NEW WEEKLY VOTING INCENTIVE! VOL 2 PREVIEW!!
Follow along as I draw the cover for Puck Volume 2! (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 AND MAKE RUTABAGAS EDIBLE!!!
ALSO…
I recently put a bunch of work into updating the PDF collection of voting incentive images, and the results are finally assembled! This new PDF volume contains all the voting incentives from 2011 all the way to 2017 (including some that never even ran) in a print-ready high resolution! That’s almost 200 pages of stuff! So if you’d like to buy a copy, please do!
As for this comic…
One might be tempted to ponder the ramifications of a world where cosplay cat girls exist alongside real dog girls, but I’m personally going to seriously resist that temptation. Readers, however, are free to ponder away at their leisure.
Well the Bulbasaur flower pots, and the address being the number 42 are pretty obvious. I think the mannequin on the left might be dressed like Cloud from FF7, but it’s hard to tell with heads and a dialogue box in the way. I don’t know what the right mannequin is dressed as and I’m not aware of what “nerd cafe, nerd clothing, nerd paraphenalia emporium” is a reference to anything. Is the catgirl being named Emily a reference to Emily the Strange?
that mannequin is Tidus from FFX
w8 nvr mind, that yellow is part of the sign, yeah that’s cloud.
You see that crazy hair, though, and you KNOW it’s from a Square game.
It was the left shoulder that convinced me it was definitely Cloud. Nothing like anime protagonist hair to make a character easy to identify.
You’re three for four. The right mannequin is the one that still needs identification. (I’m surprised you got Cloud right. We can barely even see that one!)
So that’s a no on Emily the Strange. It was a stretch anyways.
No to Emily the Strange. If I were going for that, I’d totally be giving her black hair.
is that junko enoshima on the right?
Good eye.
My bf’s #1 son played FF7. and he tried to describe Cloud and the other characters to me to me, but I lost interest after the first hour. I don’t play console games, so I guess I’ll never know. I seem to recall somebody named Sephiroth and the words, “You, Cloud, are a puppet” , though.
I never really got into Square games. I played the first Final Fantasy game, then gave up near the end because it was almost impossible without a white mage. (They let you choose your party at the very beginning of the game, but don’t tell you that your choices can have profoundly horrible effects on you much later in the game. But whatever. It was RPGs in their infancy.)
The short version is that Cloud has been lying to himself so long he forgot who he really is, and Sephiroth uses that to confuse Cloud making about 1/4 of the game the most annoying emo nonsense I’ve ever put up with. Also, in the most well known twist in gaming history Sephiroth kills your healer halfway through the game.
Personally I think 5 has a far superior story and 6 has better gameplay. If you really want something like 7 but better, 9 hits similar plot points and characters while having a much better story, graphics, and gameplay. Although Suikoden, and its elephant dragons, will always have a bigger impact on me than any Final Fantasy game.
Um, thanks. Ooh, a shiny dime!
Why is 42 significant?
It’s the answer to Life, The Universe, and Everything in Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
You and me both Colin
It’s a common weakness.
I was just thinking… her statement applies to far too many of us. >.>
A good many, at the very least.
One hot catgirl away from agreeing to anything… as a member of the Male half of the species I would like to say that’s insulting….
But it’s true….
@DLKmusic
Truth.
HOT CAT GIRL
Okay, “Hot Cat Girl” does not compute. I asked my bf and he gave me that “You’re drunk and on the internet again aren’t you?” look. Well, maybe a little drunk. Okay, a lot. But I still can’t visualize a “hot cat girl”. But if Colin is attracted to them, maybe better not. 😛
It’s okay. I visualized one for you.
Is that the one in the strip? Because if I saw her in our town, or even Dallas, I would think that the asylum was on spring break.
Your community is, I take it, fairly unused to those who visibly deviate from social norms.
Got it in one 😉
here ya go, Salem!
(been so long since I coded HTML, I hope I did that right
well, close, but no cigar…
We only deal in hard truths here.
Aren’t we all?
Well, there are the hot cat girl detractors out there, so I wouldn’t say ‘all’. But I will say ‘almost all’.
Guilty of being a (moderate) detractor. Never saw much in cat-girl cosplay/role play/sex play/etc.. Too weird for my tastes.
Now, green skin, three boobs, and Spock ears….:P
Three is objectively too many.
@EG
I agree.
Three EARS is one too many.
Like that creepy woman in “Total Recall?” *Ewwwwww…*
I second the “eww” on that one. It’s one of those scenarios where quantity is not the same as quality.
