NEW VOTING INCENTIVE!!! A NEW STYLE FOR PUCK?!?
Someone gots a special guest artist to do this new voting incentive! See what this comic might look like if it were drawn by a real artist! (And remember: fans who donate $5 or more a month get a say in what voting incentives run! If you want to join their controlling ranks, HEAD ON OVER TO PATREON and join the select club!)
VOTE FOR PUCK BECAUSE I’M DESPERATE!!!
As for this comic…
I have to admit that having a comic where two characters just float in a nebulous sea of colors is WAY easier to create than my usual stuff. I might need to make the comic set inside nebulous seas of color more often!
NB: This comic explains at least in part why Mr. T is so tall here. He looms larger than life in Colin’s mind; ergo, that’s how he would appear. In real life, Mr. T would be exactly the same height as Colin.
EG, I implore you to get SEAN HARRINGTON to draw TRACEEE !!
Well, I actually don’t have that power. This was commissioned by … someone else. Mr. Harrington does not generate such masterpieces for free, sadly.
So Mr. T is kinda short in real life. Interesting.
5’11” isn’t short. it’s actually an inch higher than average. Of course, standing him next to Kareem Abdul Jabar….
Well, it’s more that outsize presence. It’s hard to imagine a larger-than-life character like Mr. T being … average height. Or 1.5″ taller than average height. Whatever it is.
@DLKmusic
This discussion concerning height reminds me of discussions involving INTELLIGENCE.
Most people are actually OFFENDED when they are identified as being of “Average Intelligence”.
Yet 50% of all humans are average – or less – by very definition !
And it’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Looks are far more important.
Any idiot, even a newborn, can recognize beauty. Not necessarily fashion, which is something else altogether. But beauty.
But intelligence ? We devise tests, ever changing, and controversial, to identity intelligence. It’s difficult to measure !
And can anyone deny that many very intelligent people are socially awkward – and likely not as happy as those less intelligent, but more socially adept ?
And HEIGHT ?
Ask any tall person about the difficulties they encounter.
Beds too short, cars too small, ill-fitting clothes….
No – being average in all things is a pretty good path to happiness !
Nope. The sweet spot is being slightly above average in most regards. Average is fine. Way over average poses problems. But slightly above average? Those are the REAL inheritors of the planet.
@EG
I’ll grant you that “Sweet Spot”.
And if we were doing studies on HEIGHT alone, at least then it is something that can be reliably measured.
But INTELLIGENCE and BEAUTY are subjective and the ideals can and do vary by Culture. But no, not a lot.
And even when it comes to HEIGHT, studies have shown that although Fashion Models tend to be tall, women that are even a bit below average height tend to have more children. Which in the long run of Human Survival is a winner.
Yet the MOST important factor in Life is one we don’t even dare to measure. And that’s PERSONALITY.
Look at Mr T right here. Millions of men share, even exceed, his looks, height, intelligence, but they’re not Mr T, are they ?
My Human Pet, “Baldie”, has long considered buying Woman’s Clothing.
No, NO ! Not to WEAR ! Or even as a gift to his long-suffering mate Janet. That wouldn’t be like him at all.
No, in his too-frequent trips to Thrift Shops, in search of MANLY TREASURES (like plumbing wrenches – and now Mr T vinyl albums), he notices very expensive Woman’s Clothing, in new or nearly new condition, selling for very little.
He figures he could resell such items on eBay.
But then he also notices that the clothing that sells best on eBay is photographed while being worn by a Model.
Janet refuses to do “DUMMY-DUTY”, so Baldie figured he should buy an attractive Manikin (Womanikin ?) for photos.
THE PROBLEM: Although the vast majority of clothing is manufactured for, and purchased by people who are of Average Size, all Store Display Manikins are TALL ! Just like Runway Models.
Baldies needs a Manikin of an average 5″4″ Woman, not of a 5’10” Woman.
And those do not exist.
(Baldie – give up. All dreams are not meant to be.)
Mannequins are just nonsense. Utter nonsense. They’re all way taller than average women, way thinner than average women, and — here’s the funny part — don’t even FIT the clothes they’re modelling. I know why fashion types love tall, thin models and mannequins because they insist the clothes ‘hang better’ on them, and sure, I’ll buy that. But look at any of the female mannequins in clothing stores and you’ll see that most of them are safety-pinned at the back just to get a decent fit out of the garment.
I know this all too well because my wife is part of that tiny minority of women who share a build with the mannequins. She’s tall and thin, and guess what? MOST OF THE CLOTHES IN STORES DON’T FIT HER. Not well, anyway. Lots of stuff just looks like a tent on her, even though the same top looked great on a similarly sized mannequin at the store – because it was pinned all down the back.
My action plan for this? Create a bunch of new mannequins featuring a RANGE of builds, and maybe also create clothing for a range of builds (radical concept, right?) and then everything will work.
@EG
Agreed.
Even better, give them a flexible skin, with several discreet Air Valves (just like the ones in Basketballs), where a little air can be pumped in so as to give clothes just the right fit.
