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[Camp Comic] Friday, August 14, 2015 - Campfire Stories #2

DogDog Registered User, Administrator, Vanilla Staff admin
edited August 2015 in Camp Weedonwantcha

image[Camp Comic] Friday, August 14, 2015 - Campfire Stories #2

Campfire Stories #2

Campfire Stories #2

http://campcomic.com/comic/236

Read the full story here


Unknown User on

Posts

  • FlaxSeedFlaxSeed Registered User regular
    Ah, the bonds of love, care and character-building between father and son... a thing of beauty. :D
    Then again, this is more effective than any lecture or ad about the dangers of heavy drinking.

  • InvisibleInvisible Registered User regular
    I saw this when it was posted earlier. I have been wincing ever since.

  • JonKJonK Registered User regular
    I'm so sorry... if that's not criminal negligence, it should be.

    Are you pressing charges? Is it too late to do so?

  • EmperorSethEmperorSeth Registered User regular
    Jesus Christ. This is like a freaking real life version of that Morel Oral episode.

    You know what? Nanowrimo's cancelled on account of the world is stupid.
  • JBluewindJBluewind Registered User regular
    I know now that I am a terrible person with a terrible mind. I seen the top two images before I read the story and my brain immediately jumped to "Oh God! Those kids are gonna get peed on by their scout master!" O_O

  • LovelyLovely Registered User regular
    ............. I briefly had that concern as well ^^; .

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  • InvisibleInvisible Registered User regular
    JBluewind wrote: »
    I know now that I am a terrible person with a terrible mind. I seen the top two images before I read the story and my brain immediately jumped to "Oh God! Those kids are gonna get peed on by their scout master!" O_O

    Lol
    Ok so I had this exact thought, too.
    Only it was drunk guy is going to pee on their tent.

    I give myself partial credit for drunk and light beer is basically piss water.

  • DublinDublin Registered User regular
    Invisible wrote: »

    ... and light beer is basically piss water.

    Amen to that, brutha.


  • Mr Fish 86Mr Fish 86 Registered User regular
    These are okay and all. I'm just anxious to get back to reading about camp wedontwantcha :(

  • TimAusTimAus Registered User regular
    American beer is a bit like making love in a canoe

  • theGrognardtheGrognard Registered User regular
    These stories are interesting, and all....but I'm Jonesing for more Weedonwantcha.

  • marsiliesmarsilies Registered User regular
    These stories are interesting, and all....but I'm Jonesing for more Weedonwantcha.
    They're taking a break in order to finish up the book.

    From the last Kickstarter update:
    So in an effort to get back on track, we will be taking a break from standard comic updates to really focus on finishing up what needs to be done on the book. There will still be new content on our update days, they just won’t be our usual full-page comics.

  • darius404darius404 Registered User regular
    Contrary to popular belief, alcohol should NOT be used to clean a wound. It does kill germs, but it also harms the damaged tissue and cells and can help keep the wound from healing properly. http://www.advancedtissue.com/debunking-myths-wound-care/

  • te-kunte-kun Registered User regular
    @darius404, if you have better options them yes, you should use better options but if you are in the middle of nowhere with no other option them it is better than an infection. But I don't think beer would work, whiskey or vodka probably but cheap beer doesn't sounds like it would have enough alcohol.

  • InvisibleInvisible Registered User regular
    Mr Fish 86 wrote: »
    These are okay and all. I'm just anxious to get back to reading about camp wedontwantcha :(

    I'm pretty sure they're going to mix in some Camp W in with these.

    These don't require as much time to create as a standard strip. It lets them get out content (which I'm enjoying a lot). And it's an interesting interaction with fans that breaks up the flow.

    I'm not sure, but I think Katie and Adam have other jobs that pay their bills. They do not have unlimited time to make camp W and due to some unforeseen problems with the book, they're focus what extra time on it.

    For what it's worth, one of the KS question regarding this update was will we still get Camp W updates during this? And the answer was yes.

  • Peter RoganPeter Rogan Registered User regular
    I know this is supposed to be light-hearted stuff, but Judas Priest -- Dad and his uncles here come across as Camp Weedonwatcha expellees. I'm amazed and humbled that in spite of this abuse (which, by the way, is actionable) he made it to adulthood. Are these people still among us? And are they still voting??

