NEW VOTING INCENTIVE! INFINITY WAR TOPICAL CASH-IN!
It’s a little tease of a bonus comic I may be actually expanding upon later, so …
VOTE FOR PUCK AND LIVE THE GOOD LIFE!!!
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…
I doubt anyone would actually notice this, but the framing of this comic sort of half-intentionally echoes Puck 114 where a somewhat similar scenario played out. Though looking at that comic next to this one really hammers home how much those old Puck comics kind of look like trash. Oh well. At least the jokes are still kind of funny.
TBH, after this sequence I think Tyler would be better off finding a less psychotic girl to ask to prom, and to hang out with in general.
The old strip doesn’t look so bad, but your art has certainly improved. Questionable Content is the classic for being able to pick 5 strips and say “Jesus, did the same artist draw all of these?” e.g. Faye’s first appearance http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3 and her latest http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=3731
Well, that QC example (to my mind) is more of a complete style overhaul. With my stuff, you can tell that I’m still basically going for the same style, but the execution was sloppier.
Honestly, I kind of wouldn’t mind doing a complete style overhaul myself, but I don’t think I’m good enough to pull it off without getting readers angry. I’d love to hook toward a more cartoony, stylized look – if only because it’s way easier to draw. As it is, I still struggle to draw my characters every single time, every single panel. I’m just not good enough to pull off the look I’m going for.
Fans get angry about change no matter how good you are. I don’t want to get angry, so please don’t change the style 😛
Well, the other option is just to end the comic and start a different one. Sometimes that gets people less angry.
Don’t change a hair for me,/ Not if you care for me. *puppy dog eyes*
Says the lady who asks me every week to forever remove Daphne from the comic. 😉
@EG
Check THIS out.
A very simple style, even with no coloring, can still be effective.
If it were simple enough, you could post TWICE a week, and still save time.
As good as the art is, I keep coming back for the story.
The beauty of the old Archie style is its simplicity. I do love it.
@EG
As much as we all love elaborate artwork, the STORY is always the key.
I think of old Comic Books.
The covers were glorious !
The stories – well – if the story POPPED the artwork did not need to be “Da Vinci”.
The backgrounds are especially unnecessary.
But hey, I could be wrong.
We fans want to be entertained, but realize the CREATOR must be motivated, too.
Well, the big snag with webcomics is the production quality versus production quantity thing. If I were smart, I would produce a comic that involved no drawing. Rather, I would assemble panels from pre-drawn images and crank out one a day. As it is, I do it the old (wrong) way of drawing things out on paper. I’m a dinosaur!
@EG
Consider my “Archie” example.
Any background would only DETRACT !
Sometimes “LESS IS MORE”.
Not to remove her. Just maim her, preferably where she couldn’t speak any more. Is that asking so much?
I can’t know what look you’re going for, but I’m very fond of the look you’ve achieved. That in mind, I don’t think I’d freak out over a stylistic change, if the overall quality stayed.
The QC example is good, but jeph has changed his drawing style over a long time to what he mades today. I’ve read every new webcomic from the first to the last panel. At QC there were many to read. It took my also a few weeks to accomplish that task. But, if you read the comments of the drawer, he mentioned sometimes that he uses new software to draw, or changed minor things here and there…
At puck electric gecko had his drawing style already accomplished. But as we can see, he gained much more experience. I like the drawings from Puck, because they look very good. And it is today really rare that someone’s drawing it completely by hand and not using pre drawn snippets.
Keep on going with the style of puck, I like it. ^^
Well, thanks for the vote of confidence.
I like my own style when it works. My issue is that I’m not really very consistent. In any given comic, there’s always one panel that I like, and another panel that I like a little less, and a panel that looks absolutely awful. If I had the time, I’d redraw the bad one, but I really don’t have the time.
I am not the only webcomic that still has art drawn and inked on actual paper, but I’m one of the last. We’re a dying breed.
Nothing like starting into the abyss to drum up hypothetical situations, amiright?
And the hypothetical abyss stares back into your hypothetical soul.
Well, danger is its own motivator.
We’re gonna need a”hypothetical” counter.
No more hypotheses after this comic. I promise.
Hypotenuse?
I suppose it depends on whether Tyler alias Taylor hypothetically asks someone else.
Well, this hypothetical ask didn’t go so well, so another ask might hypothetically happen with someone else.
Phooh. I wouldn’t have let him take me to the Malt Shop. assuming we had one of those. We do have a Polar Bear. 😛 I’d wait until somebody who was at least on the Varsity Baseball Team. Basketball and Football outrank them, of course.