Sexy (?) cat girls aside, I think we can all agree that Phoebe dressed in that little Valentine’s Day outfit would be darn near worth selling your soul over!
Outstanding work there, EG! (I’m surprised the wife let you do it!) 😉
You assume I asked permission.
You ought to see some of the women my bf paints. Okay, some of them are me, some are his sleazy models.
The thing I find interesting is that the Valentine’s incentive is probably the least implausible item of clothing that Phoebe has ever worn. After careful and repeated examination, it seems obvious to me that that could exist in the real world.
Well, I did look up some ref pics of Merry Widows. Purely for research purposes, of course. But I did try to keep the garment semi-plausible without the use of tape.
It’s, I guess, a fine line between young nerd and dirty old man.
Not so fine. I live with one of the latter, and I can tell you that there is absolutely no resemblance 😛
Well, I feel this whole dichotomy needs to be broken down further. One can be…
-A young nerd
-A dirty old man
-A dirty young man
-An old nerd
-A dirty young nerd
-A nerdy dirty old man
I think that’s all the permutations. But nerdiness and dirtiness and age are not necessarily interconnected.
All young men are dirty young men.
As a man who is still fairly young, I can confirm that. Although I can also confirm that all old men are dirty old men, and I’m not yet old enough to personally experience that.
Maybe it’s a bit too much “benefit of the doubt”, that I’m giving, here, but I think there’s 16 options, not 6, based on 4 ‘binary’ labels:
1)__young/old
2)__nerdy/(or not)
3)__dirty/clean(?)
4)__male/female (let’s not be sexist, here)
…rendering a total of (2*2*2*2 =2^4 =16) permutations, some of whom (obviously) will be somewhat more…
…”socially adept”…
…than others.
I think Colin passed that threshold a long time ago.
One of the charms of this series is that nothing supernatural is ever explained [*], it all simply is. And yet the existence of cosplay makes the acceptance of our three central women partly reasonable. Perhaps Emily simply thinks Daphne is a serious dog cosplayer, just as the Howler’s clientele accept Phoebe’s exceptional extras as costuming (except perhaps under romantic circumstances under which they aren’t thinking with their brain parts anyway).
[*] Phoebe’s mom excepted, but we already knew she was super natural IRL.
Phoebe’s mom’s explanation, by the way, is not even correct. We may eventually find that out within the context of the comic. I’m retconning that one to provide even less explanation.
She’s just jelling, because puppy girls like her don’t get the love.
I believe that Jackal women like Daffy are called kits, but pups may be okay. I really don’t wanna know. 😛
I support the ‘kit’ title. Though Daphne’s certainly on the cusp of adulthood, meaning there’s a different term that can come into play. I suppose if she’s got some fox blood in her, we could use the term ‘vixen’, but somehow I think the other term would likely be more scientifically accurate.
A murder of crows
A murmuration of starlings
A fluther of jellyfish
A larceny of Daffies
😛
Well, nothing’s stopping her from wearing a pink wig.
Except a low nausea threshold? 😛
Awwww….
Emily’s sexy formal Gloves have little CAT EARS on their top ends.
I figure that the FRONT of her outfit has CAT EYES to match, in the appropriate places (heh heh heh).
It does not. But the cat ears at the tops of the gloves (and probably at the tops of the tights) are an actual thing I’ve seen girls wear. I am NOT making those up.
EG = Capt’n Buzzkill
🙁
I had to turn on the magnifier to see the cat ears. As a result I wish at this time to tell Colin that Emily Catgirl’s eyes are on Daffy, not him (sorry to burst your bubble, Col) and also that if Emily Catgirl wants to really cosplay a cat, she should comb her revoltingly pink hair over her human ears. 😛
“The eyes are UP HERE buster!!!”
@rewinn
It is pretty unlikely that two cats – “bonding” – can have their eyes meet.
Howevah – my human pet “Baldie” tells me it is highly desirable if two HUMANS meet each other’s gaze during such events.
But my other human pet, “Janet”, is quite rarely drunk enuff to do so.
Poor Baldie !
So the question becomes; would Colin buy Puck a kitty-set … and would she wear it for him? 😉
The answer to your questions are (a) yes, but only if he didn’t value his life, and (b) no.
@Rock
You say what I was thinkin’ !
Robin needs the Ears, Collar, Wrist Fur Rings, Drawn-On Whiskers, and a TAIL !
That would be BEST INCENTIVE EVAH !
