IT’S A VALENTINE’S DAY VOTING INCENTIVE!!!
Just a little Puck for the post-Valentine’s Day peoples, so…
VOTE TO PROVE ROMANCE ISN’T DEAD!!!
As for this comic…
Those who are readers who’ve come to the comic more recently (and by ‘more recently’, I mean ‘within the past five years’) may not remember the incident that Puck is referring to in panel four. But back in the ‘Canada’s Funderland’ arc, Puck did get accidentally smacked by Phoebe. And apparently the memory is still strong.
Some might question the fact that, when confronted by a monster during this arc, the pugnacious Puck fled while the peaceful Phoebe took to her fists. And you would be right to question that. And I don’t have a very good answer for you other than to say that you don’t really know how you’ll react to a big monster behind you until it actually happens.
The world in an unpredictable place.
The world of webcomics even more so, I guess.
Your Owlbear is defective.
Oh, re: Alt text. Don’t worry. Everything else on the buffet is also mediocre.
True. But the pizza is usually more mediocre than the rest.
Very. Return to manufacturer. Do NOT return to the retail establishment where you purchased your Owlbear.
Your Owlbear got punched by the daughter of Satan. Was there ever really any doubt?
That was some “punch line”. Now is it time for the big reveal of who’s in the Dougie costume?
You better believe it! Next week, on … this comic!
I could see it being Colin’s friend form college.
i´m more thinking the creepy gas station guy who told them about Dougie in the first place
Well, he’s our prime suspect. Obviously.
Costume?
Reminds me of things Mr Welch can no longer do in an RPG:
#513: “Trying to rip the face off the villain will not get the Scooby-Doo ending.” Kinda wish I’d thought to try that.
The gang lifts off the headpiece of the Dougie costume to find inside
… a slightly smaller Dougie?
And then you lift the head off that one, and it’s smaller and smaller Dougies all the way down!
“Keep pulling, gang! He’s gotta be under here somewhere”
Cartoon Network did that bit once.. seems the culprit was the Cartoon Network logo all along.
Well. That was easier to deal with than I thought.
The easiest way to deal with friendly monsters is always to punch ‘em in the gob.
all i can say is: Mama Say Knock You Out!
Indeed! Indeed, mama did say just such a thing the other day!
It doesn’t surprise me at all that Puck ran while Phoebe fought.
You’re right, you don’t know what you’re going to do in the face of danger.
Besides, Puck generally resorts to violence in low threat situations, situations she knows she can win. And runs from situations she knows she can’t. She wisely ducked out when Colin’ sister and Tracee fought.
She seems a classic case of being able to dish it out, but cannot take it. A coward at heart.
Phoebe on the other hand… Well, it’s not like she’s any less of a scary cat, it’s just she handles he fear a different way, and is not a hypocrite about it. I doubt she even thinks, she just spontaneously lashes out in the face of fear in order to protect herself.
Maybe it’s a learned condition because she often wears shoes which are impractical to run in?
This is accurate. Very. On many levels.
A+ for this. I’d like to use it as an example for future classes, if that’s all right with you.
Feel free 🙂
I think the real reason is because Phoebe doesn’t have her glasses on right now and clearly proves once again that she attacks anyone close to her when she’s scared. She could’ve ran, but considering she’s practically half-blind she would’ve just tripped over anything in a dense forest.
Well, standing her ground right now likely IS the smartest move.
Phoebe’s hair going frizzy in panel 2 is a nice touch.
I try for nice touches here and there.
If I’m not at a pizza-centric buffet*, I never touch the pizza. I can load up on pepper steak and lo mein or some sub-Digiorno-level pepperoni.
* Here’s hoping Cici’s and the Pizza Hut buffet survive the pandemic.
cicis is alive and well here. I still see gift cards for Golden buffet but haven’t found a living one yet. My fat belly is disappointed.
Cici’s sadly never came to my corner of Canada. And the Pizza Hut buffet has been on the ropes for over a decade (as it has in the rest of North America) because the Hut has been closing all their sit-down restaurants and replacing them with pickup and delivery stations. Makes me very sad.
It’ll be very hard to have another Brawl at da Hut ever again.
The very idea of a sit-down pizza restaurant is so delightfully nostalgic. When did we decide that pizza was entirely a takeout/delivery experience? Somehow it happened. Family restaurants were overwhelmingly pizza-centric in the 80’s. But no longer.
I STILL fondly remember Mother’s Pizza from back in the day. Pizzas came to the table on a stand, pop was sold by the pitcher, and it was a great experience.
Someone attempted to re-start the idea, but IIRC it hasn’t ended very well.
I did try the reborn Mother’s Pizza a while back. It certainly wasn’t anything like the original. I don’t think it lasted long.
At the risk of repeating myself: meh
Well, if I can even get a ‘meh’ from you, I’ll consider it a minor victory.
Perhaps a mehner victory?
I’ll take it.