Have you ever actually had a malt? Them things is DELICIOUS. They’re one of the things from the past that have fallen out of favor that I mourn the loss of. There are two dairy places in southern Ontario (both a few hours away from me) that make real malts. Every summer, I look for an excuse to drive out there for one. Worth the gas. And the calories.
Every Christmas visit to the family in Norway, I make a point of enjoying a Coke with sugar instead of corn syrup. Does Canada have sugar or corn syrup in their pop?
I really don’t know. I think Coke has the corn syrup stuff, though I think that the company’s been running a line of sugar-flavored Coke for a while now, so you could try that? I don’t really care. I think the ‘corn syrup/sugar’ difference is mostly psychological, and furthermore, I don’t really drink sweetened beverages anymore. I can barely afford to eat my calories, let alone drink them. I drink water, tea and coffee, the latter two with a small amount of low fat milk. My life is mostly devoid of joy.
The Dr. Pepper Museum in Waco served DP with the original cane syrup recipe. But, yeah, not as good as a malt from Polar Bear. Or Scotch
alot of mexican sodas use cane syrup
What about the Mexican Coke?
@EG
I’m sorta’ happy McDonalds resurrected the ancient New England FRAPPE.
I say sorta’ because all these Fast Food beverages are so expensive, that I’ve never tried one.
What about Varsity Water Polo players? Where do they rank?
Right below band members 😛
So, hypothetically speaking, what could the alt-text for this comic be?
WHAT THE HELL?!? I wrote an alt-text and everything and now it’s gone! I don’t know what happened there. I’ll put it back in.
It’s OK, I must be one of the other eight…
The voting incentive has me picturing Karen Gillan as Puck.
Numerous people have identified Karen Gillan as good casting for Puck. I guess I can see it? Kind of? I feel like Karen Gillan is (a) too tall, and (b) too nice-looking. She just looks like a nice girl. Though the Nebula makeup really does help to make her look a little more imposing.
@EG THIS would be such a good look for Robin.
‘Specially the Ankle Padlock.
SHINEY!!
Here’s hopping everyone had a WONDERFUL WALPURGIS last nite !
I reunited with loads of Olde Fiends on the Brocken.
Even Satan (Mel to his friends), and TRACEEE were there, Kickin’ their Heels (or kicking someone).
SIX MONTHES TO HALLOWEEN !
PIC
Is it intentional that the alt-text just reads “Puck 440” or did you just not think of an alt-text? No offense, just honestly curious.
I had some vague feeling that I had read a similar plot some time ago until I read the description and re-read the old comic. “Oh right, that brings me back” was my only thought after I chuckled about it.
The alt-text got all messed up somehow. I wrote an alt-text, then it got deleted. Somehow.
@EG
Heh Heh….
I asked Satan to do that as a traditional “Walpurgis Trick” to you.
Hopefully he’ll not require some vital organ as payment – this time.
🙁
At Satan’s age, I can imagine that the organ he demanded would be the prostate 😛
@Susan
Heh Heh….
Joke’s on Satan – I’m fixed !
(tho i was neva really broken – damn my human pet, Baldie !)
Joke’s on you if you think that vets remove the prostate in a neutering operation. It’s just a biltateral orchiectomy. Why do you think you are so fixated on Tracee? 😛
@Susan
Oh Oh
Oh Susan, I found a good reference for younger disentigration look.
Calvin with frozen boogers.
I don’t recognize Calvin’s existence. I would rather let Daffy live to be two hundred than acknowledge that little monster. 😛
Oh, and, hypothetically, where would Colin get the money to lose in a pyramid scheme? Embezzle the Hamilton High faculty lounge coffee fund?
@Susan
Next Arc: Colin in Prison.
Who saw that coming ?
No one.
Well, we also don’t know what ‘a lot of money’ is to Colin. I personally suspect we’re talking around thirty-six bucks.
@EG
Canadian ?
Yes. So, like, three dollars American.
That IS a lot of ice cream
Will Daphne put her foot down and say, “I’m not going to go to the prom unless someone asksl asks me.”
I’m not sure she’d go, even if she were properly asked. I think the ideal situation in her mind is to be properly asked, so that she can properly turn it down.
Poor Colin! He almost looks like he’s about to go crackers!
I think that’s just his normal state of being.
personally, I like the look of Puck. Backgrounds, characters, composition, etc… But, I just read it, I don’t have to labor over it.
