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As for this comic…
This one qualifies as the only Puck strip to ever actually make my wife laugh out loud. She’s not prone to uproarious laughter by nature; she’ll smirk, or say “That’s funny,” but real laughter is rare from her. In honesty, I guess it’s rare from me too. The number of comics strips I’ve read that have made me (even momentarily) laugh I could probably count on one hand. But when my wife saw the pencils for panel three (just the image, without the speech bubbles added), she actually, legitimately laughed. I’m proud of that.
I have to admit that I love brass knuckles – the concept, not the actual brass knuckles. I love what brass knuckles say about a character: not that said character wants to kill, not that he wants to necessarily win a fight (I think you’d go with a knife or a gun for that), but that he wants to beat his victim to a bloody pulp with his fists more effectively. On that level, it’s a weapon I respect. I also like the fact that brass knuckles are super-illegal in many places, including places where concealed hand guns are totally 100% acceptable. Places like the state of Texas.
If anyone would ever carry brass knuckles in a Coach clutch, it would be Tracee; I feel very certain of that. Some of you might wonder where, exactly, Tracee got that clutch from, given the fact that we haven’t seen it in any panels up to now, and the answer is… cartoon space. Believe it or not, I actually planned for her to not be carrying the clutch in earlier scenes, because I thought it just made the whole thing funnier to have it materialize out of nowhere.
Got to love legal counsel.
The good kind’s always got your back.
Are those gold plated brass knuckles (cause that would be awesome) or just shiny brass knuckles?
Tracy truely believes that Satan would win any law suite doesn’t she?
She’s probably right though, Hell has all the lawyers.
I’m guessing gold-plated with Tracee. She’s not one for subtlety.
Why not just gold knuckles. That way, the evidence can be made into a necklace through some physical effort. And then she could literally flash the truth in Heathers face in court.
Evil yet brilliant thought.
Hmmm, I’m a little rusty on my metallurgy (no pun intended) but I would think pure gold would deform too easily.
Hardly anything is made from pure (24k) gold.
It’s soft as heck, yo. It’s like making something out of toffee.
While everyone knows gold is a softer metal than steel, that doesn’t mean it’s Play-Doh in your hands. They make coins and jewellery out of it after all.
Most gold not sitting in bars on shelves behind massive security (and even the majority of those) are “coin bar” purity, which means 9/10ths gold. 90% gold and 10% of some harder metal (typically zinc, copper, or nickel) giving the coin or jewellery more durability and a longer lifespan.
For “brass knuckles” actually expected to be used, these might even be gold plated; a thin layer of gold wrapped around steel.
what i forsee happening is that satan is gonna deem the lawsuit to be too expensive and throw her under the bus, getting another girl
Yes, such a thing could potentially happen. Politicians are known to jettison problematic connections when they become a liability.
or, he could always settle out of court for 150k (way more than it would actually be worth)… then talk to the board of directors at Haxxon, and get heather’s husband re-assigned to Antarctica.
That’s the way real evil rich people approach problems.
Gold knuckles: Brass knuckles for when you want to stay classy.
yes and they are disposable to it you can get the emt to just cut your dang hand off cause your nice and shinny weapon is now a flat bar of extremely maliable metal fused to you filangies. serriously gold is super easy to bend and mold. gold armor and weapons are not a good idea people.
But golden armor made of graphene reinforced Titanium, with a golden Titanium Nitride surface layer for increased hardness, would keep out most of those annoying projectiles, while weighing only half what steel armor would.
Uh, what he said. Yeah.
yes but production costs of a set would be exorbant and utterly impractical. it would be a better use to forge a set from 5160 medium carbon steel and use electro plating to put a layer of 24 karat gold and then use a carbon steel alloy to insert into the finger holes as well as the back of the grip for a great kinetic redistrubution as to not cause discomfort during combat.
