NEW VOTING INCENTIVE! BONUS COMIC PREVIEW!
There’s a new, exclusive bonus story arc that’s going to be contained inside Puck Volume Two! Vote for Puck on TWC this month each week to get a little preview of what’s coming!
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…
It’s rare that there is any acknowledgement in this comic whatsoever of the fact that Daphne is anything other than human, but it slips in every once in while. And by ‘once in a while,’ I mean about seven years. The last time was HERE. I don’t know what to make of the fact that only Puck ever seems to be the one to comment on Daphne’s unusual origin. Perhaps if we apply Adams’ concept of the ‘Somebody Else’s Problem Field’ to explain the whole thing, it makes sense. Daphne’s species and origin is, to most characters, obviously Somebody Else’s Problem, so they never really notice. With Puck, though, Daphne’s origin was at one time very much her problem, seeing as the furry urchin child was deposited on her very doorstep.
Either that, or it’s just that I’m inconsistent and break the rules of my own comic when it serves to deliver a punchline.
Probably the latter.
Does it matter that it seems like an inconsistency, or just that it never needed to be addressed as much as Puck moving to Canada somehow?
However, could it be possible that Tyler inadvertently asked out Daphne’s twin sister? You know the evil one that ends up taking over the world.
There’s always an evil twin. Always.
But Puck moving to Canada is pretty easy to explain. Because really, who DOESN’T want to move to Canada, eh? Eh?
@EG
Canada is the place everyone threatens to move to, and somehow never does.
Considering the caliber of those folk who make those threats, you guys luck out.
I considered it, November of 2016, but, one, decided it was a coward move, better to stay and resist, and two, couldn’t afford to move there, anyway, unless it was as a refugee, and it hasn’t gotten that bad here… yet.
Resist what? Lower taxes? Lowest record unemployment? Doubled retirement accounts?
@Mahnarch
Kidnapping, using children as political leverage, legitimizing rogue states, praising murderous madmen, giving Nazis moral equivalency, blaming victims of Nazis by saying both sides were in the wrong, obstruction of justice, alienating our closest allies, like Canada, racism, hate speech, criminality, and general evil. Resisting those things. Why do you ask?
Now now, let’s not start angry American political arguments in my comments section. I’d prefer if you leave that for your local Denny’s. Denny’s is always a good place for a fight.
Listen to the man. That’s why I quit Facebook. I like the comics much better.
Well, except “Billy Boy” which looks from the ads to be something out of a psychopath’s fantasy life.
Have always like Canada and would be glad to move there with right job. Even been to Hamilton and one of the best road Chinese places I have ever been. Worked a lot in Canada but it was TDY from Calgary to Halifax on someone else’s loonie.
Road Chinese places? That sounds awesome. Though I have to admit that the road Chinese place has probably since closed down, like so many other Chinese restaurants. I’m clinging to the few that are still in operation, because “white people Chinese food” is one of my favorite foods. (I guess I could more respectfully refer to it as ‘Canadian Chinese Food’ or ‘North American Chinese Food’, but really, it’s Chinese food for non-Chinese people. And I love it.) That old school Chinese food is no longer a cool cuisine, though, so they’re closing down, along with a lot of the Italian places because Italian is also no longer cool. Sigh. All my favorite foods are no longer in style.
What I find most amusing about American’s threatening to move to Canada, is the assumption we’d let them in. ^_^
‘Murican: “Why don’t you want me in your country? I’m a damned AMERICAN! Shouldn’t I get in by default?”
Canadian Border Official (CBO): “Let’s back up a step; WHY do you want to leave the USA?”
‘Murican: “Because our wonderful country is inexplicably full of a-holes, and now that there’s an uber-a-hole in the top seat, them regular a-holes are just gonna get more riled up and bolder, feelin’ like they can do whatever the hell they like! I don’t want to live surrounded by overconfident, entitled a-holes!”
CBO: “Neither do we. That’s why you can’t come in. NEXT!”
Frankly, we have enough a-holes up here already. We don’t need to add to the pile.
Indeed. 🙁
During the Vientam War, a lot of us moved to Canada to avoid the draft. Also, before 1900, a lot of Americans moved to Canada to avoid the draft, avoid the attentions of the U.S. Cavalry or to stay in the British Empire.
You guys have been something of safety valve and we haven’t forgotten.
I’m not sure if that’s threatening or not.
Personally, I found it really weird when people threatened to move to Canada to avoid Obanacare (What the HELL?) and I would rather not move there ’cause I don’t want to live that metric a lifestyle. English units forever, except for tour gallon. I mean, where they thinking if 1820?
Let’s be honest: Canada as it exists would not be a thing were it not for scads of United Empire Loyalists pouring into Quebec from America after the revolution. Ontario (or ‘Upper Canada’ as it was known then) was set up as a sort of ex-American refugee camp for the English-speaking homeless because the Quebecois didn’t want them around.
