or maybe it’s pity with a hope that some day – some day – Jared will truly grow up and become a real man.
Or maybe it’s the humor factor.
I’m going with C.
Or perhaps because Mr. Fish will play “roll over” on everybody
Or maybe it’s just because Commander doesn’t want to pull the rug out from under a kid who’s kinda starved for something like parental attention/guidance.
The Commander strikes me as that kind of guy. That he’s holding up hope that his Jared will one day grow up and make him truly proud.
I kind of get the impression that most manly men are actually just like Jared on the inside. This ‘growing up’ everyone speaks of is just learning to disguise it and dress it up as maturity. ;)
People do mature. But maturity doesn’t mean hating things you loved as a kid. It just means being more responsible with – and accepting of – them while taking care of yourself. I can see Jared getting there, and then ending up as awesome as the Commander.
Until then, it’s the waiting game. And as cool as the Commander is, he could wait indefinitely, I think.
Given that he can time travel, he probably already knows the exact moment it happens too.
OR…the real story of the Commander’s history is…
He IS Jared, finally turned badass.
(…It could happen.)
OH GOD!
MY BRAIN
I was waiting for someone to say that, haha.
But where’s Mr. Fish?! D:
Maybe it was when Mr. Fish died that Jared decided to become a true manly man.
Mr. Fish is in the future, fighting an endless horde of soil-made soldiers with his lasers to prevent them from reaching one of the last functioning time machines in the future to prevent them from going back in time and capturing commander/Jared.
I will now be pointing you all to C.S. Lewis.
“When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.”
…I thought Jared got plenty of parental attention/guidance; he just never paid any attention to it. Or do you mean the total and unavoidable lack of it since Jared’s parents kicked him out of the house in hopes that would finally teach him to be self-sufficient Pokemon training member of society?
His parents have more or less disowned him since he was 10 and didn’t drop out of school to become a wandering pokemon hobo.
Wait, but Jared already is a manly man!
Since 5 comics ago.
But did he really grow up?
I think, and this is just my theory, that Jared is the Commander. Get’s along with his kids, check, Mr Fish likes him, check. The Commander is rather geeky at heart, check. That’s my fan theory at least. The Commander can’t get rid of him, because he can’t get rid of himself. As for the interview? The Commander can’t just reveal everything to Jared, or his head would explode. Hair can be dyed.
Commander in any form doesn’t seem like the guy to dye his hair. At all. Ever. For any reason. Hell, I’m surprised he shaved off his sideburns all those comics ago.
The Commander will do WHATEVER is necessary at the time.
Haha, I think this comic makes it sort of obvious that the commander’s basically adopted him as a 3rd kid. Which is sort of cute.
Have you seen the other guys Commander has to deal with? Jared’s comparatively easy.
He stays with the agency for the same reason that this lil squib of a surbanite punk wannabe named Derek was able to stay around the club district of Buffalo. A few of us bouncers basically adopted him and tried to knock some sense into him. Sadly, we failed,
Jared has more potential than Derek.
Because Mr.Fish is with him, and Mr.Fish is massively manly. Thus Jared stays by virtue of Mr.Fish being his owner.
It’s only Logical.
Mr. Fish more than makes up for Jareds lack of a “Macho gland”. That is why he is still with the agency. The only other thing that Keeps Jared at the agency is his ablility to control Mr. Fish… at least one would think that deserved some semblence of manlyness…
Commander keeps Jared around because he’s basically adopted him as a third kid.
Mr. Fish make up for his lack of manliness.
My wife and I buy those occasionally, just for fun. =)
I thought AIs were supposed to avoid water.
omg omg I got some from a friend’s b-day party a few weeks ago! OuO
I always like to pretend that particular emoticon is just a very tiny penis.
What!? No dinosaur Sponges!? THIS OUTRAGE WILL NOT STAND~! >=O
Srz though, great comic, I look forward to it every Monday morning.
I think you should go back and reread the comic.
Ah…’twould appear my eyes have gone and discomboobulated themselves…
OMG, the face! xD Can’t….ignore….cuteness!
Nah, he really looks kinda creepy, but it’s the thought that counts, right? xD
Jared should become a Water Pokemon Master.
