I’ve been trying to move along with the storyline (and trust me, there is a storyline) but I just keep getting distracted with stuff like this!
So remember I told you all that my car had broken down the very day I got home from my trip to Connecticon? Well I finally got the mechanic to come take a look at it yesterday, and he says that the car battery’s dead – which is a problem even I could’ve figured out if not for the fact that I didn’t even consider the possibility bacause I bought the battery just a week or so before!
So after the mechanic gave me a “I can’t believe you made me come all the way out here for a dead battery” look, he took it away and I stayed there looking at the car’s engine for a while. Just a few cars over in my garage another car had its hood open and I got the opportunity to compare both engines. Mine; a 55-year old jeep engine and his; a two or three year-old economy car engine. In comparison, the other car’s engine looked like a living organism, I couldn’t even start to figure out what did what and where it went. My car’s engine – on the other hand – is simple and kind of classic in a mechanical sense. It’s still a complete riddle to me anyway – but perhaps a less puzzling riddle.
It occurred to me that I can either learn a bit of mechanics and keep the car or sell it to somebody that knows what they’re doing, because as it is the car is just draining my wallet and patience (and comic strip jokes about my car breaking down have wandered from the realm of the funny into the barren wastelands of the pathetic). Either way, I’m hoping today’s joke is the very last I ever draw about my car, for better or worse.
Anyway, sitting there and thinking about all this and how little I understand of it, today’s comic came to mind. On their way out of the restaurant O was supposed to meet somebody very important and continue the storyline – but the engine gnomes just required to be drawn.
I guess that’s the way it goes, lazy engine gnomes like mine.
Good hunting;
O
Is it really a good idea for a gnome to be smoking while sitting at the engine block? There’s so many things that catch fire and make car go boom. Maybe that’s why it keeps breaking down.
The only problem that this gnome could have is a serious ass burning situation.
Man how do you manage to break a Willy´s Jeep? It´s like a tank! You could try to learn some mechanic, specially for your kind of car it will be very simple. Show what the legendary Monkey Grip can do with a screwdriver!
Anyway, i´m waiting for the rest of the storyline, great strip.
*Still searching for a ninja*
CJ’s boyfriend looks a little apprehensive, sitting there in the back. Are you a good driver, O?
I have to go with Billie on this one, how in the nine hells do you managed to fnark up a Willys?
Those were the main motivating force during WW2, they’ve survived everything from small arms fire to just shy of a nuclear blast.
My grand father told me about how if one got flipped over they’d just roll it back onto it’s wheels and push it to get it started again… and you manage to kill yours with alarming regularity… I find that vaguely disturbing.
Maybe you should stick with the bicycle, it’s better for you in the long run.
You sure that mechanic knew what he was talking about? Because it the battery is brand new its much more likely that your alternator is failing. The battery was probably fine.
everytime you draw your CJ it reminds me of my old CJ7 I had, it was a piece of crap but I loved it. I had painted a huge dragon on the hood as well. I was such a nerd.
Also now that I think about it the battery could have drained itself from sitting unused for a week in which case all you would have needed was a jump-start.
Jeep mechanicing is a sort of holy experience, somewhat like “Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance” You will either really love it, or hate it totally.
I happen love working on my ’64 Willy’s Wagoneer. It fails me less often then my friend’s new cars. But if I couldn’t fix it myself, or at least figure out what’s wrong, I couldn’t afford the mechanic’s bill that would be required to keep her going.
I think Duder’s first suggestion of the alternator makes a lot of sense. A brand new battery that isn’t being constantly charged by the alternator while running will last a very, very short time – like a week or so.
I would HOPE that that was your mechanic’s first thought when you told him it was a brand new battery, so maybe he checked and the alternator is fine.
@Marrok Your grandfather’s jeep wasn’t 55 years old when the army was abusing it.
I agree, it does sound like your Alternator Gnome may have quit. It started after sitting idle for a week and then quit while it was running. I would expect a bad battery to either not start in the first place or fail the next day when you try to start it. If the alternator wasn’t alternating while you were driving, the Battery Gnome would have to take up the slack. Battery Gnomes just aren’t that tough.
O,
PLEASE!!!! make a wallpaper of the engine gnomes. I’ve gotta have one. It looks freaking awesome. And it would make me feel better when my car doesn’t run right.
Compre um Honda Fit usado….
It can´t be the alternator, the car was on a garage for something like a week or two, a jump start should do the bussness.
Hey O,
Brillient strip!!! And I just love the fact that two of the gnomes are playing cards… I guess that requires a pretty smooth-running engine. And I’m pretty sure one of the gnomes are taking up the space where the battery is suppose to be – maybe you should consider bringing less gnomes
(though I’m sure they can come in handy)
Anyway I have to agree with KiloCharlie, that the car and the engine gnomes makes for a pretty damn good wallpaper.
prety much all i know about cars is the color of the one i’m looking at (i’d like to change that one day), so i can’t offer much advice on alternators or batteries. but i hope you’ll never have a ‘interesting’ event (re: comic fodder) with your car ever again, whichever one you go with.
also, looking for ninjas
, later
O, your car jokes don’t get old. Engine failure, flat tires, or maintenance are a regular feature to this comic now. You can’t let that break down (excuse the pun). Keep the Jeep!
Buddy, you’re a kick-ass artist with some genuinely funny ideas. But you’ve gotta stop crossing your speech balloon tails like that! It’s really easy to misread.
Still though, I have this strip on my homepage list.
Loved the punchline.
O, you are like Harry Dresden with cars.
“I don’t really like that pedal much.” Hee hee! Made me snark!
I had an ’83 CJ-5 and the voltage regulator in the alternator failed, over charging the battery.
Anything in the battery/charging circuits could be a problem. Would be best to check all the wiring out for corroded connections too.