AUGUST VOTING INCENTIVE UP NOW!
More bonus comic pic. Seeing as this bonus comic may never actually come together properly, this may be your only time to see this image, so please…
VOTE TO BE SO VERY, VERY KIND!
As for this comic…
I’m posting this comic early because I won’t be available at my usual posting time. I’ll be at the Game Grumps Live show in Toronto tonight! If you’re going to the Monday night show, try and find me! I’ll be wearing a Puck shirt. (I know it’s a long shot, but hey, I thought it’s worth a mention.)
And look! I’m calling back to a development that hasn’t even been mentioned for nigh on eighty weeks! For those that don’t remember, yes, Colin did in fact propose to Puck. And no, they were not already married. Not officially, anyway. And no, I didn’t actually forget about the wedding thing, but the whole prom narrative didn’t provide much breathing room to mention it, so … yeah. The wedding will happen. Eventually. At some point in time.
In Colin’s defense, he was not in the best state when the proposal happened. The post-op state is not always the best one for clear recollection.
Colin . . . Puck’s last lines are a life-life, SEIZE IT! Say “Yes, I am lucky! Been that way since I met you! Um . . . you do realize we kinda really do actually have to at least let my family know, right?” (Actually, that last line might be overkill. Or buzzkill, I always get those two confused.)
You know a lifeline when you see one. You obviously have experience with perilous scenarios like this.
If I start driving now. . . I won’t make it.
Hey, if I started driving when you wrote that, I might not have made it either. Even though I live an hour outside Toronto, that city’s traffic is so bad that you need to leave at least three or four hours for any trip that should rightly take you one. As it was, the traffic was clear and I got there with tons of time to spare.
Booger
The kids look as awkward and strange dancing as the kids in “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”
YES!!!! That was exactly what I was going for! I was channeling a Charlie Brown Christmas.
Note on teens today: most of them don’t know how to dance. At all. This is not an accurate depiction of a prom, though, because recent proms I’ve been to have dance floors that are frankly just weird and a little depressing. All the guys collect together in a big ‘bro mosh’ in the center of the floor, and the girls dance awkwardly with each other on the periphery and try not to get hurt by the thrashing dudebros. It’s weird, and after seeing it, I’m always left thinking, “What are those guys THINKING?!?” But then I realize that most of them have never been to a dance before. They have no clue what the heck they’re doing. It’s one of the many end results of a generation raised on and by cell phones.
I don’t blame the cell phones. I blame lack of practice. School is very stressful and there’s little time for frivolity.
We could also blame this guy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bY94eFCNv4g
We obviously have similar Youtube tastes.
I feel honored. And thirsty for some reason. I’ll sip some of my nice tea.
“We can dance if we want to, we can leave your friends behind. ‘Cause your friends don’t dance, and if they don’t dance, well, they are no friends of mine.”
Now I’m thinking about this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUN-D8N_XhE
I didn’t even know that song existed. Thanks for that.
“I didn’t even know that song existed. Thanks for that.”
Any time.
That song was a real trip down memory lane to the landscape of adult(ish) television in the 1980’s. Wonderful. And terminally dated, alas. Most Weird Al songs are simple and still very accessible. My daughter (age ten) is a big Weird Al fan. But I don’t think I could share that with her without giving her about six hours of lessons on cheesy TV culture of the 80’s and earlier. For the record, “I Can’t Watch This” is his 90’s redo of that concept. And is also delightfully dated.
“And terminally dated, alas.”
Some art just is. 🙂 I’m amazed he’s still going strong. And that he shaved his moustach.
Weird Al has been doing a full-on charm offensive for the past many years and is firmly rooted in current Internet culture. I loved him when I was a kid, and as a teen, but it was never cool to love Weird Al. Now everyone loves Weird Al; it’s just a given. And I can’t blame them. When you have both a Transformer and a My Little Pony character based off you (yes, we have both of those action figures in my house), you know you’re doing something right.
Being bold and dancing with a girl will get a guy to places he wants to go.
Full Disclosure: I thought they were already married.
didnt remember as well. i assumed it was glossed over and they were married already.
You assumed what many readers assume. And that is an entirely understandable assumption.
As I understand it, Puck and Colin are in a common-law relationship. They have both been living together for mre than 3years and have also have a child togeether and d today my mopputer is being a jerk.