That’s why the TRUE connesseur always carries a pair of Jarrod’s patented Palladium/Copper alloy Knuckles: Looks like gold, but hard as steel. These beauties come complete with not 1, not 2, not 3, but FOUR separate Diamond edges for each knuckle to make sure that it will cut deep, and cut right, the FIRST time!
Remember the Jingle, ONLY AT JARROD’S!!!!!
Do they sell diamond-studded versions? Because my wife thought that Tracee would probably have diamond-studded brass knuckles.
I have no clue, to be honest, but I’m guessing that even if they don’t, it wouldn’t be hard to get it commissioned… especially when you have that much money.
BTW, please tell your wife that I think she has impeccable taste when it comes to violent fashion accessories!
A more concealable weapon would be a carbon fibre knife, sheathed in a large, thick belt, so that the knife would be at the back, easily covered by baggy shirts and coats, and able to be accessed easily from a behind the back attack.
Uh, there’s no baggy shirts or coats going on with these girls. I think we’re looking at magical cartoon space as the best way to conceal weaponry here.
We want a good beat down, not a butchering session.
Wow…! All of this over the word cheap…? Talk about over reaction.
As Hamlet said, “Rightly to be great is not to stir without great argument, but greatly to find quarrel in a straw when honor’s at the stake.” Worst definition of greatness ever, but really good for starting fights.
OH.MY.GOD!! this is just…perfect! i love how heather is still fanning the flames – heck, more like dousing them in gasoline – without realizing just how dangerous things are getting out of control. its like watching a babychick walking blindly into a chainsaw. and i can´t wait for the carnage to happen 😉
as for suing satan, no way in hell, lady. we all know that the best lawers are all working for him. oh, and kudos for finally enlightening me to the use of clutches. i always thought they were utterly useless, to small to carry anything but blocking a hand…
Heather has no idea what she’s dealing with, or what neighborhood she’s wandered into. They call this town “The Hammer.” There’s a reason for that.
The “Hammer”!? You wouldn’t happen to be from Houston would you?
Nah, Hamilton, ON. Didn’t know they called Houston ‘The Hammer’ too, though. Cool.
Things are going to turn Mad Max I suspect.
Who run Bartertown?
Now we see that she’s carrying a Master Blaster in her purse for those moments of “delicate negotiations.” That ain’t pig slop,but it carries just as much power for those who control it.
Those of us who didn’t see this coming stand on your head lol
I think everyone saw this coming on some level.
This made me think of just… So many video games. A friend and I once pondered who would win the award for the most impressive “Where did that go” pocket space. It was the main character of Shadow of Destiny won, fitting a ladder tall enough to reach a third-floor window in his inventory. A runner-up was Heather from Silent Hill 3, who by comparison had no pockets other than her puffy vest(A total of 4).
Now Tracee wins the award, as she has 0 pockets. Unless she kept it in her cleavage, which is also a viable answer but still worthy of the award.
There is NOWHERE to hide this clutch on Tracee. At all. Nowhere to hide a dime, even. Which makes it funnier, in my opinion.
Women have places to hide things that would make a normal man cringe…
I love how even Daphne looks worried in panel 4.
As for it appearing out of nowhere, that… Is actually something I was hoping it’d do (or, hell, just say “she had it tucked away” (read: women have more hiding places than men).
As for brass knuckles, I quite enjoy them personally.
Effective enough to be a weapon AND easy enough to dispose of.
Also, Heather saying “she’ll sue [Tracy] and her sugar daddy for all their worth” literally made me go “Does she realize that the ‘sugar daddy’ is Satan and the MAYOR?! …Oh wait, it’s Heather. Carry on as planned”. My girlfriend burst into laughter when she heard me say this. …That was five minutes ago. She’s still laughing.
I love the phrase ‘sugar daddy’. It just seems so 1920’s to me.
And why has no one pulled out a camera and/or phone to start recording this bum fight?
Yeah, you’d think Daphne would be all over that.
Aw. And all you guys thought the two of them wouldn’t get along…
Like a house on fire!
They fit together like a “hand in boxing glove.”
No…”hand in brass knuckles” ’cause there ain’t *no* padding here!