Obviously that will not address height issues, but if you start with mebe a 5’5″ manikin she would be pretty good for 80% of clothing.
As somebody who is 5′ 1 1/2″ tall and 103 pounds (this morning) I am below average in those measurements, but my bf tells me that I am above average in Beauty and Intelligence or he wouldn’t have been attracted to me in the first place. I’ll take it.
Your bf is a smart, smart man.
What does the “T” in “Mr. T” stand for? I mean in Colin’s hallucination, not in real life.
I think that answer is easy to come by.
TERRIFIC !
its his last name Tureaud
Of course, you mean 50% are above the median, not the average.
@Pedant
Yes. Very true. You got me.
A sad deviation from my usual tradition of accuracy (LOL).
You see, I’m the one who goes nutz when…
I hear SENTIENT pronounced with 3 syllables (there are two).
MISCHIEVOUS pronounced with 4 syllables (there are 3).
And most grating of all, DECIMATE used to mean ANNIHILATE. Decimate is from the Latin word for TEN, and therefore is defined as a tenth. Let’s say your Bank Account were Decimated; then instead of $100, you’d now have $90. You’d have suffered a loss of a tenth.
Don’t get me started on “Cut the Mustard”.
Speaking as an English teacher, “sentient” has 2.5 syllables. Diphthongs are hard to calculate that way.
@EG
You R the expert – especially when it comes to DIPPED-THONGS.
(wow ! TRACEEE would look swell in one, betcha’)
EG – please physically BEAT any person that says “SEN-TEE-ENT” or “MISS-CHEE-VEE-OUS”.
At least mebe Susan’s BF can have Daphne speaking so, and thus well earn another spanking.
My bf insists he is out of the spanking-depiction business and that I should be happy he did that one for my birthday. I am of course, but…. I could suggest the stocks or the little-ease
@Susan
Aw shucks.
All he’d have to do is add a caption “Yes, Yes ! (tears flowing now) I will learn to pronounce “Sentient” and “Mischievous” correctly ! (more tears)”
Not the real T, huh? Could this be a manifestation of Colin’s anxiety about suffering low-T?
Or losing a T. Though he wouldn’t suffer low T if that ‘t’ means testosterone. One T will produce exactly the same amount of T as two T.
Two T or not two T?
I’ve heard that somewhere before, in a play about a whiney guy who would have been better off seeing Mr. T instead of his dad.
Not sure if that’s my kind of play or not.
“One T will produce exactly the same amount of T as two T.”
Colin may not know that, though.
Leave it to Colin! About to be enlightened by his manifestation of wisdom and manliness, and the first thing he does is derail the conversation!
Well, he’s the best we got.
I think Mr T did more to derail his teachings than Colin. Spirit animals are guides, and would thus be at least a semi-appropriate analogy for Colin’s current situation. Although why a figment of Colin’s imagination would be so quickly offended by the comparison is another conversation entirely.
Let’s not think too hard about anything in this comic.
So Mr. T would be the same height as Colin?
TIL I’m taller than both of them (I’m 2m tall, which is around 6′ 8”).
I can’t say I blame you for making finding it easier to draw like that compared to normal things you draw.
Mostly due to the lack of backgrounds, I’d bet.
Now I’m curious if you also met Mr. T while you underwent your surgery… Unlikely, but hey, might as well ask.
To be honest, this is really not accurate to life. When you go under (other than in very odd and sometimes horrifying cases), you don’t dream, or really have any kind of sense of time passing whatsoever. You’re on the operating table, then BAM. One second later, you’re in the recovery room. It’s really disconcerting. But sometimes in fiction, we need to deviate from reality for the sake of … this. Whatever this is.
That was certainly how it went with my last general anesthetic. One shot, told to lay on my side and literally the next second it was twenty minutes later. Disconcerting, but not as much as being aware of what was done to me for those twenty minutes!
Agreed. I’d rather have no recollection of time OR getting cut up. Thank you very much.
If I got to see my teenage heroine when I was under, I would have met Marlene Dietrich. Yet I have no desire to dress in tuxedo and top hat. Nor to mess around with…never mind
Really? I never considered Marlene Dietrich a standard-issue teenage heroine, but that’s really cool. You were obviously a very cool teen.
Heh, I was not a standard-issue teen. 😛
First, T is a childhood hero so Colin digging T is just all sorts of awesome. Second, the voting incentive is just bad ass.
I can take no credit for the voting incentive, sadly. But on the T front, Colin has long admired Mr. T. It’s been a running sort of gag in the comic for years, so I thought it needed to be recognized in a larger fashion.
There’s a double ‘the’ in the third panel! Gotta love typos!
Uh oh. I’ll have to deal with that.
@EG
Hey, mebe that IS the way Mr T talks !
I voted and got the incentive, and while I can say it is well done and all that, it confirms my dislike for computer drawn art. I am not saying that computer drawn art is bad, I am just saying that I personally don’t like it, no matter how well done it is. It always stikes me that there is something missing.