You have a Mopputer?!? Thats State of the art janitorial computer tech right there.
all kidding aside i wonder in the puckverse if that is a thing that is accepted, or if puck just wants it official
95% of the readership does.
It’s little thinks, like their children, that make people think so. That and the way they behave with each other.
…That and the enormous time-skip the comic did.
got my computer back and up and running just in time for an early post!!!! WooHoo!!!!
you said the “M” word, Colin… she will NEVER forget…
One of the best ‘M’ words. Along with micturate, masticate and mollycoddle.
Margarine’s at least top three…
Mayonnaise, mustard, mashed potatoes, mashed hot dogs, mashed potatoe salad… Mashed uranium cakes…
Is that dancing, or a satire of dancing?
Granted, with teens it can be hard to tell.
That’s a loving tribute to a Charlie Brown Christmas. Real kids dancing is just too weird to depict.
And just like that, Daphne is no longer the most stressed person in the room.
We loves us some pressure cooker of stress, don’t we?
Pfft. I don’t know what the man is concerned about. He’s already lost a t–ticle. That’s half the battle in marriage right there. His soul has already been crushed quite effectively. A simple “Honey and excellent idea” and he would have been no worse for wear because it’s HAPPENING regardless of anything he does at this point. It’s this futile struggling that causes him the distress. Amateur.
You sound like you speak from years and years of experience on this subject, good sir.
I have been married for 28 years. I have learned exactly which battles are the ones to fight, which ones are the ones to retreat from, and which ones are to graciously surrender by presenting my sword in my palms. I am unclear from the chronology of how long Colin and Puck have been together, but once that marriage proposal was cast upon the ground he joined those of us that have surrendered EVERYTHING including their free will. No take backs. Get over it, man it up, establish your man cave, find a hobby she has no interest in and await sweet death. It is truly all that is left.
Colin and Puck have been together in the chronology of the comic for probably nearing ten years. In reality, they’ve been together longer than my wife and I have, and we’ve been together for close to twenty.
And now I’m interested in what your man cave looks like.
My wife and I both work from home so our home offices are our own “man” and “woman” caves. Mine consists of seven book cases (and by default the garage is also mine as all of the manual labor involving any tool requiring a power source is my responsibility out of a sense of self preservation) two filing cabinets, my alienware and the dual screen monitors (which I use for work and for hobby). My wife’s is a computer set up, a book case, a vanity, fourteen crates of approx fourteen thousand dollars worth of accumlated make up and three fish tanks (her newest hobby which I gratefully pay for because I neither have to walk said pets or clean up their poop).
You man cave sounds minimalist and functional. My man cave is a small Aladdin’s Cave of Wonders, with walls lined from floor to ceiling with various junk.
Don’t lie Gecko, the last panel is based on a conversation about the comic with your wife.
Honestly, my wife has not once said anything about it. She is not a ‘yay wedding’ kind of girl. To be clear, our own wedding was a modest affair that we threw for no more than $7k. If you don’t know the economics of weddings, that’s like saying you managed a moon landing with no more than a bottle rocket, a tricycle and an on-board TI-86 calculator. But we did it. So my wife is the last woman on earth to say, “More wedding!” I like weddings more than she does. And I don’t even like ’em that much.
Similar circumstances. Backyard of parents, the after wedding dinner was a potluck with us providing the prime rib, no presents requested. We still were out about 5 grand after dress, tux rental, ring, etc. My youngest child was much wiser. She and her husband got married at the justice of the peace with family gathered, I got out lucky paying for the after wedding dinner for family and friends (about $750) and they used the money they were going to use for the wedding to put a down payment on a house. Some knock the latest generations, but this steering clear of diamonds and expensive ceremonies is a plus in my view.
You come from a line (and have obviously issued a line) of pragmatic people. I am 100% in agreement on the steering clear of diamonds and expensive ceremonies. But I see very little of it today. I just don’t understand the crazy expenditure at a time of life when those two young people desperately need money. They might not know it yet, but they desperately need money. For more pragmatic things than tiramisu for 300.
For those that don’t get the proposal deal (or don’t remember): back in comic 394, we found out that one of Colin’s nads were quite literally twice the size of the other one. It was confirmed to be cancer in comic 396.
After a very long set up (which literally lasts until comic 421), Colin’s in and out of doing various things related to dealing with his cancer.