He has Mr. Fish, and thats all the pokemon he needs.
Those used to be the bane of kids ordering their own “Do It Yourself Monster Kits” sold on the back of comic books. You’d order a DIYMK, and it would end up being one of those sponge monsters that grew when you put them in water. And you’d be all like, “AAAARRRG I GOT RIPPED OFF!”
My cousin did this once. I was amused, and the joke even to this day is, “I hope it doesn’t turn out to be a growing sponge” when he says he ordered something in the mail.
I used to keep an octopus one in a bucket under my animation desk at college. It got really huge so I would tell my friends to come check out my octopus and a few of them thought I was talking about a real one.
Seriously? Buckets are for squid not those poser octopi.
Sorry, but *octopuses.
My apologies, but *octopodes.
Those are actually all valid plural forms of Octopus. Look it up.
Congrats, you all won once.
Though Corcoran, you failed once.
And Arancia, you failed twice.
I thought that both octopodes and octopuses are correct, but octopi is not.
You are correct, otherwise you are using latin declensions on a greek word.
octopodes is overly pedantic though.
I kind of have the feeling you looked “octopodes” up an Wikipedia, because that’s like… word for word their description of its use.
What ever they are called they shouldn’t be using up buckets that should be occupied by squid.
If it make you feel any better it was a recycling bluebox, not an actual bucket.
I assumed “octopodes” were just octopus mounted torpedoes.
Basically, I was right :P
Anyone else notice that the Grimace is on Jared’s shirt in panel 2?
WAUGH I DID NOT. But now I do. And my day is made.
I don’t even LIKE Mickey D’s. The nostalgia factor is just that strong.
Too bad they don’t use him or any of the other character anymore.
I liked Birdie damnit
The look on Jared’s face in panel 2 is fucking priceless. Keep up the good work, C. Squiddy!
Haha how can anybody not like Jared.
Will there come a time in MGDMT when Jared, if only momentarily, wows the Commander with a show of manliness?
He went all the way to the cake, the awful Hollow-Cake, and he ate it. It counts.
Time-travel right? There is a chance…hopefully…to see a future Jared.
What if the Commander already HAS gone to the future and knows what Jared will be like with his tutelage?
Sharks and dinosaurs = best daddy ever.
Also, Jared’s face in that last panel. XD To say nothing of the Commander’s. ‘How did I end up with THREE kids?’
Because he’s that awesome. The Commander, that is.
He’s holding the torch that Jared will grow up one day and be truly an awesome dude like him.
Jared’s like the third adopted kid of the commander XD
For some reason this advertising company would send us these every month when we were kids; I think it had something to do with my mom being in marketing at the time, but the odd thing is she was in marketing at IBM…
I think they sent us a growing nose too at one point.
What are these things, and why was I not aware of their existence?
http://www.amazon.com/Westminster-Dinosaur-Magic-Capsules/dp/B001KOF2ZS
ORDER TO YOUR HEART’S CONTENT!!!
Man, you can get them at Walgreens for like a buck fifty in the toys section.
I was just giving this person options. I know they are fairly cheap out here, but I don’t know where Daoler lives. ::sadface::
Well, I live in Italy and don’t even know what Walgreens is.
Drug store. Canada had them at Shopper’s Drugmart.
Mh… I need to check. Thanks to both of you for the infos.
It’s like, Jared’s faces are getting worse and worse. In a good sort of way.
I remember those little sponges as a kid and being completely fucking mystified as to how they worked.
It was MAGIC.
Oh Commander, you’re such a golden hearted badass.
This warms the cockles of my heart!
Maybe the subcockle area. Maybe in the kidneys. Maybe in the liver.
Maybe even in the colon; we don’t know.
I’m so glad someone got that reference. Dennis Leary is such a manly guy.
And after that day The Commander had to buy the pellets that turn into naked sponge women for all the other manly men and Duke gets two. Jerkass friends of mine gave me those for my birthday, they were promptly re-gifted.
How can you tell if a sponge silhouette is supposed to be naked?
Nipples is how you can tell.
Ever heard of a wet T-shirt contest? Doesn’t mean they’re naked. At least not completely. :P
I think the sponges were supposed to be well “detailed” whatever that means
I could /never/ get these little things to work without ruining ’em. :/
How did nobody realize Jared’s Hamburgaler shirt
Grimace. It’s Grimace.