For anyone looking, the first punch landed in Puck #315, panel 2 to be precise 🙂
Lots of good reasons for Puck high-tailing it out of there, but many forgot the PRIMARY reason:
Every Scooby-Doo cartoon that I remember involves a chase scene (with the kids being chased). Hence, Puck and Colin taking off at the High Port (google it). As for buffet pizza…
If it’s not Roma Pizza, then I simply ignore it on the buffet table. Always. I have my standards (and will be in the area of Roma Pizza for about 3 weeks. And Staropolskie. And Denningers. Glorious).
Very true. Pulling back the curtain of parody there.
And your Hamilton cred is undoubtable. Only Hammer natives love Roma pizza. My wife, born in Montreal raised in various cities, thinks it’s gross. My one co-worker from a few years back was raised way out in Flamborough and also thinks it’s gross. And Denningers … haven’t had a Big Rudi in a while.
Now I want to try it.
It’s a soft, doughy bread pizza with a very unique crushed tomato and Parmesan sauce. No toppings. At all. Not even a layer of cheese, (Though the sauce has cheese in it, so it gets part marks.) It is very tasty, but it does not resemble what most people think of when they hear the word ‘pizza’.
You -can- get toppings on it (basic ones like pepperoni, mushrooms, green peppers) but why bother when the original is SO much better?
The idea is that it will complement almost all foods, sops up gallons of alcohol in your system, and is the perfect side-dish for those annoying “drop-in” visits by relatives when you weren’t expecting them.
Check out romabakery.ca
I am intreagued. Do the deliver to the Boston area?
I’m guessing no. Their reach doesn’t even extend to Toronto.
High Port with a 1903 Springfield, double-timed, ain’t no fun.
Poor monster, it was only trying to help. I mean, you look after someone’s kid after they’ve all run off and left her alone in the forest and this is the thanks you get? No wonder monsters are grumpy.
Pushed to the outskirts of society, mistreated and beaten. Rise up, monsters. Rise up.
Well I never…. Looks like I’m posting a letter of complaint to the mayor and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Yetis (ASPCY). This is no way for a daughter of Satan to act.
Well, yetis need to learn that their stature and imposing form should never be combined with sneaking up behind people. That’s how you get clocked.
Think about it. “Daughter of Satan”. What WOULD be a “right” way to act for daughter of Satan? I suspect it would involve fire and brimstone.
In Phoebe’s case, it’s dancing on rainbows in haute couture outfits with beautiful, friendly people under fluffy pink cotton candy clouds raining skittles.
Poor Miranda, her new friend got knocked out.
This kid has seen so much.
Right up there with Grogu,
Yes well, on the plus side, the Dougie ought now to have Phoebe nursing him/her back to health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . which probably makes the punch totally worth it!
Nurse Phoebe?
Candy Stripe Nurse Phoebe?
We all have our dreams….
Sounds like TWC incentive…
Does anybody else hear a disembodied voice of Carl Douglas going, “whoa ooo ooo. Whooaa hoooo oooooo.”
Along with the flute. Almost always.
And that beautiful flute.
Coincidentally, The Hustle, another flute-featuring song, also pairs well with martial arts. It just works.
A classic. Van the Man McCoy. Close to one thousand writing credits to the man’s name. And he died before even reaching 40. Mad respect for that genius.
Phoebe’s tail in panel 2: “Check out these sweater puppies.”
Tail placement is entirely, totally accidental. And not at all planned. Ever.
Nice punch: wrist is straight (not bent), arm fully extended at point of contact, hip did a full 180 for power and targeting … she may not be a boxer but she’s got good instincts!
Fun fact: I tried to draw that punch about three times to get it looking even marginally right.
So, does this monster have glowy eyes on BOTH sides of its head?
Yes. Weird biology, right?
Now they can unmask Red herring and put a stop to his illegal maple syrup operation.
How did that creep ever get out of Coolsville anyway? We don’t need him in
Canada. You can have him back!
Well. That ends that. I guess it’s time for unmasking and pizza.
Of course you get the pizza. Even mediochre pizza is still pizza.
I’m not a great fan of that punch. I much prefer Frosty’s in the Whiteboard.
Mediocre pizza is still pizza, but it makes you long for better pizza.
Moral of the story: just don’t go to buffets.
Well, then what you need is truly BAD pizza. Pizza so bad that it makes you relive all the GOOD pizza you’ve ever had in self-defense.
So basically Xykon in Start of Darkness, but w/ pizza not coffee. (Order of the Stick Villain Prequel).
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I’m happy, can you tell?
Reminds me of some hidden camera show where a guy was popping out of a recycling bin with a costume. Finally someone they spooked just punched him in the face and he collapsed.
Exactly. You pop up as some monster and eventually you’ll get clocked. Not the first time. Sometimes not even the tenth time. But eventually.
Heh, as usual it isn’t an Owlbear. It’s some old white guy in a costume trying to steal the land or recover money from a robbery he did years ago. I might be old enough to have watched it all until it was ruined by scrappy and worse writing in the 80’s and 90’s.(shudder) the dark times still haunt these ruins.
If you kept on going, the various iterations of the show started to get good again in the 21st century.