Sue the prince of darkness? o_õ Good luck with that… I’m sure he has a lot of successful lawyers on tap.
Those brass knuckles do say a lot about Tracee. They say a lot about her background, most likely. :p
Tracee is most definitely from the wrong side of the tracks. I’m guessing she’s so far on the wrong side of the tracks that she couldn’t even see the tracks growing up. And that’s what gives her her unique charm.
It may have fueled her brand of ambition, too: few things bring someone as far as a burning desire to get away from where they find themselves.
I like Puck’s resolution image; she looks cute in that outfit. ^^
It’s a horrifying kind of cute, I’d say.
Some of you might wonder where, exactly, Tracee got that clutch from, given the fact that we haven’t seen it in any panels up to now, and the answer is… cartoon space.
or as it’s more commonly known, Hammerspace.
Yeah, that’s what you younguns and your interwebs call it now, eh?
The mere word “interwebs” probably shows the overall stupidity of our generation. Be prepared for a world of idiots soon to come, once our generation is the prominent one.
Oh, I feel far more hope about your generation than I do the previous ones. Trust me, the previous generations have been just as idiotic. Take a look at male fashion from the 1970’s.
We don’t know for how many generations the next generation has been a pack of idiot slackers, because the earliest known writing goes back only about 5200 years. Just about every older generation has complained about it. 😀
What is it that Socrates said? “Our youth now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for their elders and love chatter in place of exercise; they no longer rise when elders enter the room; they contradict their parents, chatter before company; gobble up their food and tyrannize their teachers.”
Every young generation is going to hell in a hand basket, just as every older generation “just doesn’t understand.” It’s a human constant.
I’m with your wife on this one, this is grand. The Coach pattern in particular really ties the joke together for me. Perfect brand choice for Tracee.
I’ve known a lot of girls like Tracee in my time. They all started out carrying faux Coach bags; I think Tracee transitioned to the real thing some time ago.
Someone just decided to knuckle down!
Or is it knuckle up? Either is satisfying.
as long as heather needs to eat through straw in the end, i don´t care what its called.
also, to throw my two cents into the cartoon/hammerspace debate: my generation also called it the zeist-pocket. its from the highlander movie/series where they always pull their sword out of thin air (or their asses, who knows?)…just like that stupid explanation for the origin of immies in the second movie – some planet named zeist. so yeah. i´m a geek, sue me.
Everything I know about Highlander I’ve learned from Queen songs. That’s it.
The biggest problem I had with the 2nd Highlander movie is that they tried to “explain” why immortals exist in the first place…and had nothing better than the tired old “aliens” trope.
When the end credits rolled on that movie, the phrase most prominent in my mind was, “There should have been only one.”
then i STRONGLY suggest that you never watch the Source – i mean, the fourth movie was already BAD, what with killing on holy ground and that ridiculous headcount, but at least everyone was still somewhat in character. the source? damn near every fanfiction out there is leagues better. i mean, come on, declaring the whole game null and void? did they WANT to kill the entire fandom?!
It’s strange that Puck would be scared of this cat fight. She beat up Satan, after all.
Either motherhood has made her soft, or she knows that for once she chewed off more than she can swallow. This is still getting more awesome by the minute. (Well, by the week, actually, but it is worth waiting for.)
It’s even stranger when you consider the fact that she beat up Satan with Tracee in the car at the time. If I were a better writer, I could retcon something as to why Tracee is such a force to be reckoned with now and cowered at Puck’s wrath earlier, but I’m not. As for Puck, though, I’m not sure she’s scared, exactly. I think it’s more a matter of surprise, mixed with a desire to limit property damage.
“surprise, mixed with a desire to limit property damage”
That makes sense.
Also, in a way, Tracee and Heather are kind of funhouse mirror images of each other. These two, uh, ladies get under each others skin. I think this is why the two make for such a volatile combination. Or maybe not – Heather clearly knows how to bring out the worst in anyone. Except for Colin, but he had to grow up with her.