That reminds me of that Family Guy episode –
Lois (dressed as Grimace for sexual roleplaying): Oh Peter! I’m here to steal your cheeseburgers!
Peter: Lois, that’s the Hamburgler.
Daww how sweet, loved this! It’s funny, he’s like the commanders third child or something.
GRIMACE T-SHIRT. HELL YEAH!!!!
Nipples
Because manly men bein’ paternal is even more virile than being cold/distant, and is even more manly and hot. :)
I REMEMBER THOSE :D I used to have a dinosaur set, but then I got bored of them once they were “hatched”. I can’t remember what happened to them after that.
I love how the Commander is portrayed in this comic; masculinity isn’t about muscles or martial ability, it’s about being strong emotionally, mentally and (last and least) physically. Anyone with a gun or knife can win a fight but having the strength to be kind, patient, merciful, courteous and gentle is a rare gift and the Commander has it in spades ^^
Of course, one of the ways we see this is the Commander’s unofficial adoption of Jared, whose always struck me as rather emotionally starved and lacking in guidance. I love how he’s become a sort-of third child and how he’s not forced to become/derided for not being stereotypically masculine- I’m guessing the Commander has a lot of respect for a young man who isn’t affected by peer pressure (the amount of testosterone in the air at that agency would make Cinderella pick up a gun and go hunt Bambi but Jared simply remains… Jared lol!)
I agree, Sophie. A lot of people think that the Commander is harboring this secret wish that one day Jared will Hulk-out and become a “manly man,” but I don’t think it’s in the Commander’s personality to try to force someone to be somebody they aren’t.
I don’t think the Commander expects Jared to hulk out and become a hard gun-toting man, but at least grow up a little and be less annoying. There’s a fine line between ignorant and innocent in Jared’s case. Eventually, in real life, he’d move away from there (but in comic terms, it would kill some of Jared’s humor lol).
Deep comment is deep. Onto the more serious side; I think it’s not because Jared doesn’t bow to peer pressure I don’t think this comic has even shown that I can imagine. What I believe it to be is because he needs some guidance and that’s what the commander is all about. Leading people and ironicly enough not commanding them. Not because he can forge something out of Jared because he doesn’t accept peer pressure but because he feels no pressure he is simply is But I have to 100% with the top paragraph.
Yes, it was more of an idea than any solid thesis lol!
However, I think that it’s quite clear that Jared doesn’t give in to peer pressure and remains true to himself; look at how his storyline statrted out- even as a preteen he stauchly refused to follow every other kid into to the Poke-ring (despite his parent’s severe disappointment) and, eventually, had to be tricked into becoming a Pokemon trainer- and even then he won Poke-fights in a completely non-standard way (which eventually got him thrown out)! Wherever he is, whoever he’s with, Jared remains Jared and, as the Commander seems to have a talent for spotting people’s strengths (he runs a job agency lol!) I can’t believe that he wouldn’t have noticed this particular trait. Here I’m also thinking of the ‘Poison’ comic a couple of weeks back; the Commander show’s there that he ‘ain’t gonna disrespect’ people for being strong enough mentally and emotionally to break with convention and be themselves.
But, yeah, there’s no proof as such, it just makes sense given what we know (I tend to read a bit too deeply into things lol! However, I think that if a storyline has enough meat in it to support such theories, it’s a sure sign of writing ability. If I was wearing a hat, I’d take it off to Colasquid)
My point was simply that Jared does not feel pressure; peer or otherwise.One must feel something before they can resist it.
Ahahah his paternal instinct seems to be spreading to cover Jared too. This is great
Jared makes such a Flapjack type face.
Groovy
funny story, i know a guy that had an unfortunate run in with those things. he was at a rave and used to be heavy into the drug scene. anyways, in the middle of tripping on some e, one of his friends told him to take a new kind of pill, it’s a suppository that will make you trip hardcore, is what he told him. about 1 day later he’s on the toilet and ends up shitting out a huge purple dinosaur….
he quit hard drugs ever since, and now sticks to light alcohol. his words were that “if it’s bad enough to the point that i’m shitting purple dinosaurs, i think it’s time i quit”
and that is how Barney the Purple Dinosaur was born, folks.