I also like QC, but IMHO the style of Puck has more in common with old school comics, Lil Abner, Pogo, (and yes) Archie. If I were going to channel someone for Puck I’d be more inclined to have a seance with Walt Kelly or Al Capp than Jeph… (I also think the 1st gen QC art is the most interesting, so what the hell do I know?) Your characters drive the piece, so what ever make YOU happiest in terms of art will likely appeal to the vast majority of the readers. My $0.02, that and $4.93 will get you a malted (your costs and results may vary).
I am flattered by the comparisons to the old comics. It might have something to do with the fact that I still draw on paper with pencils and ink.
And honestly, I kind of like the old QC look too.
Is Tyler smiling in panel 1, as if he now feels free to ask the cat girl from the nerd shop?
He may have felt obliged to ask Daphne and may even have wanted her to agree, but there are plenty of less manipulative fish in the sea.
Well, he’s just a happy guy. And I think he didn’t really expect Daphne to say yes. But there IS a plan. No cat girl involved.
@EG
I’ll bet PHOEBE would “prom” TYLER.
Or Colin.
If you think there’s going to be a prom arc where I don’t hatch a paper-thin excuse to get all of the main characters at the dance, then you have another think coming.
@EG
But do leave Daphne HOME ALONE.
Just imagine the JOY that would bring to Susan !
Only if the “Home” was mortgaged by Colin for his “Pyramid Scheme.” 😛 “We’re here to repo this joint”
“Wait, I have to hide all the heroin and amphetamines and smuggled elephant tusks and rhino horns.”
“Nobody puts Baby Daphne in a corner”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_siGxV69MhQ
There sure are a lot of Bad Prom Possibilities to choose from: https://www.thewrap.com/best-movie-prom-scenes-carrie-back-to-the-future-blockers-photos/
Though Daphne puts Baby in the corner. She once wore a shirt saying so.
Um . . . Daphne . . . you’ve known Colin how many years and yet your eyes go open at this revelation? Which is endearing and cute, but still!
Not sure it’s exactly a revelation for Daphne. Rather, it’s a difference of experience between Puck and Daphne. Daphne holds guys to a standard that is a bit lofty because her resolve and her patience haven’t been worn down yet. Puck, on the other hand, is all too familiar with the failings of menfolk and so her standards are much, much lower.
I think both Puck AND Daphne would agree that Tyler’s weak hypothetical ask was insufficient. Daphne demands more. Puck, though, realizes this is what she’s going to get, and takes that for what it is.
Puck No.114 is GREAT !
Not inferior to No.440 in any way (IMHO).
Did it take less time to make than No.440 ?
It probably took more time than No. 440 because I was still relatively new to the whole webcomic process. That was in 2011. It was a while ago.
@EG
I’m going to stop now, because I just don’t want it taken the wrong way.
But, as I’ve said, I think you could dial WAYYYYYYYY BACK on the art, and Puck would still flourish with the story.
It might. I really don’t know. I really don’t know why readers read it because so few of them comment. You comment, and a handful of others comment too. But the number of people I hear from numbers about, oh, ten? Twenty? The number of unique visitors is much, much higher, but to be honest, it’s been consistently dropping for the past 18 months. Fewer and fewer readers are coming. The comic might be functionally dead soon. I’ve tried to be consistent in my output and reliable in my product, but clearly whatever I’m doing right now is not ‘doing it’ for people as much anymore.
EG, you know I love the comic (I mean, what’s a good comic without somebody you hate? Of my utter faves, besides Puck, “Pre-Teena” has Jeri, whom I loathe, “Bad Machinery” has Blossom, awful creature, “Retail” has Stewart, “Peanuts” has Lucy, “Wallace the Brave” has Spud, and “On the Fastrack” has Ms. Trellis). Even “Phoebe and Her Unicorn” has Dakota. Gotta have foil for the likable characters, right? So all us fans can complain and discuss the characters. If you want my honest opinion, I’d bet that your readership fell off because of the Big C storyline, which you commented on. I suspect that the current one will get things back on track. Incidentally, “The Buckets” now has Dad with what I know is phlebitis, maybe DVT, so we’ll see how that Anyway, it’s your strip, but I would hate to see it go. PS, have you checked out some of the comment sections on some other comics? Like Arlo and Janis? Bleah.
Well, if the comments section on Arlo and Janis is anything other than people freaking out about the intense boredom they feel while reading Arlo and Janis, then there is no God. I’m a big fan of many print strip comics, but that is not one I see the merit in. It slips through on the standard print comic merit that states, “If you suck but offend no one, you will remain in popular syndication forever.”