I don’t wanna move to Canada. Y’all have snow and ice and cold weather. I am sitting on our front porch in very little and it feels pretty good. Eh?
You can’t pull that game right now. It’s May. Come back and pull that in January. Yesterday was warm here too. One could wear very little and feel pretty good too. (Though it’s still in yo-yo season right now, so in the morning it’s chilly and in the afternoon you start sweating. So really, I guess Canada isn’t ideal after all. Sigh.)
Gecko, according to Scott Pilgrim, the summers in Canada are worse than fall in Arizona. Is that true that it’s because Canada can’t get dry heat?
I had an American friend back when I was in the animation program at Sheridan. He lived in Missouri during his childhood, but had spent his teen years in Oregon. When he got off the plane in Ontario in late August, he said he had no clue what to expect weather-wise. Then what he described as a gross, sticky wave of intense heat hit him, and he immediately had a sensory flashback to growing up in damp, swampy, hot Missouri. That’s Canadian summers, for the most part.
Canada has decent weather in two seasons only: spring and autumn. And honestly, given the choice between winter and summer, I’d have to choose winter. Winter is at least sometimes refreshing and fun. Most Canadian summers are sticky and gross from one end right to the other, and the only time it feels nice to get out is early morning and sunset. And that’s when the bugs come out to consume you.
The summers in Canada may actually be worse than the summers in Arizona.
Old joke(redacted):
Three tourists sitting at a lunch table.
First one: So, where’re you from?”
Second: Presidio, Texas
First: “Wow, I here it gets hot there.”
Second: “You hardly notice it. It;s a *dry* heat. So where’re you from?”
First: “Hamilton, Canada.” [hehe]
Second: “Wow, I hear it gets really cold, there.”
First: “You hardly notice it. It;s a *dry* cold. So, other guy, where’re you from?”
Third:”Seattle, Washington”
First and Second: “Wow. I hear it rains all the time, there.”
Third: “You hardly notice it. It;s a *dry* rain.” 😛
On that front, just as a dry heat is better than a wet heat, I can confidently tell you that the same thing applies to a dry cold versus a wet cold. When it’s just above freezing and the air is damp, you feel a bone-chilling, soul-crushing coldness all around you that feels awful. (To reference G&R, a cold November rain really, REALLY sucks.) But oddly enough, if you turn the temperature down a few degrees below zero, you suddenly feel warmer outside, because all the moisture immediately is stripped from the air by the cold.
And from what I’ve experienced of British Columbia (right next to Washington state), they do get a lot of rain, but it also practically never gets cold OR hot there, and honestly I feel like if I were given the choice between heat, cold and rain, rain would be the best choice.
Okay, I know I’m crapping on your joke, but there’s something wrong with it. Texas does NOT have a dry heat. It’s the same wet heat we get up North, but with the same terrible heat that places like Arizona has. And I had to live through that in July. Worst of both worlds. 🙁
I have never been to Texas, so I cannot say. Though I can see on the map that a big chunk of the state does seem to be coastline, so I’d imagine that would introduce some moisture into the equation.
Rivers crisscross the state too. And those add to humidity. Summers are hellishly hot, speaking from experience.
Presidio is in the Great Chihuahua Desert. It gets very-very dry there, though it is on the Rio Grande (just a trickle surrounded by cottonwoods, there.). True, it gets humid here in East Texas, but I live 630 miles away from Presidio. When you start at the Louisiana border and travel west, you lose an inch of rainfall for every 15 miles.
But, yeah, the coast is muggy. It’s a big state, like we keep saying. 😛
You and your big state. Everyone’s always going on about how big Texas is. Even up here, there are ads that claim, “It’s TEXAS BIG!” (for toast and the like) even though Ontario is almost twice as large as Texas. But if anyone ever put, “It’s ONTARIO BIG!” in an ad campaign, I don’t think it’d fly.
@Susan
LONE STAR STATE
PS: I just checked weather.com, and at the moment it is 27% humidity in Presidio 😛
Meanwhile, humidity in my area is 54% and climbing. Yay for sticky gross weather!
But Gecko, was Ontario ever it’s own country?
No. Resoundingly no. Ontario is less exciting than Texas in every conceivable way. As a resident of Ontario, I’m kind of glad for that.
Have you ever had a war with Mexico fought over you? Twice? (1836 and 1846-8) As my Daddy used to say about Mexicans, “They may not beat you, but they sure do keep a-coming on.” Santa Anna had a statue made (of himself, natch) after he lost Texas for the FIRST time, with his hand pointing North toward Texas. After he lost Texas the SECOND time, the crowds tore it down. After he sold the Gadsden Purchase to the USA, (the last addition to the continental US, the last three from former Mexican territory)they finally had enough of him and booted him out, permanently. Took ’em long enough. He lost them about 55% of their territory.