That has officially become my favorite story ever.
I laughed SO HARD.
my room mate and I are twenty, go to an extremely prestigious college, and who gives a shit about that because GODDAMN DO WE LOVE THESE THINGS.
Love this page XD
I am also 20 and at a university and they are friggin awesome!
HAHAHAHA 3 days ago the old president of my club (Botany and Entomology Undergraduate Student Association) gave me a bag of “club supplies” and inside the bag was a packet of Insect pellet sponges! XDDD
There’s always that moment when the kid realizes the creature is never as big as they hoped.
That’s when they grow up. *nod nod*
Now, the best thing I ever seen done with these is put inside a soda bottle and fill it water. It’s like those boats in a bottle, except they’re critters! :D
Seeing the Commander be a daddy is like the most awesome thing ever.
I LOVE THOSE LITTLE BUGGERS.
Commander is a great Dad! XDDD
more than Jared’s panel 2 face, I just LOVE the Commander’s “ugh”/eyeroll face as he hands Jared his fishie capsules. XD
I still have a baggie with all my sponge pill animals in it from my childhood. Best investmnt my parents ever made – for 2 bucks they had me entertained for hours.
I’ve always thought that nurturing someone is manly… Not in a sexy way, but in a “perfect man” kinda way.
A real man entices butterflies to climb onto his hand by raw self control and determination. Not land on him but actually step from some rock or plant onto his hand. The commander could get two at the same time.
I remember those! I would throw them in water and watch them grow bigger and bigger.
Then I would try and get them back to their original state, but I never managed to do that…
Jared reminds of of my older brother. he would act pretty much the exact same way….in fact he even sorta looks and dresses like him (excluding the vast array of crazy awesome T Shirts)
I once heard a story of some guys at camp that had a race using these. As in… a race through the digestive system.
I can’t decide whether I want the Commander to be my dad or my lover. Thanks, Freud :(
Lover for me. Hot gay sex always comes before silly parental love.
I think my history of those little pellet things fueled my laughter for this one. My parents bought my brother and I all kinds of those things, and we literally sat there for an hour and watched them expand. What a childhood…
I had an alien expandy-thing (not from pellet-to-alien but from small-alien-to-…bigger… alien) which got left in the baby pool in the back alley for I-forget-how-long. When it was found it was mostly disintegrated but would have been about half a foot long were it not in pieces… GOOD. TIMES.
yeeee Jared’s face
you are a god at faces
but i’m sure you knew that
:D
The updating of this comic is usually the best part of my Monday.
Jared’s expression instantly reminds me of Flapjack.
ADVENTURE!!!
Just read this comic in a day and just had to say that I love it to pieces. Keep up the good work!
Though it has also given me reason to reflect on my life because I’ve gotten every reference so far… after said reflection I realise it doesn’t matter. \(^0^)/
I know it was a guest comic but seeing Wanda (from ”Shadow of Colossus”) was probably my favourite reference because he’s the most feminine-looking manly man in video games as of yet.
Commander’s just experienced, and knows when he’ll meet kids with puppy eyes around.
Silly shark. Stop trying to bite the Commander’s finger. You look cute, but the Commander will certainly bite back.
I went to a candy shop once and they had fish tanks filled with the fish, insect, snake and alligator ones…. except these ones reacted like gold fish. The bigger the bowl of water the bigger they get. They had a 3 foot alligator and it was super realistic! Was not an actual gator though…. I put my hand in the tank to check. XD
My friends and I burned a bunch of the dinosaur ones on a table while bored… they left colorful dino scorches in the table! Fun times.
awesome, this comic always make my day :D
Dude, I love it. These things bring me so much joy. As a kid, yes. And even now. Because I’ve been five for the past 23 years. 8B
Coelasquid do you read every comment? Also I love jareds hat… I don’t suppose its based off of real life?
I do, in fact. I have a comment feed in the admin area that shows me the newest comments as they come in.
Jared’s hat is just supposed to look like super generic teenager headwear, though.
I’m a teenager :>. no wonder it caught my eye. Great designs.
I LOVED those things.