Come comic 422, he asks Puck to marry him. Which has then not been mentioned again. For 85 comics.
You sum up my shoddy storytelling techniques perfectly.
I would not say Shoddy. Serialized is the word I would use. However I am old enough to remember those and patient enough to wait for a pay off. I am however intrigued to see how this Tyler/Daphne thing plays out, and the blind tiger teen has now become very interesting. Hopefully she’s not a one off.
Serialized is a kind word. A good word. And the biggest problem with this whole venture is the fact that comics come out weekly. Eighty comics (the time span I didn’t actually mention the wedding thing) is almost two years in the run of this comic, but if it were running in a daily newspaper comic, it would be a few months.
As for the blind tiger teen (a great descriptor, by the way), I don’t think readers will LET me keep her as a one-off. Hannah won’t be a super main character, but I think she’s getting added to the roster.
***Nods in grim acceptance and puts away the torches and Kerosene***
Postop is NOT great for remembering things. Colin is really lucky to have Puck to remember things for him.
I’d have thought that if there wasn’t an opportunity to dance, the wedding party might riot.
Full Disclosure, I knew they weren’t fully married yet. But Ontario does recognize some limited forms of common law marriage that NO ONE should tell Puck or Colin about.
Full disclosure: I had a wedding that did not feature any dance or even full meal component. It was an afternoon tea. I was told afterwards that some people were affronted and others loved it. I really don’t care about the former group.
The common law thing is … well, whatever. Let’s put it this way: Colin and Puck are obviously already functionally married. They have a kid together, for crying out loud. This is just a fun formality they never actually went through. So why not now?
No riot? That’s no fun! How are you going to call the cops without one?
And why not now? Danny Devito and Rhea Pearlman waited longer. Heck Ted Mosebey waited longer. This is narativly (naratively, narrativelly, narativvally, GAH!) enjoyable. Keep it up!
Your statement is spot on. Postop is not conducive to memory, it is however hilarious for what comes out of the mouths of patients, not limited to marriage proposals, including hook-ups, death threats, confessions, pin numbers, locations of coffee cans of valuables, the parentage of offspring (and the lack there of), political opinions and truly deep philosophical insights.
Just as a devil’s advocate thing, would the common law thing truly apply to Puck? She’s wonderful, beauteous creature (and my wife and her if twere possible would likely get along famously IRL) but she is fae. I guess the same thing would apply for Daphne and Phoebe as well, since I don’t know if that’s ever been addressed in “Puckworld”. Technically can she even owe student loans? Credit card debt? Or is it a magic thing where we the readers can see it and those close to them can, but everyone else can’t? Or is it the head injury I suffered at the Iowa state fair this weekend. Hmmm.
Were you talking to Presidential candidates? Keep in mind, they’re pitching to wonkiest people out there because they tend to be the ones who bother to vote in primaries. They have to sound like that. It’ll change as people sort out.
I don’t see why common law marriage wouldn’t apply. She’s a person after all.
The thing about post-op as that they’ve recently been pumping you full of drugs one of the effects of which is the repression of ability to form new memories. I do, however, remember saying, “Ow!” and that has been confirmed as what I first said after I woke up.
If you don’t mind my asking, what did you have operated on?
As far as operations go my spine, stomach and eyes, but my post-op experiences lie with my area of employment rather than my own personal experiences “under the knife” so to speak. I’ve worked for a hospital for a major university for the last fifteen years, though I’ve spent the last eight working a gig that I do from home, and enjoy that much more. As far as speaking with Presidential candidates at the fair, I avoid Presidential candidates while I’m there if at all possible. My reason for being there is to spend time with my wife and family, to indulge in foods most folks would consider life threatening (deep fried everything, though my personal favorite is the deep fried twinkie)and to get on the occasional carnival ride which induced said injury this time (my own fault, got into a fight with my adult daughter on where we should be on the hang glider ride, tried to get in the middle position and whanged my head, inducing a scalp cut which was minor but bled like the dinkins, scaring everyone but me into a fit).
I agree with your reluctance to talk to people looking for a presidential nomination. That seems like no fun. Much like minor scalp wounds, to be honest.
Interesting work history. I, on the other hand, had heart surgery a few years back which is where I get my post-op experience from. You have a much larger statistical universe to draw on, and I respect that.
