IT’S THE GHOST OF CHRISTMAS PAST!
Take a trip down memory lane as we revisit some voting incentives from previous Decembers. I DO have a new voting incentive in the pipeline for NEXT WEEK, and it’s a doozy, but it’ll take me just a little while longer to put the finishing touches on it. It will be ready for Christmas, though. Until then, I thought we could go for some reruns. This week, in order to celebrate the triumphant return of Emily the Cat Girl, we return to some festive fun with a feline flair!
As for this comic…
This is the fourth exotic fruit joke to land in the past year. I honestly tried to consider other non-fruit options. I thought about making the analogy be about a specialty exotic meats butcher, but that seemed a little … iffy. I considered a few other food-related options and none sat right. I can only conclude that my brain seems to be stuck on the possibly erroneous belief that fruit is funny. There is no harm in this, really. Though I suppose that’s what Jim Davis said after his fourth lasagna joke in Garfield. There’s a cautionary tale if ever there was one.
So I promise: no more exotic fruit jokes. Ever again. Ever. (Unless I come up with one that’s REALLY funny. Then all bets are off.)
Unfortunately, Colin does not have anyone outside of the main cast to talk to about stuff. And he and Cy bonded somewhat over being cancer survivors.
It’s not that Colin needs costume help, it’s that he needs help in the way people see him. An attitude change, or to play up his inner Fred while downplaying his outer Shaggy.
You know, come to think of it, not sure Cy can help him. Cosplay is seldom about acting or being like the person you are cosplaying as.
Well, Cy may be a bit more a help than he’s letting on right now. There is a pattern to all interactions in this comic: first come the zingers, then come the thing…ers.
This is a point. But I don’t know if Colin knows.
EMILY !!
kat collapses with joy
You know she’d show up some time.
Yes! Emily definitely needs more strip time (no pun intended).
@mermaiden
“Strip Time” ?
Agreed.
Perhaps not intended, but certainly appreciated.
Agreed: yay Emily!
I enjoyed the repartee between Cy and Shaggy (the simile is apple-aling) but the real question: why is she carrying a red scarf? Is she going as a color-palette-swapped Scooby Daphne?
@rewinn
Good Catch.
Red Scarf, eh ?
I wish I had an answer. I felt she needed to be carrying something. But I’m sure she has a good reason for it.
*gasp*
An English teacher has violated the sacred rule of “the curtains are blue not because the author felt like it but because dEEp iNTERNALIZEd dEPRESSIOn”
You must be removed from the ranks of your peers, for you are a shame to the fundamental principles they stand for.
Well, any good English teacher can tell you (as I actually was telling students just yesterday) that the inherent symbolism of a work may not entirely be intentional on the author’s part. So the red scarf may have meaning. I just don’t know what it is yet.
I’d love to hear the reasoning on that. I know the subconscious mind likes to jam out and do weird things without permission, but I do believe that is more or less confined to dreams.
Well, it all depends on how Jungian you want to get.
Go as Jungian as you need. I just want to know the explanation.
Well, the Jungian perspective is that our brains come pre-wired with stories, characters and symbols that had deep, intrinsic meaning to our ancestors, and we all carry those around inside us. This is the ‘collective unconscious’ and it manifests when we, say, write a story, or when we dream. So you might be fully unaware of the symbolic meaning of your own text.
That said, Jungian psychology isn’t really viewed as legitimate anymore, even though he’s one of the two founders of the field. So people are fully free to say, “That’s nonsense!”
That’s interesting. I could believe that, though I’m not sure how I feel about the idea of things going into the things I write that I don’t mean to be there. I don’t really make a lot of decisions about things in my writing unconsciously – either I intend for it to have meaning, or it’s there for the aesthetic I’m going for.
And I think that’s pretty much everyone. But even outside the Jungian sphere of things, I would say that it’s almost impossible to have all elements of a narrative be conscious. For instance, certain biases and perspectives that are baked into our culture will seep through everything we create, and someone who reads the work from outside our culture will get a very different message from it.
Case in point: I’m a big fan of ancient Roman writings. But when you read the letters of Pliny the Younger as he talks about the proper procedure for executing Christians, I can’t help but get from his words a sense of the vicious penchant for violence and the cavalier dismissal of human life that ran throughout Roman society. Pliny didn’t write with that in mind at all, though. In fact, he was writing to show how merciful and just he was, inasmuch as he gave the accused every possible chance to deny or renounce their Christianity before having them brutally slain.
In other words, we are the masters of the message we send out, but in the world of literature, we are never the masters of the message that shall be received.
Well, this is the first time in my life that I can recall being convinced of anything by an English teacher, so kudos to you. You make a good point.
Ugh, I just want to throttle Cy so badly right now. He’s throwing shade at Colin yet he has no bloody idea the clothing style Fred wears through the balance of the Scooby-Doo franchise. Blue jeans? Come on! Those are slacks! I can forgive not realizing the ‘white shirt’ is actually a sweater over a blue shirt. But what really damns Cy here is he doesn’t mention the orange ascot!
Cy had better up his game real quick otherwise he’ll end up hot gluing bendy straws to water pistols and painting them gold for steampunkers too lazy to make their own gearbitz.