Yep. Texas: born of conflict. Ontario is born of compromise. It was a backwoods section of the Canadian colonies until the American revolutionary war, at which point Britain needed a place to send all the United Empire Loyalists that were streaming up from the newly created United States of America. Then Canada politely asked if it could be its own country, and England said yes.
There is no course more boring than pre-20th century Canadian history, IMHO.
I moved to Canada from Florida my wife is Canadian.
It is very nice here however during the election in the US I had survivor’s guilt.
Well hey, the way the trade wars are going, we might get the worst end of the stick out of this American presidency. So don’t count yourself a survivor just yet…
Yeah I will begin worry when they drop NAFTA.
Since that was the reason I was able to work in Canada so easily.
And that is why, and that is why, they call Economics “the dismal science.” Whenever I can’t sleep due to nocturnal activity, I get out my old Econ 101 textbook. Zzzz-z-z—
“during the election in the US” I am not seeing a big difference.
Bush went from 5 to 10 trillion debt. Obama from 10 trillion to almost 20 trillion. Both had similar excuses, 9-11, katrina, dot com crash, housing crash, wars in afghanistan, iraq, libya, syria, etc. And now Trump with likely much of the same.
Canada we have Trudeau lots of new debt and Ontario with much of the same.
Eventually one western country goes bankrupt and then interest rates go up and then everyone else follows.
As for trade, is a mixed bag when all the manufacturing jobs move to Mexico and China, Trump got elected in “rust belt” states, advocating left wing policies on trade (eg see G8, G20 protestors, Micheal Moore movie “roger and me”)
Kind if silly imo to get so excited when one side or other wins when both do very similar things.
I was thinking the other day about what you’re discussing, and I really think that it’s kind of a fundamental flaw of democracy. Each successive government gets in and promises low taxes along with a bunch of spending. They spend differently depending on the party, and they cut differently depending on the party, but fiscally both sides of the political spectrum manage money in the same way: poorly.
I’d love to see a party that actually matched spending to taxation on a 1-1 level. Now because I’m a left-leaning Canadian pinko, I’d be happy to see taxes raise to actually pay for the current services. Alternately you could cut services, but honestly, Canada and America (I feel) are barely functioning societies with the services we’ve got currently in place, so I don’t think slashing them further will get us very far. And I don’t believe in the ‘hidden money’ concept. Both right and left will claim that there’s wasted money just going down the drain, and if they get in power, they’ll stop that leaky faucet, but I’m not sure I buy it. A functioning society costs money. It costs more than we pay. That’s a problem.
Mind you, I realize my ideal party would lose every election because people are stupid. If you have one party saying, “Either we raise taxes or massively cut services,” and then you have another party saying, “We’re lowering taxes and improving services! SO THERE!” people will vote for party two, no matter how ridiculous their claims are.
Right now in Ontario we’re in the midst of provincial elections. We have three parties. The far left party is saying they’ll run a deficit budget, the center-left party is saying they’ll run an even bigger deficit budget, and the far right party is saying that they haven’t really come up with any solid budget, but that they’ll probably run up a big deficit too. So our choice comes down to this: how do we want to spend the money we don’t actually have?
(every 1% that US debt interest rates go up, that is another 200 billion dollars in interest, it was only 100 billion dollars when Obama started, and trend in most western countries is ever bigger hole)
“Canada and America (I feel) are barely functioning societies with the services we’ve got currently in place”
And sometimes spending more money makes them less functioning. We spend 2x as much as US on “native americans” per capita. We have several times as much of a problem with drug usage, suicide, crime, murder, etc among native americans as US.
From what I have seen, take a young jewish white boy, and instead of a job have him live on unemployment insurance and his life goes downhill, more drugs, depression, etc, similar goes with most other cultures.
We need to fix problems with money or effort or whatever rather than provide well paying jobs to “manage” problems. Eg let different groups compete in different ways to help native americans be as successful as hutterites or amish are with much less money in similar secluded colonies.
Similar with things like heath care. our governments spend extreme amounts of money to stockpile emergency medicine for a “bird flu” outbreak when Tamiflu might not even do much good. Meanwhile very little effort into looking at treatments that may be simple and effective. Eg Bird flu, Anthrax and Sheep pneumonia are all killers because lungs get full of water when immune system overreacts. With at least sheep pneumonia, rather than antibiotics, the most simple and effective way to treat is lower temp to near freezing for air breathed in, colder drier air slows down everything similar to in fridge and water does not build up but evaporates out and lamb lives… within about 30 minutes go from horrible breathing to good. But who will pay for a study on a cheap treatment that won’t make anyone rich? With drugs you get drug companies rich who in turn can help support politicians in next election.
Stuff is … complicated. And I can’t claim to have any clear solutions to complicated problems. The only simple equation is see is the ‘money in/money out’ one, and I’m of the opinion that they should match, other than in extreme scenarios.
My guilt came from the fact that some of my family and friends were experiencing the of rise of racism in the US while I was chilling in Canada.
@JJR
The U.S.A. is a horrible country on so many levels.