Well, I find for me that it’s also partially a matter of style. I love Sean’s stuff, but it’s far away stylistically from my stuff. I envy his talents because I simply don’t have that digital painting skillset. I couldn’t do what he does.
To be honest, though, I think I’m about the only webcomic artist left on this planet who works with actual paper and actual ink. Everyone else has gone digital, though often I can’t even really tell. If I were smart, I’d have already made the switch to fully digital, but I’m not smart. Also, the concept of not having a physical master give me serious agita.
Sorry, I am unimpressed with the Incentive. I like your style better, EG. Is that the guy that draws Exiern? Well… (rest of post deleted)
He draws ‘Spying With Lana’. And while I take your compliment gladly, I will defend Sean by saying that he has more talent in his baby finger than I have in my whole … most of me.
*grumble* … “Spying With Lana” … obscene …*grumble*
I find it interesting that ‘Spying with Lana’ falls into the obscene category, though my own comic gets a pass. (Or at least a conditional pass.)
SWL just isn’t my thing, either.
Not sure why.
Nudity, Guns, Violence – you would think I’d love it.
Next time we see Puck or Phloebles with cleavage like today’s SWL, I’ll reconsider!
“Superfan” Susie
Keep up the good work on Puck.
I will try.
So “First Nations People” are what the Duke would call “Indians?” I wish my great-gramma could have heard that. She was Cherokee. “Tsalagi” is the Cherokee word for Cherokee. I didn’t learn that from Granny, but from Faith Hunter’s Jane Yellowrock novels. She did say that her folks didn’t go on the Trail of Tears. I asked her how they got out of it, she just grunted and said, “They hid in the woods.” Works for me.
The Duke definitely was not one of my heroes.
@EG
You need to watch TRUE GRIT again.
Or “Rio Bravo.” I really dig “Rio Bravo.” Probably not “The Searchers.” Nathan has some very politically incorrect views about
Injuns,er, First Nations People.I am most familiar with McClintock! (exclamation mark actually part of title) which was decidedly politically incorrect in all the possible ways it could be politically incorrect. My mother loves that movie. I … could live without it.
I like “Rio Bravo”—the first time I saw it, I saw it was cowritten by one of my favorite science fiction writers (Leigh Brackett). But I’ve also got a fondness for “North to Alaska.”
Yeah, we’d walk that way too if OUR shorts were full of True Grit!
(sorry Duke, you still the man!)
@DLKmusic
Yep.
Mr T was an excellent 1st choice, but I’ll put up ROOSTER COGBURN as a real close second any day !
As I understand, Mr T’s ‘look’ was based off what he could learn of his own ancestor’s traditions. Not a mohawk as based on the Mohawk Native American tribe, but a similar cut based on traditional Native African styles.
Or such is what I took away from a barely remembered movie ‘Mr. T’s Be Somebody’
I seem to recall something like that too. Mind you, I’ve heard about four or five different origin stories for Mr. T’s haircut, so I’m a little confused.
Woke? I somehow recall Mr. T continuously saying, “Don’t give me no jibber jabber, fool.”
I remember that too. Good times. Good times.
Did a workshop to discover my spirit animal. Which for me is The Girl With Kaleidoscope Eyes.
Sounds like a weird animal.
Not for a true Beatles fan.
But Lucy is not an animal. Unless she’s the Australopithecus named Lucy, but then that’s sort of arguable as to whether she’d qualify.
The most famous fossil is the partial skeleton named Lucy (3.2 million years old) found by Donald Johanson and colleagues, who, in celebration of their find, repeatedly played the Beatles song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”. -Wiki
Haw !
There is no way in Heck any CAT would stoop to having some LAME-O “Spirit Animal”.
We take advice from NO ONE.
Who says Canadians are too law-abiding to create graffiti? Look here: https://imgur.com/a/pEad4
But Susan, you can’t count it as graffiti if it eventually melts or can simply be swept away. There’s a reason they call it “tagging”.
Hey, it said “graffiti” on Twitter. Is Twitter ever wrong? 😛
@Susan
I LOVE IT !
Dear Mr. T: You are so an animal. Homo sapiens sapiens, to wit. You thought you were a plant or a virus? 😛
Wow. After three years of reading “Puck,” I just discovered that hovering the mouse over a strip brings out a comment by the author. I should experiment more while reading!
But that brings up an issue. I don’t think Mr. T wears a Mohawk. It looks more like a Mandingo haircut. That’s West African, so he probably gets a pass even if he’s descended from other West African tribes. (Or is that politically incorrect?)
Now you have to go back and read all the other alt-texts.
And yes, I’ve heard that T’s hair is inspired by some traditional African cuts, so yeah. I was more being facetious, really.
I don’t know why I think that hearing ice cream truck music playing faintly in the background of their conversation would be a good fit.
Weird I know…
Must be that ice cream-colored background. But yes, that would be perfect.