They are like fun house mirror versions of each other. They both ultimately share the same value set; it’s only the surface-level details of these two that are different. Their styles may differ, but their substance (or lack thereof) is the same.
Yeah, but Tracy thought Puck was a crack addled pregnant redhead, whereas she thinks Heather is a pampered upperclass blond bitch who has never had a rough day in her life.
Puck could probably outmatch them both if she were enraged enough, but in this relatively calm state, she can see that the hatred between these two have risen to levels that she cannot at present match.
Its not always about basic strength and ability, gotta take into account buffs, circumstances, terrain, attacks of opportunity etc…
Your analysis makes sense to me. I hereby appoint you ‘explainer of plot anomalies’ from here on in.
I think Puck was just in a mood, and Tracee was surprised by it, since she had no involvement in it. This time, she’s invested in this fight, and Puck has calmed down, so…
Also, I’m from Texas, and I can see why concealed handguns are yes and brass knuckles are no. You can’t stop criminals from getting their hands on either, since they will if they really want to. Brass knuckles can easily break bones, but they’re a short range weapon. Firearms are long range.
Long range>Short range
I really could have done with that fashion accessory in St. John’s Ravenscourt boarding school. Seriously, I really could. “Raw, red in tooth and claw” should have been the school’s motto.
Always keep your concealed weaponry on you at all times during boarding school. That goes without saying.
Is it wrong for me to reeeeeeeally want Tracee to knock out Heather’s stuck-up teeth?
Maybe, but I ain’t gonna judge!
Heather makes Tracee look downright sympathetic in comparison. In many ways, the two blondes resemble one another, but Tracee is fairly straightforward about who she is, whereas Heather is an arrogant smug $EXPLETIVE.
Tracee, I could sort of imagine being around her without losing it, but if I were to meet somebody like Heather, I would be in big trouble, because she is so damned smug, which never fails to enrage me. I cannot stand that type of person.
In fact, as a personification of smugness, Heathers is pretty perfect.
(She also makes me think of the film Heathers, although I am not sure why, maybe it is just the name.)
When coming up with Colin’s sister, I floated a number of names to my wife. ‘Heather’ won the vote, because it was (a) painfully suburban, (b) suitably Scottish, and (c) the movie Heathers. So yeah, more than just the name.
To answer an earlier question or two:
1) Yes, you can get diamond studded “brass knuckles”. Price is dependent on the ct weight and most are done with platinum. (Saw them at a trade show a few years back)
2) Gold “brass knuckles” were a thing a few years back and the gold was cast around a “skeleton” for support of the places where you put your fingers through. Sort of like this 0-0-0-0, then put into a fitted mold, and the gold poured in and polished when set. (He same fellow had them at the trade show, and I inquired).
Honey, you don’t have anywhere near Tracee’s Sugar Daddy’s legal resources.
Well, she don’t know that. But something tells me that even if Heather did know what she was getting into, she’d get into it anyway out of spite and stubborn will.
Ladies and Gentlemen, there comes a time when talking will not suffice any longer!
I believe we have reached that point now, yes?
I’d say yes.
“As your attorney, I advise you to punch squarely at the jaw area; it’ll be a frickin’ miracle if at least a four-figure dental bill isn’t inflicted.”
“On the plus side, it’ll be hard for her to give any kind of testimony against you in court. Broken jaws are funny like that.”
~LaughingCoyote’s attorney
I love how even PUCK is going “Ok……duck and cover!”
Emphasizes the severity of the scenario, certainly.
Geck, DAMN. This just got real O.G. fast. Was not expecting that but…I freaking LOVE IT!!!!
Absolutely priceless.
Does it lower my street cred to admit that I had to look up the meaning of ‘O.G.’ just now? Yeah, I thought so.
Is Puck now realizing the reality of her revenge? ever since around 250 she’s been wanting to see Heather’s nose smashed like a tomato, which might have been a figure of speech until the brass knuckles come out.