Odd how our borders are flooded with folk who want to be here.
Hannah = Nice
Hannah = Blonde
Dap = Eating her own Liver
I could get used to this 😛
There is more to this scenario than we know. Just saying. Wait and see.
@EG
So….
Hannah is a GUY.
I knew it.
(not that’s there’s anything wrong with that)
@EG
OR….
Dap will angrily confront Hannah, they will begin with a limp-wristed slap-fight, culminating with a red-hot make-out session.
(I’ve entered the 21st Century, and gone totally native)
Two comments:
1. I believe that “vacuous” is a word reserved for blonde women alone.
2. If it exists, I applaud your Seinfeld reference (season 4, episode 17). If not, well, then I’ve been watching too much.
1. Agreed.
2. Any Seinfeld reference was not intentional, but might have been subliminal on my part. I’ve done it before. Like in one comic, where Puck said, “Serve and protect, man!” and someone said, “Nice reference to the ‘The Mask’, and I was like, “OH YEAH! That line IS from ‘The Mask’. Crazy!”
i´m saying that the blonde wench will suffer an ‘accident’ that´ll keep her from going, such as a broken leg, with daphne graciously offering taylor to go with him instead….or she´ll go carrie on them. with how angry she is she won´t even ned telekinesis to bring down the ouse 😉
That seems to be the direction everyone wants this to go. Man, you guys are DARK.
Not me. I want Hannah to be crowned Queen of the Prom and Daffy to be corroded by her own black bile of jealousy. Even if Hannah is a blonde.
more like, we know your style – if you turn a baby shower into a b#fight there´s no way this teenage drama will resolve peacefully
Well, you know me.
Well, the age-old “solution”, which quickly leads to total misery for all, would be – suddenly Dap gets all “Lovey-Dovey” with Tyler, and becomes obviously PREGNANT in time for the Prom.
(Sigh)
Uh, no.
@EG
Thank God
What about her faking being pregnant so…that…oh, wait, they haven’t…have they…no…er…
Yeah, that wouldn’t work.
@Lucas
Seinfeld covered every conceivable (pun intended) real-life situation.
Except, perhaps, “Faux-Pregnancy” shenanigans in relation to Proms.
Though I may have overlooked that episode.
No. Just no.
Also, she’s different SPECIES. Pregnancy seems unlikely to be possible.
I’m not totally confident in that. If there’s one thing fantasy and sci-fi movies have taught me, it’s that various humanoid species can ALWAYS interbreed successfully. Always. Unlike real life.
@EG
Yippee !
I want to successfully interbreed my species with TRACEEE !
(Hmmmm …. Emily …. mebe someone already has)
Tracee has so much plastic her ovaries put out L’eggs eggs.
Heh.
Good for Tyler.
Well, no one can fault him.
Someone’s jealous. Hypothetically, of course.
@Bunni
(snicker)
Nah, now it’s REAL.
@EG
If I were there with Dap, I’d say: “Nah Nah Nah Nah …. You is fugley with pointee ears and stringy hair, dress badly and smell worse”.
That’s wat I’d say ! (mebe)
Yours is very polite compared to what I would say, but still pretty good. +1
I think that depends on how much you value your eyes/assorted appendages.
I think it depends on how vulnerable Daffy is to gunfire from a Benelli.
Things like Dap exist when a society abandons good olde Corporal Punishment.
When I misbehaved, mom would wrap her paws around me neck, bite me ears, and rake me up and down with her rear legs.
While growling and hissing.
And look how I turned out !
(wait)
Funny, that’s what your mom did with me when I was good.
@Jesse
Until SUSAN dissected her !!!!
sob sob sob
(old story)
I didn’t dissect her. Mine was a male. The preggers female was dissected by somebody, else. prolly a grad student. 😛
@Susan
That c-c-changes everything.
(not)
I love how people who are decidedly *not* nice think that nice people are putting on an act. Everyone assumes that people are like them. Me, I’m friendly, but also a d!(k, and when someone is one to me, too, I assume they’re joking around, but let me be obnoxious as a joke to someone who genuinely *is* a jerk, and suddenly I have a blood feud on my hands.
@Jesse
That is so confuzing.
I, on the other hand, strive to be a simple, straightforward, nice jerk.
Most tell me I am, at least, partially successful.
I am definitely wary of nice people, and think they’re plotting something. I once worked with a guy who was incredibly cheerful and overtly friendly and positive. I hated his guts because I thought it was all an act. It took me about five years to realize that he really was sincere in his positivity. Just in time for him to become disillusioned by our negative workplace and leave.
@EG
I really hope you’re satisfied with yourself !
🙁 🙁 🙁 🙁 🙁 🙁 🙁 🙁 🙁 🙁
Also, I *need* that shirt, just finished watching the first season of One Punch Man, and, so much yes. I loved Mumen Rider. Sometimes it isn’t whether you win or lose, just that you show up, and refuse to stay down.