You’re right in that it was probably the big C story arc. This current prom arc is 100% fluffy nonsense, so hopefully some people will come back? I don’t know.
Too many comics are all about low stakes and playing it safe. [see Bill Watterson’s comments on the “Real” dinosaurs of the comics page] Here, I LOVED the ‘Funderland’ arc with it’s vomit, crime, alleged child neglect, and public indecency!! THOSE are stakes! BUT!! My experience is that audiences are tough to come by these days for ANYTHING that isn’t a “sure thing”. I am fortunate to work with an extremely wide range of productions, and it is tough for even very, very good shows, be it music, theater, dance, and all sorts of stuff between, to draw an audience. “Hamilton” will pack a venue (and don’t get me wrong, Hamilton is a great show) because it is a ‘known good’. There is no risk in attending. A more cynical person would add, no need for one to THINK and draw their OWN conclusions about the show…
Good comics require some commitment of time in that one needs to read a few strips to understand the characters and the world they inhabit AND some thought on the part of the reader. People seem reluctant to do that without some outside assurance that the ‘investment’ will pay off. So, not only is there a smaller pool of readers overall, BUT there is a catch 22 in there that it is tough to attract readers without having a good sized body of readers already singing your praises to reassure other potential readers that they will like the strip (band/show/dance/wrestling match/holo-puppets/weasel rodeo). Makes it extremely tough on artists in general. (although there are some signs that things MAY be improving on that front) Again, one mutant’s opinion…
You are very, very, VERY right. But the creative market’s always kind of functioned that way, I think: a few ‘known goods’ that are trumpeted and promoted over a bunch of equally good (sometimes legitimately superior) creators who toil in obscurity. Groupthink is a powerful force in the world. I will say that the internet has helped a little. I mean, once upon a time, I (A) would never be able to get an audience of any type, and (B) never would have seen a dime from my work. Now, thanks to the magic of the internet, I have a small audience and see several dimes from it. It’s not much, but it’s better than the kick in the ass and a shove out the door I would have been given in the 80’s.
Comics are a hard sell anymore, especially the kind I’m doing. The character-based humor means you actually need to know the characters. That takes an investment of time. People are guarded with their time, sometimes even more so than their money. And I get that. That’s why it’s always doubly scary for me when I start losing readers: it’s twice as hard for me to get new ones compared to a simple gag-a-day comic.
No matter what, though, I appreciate your steadfast loyalty. And your excellent taste. 😉
I always say “theoretically” because, you know, it sounds more scientific, or something.
But ‘theoretically’ implies that you may put it into practice soon. ‘Hypothetically’ implies less purpose. More of a philosophical musing, if you will. So you sound more scientific with your ‘theoretically’, but I sound more Socratic with my ‘hypothetically’. Not sure which one is better…
@EG
I’m very happy with the status quo.
But … if you’re not dial back the art and ramp up the tale.
Statistically, the hypotension should be squatted the square of the sums of the two Los.
Hey, I sing your praises all the time. Particularly compared to those awful comics like “Frivoliesque” that I would have never known about without you. Meh, I still don’t know much about them, except that I would *never* invite Marie-Neigh to my home. My young cousin visits.
@Susan
JEEPERS !!
Poor EG.
First she pats you on the back; next sentence she stabs you there.
Here’s a Band-Aid for you, buddy (peel and stick).
😛
Geck, you have mastered the look of a thirsty guy with your artistic skills.
That face in the first panel…lol
Not sure what I was even going for in panel one. Glad it worked, though.
And the teapot is still there.
Waiting . . .
Hey, Apollo 440 did a great job with the soundtrack to that one attempt at a “Lost In Space” movie…
WOO, SOMEONE ELSE REMEMBERED THE BAND! Seriously, I sometimes feel like I’m going crazy when I recall major cultural touchstones that no one else does. And I had no idea that they did the soundtrack to ‘Lost in Space’. I actually did not mind that movie. Though now that I remember details from it, I can say I did kind of mind it.
(Hinoron puts on his Financial Advisor hat… then remembers he’s not actually legally allowed to claim to be one unless his dual licenses are active. Nonetheless, here we go…)
Let’s talk about Pyramid Schemes for a bit. Most people know these are bad things, but don’t understand exactly what they are or how to recognize them. Also, since they’re illegal in both the USA and Canada at least, such schemes tend not to be long-lived, and have a lifespan in weeks at most. They are actually much, much less common than they used to be in the 80s when they got so much press (again, since they tend to get shut down quickly, they’re not a very profitable scam anymore).