“wrist fur rings?” *shudder* Never mind, I don’t wanna know. *mutters something about “the wilder shores of love”*
I’m pretty sure they’re just fuzzy bracelets that fit the aesthetic and not what you’re thinking.
@Marduk
Of course !
This HOT CAT GIRL is wearing them.
I wonder what Susan thinks they are.
I’d like to know…. 🙂
@Salem: Just keep wondering. Curiosity killed a cat, you know.
Susan, sometimes the answer is worth the risk.
Note the direction of Taylor’s gaze in panels 3 – 4… :p
I always have fun with Tyler’s eyes. He is a fine, upstanding young man on the surface, but the direction of his gaze always gives him away.
At his age, there are several bodyparts that just seem to do their own thing all of a sudden.
Happens at my age too.
But it’s not sudden anymore, is it? 😉
Age has certainly not slowed me. For better or for worse.
I meant more that it doesn’t come as a surprise anymore. ^_^
Is it bad I was able to read what the sign said in the first panel? (The small text, I mean).
I like how Tyler’s just going “Hey she’s something I’d probably tap” in panels 3 and 4.
I’m going out on a limb and saying that Emily is gonna be a minor character (shows up for a while, disappears, re-appears and everyone goes “wait who’s that?”)
Did make me chuckle, however.
I recognized Bulbasaur, the left mannequin looks like Cloud (Final Fantasy VII), the right one looks vaguely familiar though I’m not sure from where.
Also, yes, hot cat girls (cosplay) is perfectly fine in a world where there’s humanoid dog creatures. Seriously, that’s the least of my concerns in regards to the Puck comic.
Glad you could read the text, actually. So much detail is lost due to sizing.
No one has yet correctly identified the right mannequin, even though (hint!) it’s currently one of the record holders for the most popular female cosplay choices.
And now I want to hear the greatest of your concerns in regards to the Puck comic. Because I’m curious.
Greatest concern when it comes to Puck comics? That, one day, you’ll lay down and be unable to continue. It’s my favorite web comic (which I’ve already said before).
As for things in-universe of Puck: my biggest concern is probably the Mayor (read: Satan) quitting his job. Rare as he may be, he’s one… I dunno. Probably terrible leader. Or amazing. One of them.
I originally imagined Satan as being an awful mayor, but honestly, I now kind of imagine that he’s not that bad. His mind has fallen down a Tracee-sized hole, and perhaps his leadership has become one of benign neglect.
As for your greatest concern, I kind of share it. I’ve been very close to burn-out point over the past year. But I’m trying my best to keep going.
I was more referring to you ending up in a grave. That kind of concern. Burn out, while a problem, is possible to recover from. A grave, however, is SLIGHTLY harder… (I haven’t tried, but I’d imagine so at least).
In case you get close to burn out: just make a post saying you need to take a break from Puck for a while in order to recover. Doubt anyone would mind it. Rather have a healthy comic creator rather than a burned out one.
The right mannequin gave me a real strong “Misa from Death Note” vibe, but the reference images I looked up show a few differences, and are likely the same images you’d have used as a reference, so perhaps not. 🙁
Junko Enoshima from Danganronpa. Close.
Ah. I wouldn’t have gotten that one then. Never seen it. 🙁
do the other nerds here think that Daphne is cosplaying as a hot dog girl?
Maybe? I personally think that this world accepts the physical variants of the three female leads as normal-ish, and they don’t really feel the need to explain away the oddness.
So her bio-dad is Puck’s shrink???
Ok, it’s time. The rest of you had your chance.
EMILY is the FIRST new, speaking Female Character since HEATHER ! That’s nearly four years.
I predict that Daphne is going to need to “STEP UP HER GAME” – and SOON !!
I don’t think Emily is a direct threat to Daphne. I’m going to guess (and my guesses are canon!) that Emily’s a university student, and thus probably a good five years older than Tyler. And while five years is not a big age difference (my wife’s five(ish) years older than me), it’s a pretty monumental difference when one is fifteen.
The prom story arc is coming up, though, and that will introduce another new minor female character. Who WILL initiate a stepping up of someone’s game. Kind of. You’ll see.
Tracee wasn’t the last new female speaking role, though. That was actually Anita Chowdhury. Who may, at some point WAY in the future, return. But not right now.
Who is Anita Chowdhury again? ^^;
Pick 328
My bad
Oh, and I forgot the ice cream sprinkles girl! And the receptionist at the cancer hospital! And the ultrasound tech! And the nurse! And the anesthesiologist! And man, you missed a bunch of them!