@Jesse
Most of us just beg beg beg EG to print up Tee Shirts we claim we will buy, and then never do.
It’s just a gag he and us enjoy.
The shirt design doesn’t look so great on a real shirt. My Mumen Rider mockup image was a little rough. It worked for an image in the comic, but I’d have to totally redraw it for a real shirt.
@EG
Naw…
It is super awesome !
I will buy a hundred !
IF you have it in my size: XSLBTQ3D
It’s OK up until the point you collapse under the sheer weight of peer pressure and begin to consume yourself.
So what color do you think you are, Daphne? Self-identification is all the rage lately…
@RN
Only PIEBALD is kewl these daze.
Sadly, I am monochromatic (on the outside).
I would guess that Daphne does not identify with any one color, but considers herself ‘other’. She probably also considers ‘other’ to be the coolest category of all.
Since the subject has been brought up: what is Daph’s species? Canis sapiens? Homo canis familiaris? Or is she the result of some chance bit of magic or science making her sui generis?
The Someone Else’s Problem Field appears to be especially strong in Hamilton, since few comment on Puck, Phoebe or Satan. An especially strong SEP Field might explain why there are so many demihumans in one place?
Not that anything so mundane as “explaining” is comic worthy, if it’s not funny.
I think you hit on the main thing: explaining stuff is usually not very funny, and (I find) more than a little of a disappointment. I feel that way with all the ‘prequel’ type movies going on right now, like ‘Solo’. When movies ask me, “Hey! Do you want to know where Han Solo’s golden dice come from? WELL, DO YA?” my answer has always been, “Nah, I’m good.”
Yes! Rational explanations are diametrically opposed to comedy.
It’s a comic, not a history dissertation… Accept and enjoy.
Also… Maybe Hanna VanBeek has a few jokers in her genetic deck…?!
Exactly. It’s like if they ever do an episode of BoJack Horseman where they explain how their weird animal-human world came to be, the show will be officially no longer worth watching.
@EG
The Dice really come from George Lucas’s first commercial success – American Graffiti.
I forsee Daph finally putting her pride to the side and acknowledging that she would’ve wanted to go the prom with Tyler.
This is an heartfelt act of honesty and vulnerability.
This absolutely THE WORST thing to do as a teenager.
Hannah will be mean and then Tyler will get a chance to stick by his friend
@Eryc
Poor Tyler.
How much of a “FRIEND” was Dap when she refused his advances ?
No one needs friends like her.
Tyler would be better of if she and he never crossed paths again.
But what do I know ?
I’m only 9-1/2 years into my nine lives.
She does not need to accept his advances. That’s not how friendship works. Nor did he really make ‘advances’. He asked her out to junior prom. Anymore, that’s not really even an expression of romantic intent. Friends go to prom with each other all the time, no relationship involved. But she said no, which she is allowed to do. And Tyler asked someone else, which he is also allowed to do.
Daphne saying no was fine, but Daphne faulting Tyler for asking someone else after she said no is … less fine.
@EG
The poor guy wasn’t pressuring her to leap under the sheets with him.
He simply asked his so-called friend to the prom.
Not only did she refuse, she was snarky about it.
She might as well said “Go to the Prom with YOU ? Hah !”
So, you’re possibly saying that what with all of the time that Daphne invested into Tyler goes her some (feminine based but humanely wrong (which makes for a wonderful ironic comedy)) right of ownership, or at least the right to pick his dates?
Yes. Yes indeed.
This is one prediction. I will write it in my bookie’s notepad. Any other predictions out there, people?
Something with fire involved.
Um, yeah. 1.) Colin will do something stupid while chaperoning the prom 2.) Daffy will do something naughty, probably after obtaining Colin’s connivance or at least permission 3.) Poor Blondie (never thought I would be writing that) will end up humiliated or at least embarrassed 4.) Taylor will be embarrassed 5.) Puck will not eviscerate Daffy in reprisal. Darn it! 🙁
As the only one who knows where this is going, I enjoy reading your detailed predictions.
Does it involve any teenager burgers?
I live to amuse you, EG 😛
Daffy is Canis adustus. She smells worse, but that is just camo 😛
About the species thing: If people don’t mind the hot dog therapist, why should they mind the hot dog girl? 😉
You deserve a medal for that one.
I was looking forward to the continuation for this all week. Just maybe Daphne will have a little more respect for Tyler going forward….
probably after wrecking Hannah’s dress during the upcoming prom? 😉
Well, what’s a prom arc without ripped prom dresses, right?
@EG
O.M.G.
You have it IN for Hannah – you, you REPTILE !
You’re going to draw her as a FAT little Dutch Girl, aren’t you ?
BOO !
I never said that.
I always assumed everyone knew that she was of some other species and never really bothered about it, as if just saying “Who cares? She’s Puck’s (adoptive) daughter, same species or no”.