  • Android 21 3/7Android 21 3/7 Registered User regular
    This comedy is too black for me. Please tell me that the uncle at least paid the medical fees and was deeply apologetic once he sobered up.

  • SapperSapper Idiot South Central PARegistered User new member
    This story seems to be freaking a lot of people out. I'm going to assume most of them grew up urban or at least, not lower-class rural..i.e., rednecks.

    Those of us who did, can just laugh--because we all have similar tales(which grow in the telling) of redneck adult incompetence and/or fantastically risky (and stupid) adolescent behavior. But we survived!

    (of course, the ones that didn't aren't around to complain about it.)

  • InvisibleInvisible Registered User regular
    Sapper wrote: »
    This story seems to be freaking a lot of people out. I'm going to assume most of them grew up urban or at least, not lower-class rural..i.e., rednecks.

    Those of us who did, can just laugh--because we all have similar tales(which grow in the telling) of redneck adult incompetence and/or fantastically risky (and stupid) adolescent behavior. But we survived!

    (of course, the ones that didn't aren't around to complain about it.)

    Let me show you my drunken redneck relative scars.

    Many of them are mental.

  • deathbyjazzhandsdeathbyjazzhands Registered User new member
    Invisible wrote: »
    Sapper wrote: »
    This story seems to be freaking a lot of people out. I'm going to assume most of them grew up urban or at least, not lower-class rural..i.e., rednecks.

    Those of us who did, can just laugh--because we all have similar tales(which grow in the telling) of redneck adult incompetence and/or fantastically risky (and stupid) adolescent behavior. But we survived!

    (of course, the ones that didn't aren't around to complain about it.)

    Let me show you my drunken redneck relative scars.

    Many of them are mental.

    I wrote the story and this is absolutely true. This was a pretty normal thing, as the "camp" we were at was 1.5 hours from the nearest hospital that we knew about and it was in reality a piece of land my uncle purchased in the middle of fucking nowhere. Dirt roads for miles fucking nowhere. My whole family was (and are still for the most part) a big bunch of rednecks and this was kind of totally normal.

  • bgrungebgrunge Registered User new member
    edited August 2015
    Ok, I'm laughing at the people getting their panties in a bunch talking about "abuse". I see stupidity and negligence sure, but no abuse (which AFAIK, requires malevolent intent). If there would be a criminal charge(s) it would be "criminal negligence" and "endangering the welfare of a child", I would assume. And they took him to the hospital, so... But anyways, here's my non-camping related but fun rural stupidity story:

    My father grew up on a farm, along with his brother and two sisters. When my grandfather got too old to do work around the farm, my uncle took over the farm and all related farming duties. The farm had a machine shop which my uncle (and grandfather before him) used to maintain the tractors and all kinds of other farm equipment, welding equipment being commonly used. So one 4th of July, my dad, aunts, and my uncle get to talking about how epic their 4th of July celebrations were as kids, and how far the roman candles would shoot back then, etc. And it gets mentioned about how grandpa used to make oxy-acetylene ballons and detonate them.

    Now, a little backstory to illustrate how apt my grandfather was when it came to safety: my uncle is missing parts of most of his fingers, (some gone entirely) because when he was a child my grandfather had him clearing a jam from a combine, forgot he was there and fired it up. My father has a steel plate in his head from where a horse kicked him and knocked out a chunk of his skull when he was 10 years old or so. (Grandpa expected him to handle the horses) This is a man though who had fought in Okinawa and experienced all the extreme horrors there, so anything short of death was to be sucked up and gotten over.

    So, making oxy-acetylene balloons was not out of character. If you don't know what oxy-acetylene is, let me fill you in: it's a mix of oxygen and acetylene (a highly combustible gas) that is used for welding, which was why a canister of it was present in the farm's machine shop. Normally, it only is emitted from the tip of a welding rod to make a very hot flame. If you put it in a balloon, however, the mix of oxygen and a highly combustible gas makes it quite literally a fuel-air explosive. Balloon bombs, if you will. These would be tied off, with a strip of paper tied to them, which was then lit, while the person would run like hell. When the fire burned up close to the balloon... think of it like a big firecracker, only the slightest spark or flame touching the balloon would cause an explosion powerful enough to rattle windows 150 yards away.