Violence for Puck is far more palatable when she’s the one doing it, and it’s in the heat of the moment. This oddly detached gladiatorial sport mode of violence isn’t as much her thing. Makes it a little more horrifying.
good thing they brought the food inside…
Audible laughter from me happened with much greater frequency prior to my first stand-up open-mic. On that day, there was no laughter from me. I kept sitting there in the audience thinking to myself “this guy’s really good… he’s really funny… why am I not laughing?” I think it’s not just stand-ups, I think it’s an occupational hazard of anyone who works in comedy, whether that’s cartoons or webcomics or even just writing snarky tweets (I’m pretty sure there’s a bona-fide living to be made doing that these days… probably via a Patreon page). Once you’ve started writing your own comedy, your brain always has that analytical, writing mode on speed-dial, so when you see or hear other people’s jokes, however hilarious they may be, your brain is still sitting there just below the surface of your consciousness with an applause-meter, saying “hmm… 7.3… I wonder if I could pump that up to 8 with an extra fart reference”.
Having said all that, I read the entire comic in that mode and then started into your commentary… and then I literally laughed out loud when you said “Texas”. It may help that I grew up there. 😉 I never knew that brass knuckles were illegal in Texas, and I find that hilarious! 😀
Otherwise, you’re mostly right… although I think the effect of brass knuckles in most cases is more for the shock value — the intimidation… because after all, they’re brass and not steel. If you planned to get them bloody, why make them out of such an attractive material? Wouldn’t gun-metal gray be just as effective? But when you put them on and you show them to the guy you have tied up in your basement, I think he’s a lot more likely to tell you where he hid stuff before you get in another hit… that’s why it’s important, if you want to get some blood on your hands, that you give him a few slaps before you show him the brass. You’d be surprised how many of the mob’s interns make that mistake. ;P
Apparently there’s a market for plastic knuckles. I just don’t think it’s the same. Yeah, and you might be onto something with the comedy-laughter thing. For me, though, it’s more connected to comic strips. I laugh out loud at stand-up comedy, but NOT at comic strips. I just find them usually more amusing than funny. And I’d put my own comic in that category too.
If you get steel knuckles bloody, they’ll rust. For frequent use, go with brass. Maintenance consists of a quick wash between uses.
This is probably the hardest I’ve ever laughed at a four panel comic strip to be honest
I’m glad I’ve achieved such a feat! Thanks for letting me know that it works.
I kind of missed the classic comic Fight Scene.
The one that looks like a Ball of Yarn, with an Hand there, a Foot there, and plenty of Action Lines.
Like this:
http://gallerianews.com/uxx/2015/02/fighting-cartoon.jpg
I’m always forced to find my line between kind of almost realistic and crazygonuts cartoon. I think the ‘cloud of combat’ effect would be crossing some sort of line…
A “FIGHT CLOUD” !
Apparently there is a word for everything.
I will add this to the List of Things I never knew before. Just last month I discovered what these are: http://m7.i.pbase.com/o3/76/97376/1/146353147.T0TGxIG6.greatmeadows12092106234ed.jpg
What are they?
BTW, I just made up ‘fight cloud’ right now, so we’ll have to collectively work hard if we want it to become canon.
Those are LOTUS PODS.
They are really fugly, but somehow find their way in dried flower arrangements every Fall. Oddly, while alive and flowering they do not look much better.
I asked Sales Clerks at various stores numerous times over the years, and none ever knew what they were.
But diligent Internet Research finally paid off.
The origin of the plant, however, remain elusive. They do grow in Columbia, Afghanistan, China, India, Thailand, where the seeds are eaten as snacks !
And in Massachusetts (though as an imported species, maybe ?).
Worst of all, there is a fairly large underground trend on the net where Lotus Pods are photoshopped onto people’s shoulders, necks, and even FACES and are passed off as a horrible tumor or disease.
Ewhhhh !!
Trypophobia
http://www.techinsider.io/images-holes-patterns-phobias-trypophobia-2015-12