I have been curious for some time how come Tyler likes her (not due to her personality, but you know… The whole ‘difference species’ thing).
…I’m still curious what her actual species is (and if there’s more of them in Puck’s world).
There’s likely at least one more of Daphne’s species out there, but I don’t know whether we’ll ever meet one in the comic. Maybe? As for Tyler liking her, I don’t consider it that much of a mystery. I mean, she’s a humanoid female. I found myself attracted to most humanoid females when I was his age. Even inanimate objects, if they had the right curves. It’s an age of indiscriminate attraction.
… after all, Puck herself, as Fae, is not really human either.
to bad for daph i think all tyler needs is a bit of hope that hes not eternally relegated to the friendzone
Ok – Ok ….
In clingy desperation Dap throws herself at Tyler, and since she is a Jackal, is very pregnant by the Prom – which she shames Tyler into attending with her.
Once there, drowned by a witche’s brewe of her unstable psyche, social awkwardness, and roaring hormones, she rages – then crumbles. Embarrassing everyone. And invoking Tyler’s contempt, who very publicy storms out while declaring he never wants to see her again.
Things do not improve when the new puppy arrives.
Pup and Mother take to nocturnal HOWLING, which fractures family nerves. Sleep Deprived for days on end, Colin is captured on iPhone by a student, slumbering at his desk instead of teaching, and is canned.
The crisis boils, and becomes too much for even Phoebe to bear. She retreats to a spare bedroom of Satan’s manse, in the South Wing of DunDum Castle (Puck #221), declaring the $150K she loaned Robin (Puck #88) is PAST DUE !
But that’s not the wurst. Hot Dog Guy informs Robin that Canadian Health Care no longer supplies Free Franks, and her account is in arrears.
Sigh.
Colin, no stranger to drink, takes to over-indulging daily.
Puck, ancient fairy of lore, finds herself at a low ebb of life (Puck #1). And terminally exhausted, accidentally leaves the burners of the kitchen stove on….
Firefighters arrive too late, and the MacTavish Home – and all occupants – are no more than smoldering memories.
Onlookers agape in horror – but one notices a small creature emerge from the wreckage.
Tyler cradles the pup – a pup with ears that are all too familiar.
He wanders the byways of Hamilton, sad, confused.
Then…. an opened window – a TV – a woman laughing at the skits.
He gently lays his bundle at the threshold, rings the doorbell, and retreats – SO LONG, SUCKA !
I stopped reading three lines in. Sorry.
@EG
It’s very sad.
Susan will like it.
What? I quit reading three lines in 😛
@Susan
But those THREE LINES were awesome !
I thot I did a pretty awesome job of bringing the entire story arc back TWENTY YEARS in a Time Loop that accounts for every event.
To me, this is Puck’s Curse.
She lives, she dies, and then begins anew slouching in a cheap chair watching soaps.
With Daphne at the door.
I cannot confirm nor deny that theory.
I quit reading after three lines in.
@pat
(whimper)
Is it just me or did anyone else get a pissed-off Latina vibe from this strip? Maybe it’s because I live in Texas, but I found myself inserting Spanish curses in breathy undertones as I read the dialogue. LOL
Latin genes cannot necessarily be confirmed or denied in Daphne’s background. (Though this is Canada, so unlikely. We have very few Mexicans up here.)
Dap is a Coyote ?
I think it’s West Highland Terrier. Which means she has that whole kilted warrior Highlander thing going for her– ‘There can be only one.”
That is the longstanding opinion of numerous fans, and the first breed lineage put forward by an early reader. Though not West Highland; those are white. I’m guessing Norwich terrier. Or maybe Australian.
I;d guess Pit Bull but the Master has spoken. Anyway, the only one of those I ever knew was sweet.
Re: The Latina thing. She couldn’t be a po’ed Latina cause she isn’t throwing things. Trust me. I grew up next to four of them.
Saucy breathily?
Breathily Saucy?
Berkeley Breathed?
Southern Sausalito?
Maybe to date the Dutch princess, Tyler aka Taylor might’ve gotten some Dutch courage and they’re going Dutch treat.
Gecko:
1) I can not believe that you literally have Tyler “Going Dutch” to the Prom !
2) I am calling this plotline the Gekko rehash of the movie “Carrie” right now…
3) In real life news, they are actually rebuilding a brand new High School in the area where I suspect the gang could live… Pretty sure that it was not burnt down to the ground, although…
You know what they say about going Dutch: “Once you go Dutch, you’ll never feel much.” Not sure what it means, but it rhymes!
Daphne shouldn’t diss the Dutch- they make delicious cheese.
And also, I call her kind of argument “pretzel logic.” 😉
Dutch food is honestly like Russian roulette. Some of it (like the cheese) is amazing. Some of it (like their double-salted black licorice) is disgusting and an affront to the concept of food. You never know what you’re getting into when a Dutchman says, “You should try this!”