I just wanted to say thanks for making such awesome and hilarious comics, Coelasquid. This week has been absolutely horrible so far (my two-year-old son was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia yesterday, and we’re starting “phase one” of a very aggressive chemotherapy treatment plan later today), and reading this comic panel during our downtime has been one of the few bright spots during this crappy, crappy week.
So thank you. Seriously. Jared’s goofy expressions never fail to make me smile… and he looks positively overjoyed to be getting those sponge pellets. He’s so cute. ^___^;;
Oh man, I’m really sorry to hear that. I suppose there’s some solace to be taken in knowing that, even as fragile as babies are, they seem to be the quickest healing of us all! I really hope things end up going well for your family!
Thank you so much. My son has done so amazingly well today (and the doctors and nurses at MD Anderson have been so fantastic) that I am very hopeful for our second round of chemo later today… He’s such a tough little guy, I know he’ll make it through this alright.
We’ll still be holed up in this hospital room on Monday (the chemo plan is very strenuous), so I’ll be keeping an eye out for next week’s panel. It’s nice to have things to smile and giggle about, even when it’s just such a simple thing as reading a comic strip online. ^__^
I love this comic so much lol
I’d just like to note that I’m Commander Shepard, and this is my favourite comic on the internet.
Shepard.
So, one thing I’ve always sorta wondered, on the topic of Commander’s kids. Does commander want his son Sam to grow up and be a manly man, or will he be fine if Sam turns out…. not so manly? Like, do you think he’ll encourage Sam one way or the other?
I don’t think he’d ever like, pressure his son to be manly, rather, he’d share his manly awesome interests with his son in an adorable/manly bonding manor.
Wait… in what manner did the Commander acquire a Manly Manor?
Pssst. He meant “manner.”
Now I want to see a comic with the Manly Manor. It needs to happen. =_=
Err… while a great name, it sounds too Hanna-Barbera for this strip. “Hey gang! We’ll take the Mystery Machine to Manly Manor to search for clues!” “Zoinks!”
Jared reminds me so much of one of my friends it’s a little scary.
Oh wow… So those are the Commander’s kids’ names?
They’ve been mentioned before. I’m pretty sure they were named in the first strip they show up in.
Why is Jared so adorable?!?!?!?!?!?
Holy balls I love those things so much. I searched forever for a pack of dinosaur ones.
At this point, this is probably the leading Webcomic in the genre of “facial expression humor”. It’s a good thing.
Once someone gave me capsules that turned into spiders because of my fear of spiders… they are adorable <3
Aw, that’s so cute! xD
I friggen love his Grimace shirt :P
How is it that Manly Guys Doing Manly Things has, of all the webcomics I follow (and they are many), become the cutest of them all?
Because real manly men are actually cute.
Clearly Jared is working his way towards being an acceptable member of society. Not.
I swallowed one of those once. A dinosaur one. I swallowed it when it was in pellet form, and then later I pooped it out. It was a brontosaurus.
I can imagine -that- going over well.
“MOMMY I POOPED A DINOSAUR”
“…what.”
Aw, man. There goes my ridiculous murder mystery story where the victim is killed by ingesting expanding sponge pellets and blocking his digestive tract…
I just noticed that the commander kinda looks like Tank Dempsey..
He stays because the place is full of HEROES and Jared is more (pathetic) damsel in distress than the games industry’s had in years.*
That and he’s fairly good at making hot drinks.
* I’m not complaining but it does make it hard for heroes to prove themselves if their princess/etc has already taken out half the guards by the time they get there.
I used to love playing with those, watching the gel casings dissolve and bits of the dinosaurs poke out, but it was always disappointing how small and indefinite the resulting sponge animals were. Life-sized back-of-card-package images my tuchus. It was almost as interesting to winkle them out of the casings and see what they looked like all half-scrunched before putting them in water.
I (or rather, my sister) once got a realistic-looking small plastic octopus. Put it in warm water, and it triples in size after a while. We ended up moving it to and leaving it in a bucket for something like two weeks, by which time it was probably quite a bit wider across than my hand (currently ten ivory piano keys, and probably not much smaller then, for reference). It was probably the same type of toy as the alien Suilean Dubh had.
i love how he’s more like the office pet lol
The commander officially has three kids now.