    Of course, us kids beg our uncle to make them. And he does, for the better part of an hour. I even got to set a few off, under the watchful eye of my dad and uncle. So, a fond memory of my childhood is watching and participating in the detonation of unstable homemade fuel-air explosives-with adult supervision to make sure we were doing it "safely", of course.

    bgrunge on
  • robynredrobynred Registered User new member
    @BGRUNGE: Uh, what??? No, you can absolutely be abusive without "malevolent intent." Like, that's a dangerous line of thinking there. You don't need to be some mustache-twirling literally evil villain to abuse your child, you might be well-meaning and kind but you can still be abusive. And yeah, I would definitely say the adults in this story are being abusive, and the fact that they eventually took the child to a hospital doesn't magically make it not abuse, what kind of logic is that? It's great the storyteller can look back on this experience and laugh, but like, it's still fucked up, and it's normal if some people are disturbed (especially if they've had their own experiences with child abuse).

  • InvisibleInvisible Registered User regular
    Everyone experiences things differently. What some feel is abuse others won't see that way. Some of us will think about what happened as abuse but not real abuse. I can see some things that happened to me as wrong (getting slapped for being mouthy) but also not see it as real abuse.

    Bad stuff happens. It just does. People make mistakes. We're alive and laughing at it and bonding over stories like this helps.

  • Nobody313Nobody313 Registered User regular
    I love the shitstorm this is starting in the comments

    Once you see the paragraph-long responses you know something's up without having to read them

  • InvisibleInvisible Registered User regular
    It's understandable. It's a touchy subject.

    I thought the story was dark, but relatable and funny. Humor like this will always breed controversy.

  • CommunistPenguinCommunistPenguin Registered User new member
    To play devils advocate, what was the uncle supposed to do? Drive a kid several hours to the nearest hospital in the middle of the night on back dirt roads while drunk? As long as he wasn't gushing blood, it sounds like the wound wasn't immediately life threatening, and it is a better idea to wait until the uncle and father would be sober to drive him.

  • jet laggjet lagg Registered User new member
    Urban dweller myself, but I grew up camping and thought this was incredibly funny. I'm wondering if the people offended by it aren't the same sort who find applause "triggering" (do I detect a reference to that in the author's name?)

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  • FatikisFatikis Registered User regular
    I love that people are freaking out. You can easily tell the privileged city raised kids from the hick kids.

    I'm now an IT professional in a large city. I can tell you I'm glad I wasn't raised like you bunch of New Age triggered kids. If you can't shrug off a deep flesh wound with a "Meh" I feel bad for you.

    Abuse? Accidents happen. My brother once broke my head open. I once broke his arm. My uncle once gave me a concussion.

    Life goes on. Don't be a puss. My body is covered in scars from accidents caused by myself and others. They are just badass stories to tell.

    Friend of mine once sliced his leg deep with a chainsaw. The pictures are grotesque. Now that shit was nuts.

  • riobardriobard Registered User regular
    edited August 2015
    The difference being, @Fatikis, is that some people get their scars doing things properly but still have accidents. This was just absurd drunken ineptitude, and in no way should be repeated. And yes, it is abuse, because they obviously didn't have the skills themselves in going camping, and had no business trying to get children to participate in this stupidity. If your dad gave you a can of lighter fluid and a match and told you to dump the entire bottle on the kindling while standing right next to it and then light the match, then your dad is, in fact, a total moron and should probably not even be parenting.

    Sorry you have so many scars because your family didn't care enough to learn basic safety. I hope you will teach others to learn from yours and their mistakes instead of basking in them.

    I grew up in the city, but did 8 years of scouting, and am quite handy around the house and car, too. Safety is important.

    riobard on
  • olimayolimay Registered User regular
    @Fatkis: I come from a tough immigrant family. My brothers, cousins and I were raised in the US, but my parents, uncles, aunts, and grandparents lived through poverty, oppressive governmental regimes, toughing it out in the US. My grandfather still has shrapnel in his body from WWII, when he was a child during the Imperial Japanese occupation. All of us kids were raised with a revulsion to seeing anyone else in the family get hurt if we could prevent it. This attitude was double or triple for all the parents, uncles, aunts, and grandparents. What we learned from them was that we had to be tough to protect the people close to us. Especially if it is the elders protecting the younger ones. Every single one of my relatives could walk on a broken leg or manage a broken arm if it meant protecting the family.