Social worker at The amusement park.
Piker, I’m a lot more than five years younger than my bf. In fact, I am just one month older than his elder son. I call him my adopted twin, which makes his wife sore. She does not approve of me, to put it mildly, and she likes my bf, which makes it worse (for her). And she just had an offspring, which puts her like forty pounds heavier than me. Thanksgivings are so much fun! 😛
@EG
NO
I was specific in that the character must have a NAME.
I don’t believe even the Surgeon was even given a name – and he’s not female, either.
So there.
Surgeon’s name is Dr. Plessner. He’s even in the character profiles now.
@EG
I can’t be right all the time.
But it would be nice to be right once.
New + Female + Name + Speaking = Anita Chowdhury
woooo junko enoshima cosplay i just love danganronpa
Wow. Someone got it!
No wonder I didn’t recognize it. I’ve never owned a PSP (my last portable console was a used Gameboy Advanced) so I didn’t get into the danganronpa series.
Neither did I. But I can’t escape the cosplay.
I like the Bulbasaur-flowerpots. 🙂
I am glad.
Seconded – they are fun 🙂
I have to agree though I’m more of 2 hot catgirl or catboys away…gotta have standards.
Well, quantity does matter.
“You’re always just one hot cat girl away from agreeing to anything aren’t you?” Daphne. . . One, of course, and short of fame and fortune there is no better reason. Two, move it already, you’re in my way and you’re obstructing the view!
You know the male psyche so well.
Any girl over the age of 13 knows the male psyche well enough. Women my age know it all too well
I’m sorry that you’ve had to put up with it for so long.
Beats having to put up with the female psyche, believe you me, I work with four of them.
Well, that’s certainly a valid point. My wife works in an almost all-female organization and her work life is certainly often fraught with complex interpersonal conflict and drama. The male psyche is broken and barely functional, but at least it’s relatively predictable. The female psyche is like that car that usually works just fine, but every once in a while the brakes cut out, or it’s prone to sudden acceleration.
So we got……
cloud on the left
Junko Enoshima (I’m assuming) on the right
Bulbasaur in flower pot form (I want this)
and the fourth is….. still looking.
SO CLOSE!
god dam it. Hitchhiker guide to the galaxy…… so obvious.
The answer to the ultimate question: 42.
Fun fact. I once found a math proof that actually explained that 42 is fact NOT the answer. I can not longer find the site that has the proof but I do remember that it involves golden ratios.
Um, because it’s silly?
Well, Slartibartfast once said that he suspected that the answer and the question could not simultaneously exist in the same universe, so…
Since it appears that no one has said it yet, the right hand mannequin is “Suicide Squad” Harley Quinn. Because “Batman: TAS” Harley would have been a much easier guess, I presume.
No it’s not, I’m out of my mind. Forget I said anything.
*waves hand*
“These aren’t the droids you’re looking for.”
Does Hot Cat Girl Emily and Grandma
MacTavish use the same Hair Stylist ?
No. The bangs are different, as are the weird anime-style long sideburn tentacles.
(Late-Breaking Thought):
Daphne’s final ‘snark’ from the previous page?
I was reminded that I used to work in a gaming-store, & OUR version of that put-down used a “100-sided die”. It usually sold as a novelty-item for the ‘n00bs’, because the hard-core gamers would take one look at it & understand that it would take FOREVER to come to a rest when rolled (as opposed to rolling a pair of D10’s).
This ‘100-sided snark’ also had (for us, at-least) a touch of nostalgia to it, because fitting that many facets on a single die made it resemble a golf-ball…
(…about the same size, too…)
…which in-turn reminded us of “Foghorn Leghorn”, & his famous assessment:
“…th’boy is ’bout as sharp as a bowlin’-ball!”
You used to work in a gaming store? That makes you a top tier nerd.
I was hired, not for my gaming-skills, but for my facility with “3D-Dissection” puzzles…
…& my ability to unlock “Linked-Ring” puzzles while they were behind my back – by touch alone…
…we also sold jigsaw-puzzles of 16,000 pieces in a single picture…
…the list goes on-&-on…
My fave Foghorn Leghorn line: “These are jokes, boy, jokes. I keep laying them down but you aren’t picking them up.”
On a different note, how is it possible that Daphne identifies as ‘Canine’, & yet Colin is MORE of a ‘Dog’ than HER???!?