That said, the joke made me laugh, and honestly that’s what’s really important. I can’t wait to see the end result of Colin’s foray into cosplay. I have a feeling he’s gonna knock some stockings off.
Cy will come through here. And honestly, I had a much more detailed description of Fred’s outfit in one draft but (as often happens with this comic) I ran out of room. I really wasn’t sure on the pants, though. Like, were they just blue slacks or were they a low budget animation attempt to approximate jeans? Anyway, his oversimplification is my oversimplification.
That steampunk stuff sounds mightily fun, though. Gotta get me some gold paint and bendy straws.
I think I’ve heard of that exotic fruit. Wasn’t there a record company and then a computer company with that name?
Forrest Gump invested in them, I think.
Double the cat girl, double the fun.
So are we going to see the Ghosts of Christmas Present and Future as well?
Well, the new incentive will be the Ghost of Christmas Present, and we will see the Ghost of Christmas Future … next year.
Doublemint really should have gone with that slogan. More sales.
Emily is always charming. I don’t mind apple jokes. 😉
Does that make her the apple of your eye?
Good one.
Cy is not wrong. I love the alliteration, I didn’t notice it last week. How long have you been doing that? Sneaky.
The fruit joke WAS funny. You could have gone flower, “Have you heard of this thing, it’s called a ROSE?” but there are too many types. Pets, “I don’t know, but do you have a CAT?” but that’s too sad. List, “Have you heard of Mark Twain” but that’s dangerously close to Monty Python territory. Home furnishings, “I’d like a CHAIR”, but there really ARE rare chairs and chairs I don’t get.
So, yes, fruit is good. I wonder if my grocer’s heard of an apple, by the way. I hear they’re good.
If you go back, fully 60% of the introductory blurbs are alliterative. And this is why I sometimes sit there for forty minutes trying to craft them. I’m all about putting lots of work into pointless throwaway gags.
That is true, Geck, but sometimes they were just went with the low hanging apple!
And boy do I appreciate it. I just don’t alwasy notice it. Is that possible?
I fail to notice most things in life.
Well, there is rather a lot of it. I would make a terrible detective.
As long as we appreciate stuff regardless, I guess.
Shouldn’t the voting incentive say “two comic strips” now?
Well, she’s appeared in a bunch of comics, but she only had a speaking role in one comic. Every other comic that she’s appeared in (including this one) has had her as a mere background element. So I would say that the ‘one comic’ comment still kinda holds. Kinda.
Yay Emily 🙂 And this inquiring mind wants to know are the loops on the tops of her gloves and stockings places to button on garters, or are they additional cat ears since a girl can’t have too many?
They’re additional cat ears. They’re modeled off actual stockings that a student of mine used to wear. So they actually do exist in the real world.
Cool 🙂
Also thank you for being such a friendly and involved artist. Regularly interacting with your audience and all 🙂
Emily makes the best cheesecake. (And never any heartburn.)! 😉
Candy cane cheesecake. It’s festive.
She has canines like my brother did.
They all have pronounced canines in this comic. I’m not sure why.
They’re useful and they remind people of their brothers.
Symbolism again?
One day the author and artist will figure out what’s up with the canines, and perhaps come do a deep philosophical understanding.
I feel they give a delightful, tiny tang of menace to the smile of those who appear innocent (Hannah? and now Emily?) and underscores the animal nature of the rest (notably Puck when she’s raging.) In a way, it’s like the pointed ears.
I like your explanation. Valid.
Honestly, it’s just a tiny stylistic nod to Japanese manga artists, many of whom do the same canine thing. I just like it. Probably for the reasons you identified above.
I’m glad to learn that Puck can sing. 🙂
She can?
Hey! There’s Dephne’s design!
This is canonically where Daphne gets her shirts.
Oh. I’d thought she was designing them. I must not be paying attention.
It hasn’t been directly stated in the comic where they come from. So I’m not sure more attention would help.
I read the comments sometimes, though. That’s how I know the cat-girl’s been in the comic before, and has even spoken once, even though I have no memory of her whatsoever.
I should pay better attention. Maybe.
That’s okay. Sometimes I don’t have a good enough memory for my comic either.
I see nothing wrong with being a low rent Shaggy…sheesh. With my looks I could pull off a “Ditched the family business and let ming run the empire” ne’er do well middle child. FYI. Ming the Merciless is that way because he’s the baby in the family and has issues. I’m happy to ditch it all, run a bit of smuggling and bootlegging stuff just to tick him off.
Hark ye Humans !
You guys DO realize it is the Winter Solstice, one of four Nodes of the Annual Cycle where the veil between the Spheres is the thinnest.
As such, SalemCat is hiding, and I am frolicking !
And this Solstice is unique, one of the only three instances within three millenia that The Star of Bethlehem appears in December.
Once on the Solstice, the next on Christmas Day, and once on New Years Eve.
Coincidence, or part of a Grand Plan ? Your call.
Check out this site The Christmas Star.
I saw the Star this evening – it was magnificent.
And I said a prayer for you.
Wow, it has been a while since Colin rolled out with a clean shaven face. I looked through the archive and he used to have a bowl cut that kind of made his head look like a p$&*#. Like, whoa!
It was the era. Remember DiCaprio in Romeo + Juliet? All the cool kids were wearing them.
EMILY !
In one of her rare in-comic appearances.