(Rob was a consult on this review, please assume any flaws are his fault)
It took me a while to figure out what the issue with this comic was, and then after doing a few careful read-throughs I finally realized: it's presented too dryly.
This could actually maybe be an educational type comic about the thought processes that can affect a person with anxiety. However, as an educational type comic, it would fail on the basis of not offering any type of solution. I don't know if that's what he was really going for, but it does just read like a more or less straightforward depiction of that kind of mental process, what with the "you're making no progress and will never finish, paaaniiic!" line.
The absurd overdramatization would be funny if it wasn't for the fact that anxious thinking is inherently overdramatic. What would normally be a humorous exaggeration is just... how people actually think. I do have anxiety, though (actual, 'I-see-a-therapist-on-Fridays' anxiety, not 'yeah i worry a lot' anxiety) so it's possible I'm reading too much into this comic on that basis.
I think what Randy was trying to do here was turn a thought process he had into a joke, but he didn't manage to give it any kind of twist. Like, the focus of the comic could have been Ponytail working really hard on estimating how much time the project will take, in the process putting off the project and doubling her work time. Instead it's very much focused on the mental aspect, or at least that's how it ends off.
This comic is a blatant awareness attempt by Randy towards the issue of tires and stuff, to which I respond with one of my favorite quotes by philosopher Joel Zimmerman. At least it's not the whole comic, though.
I actually like the idea behind the punchline, probably more than I should. The mental image of these two small children robbing people of their tires is just great. The fight angle kinda doesn't work for me, though; these kids are young enough to still be using a tire swing (in 2016!) and a grown ass man is gonna beat them down for stealing a tire? That's not cool, bro. It'd be less weird if the kid just said "I hope he doesn't know our parents" or even just ended it at "Yeah, that guy was real mad."
Also, shouldn't the speakers of the dialogue be switched in that last panel? The kid goes on this monologue and then responds to themselves, it just flows better if "We should use one of those next time" is a response to the monologue from the other person.
In other news, regular commenter Toby Jackson made a song called "GOOMHR" on his album Hoard, and it's actually just an interlude, but the rest of the album is DOPE, SON. You probably won't enjoy it if you like your songs 'to the point' or 'less than twelve minutes long' but if you enjoy well performed music for music's sake, I definitely recommend at least giving it a listen or two.
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