Ambulatory toaster stalking mice. Yeah, that is definitely not right and likely dangerous.
It would be a little more of a threat it the toaster were plugged in. As it is, it may (superficially) resemble a gray cat, but it’s just inanimate metal.
It probably doesn’t have anything to do with Disch’s “The Brave Little Toaster”, but it certainly makes me think of it.
There is also the (fictive) use of “toaster” as a disparaging term for robotic or android beings, starting from “Battlestar Galactica” I suppose but not stopping there.
Do all those black dots mean anything? I got nuth’n on this one.
Well, mice dive into toasters to dine at the crumb tray. They also leave their calling cards behind, which isn’t funny at all. I’d guess that Mr Deering might have some experience with this.
If the toaster were plugged in, it’d be a trap. I could buy the notion that the little dots are soot on the wall from its previous victims. But why soot above the plug?
That’s all I have.
@ Mike – Mr. Deering is the one with the roller-coaster artwork: tolerable one day, horrible the next. (His idea of “coloration” sometimes means flooding the whole panel with the same pastel tint). Comparing this panel with the “yam sanitizer“, the shrapnel on the wall is probably just primitive “shading”. It even rolls over the balloon, so it was probably inked in before he figured out he needed the space for dialog.
The homeowner doesn’t have a cat to keep the mice at bay. So he’s using a toaster that kind of resembles a cat in hopes of confusing the mouse. And it seems to be working.
I don’t know, sounds as good as any other explanation.
I’ve got nothing, but the speech bubble appears to be vibrating.
Perhaps the characters speaking are not mice – after all, mice cannot talk – but pieces of bread fearing for their future. They want to grow mould and die in their beds, not toast in fiery hell.
Well, I sort of liked it. I just viewed it as absurdism. “Well, it’s not a cat but it’s something…” And its kind of funny how a toaster does sort of look like a cat.
But I think it’s just surrealism for the sake of surrealism.
I keep thinking it has something to do with cats ‘loafing.’ That is, sitting with paws and tail tucked in and looking like a loaf of bread. I can’t quite complete the connection though.
One of the classic Kliban cat drawings was the meatloaf cat.
> It would be a little more of a threat it the toaster were plugged in.
“Would anyone like any toast?”
It would be a little more of a threat if the button were pushed down. Nothing is ready to pounce here.
Toasters can be threatening.
“Howdy doodly-doo! Talkie Toaster, your chirpy breakfast companion! Talkie’s the name, toasting’s the game!”
“I’m a toaster. it is my raison d’être. I toast therefore i am.”
Maybe the mouse is aware that the toaster is slow, but if it catches one of them that mouse is toast.
There should be a joke somewhere about opening a Pop-Up Store in their neighborhood.
(Ponders) But I guess there isn’t.
A toaster is just a death ray with a smaller power supply, after all.
Hmm, my toaster (almost new!) still works using a resistance heating element, not lasers or anything beam-like. (Tho maybe the “doneness” sensor uses LED technology, which conceivably could scale up)
Comics I Don't Understand 
Ambulatory toaster stalking mice. Yeah, that is definitely not right and likely dangerous.
It would be a little more of a threat it the toaster were plugged in. As it is, it may (superficially) resemble a gray cat, but it’s just inanimate metal.
It probably doesn’t have anything to do with Disch’s “The Brave Little Toaster”, but it certainly makes me think of it.
There is also the (fictive) use of “toaster” as a disparaging term for robotic or android beings, starting from “Battlestar Galactica” I suppose but not stopping there.
Do all those black dots mean anything? I got nuth’n on this one.
Well, mice dive into toasters to dine at the crumb tray. They also leave their calling cards behind, which isn’t funny at all. I’d guess that Mr Deering might have some experience with this.
If the toaster were plugged in, it’d be a trap. I could buy the notion that the little dots are soot on the wall from its previous victims. But why soot above the plug?
That’s all I have.
@ Mike – Mr. Deering is the one with the roller-coaster artwork: tolerable one day, horrible the next. (His idea of “coloration” sometimes means flooding the whole panel with the same pastel tint). Comparing this panel with the “yam sanitizer“, the shrapnel on the wall is probably just primitive “shading”. It even rolls over the balloon, so it was probably inked in before he figured out he needed the space for dialog.
The homeowner doesn’t have a cat to keep the mice at bay. So he’s using a toaster that kind of resembles a cat in hopes of confusing the mouse. And it seems to be working.
I don’t know, sounds as good as any other explanation.
I’ve got nothing, but the speech bubble appears to be vibrating.
Perhaps the characters speaking are not mice – after all, mice cannot talk – but pieces of bread fearing for their future. They want to grow mould and die in their beds, not toast in fiery hell.
Well, I sort of liked it. I just viewed it as absurdism. “Well, it’s not a cat but it’s something…” And its kind of funny how a toaster does sort of look like a cat.
But I think it’s just surrealism for the sake of surrealism.
I keep thinking it has something to do with cats ‘loafing.’ That is, sitting with paws and tail tucked in and looking like a loaf of bread. I can’t quite complete the connection though.
One of the classic Kliban cat drawings was the meatloaf cat.
> It would be a little more of a threat it the toaster were plugged in.
“Would anyone like any toast?”
It would be a little more of a threat if the button were pushed down. Nothing is ready to pounce here.
Toasters can be threatening.
“Howdy doodly-doo! Talkie Toaster, your chirpy breakfast companion! Talkie’s the name, toasting’s the game!”
“I’m a toaster. it is my raison d’être. I toast therefore i am.”
Maybe the mouse is aware that the toaster is slow, but if it catches one of them that mouse is toast.
There should be a joke somewhere about opening a Pop-Up Store in their neighborhood.
(Ponders) But I guess there isn’t.
A toaster is just a death ray with a smaller power supply, after all.
Hmm, my toaster (almost new!) still works using a resistance heating element, not lasers or anything beam-like. (Tho maybe the “doneness” sensor uses LED technology, which conceivably could scale up)