Most lay people see a business style where you can hire your own subordinates and make some override money off them, or an organization with a few people on top making more money, and a lot of people on the bottom making much less, and assume it’s a “pyramid scheme”. Not so; that’s the shape of every single business. Hiring people to sell product for you and taking a cut of their sales is also a pretty normal aspect of any business that sells products, though when it’s a business model where anyone can hire anyone to sell their inventory for them, that’s more the realm of Multi-Level-Marketing (MLM).
Multi-Level-Marketing is not illegal, nor actually immoral or inherently a dishonest or crooked business model, however it is a system vulnerable to dishonest and crooked individuals to take advantage of wide-eyed hopefuls, so some reasonable caution is warranted when getting involved with one. The problem happens when an MLM salesperson with a garage full of inventory (say, a terribly overpriced toothpaste; it may be the best toothpaste every invented, but at $25 a tube, it’s still pretty hard to move) that they’re not having much success selling, faces a choice of trying to make 100 individual door-to-door sales to unload their product and make a profit on their investment (they had to buy that garage full of inventory with their own money)… OR convince just one other person that selling overpriced specialty products door to do is an easy way to make a fortune, get the newcomer to buy all their inventory, put it in their garage, promise to teach them all the secrets to being a great and successful salesperson… and then immediately change their phone number and disappear, leaving the hopeful newbie with a garage full of hard-to-move product, an empty wallet, and regrets.
Some people can do very well in MLM, others can’t. Good to know which you are (and to know where your upline actually lives) before you commit to that. Still not technically a Pyramid Scheme.
Here’s an example of a pitch for a very generic pyramid scheme: “Join our exclusive Membership Club! Membership is just $100, however, if you convince your friends and family to sign up too, we’ll give you half their signup fee as a bonus! So really, all you have to do to get your membership for free is find two other interested people! But wait, why stop there? Find TEN other interested people in joining our membership club, and you’ll have made an easy $400, just for talking to people about our Membership club! Feel free to keep going! You may eventually want to quit your job and just recruit members, it’s so easy!”
You see what’s happening here, or rather what isn’t? Money is changing hands, but NO real product or service is being exchanged. THAT’S what makes it a Pyramid Scheme; the absence of a product or service. “Money for nothing” is not only too good to be true, it’s also illegal.
A Ponzi Scheme, since we’re on this topic, is another type of illegal scam (specifically, it’s considered fraud) pitched as an investment that’s growing in value, but the “fund” doesn’t actually trade in shares of real businesses. Its only source of increasing value is new people being convinced to invest their money into it out of hope for their share value to rise. If no new people put money in, there’s no more increase in the funds value, and if people wise up to see this “investment” is built on nothing but smoke and empty promises, not actually invested IN anything, and begin taking their money out (IF they can; often there’s a lot of roadblocks introduced to make this more difficult) then the “investment’s” value craters rapidly (particularly once the originators at the top decide this scam has run its course and it’s time to grab their hugely inflated share value and disappear to some tropical country with weak extradition laws).
I’ve not looked too deeply into it, but I suspect a number of crypto currencies fall into this catagory… and the fact that one of them is actually called “Ponzi-coin” blows my mind (reeeealy banking on American’s short memory spans and poor education, that one).
Speaking as someone whose mother committed to selling Amway and the resulting lack of sales provided toys in the form of very handy containers for him, I’d like to say that the difference between a pyramid scheme and MLM seems tad technical.
Also, betting on Americans to keep their ideas glued to the IDEA forget the check the reality, is often a safe bet.
As one female financial YouTuber noted, the key difference between MLMs and pyramid/Ponzi schemes is mainly one of gender. It’s not always the case, but usually women succumb to the siren song of MLMs while men think they’re dumb, and men succumb to pyramid or Ponzi schemes while women see right through them.
Not sure why. But it’s worth studying.
MLM IS a valid type of business, but the person who hires you into it is supposed to TRAIN you how to sell the product, coach you to be successful, so that you have a long, productive career continuing to make override money for them (and yourself).
Unfortunately all to often, shady individuals take the fast and dishonest “short-term-solution” way to get themselves out of this business, offload their inventory onto someone else, then bail on them. This is the behavior that’s gotten MLM such a bad reputation. The business itself is fine (if challenging) but some of the people in it are real trash.
EG, I can’t say as I’ve seen any divide along gender lines myself (the friend I mentioned before who committed herself to that weird Ponzi/Pyramid hybrid was decidedly female.) Anyone can get sold on a dream for a brighter future.
Fair enough.