Um, Daphne, sometimes it’s not ‘race’ or gender or whatever, it’s you. Yes. And of course I’m saying this to you over the Web and not in person, I’m totally fine with stupid, same with crazy, what I am NOT into is stupid AND crazy.
But stupid and crazy so often walk hand-in-hand!
We’ve already had Fire as a story element, so perhaps it is the turn of Water.
What a pity if the fire sprinklers should come on at the height of the prom. The Brave Little Dutch Girl could not hold back all the water!
Ripped prom dress? And here I thought that Canadians were rudely polite. Like this guy:
http://thepunchlineismachismo.com/archives/comic/06282010
Why does the Canadian in that comic talk with an Aussie accent?
Because he’s from the past that puts the vast wilderness into the great part of the “great white north.”
Now, how about this guy?http://www.empoweredcomic.com/comic/volume-3-page-142
Not Canadian. Just slapping a maple leaf on non-Canadian things does not make them Canadians. Only Americans try that trick.
Is it my imagination, or is Miranda giving Daffy the stink-eye in the Incentive. Good girl!
Y’know, there is such a thing as hybrid vigour. So we have Miranda, daughter of a Faerie and a human . . . she may grow up to be more powerful than either or both of her parents . . . I know I should probably be terrified of the prospect instead of looking forward to it.
I like this theory.
Maybe. Miranda generally is giving everyone the stink eye in most comics.
Isn’t racism all predicated on the ignorant belief that we are NOT the same species as other humans with slight variations in melanin concentrations?
So you’re saying that Puck is the guilty party here? Hmm. You may be onto something.
You drew a world where genetically distinct, very-near-humanoid sapient and English-speaking species actually exist. There’s almost no two people in the main cast of the same species (Suddenly I wonder if cross-breeding is possible… apparently at least in the case of Colin + Puck).
Question for another day. Back on point:
I suspect racism is decidedly possible in this world, and the presence of ACTUAL non-human species would pretty much overshadow ANY real bigotry over minor differences in skin tone within the same species. Racists focus on the “otherness” of the others, so the most “other” other is likely their target of preference for their hate/discrimination/stereotyping/etc.
In practice, as you’ve thus far written, the different species of your world has had… no impact whatsoever… to the point we often wonder why you bother drawing the pointy ears, horns, or dark damp noses? Aside from a painless shift of your Satan character to a metaphorical satanic corporate CEO, you could have drawn the entire cast as run-of-the-mill humans and nothing much would have changed.
In your first run of comics I made a comment (that I can’t recall if you responded to… you may well have) how odd it seemed for you to create a character of a 600 year old famous fairy who somehow had NO life experience, and was basically an ordinary human millennial of higher than average ignorance… except for the pointy ears.
Her Blonde-ification story arc was the most magical your Puck has ever been, and that somehow had nothing to do with her fae-ness.
You designed an extraordinary supernatural character and made her completely ordinary… I may never understand that decision of yours, aside form time has shown you had your own story in mind to tell with these characters. Not that any of them really needed to be non-humans to tell this story, but here we are.
I feel like I’ve wandered into too many subjects for a single post. Pardon me.
I suppose my conclusion is that Daphne’s race-card play is probably valid… except she could just as easily have said “human” instead of “white” and in fact in this multi-specied world, it seems even less likely that black/white racism would be a thing of significance, although the joke is pretty much dependent on your audience recognizing the pattern of playing the “race card”, so it might not have worked as well if changed.
Boy, I dumped all my thoughts on you at once today. Sorry for the mighty wall-o-text. 😛
That’s a lot of thoughts.
From what we can tell, the world depicted in the comic is OUR world, and the only non-human beings in it are the main characters of the comic. The fact that their inhuman nature is never really discussed or noticed or made a major plot point has been, consistently, the greatest source of confusion and complaint from the readership.
And therein lies the joke.
I won’t go so far to say that it’s an act of trolling on my part, but I do find the frustration and anger amusing at times. To be honest, though, I have a reason for what I do, and the reason is this: the very fact that these characters never act as anything other than human is, to my mind, a source of humor. I could have made the comic with regular humans, but then it (A) wouldn’t have been as much fun to draw, and (B) I think I would lose something funny in the process.
@ Hinoron Not to speak of the facts that a) Puck’s ears reflect her mood, which add to the humor, b) Miranda has the same ears but they are apparently not motile, yet, though I eagerly await the day, c.) Puck is much stronger than a mortal human, and just as violent as most redheads I know and, last but not least, have you never watched cartoons, like “Beauty and the Beast”, where fabulous creature like monsters and talking teapots interact with humans? Yeesh. Ask Granny why she talks to Tweetie, why don’t you? And Yosemite Sam why he hates that rabbit?
The closest match to Puck, I feel, is the amazing Netflix show BoJack Horseman, where much of the cast is made up of weird anthropomorphized animals, but nothing is ever really made of that trope. There’s no universe explanation, and no real reference to that … other than for the ubiquitous animal puns and cheap animal jokes that the writers throw in every week. Same thing here: Daphne’s non-human nature is never commented on … unless it can be turned into a punch line.