ZOMG, I totally forgot they aren’t married! Could it be they act so much like a married couple already? I wonder who will do the officiating. Anyone but the mayor of Hamilton. That would be pushing their luck! 😉
Well, not sure who else could officiate. Maybe Papa Shnorf.
Hmm, Just how old is Puck; and how many Colins and children are in her past?
632 or something. No Colin’s or children that we know of. Is that stretching the bounds of believability? Yes. This comic does that a lot.
“Ma’am your birth certificate says 1387”
“What a silly misprint! It must be 1987”
“Ma’am, it’s on parchment!”
“Well yes, mum was a traditionalist!”
“
Do you know that British laws are still written down on parchment to this day? They tried to get the law changed about a decade ago due to the incredible expense, but the traditionalists refused to budge.
Must be hard to photocopy. Imagine the parchment jams!
(P.S. the voting incentive reminds me (“money”) is it possible to preorder the new book (and maybe in combination with the old book) and would having the money in the bank make it easier to finish up?
Art is very nice but the rent or mortgage must be paid!
I appreciate the gesture, but at the moment the main snag with the book is just a crushing lack of free time. My issue is that producing Puck even once a week in its current form takes pretty much all the time I can afford to give. Sometimes I’m afforded snippets of time to work on something else, but anymore I find I’m just so burned out from everything else that I end up sitting in a catatonic state when a free evening does occur. At the moment, preselling the book would just add to my stress because I’d feel even more a sense that I was failing people by not producing the book.
I’m also really having a hard time getting jazzed about it given the fact that the first book was a bit of a disaster. I sold very few copies. When I tried to get it in a local store, the owner straight up laughed in my face when I showed him the book. And not a good kind of laughter.
@EG
Don’t do the book unless you really want to.
Certainly don’t do it for profit.
I know several people who wrote wonderful books on Antiques – which are well known and very well researched.
They made nothing.
I don’t think they regret doing it, tho.
A quick archive binge reminds me that Series 1 era Puck could remember dating Nostradamus.
Series 2 era Puck doesn’t even seem to recognise such basic signs as “no periods” and morning sickness..
Sometimes characters get stupid.
But seriously, the deal is more that when I first started out, I thought I would make more of the “ancient fairy” thing. As the comic went on, though, I really wanted to steer clear of that material. I just wasn’t feeling it. So Puck has, for the most part, always operated and processed things more as a 32 year-old rather than a 632 year-old.
I was wondering the same thing. Does she, in fact, remember her past in that sort of detail? Or even at all?
For that matter, how would a wedding work? I don’t know about Canadian law, but in the U.K. you MUST produce legally valid identification in the form of a Birth Certificate.
The word is out on how much Puck remembers of her past. And as for birth certificates, that’s the kind of thing you’re not legally obligated to produce when you’re a fictional character.
Actually, that probably isn’t insuperable. Read “Day of the Jackal” for more on this… although to marry in an Anglican Church, she need only demonstrate her nationality and verify her identity, and have the banns read….
UH-OH!!! She’s over 500 years old- good luck to her on that one!
She needs no luck!
Colin is looking anxious. Maybe he should tell his wife, he needs to ‘sleep on it” and tell her his plans for both of them the next day.
We need FOUR WEDDINGS – and a FUNERAL.
Robin & Colin
Phoebe & Grandpa Snorf
TRACEEE & Satan
Tyler & Hannah
then daffy
You may have to settle for two weddings and no funeral. That’s all I’ll say.
Even on Phoebe and Pap Snorf’s WEDDING NIGHT he will continue to decline doffing even the smallest part of his trademark costume.
And the reason – is beyond imagining.
Ok, Ok … I’m real bad at keeping secrets.
It’s ALF in there.
I just know it.
A cat can tell. They are the natural enemy to ALFs.
Well, I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it here: we will never, EVER see Papa Shnorf sans costume. And by ‘we’, I mean the readers. But characters within the comic might see him without his costume. That doesn’t break the rules.
@EG
I’ve heard tell ALF likes to creep up on cats while they sleep, with intent to EAT.
And he always begins with the TAIL.
ALF landed on Earth in 1986 – just when MY TAIL went missing.
He’s come back to finish the job (whimper).
“I’m sorry for things I said when I was lying in a hospital bed drugged up on a ridiculous amount of painkillers, only just coming out of a sedative coma?”
Seriously, it would be weirder if he DID remember making that proposal.
True. Very.