(…using a “James Earl Jones”-voice…)
“The Sleaze is Strong in this one.”
Colin is not a dog. Colin doesn’t really act on any of his leering. So if he is a dog, he’s more akin to an old, fat dog who doesn’t chase sticks anymore but does wag his tail when you throw one.
Yeah, I thought my bf was harmless till I showed up at his place one night. Not a good assumption at all, girls, even if they have some gray in their hair.
@Susan
Harmless would have been a Major Disappointment.
😛
Yeah. Imagine my (pleasant) surprise. And he cooked me dinner first!
Aside from 42 (I didn’t think of that one at first, well played), the other references don’t seem terribly nerdy to me; Pokemon and Final Fantasy are pretty mainstream these days. For the last one, I’m surprised you didn’t go for Lisa or Maya over Ann.
Scratch that last one, I’m a pleb.
Well, I wasn’t going for TOO obscure. Just … varied.
Weather update: It is 68F, here going to get up to 71 today. Oh, I see that it is 30F in Hamilton. Sorry to hear…
It was 13 C today. That’s about 56F. So … not THAT far from your temps. In fact, I was walking around this afternoon without a jacket. Though it’s the weird time of year here where it can be 28F in the morning and then jump to 65F by noon, so you can never get too comfortable. And they wonder why are roads are always falling apart.
It might be in the 60s here, but after 14 inches (about 35.6 cm for those weird metric users north of the border) of rain I don’t really care about the temperature.
Bulbasaur plant pots? *Happy squeal* I emitted another squeal, Hot Cat Girl Emily just became my favorite character. I have Latent coolness too or not enough nerd, it’s one of them 🙂
P.S Can I ask about Daphne’s top?
Daphne’s top is … Daphne’s top? There’s no real secret to the phrase. It is what it is.
I betting EMILY is actually a CAT.
(but we would need to remove just a bit more of her clothing just to be sure)
PURRRRRRRR
Jackals have four sets of teats. Just sayin’
@Susan
The possibilities…… 😛
RE: Voting Incentive
Real Nice !
Nice Blouse-Pucker between Robin’s girls.
Well, glad you approve.
As far as FASHION SENSE goes, it is DAPHNE who is the NERD.
Emily is 100% conscious of every aspect of her appearance; is poised and confident. NOT A NERD.
@Salem. A geek but not a nerd? Possible. I’ve never seen anyone dressed like that outside a ComicCon in my life. Glad I wasn’t there. My eyes would have bugged, my jaw would have dropped, and I would have broken down laughing, shaming myself forever. I would even have stopped clutching my purse, afraid Daffy would snatch it.
A Colin fetish perhaps? 😉
Well, we already know he has a thing for freckles. He might have a thing for cat ears. Though really, I think that Colin, like me, just has a thing for women.
Beats the alternative, IMHO 😛
Cloud: FF7, 42: Hitchhiker’s Guide, Bulbasur plant pots: Pokemon.. Junko from Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc
That’s all of them. You win the belt.
WooHoo! Hehe to be honest, the first one I noticed was Junko <Mainly because I've recently been watching Danganronpa LP's… THEN I noticed the Bulbasaur, then Cloud in panel 3… I was gonna suggest Hello Kitty, because of the girl in the Cat outfit… but then noticed the store # and read some of the comments…
What really sucks now is, I'm all caught up… I read this, from #1… took me like 3 days…
Heh, join the crowd 😛
Well, that actually makes me feel good to hear that it took a few days to go through the archive. I’ve had people say “I read all the comics in an hour,” and it makes me feel really small, because a decade of work is consumed in minutes. Oh well.
Try helping with a six-hour surgery and have the patient die the next day. Talk about feeling small and useless… 🙁
Susan, that’s pretty harsh, but such is the chaos of life.
Nice. Should be interesting to get inside. Also, will the cat girl be a recurring character? (Or at least get, erhm, enough time to see her… face?)
Maybe? There seems to be a lot of call for her to reappear.
CAT & GIRL = THE BEST
DOG & GIRL = THE WURST
Well, I’m going to Anime Boston next week. That would up my nerd cred, but it was cheap and a woman is involved.
Hey, that’s more nerdy than anything I’ve ever done. I bow to you, sir.
I don’t even know who the other Star Wars bounty-hunters are.
But I tend to have my own headcannons. I’m lousy with them.
“Natty” mean anything else to people but overly tangled, ungroomed hair on a person of African descent?
It means ‘smart and fashionable’. At least it did a few decades ago.