After all, *everybody knows* Puck’s most famous saying, “Lord, what fools these mortals be.”
*everybody who’s in the least bit literate. I quoted that in in a Freshman English paper, accrediting it to “William Shakespeare.” I got an acid red-ink comment from the prof, “You don’t have to attribute widely known quotes.” Later that year, I quoted, “Judge not, lest ye be judged,” and got the red-ink, “Must attribute quotes.” You can’t win. At least not when you are a Freshman in college.
Word. Profs are the most unpredictable batch you could possibly find.
How old is Miranda now?
Miranda is around one year old. (At least, that’s what makes sense developmentally. Kids start saying their first words at that point.)
I’m pretty sure that this is the first time ever in this comic where it has been directly stated that Daphne isn’t human. I think that’s interesting, mainly because it’s not totally clear how many non-humans exist in this world, but the only ones we’ve ever seen are Puck, Daphne, Phoebe, Satan, and now Miranda. Literally no other characters have ever been shown to be non human, while the majority of major characters are. Wouldn’t that make them all, but especially Daphne very distinctive in this world? I mean, before this episode I had settled on the idea that it’s simply a matter of no one even noticing she isn’t human, it seems it is a noticible trait. Which is weird.
It happened when Puck first met Daphne (she openly wondered what she was, and whether she was capable of speech), and then it also happened HERE. But that’s it. And it’s only ever been acknowledged by Puck.
I mentioned this in in the comments on the page, but I think Douglas Adams’ concept of the ‘Somebody Else’s Problem Field’ best describes what happens in the comic. The non-human nature of the primary characters is not invisible; however, no one remarks on it or acts strangely to them because it’s somebody else’s problem. They assume that Daphne has a very good reason for being a dog girl, but whatever that reason is, it doesn’t have to concern them.
That said, I highly caution against trying to apply too much logic to this comic. It is fundamentally kind of stupid. It’s like a recent video I watched concerning Deadpool 2 and time travel. The reviewers (the Walker brothers) were talking about how the causality of time travel stuff in the movie makes no sense, then eventually they just waved their hands in frustration and said, “Whatever! It doesn’t matter! It’s Deadpool 2! You can’t look for logical storytelling!” Puck is kind of like that too.
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little webcomics; blithely press forward without addressing Puck’s pointed ears (for example)!
Although one explanation might be that only the supernatural can recognize another of the supernatural folk. No-one’s every addressed devil-girl’s tail, for example. Perhaps Colin just can’t noticed his girlfriend looks like a ginger Vulcan.
Emily has a Cat’s Ears and Tail.
Dude, that’s COSPLAY. (Or is it?)
COS-PLAY ?
I was hopin’ GENETICS !
Bleah 😛 I guess you have never been in the Big Bend, where the humidity is like, 10% in June. Never been there in August and don’t wanna go
@SUSAN
SUE-ZANNE ….. ! (scolding)
Methinks you lost a ZERO somewhere.
10% Humidity is pretty dry. Meme too dry (think crispy cat mummies).
The humidity in the Big Bend is never very high, except right down by the Rio Grande. It’s in the desert, that is, the ARID DESERT. But dry doesn’t help when it’s 130F. 😛
As many comedians have noted in reference to a dry heat, “So is the heat of your oven, and it still cooks the turkey.”
@EG
Actually, I believe the interior of your typical oven is designed to keep the humidity in.
No one wants dry Turkey – NO ONE.
I’m not a turkey fan, and neither is the household cook (my bf). He has made prime rib for the last ten Thanksgivings. I’ll ask him about the oven-humidity thing.
Typical. I dont want to go to the prom with you, but dont you dare go with anyone else. Someone has a lot of growing up to do.
And she shall. We will watch together.
Attack of the 50 Foot Woman kind of growing up?
Looking forward to it!
Uh, no. Not that type. Though I hear there’s a sub-genre of comic that’s really into that.
Oi, I don’t want to know. That’s what I get for trying a pun. Yikes. I’ll leave the comedy to EG.
AHA!
All the better the rarely used SPECIES card all the more effective…
Never did i think i would make that joke.
Well, the rarely used cards are always the best to play.
It is quite obvious that Puck is reason why no one else notices Daphne’s origins and being that she is a fairy, it is fairy magic. Someday maybe Tyler’s thoughts will be seen and we will see how he thinks Puck, Phoebe and Daphne look.
Fairy force field? Maybe. It’s one potential answer, I guess.
Heeey look what I’ve found! //www.puckcomics.com/?comic=puck-11
Nice “vacuous” callback after 20 years 😉
It’s more a reflection of my … personal idiom. But calling it a callback makes it sound smarter, so I’ll go with that.
I’m going to put my nickel on “Hanna’s really a very nice person”.
Let’s see!
Your nickel is well placed.