    The kind of stuff you talk about is completely different. A parent or relative who'd get so drunk they just let a child get wounded, break a leg, or get knocked unconscious through trauma? That's not an accident. That's neglect and straight messed up, and these people should not be parents or guardians of any sort--at least through the lens of my family's mores. It's not harmless and it's not funny to them--especially since they're from a culture that doesn't get dark/tragicomic humor.

    My parents, uncles, aunts, and grandparents are pretty damned traditional. I'm from a different era and generation; I run into conflict with them quite a bit. They are too extreme, too old school (though maybe these attitudes paid off in the tough world they lived through.) They think that you build strong character in kids from examples of dedication and sacrifice. So of course, as the protector, you are entitled to absolute respect. But what the hell does it say about you if you stand by when a kid gets grievously injured, permanently disabled, disfigured, or killed? What the hell is the point?

    When I was a toddler, my grandmother was ironing. I guess I was crawling around whatever cramped ass tenement apartment we were living in Brooklyn. The iron toppled over and burned part my leg--probably 2nd degree burn. She was really upset. It wasn't a big deal; it's just a minor scar and I don't remember. But they tell me she carried a bit of guilt about that until she passed away two decades later. Her last words to me were, "Take care of your brothers."

    Anyway, this comment is way too long and damn it, it comes across as a bit heavier than I intended! I started off wanting to spout off examples of my parents/uncles/aunts being overprotective to break up a false dichotomy.

    Like I said, I don't completely share my family's values. I'm probably in the Sheltered Privileged New Age or whatever you want call them camp. Main thing is I'm mostly glad that people who went through all sorts of BS as kids--like the characters in the comic or these Campfire Stories--survived, overcame, and came out decent or cool people. (I also hope the irresponsible adults learned and became better people too... though I am less hopeful on that end.)

    I like that these comics touch on these dark topics while still keeping comedy in the picture. And the debate/different perspectives is a good thing, even if you went through unsheltered "hick" childhood, once broke open your brother's skull, and was knocked out by your uncle and still think all these were harmless/possibly good things!

    Stay the HELL away from my cousins/kids/nieces/nephews, though.

  • MustacheHamMustacheHam Registered User regular
    edited August 2015
    I agree with the folks below -- one must understand the difference between neglect and accidents regardless of the background. Oh and yeah, don't confuse this with a "freak accident". If you're going camping, at least bring a decent first aid kit (even if it's made @ home like a box packed with rubbing alcohol and clean rags)....it just kind of seems not much was prepared other than sleeps and eats [and drinks] for this trip.

    It's been a while since I've gotten rather angry at a story such as this. Kind of makes you want to smack some sense into some adults...even if it's a bit late.

    MustacheHam on
  • FatikisFatikis Registered User regular
    edited August 2015
    @riobard I have experienced life and am better for it.

    I was able to learn things for myself. I was allowed to injure myself as any child should. It allowed me to be a strong individual instead of an adult that tries to make others feel bad about themselves and their childhood. "because your family didn't care enough to learn basic safety." What an incredibly douchebag thing to say to someone.

    I would never claim your family didn't care about you. I don't know you. It is very clear what you are attempting to do. I feel bad for you. I'm sorry that you see everything clouded in so much darkness. I feel bad that you feel in order to justify your opinions you feel you need to put others down.

    Fatikis on
  • TubeTube Registered User admin
    Ok that's enough now.

  • jerodastjerodast Registered User regular
    I'm not sure you should end a post by implying others put people down to feel good about themselves, when you started off the post saying you were a better person than people who hadn't experienced life the same way you had.

    How about we just leave it as "some of us had more cautious parenting, some of us had looser parenting, and we all mostly turned out okay".

  • TubeTube Registered User admin
    When I said that's enough, it was not a gentle pleading. That. Is. Enough.

  • Twister2Twister2 Registered User regular
    Ach
    No Miller light 4 U

  • piggystewpiggystew Registered User regular
    I like how he pours the beer far from the wound.

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