Some of you may know the Addams Family from movies or television. This is a macabre, ghoulish family with some very strange relatives. It was probably the inspiration for the Munsters and the Creeplies (from the Flintstones). But before it was a TV show, it was a one-panel comic strip by a cartoonist named Charles Addams. This comic strip featured macabre characters with peculiar values. In the example I'm including in this post, Wednesday and Puggsly are stoking the fireplace on Christmas eve.

[Click to view comic: 'OPC 20: The Other Side of Life']

The strip I won the last OPC with was in the same vein as the work of Charles Addams, and that gave me the idea for this contest. Here are the rules.

1) Your strip should feature a macabre subject or a macabre twist on a usual subject.

2) New strips only.

3) Edited entries allowed.

4) Non-donating members may black out two panels and use only one.

That's it. I'll give the contest a week or two and then judge it.

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FPD is the foremost plague on discussion boards. Do your part to stomp out FPD.

I screwed up the title of this thread. I meant to combine the title of the Addams Family with my least favorite one-panel comic strip, Family Circus. Since I try to ignore Family Circus and don't read women's magazines, I got the two names confused. Anyway, let me just mention how much I hate Family Circus and bemoan the fact that the Sunday comics section is much worse for having the work of Bill Keane in it instead of the late Chas Addams.

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FPD is the foremost plague on discussion boards. Do your part to stomp out FPD.

Not for the contest, but I thought you'd get a kick out of this:

[ Posted comic does not exist ]

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Dinosaurs had eggs bro, the chicken came way later.

[Click to view comic: 'OPC 21: Addams Family Circle']

[Click to view comic: 'The Devil's Advocates']

I just wanted to mention some rules I forgot, which should generally be standing rules for any OPC. These are "No series" and "Multiple entries encouraged." If you use multiple strips to tell a story or continue a dialogue, then you would be ignoring the point of a one-panel contest, which is to design a one-panel strip that can stand on its own. But aside from that, you may enter as much as you want.

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FPD is the foremost plague on discussion boards. Do your part to stomp out FPD.

I'm not entering my own competition, but as long as all the other competitions are at a standstill right now, I decided to focus on the topic of this one. If you haven't had the benefit of reading Chas Addams's cartoons, you can consider these as examples of what I have in mind with this competition. I suppose the "End of the Date" one is sort of lame, but it was easy enough to click Save once it was finished.

[Click to view comic: 'Who understands women?']
[Click to view comic: 'The Devil's Advocates II']
[Click to view comic: 'End of the Date']
[Click to view comic: 'The Dearly Departed']

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FPD is the foremost plague on discussion boards. Do your part to stomp out FPD.

[Click to view comic: 'Mmm ... Bear Claws']

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"There's no point in beating a dead horse ... except, of course, for the pure joy of it." - A. Whitney Brown

Here's a crossover from the dearly departed Dysfunctional Family Circus :

[Click to view comic: 'Sniff the Glove']

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"There's no point in beating a dead horse ... except, of course, for the pure joy of it." - A. Whitney Brown

[Click to view comic: 'Satanist Pest Removal']

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I will rate you hard, and unendingly.

[Click to view comic: 'Death, On a Very Deep Level']

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the kid's getting old, the kid's getting old

Yet another Far Side rip-off:

[Click to view comic: 'Reflection for Pause']

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"There's no point in beating a dead horse ... except, of course, for the pure joy of it." - A. Whitney Brown

[ Posted comic does not exist ]

[Click to view comic: 'OPC 21: Addams Family Style (ugh)']

Their corny type of comedy, not really my style, worth a shot though.

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I dumb :D

flippy, this is how it's done.

[ Posted comic does not exist ]

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Our liability coverage is zero. Our balls however are enormous.

Okay, the funniest was this one:

[Click to view comic: 'Reflection for Pause']

If this was not lifted right from the Far Side, then Namgubed is the winner. Otherwise, NooniePooBunny is the winner for this one:

[Click to view comic: 'Satanist Pest Removal']

I will leave the judgement call up to Namgumed.

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FPD is the foremost plague on discussion boards. Do your part to stomp out FPD.

Yeah, this is a blatant Far Side rip-off as I said, and since Gary Larson isn't here to accept the win, I say the carrot goes to Bunny.

Congratulations!

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"There's no point in beating a dead horse ... except, of course, for the pure joy of it." - A. Whitney Brown

Huzzah. New contest in a few mins.

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I will rate you hard, and unendingly.