Nocturnal Guests, concluded
January 31, 2011
By the way:
For the next couple of months, I’ll be posting comics here only every other Monday, but which will be about twice as long. So: same quantity, more (hopefully) quality, but more waiting. I don’t like the “To be continued” format, when you’re thrown back disoriented mid-paragraph into the middle of an ongoing story, like in this one:
Once again, the great bedbug eradicator Rodney
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Lucky 
Wow, I had no idea they were so resiliant and smart (and loving…apparently)
When you move the desk to the middle of the room you look like you’re in a Coen Bros. movie. Awesome comic; scary, gross and nightmarish, but awesome.
Ha! I love that the exterminator has seen you so often that he warrants a wedding invite!
This has been an amazing series. I don’t know how I’ve dodged the bedbug bullet this long, but [knock wood] I hope I’ll continue to. Not least because my own bedbug situation would not result in art.
I really love the drawing and colors of your dream. That’s so lovely.
Great story Gabrielle, informative, well-drawn, disgusting and funny all at once!
James
Dang, Gabrielle. You just keep gettin better and better!
Wow, thanks, Art! My congratulations and condolences for your Grand Prix award.
I’m sure the reality was no fun for you, but this has been a hilarious series. The last panel really cracked me up.
A great public service message Gabrielle! Done with a lot of charm and style.
Thanks to you all. I’m very glad to be done with this creepy itchy comic.
I am impressed that you were able to find that first photograph of the DDT-resistant bedbug. Many people don’t realize how large bedbugs were in those days (the 1910s), and they dress up in bedbug costumes and run around thinking about how bedbugs could never be as big as humans and they watch Jurassic Park and are like “Oh they could never do that with bedbugs” and then you basically get to where we are 100 years later in the 2010s: zero horror movies in production about bedbugs because of producers being all “They are too small to show up on movie screens.” Hopefully this will serve as a much needed correction to such misunderstandings. Thank you.
You know your bedbug history well, Mr. Armbrister.
Fantastic! and so horrifying.
As usual, splendid work. There’s always « something ».
Panels 6 & 7 remind me « My affliction » (the beginning of the story and the part with the doctor, when you « fall up ») and some images of « 2001 : A Space Odyssey ». A quote from the movie – « HAL (the on-board computer of the spacecraft) : I am putting myself to the fullest possible use, which is all I think that any conscious entity can ever hope to do ». Well, good luck / all the best with your « new dynamic »!
Cheers,
st.
P.S. 1 : about dreams, I’ve just finished reading « Zeroville » from Steve Erickson. Brilliant, rejoicing!
P.S. 2 : How to get in touch with you? The D&Q email address is still valid? I think you’ve got mine.
Thanks Stephane!
I’m always falling up. 2001 is a great movie to be associated with.
My email is now up there in “contact” now that I’ve changed the theme of my blog.
Oh, my skin was crawling with memories while reading this series. You failed to mention the fact that those bastards can LIVE FOR UP TO A YEAR WITHOUT FOOD! Or just how fast they reach maturity. Or that they like electrical outlets and things like alarm clocks because they’re warm.
… sorry. I had to fight to get my landlord to exterminate the whole building because the people below me were the ones that had the bedbugs. They just traveled up the floor into my place one day and I noticed a few days later. When the landlord didn’t actually take care of the problem (an exterminator with sticky traps? Are you serious?!), I wrote a very well-researched letter about why I would be breaking my lease without penalty… and did so.
Yay! Gabrielle and Rodney!
and magical dreams!
xo p
Argh!
I moved into a new house that had an ongoing infestation (that the owners neglected to tell me about)
I actually woke up with a bunch of them on me the second night I slept in the new house.
Panels 10 and 11 gave me an itching attack.
yurk.
LMAAOAOAOAO YOU DONT’ UNDERSTAAAND i was planning a story about them when we thought we had them (but again it was minor, probably b/c i threw out a LOT of stuff from my old Bx home)—but it’s strange, the paranoia and lack of sleep foster some amazing creative gems. ok so i was thinking of all kinds of ways to portray them as well…vampires is an obvious one, and i love the hitch-hiker theme, the foreign ones (sooo was having those visions too), basically, you’ve read into my brain and finally put it out here for us—SO good to see it. it’s true, people are immune, and in a way, that’s a horrible thing but wouldn’t it be nice if we all were and then they’d just get bored and like, retire? yes, the DDT thing too—amazing huh? they used to spray ppl on their way to work! these little fkrs were always here and they always will be. i love the part with you sleeping under the table thinking of worse + better things—yes, indeed. perhaps these jerky bugs are here to remind us of what life is really all about, and for me, in a very profound spiritual sense, reflect our need for helping one another as well as responsibility to community and as a mirror of our own astounding consumption as beings. in many ways, humans and bb’s have too much in common. . . ALAS you are done with this comic and this has actually ease my sudden resurfacing of paranoia (for no reason at this point, and hopefully ever). sometimes though dont’ you wish you lived in a straw hut that you could just slash and burn and relocate somewhere else to–when shit like this happens? oh the fantasies i had of glass houses and glass furniture (sleek like)—the mind does incredible things thanks to these parasites. . . (gotta see the message in the misery, yes?) btw, isn’t it hilarious how your exterminator becomes like, part of your family?!!!
Thanks Jess! Did you see this hilarious Taiwanese bedbugs cgi video? It was brought to my attention by previous commenter Armbrister. You have to scroll down a little to get to it:
http://gothamist.com/2010/10/22/video_bedbugs_on_taiwanese_cgi_laws.php#photo-2