OCTOBER WEEKLY VOTING INCENTIVE!!! ADDAMS FAMILY COSPLAY!!!
A new (and pretty crazy) voting incentive’s coming on Nov. 1, but until then, I put together this little group shot of this month’s cosplay. Ooh, and remember, this voting incentive was chosen by special fans who donate $5 or more a month! If you want to join their controlling ranks, HEAD ON OVER TO PATREON and join the select club!
VOTE BECAUSE I REALLY NEED VOTES, MAN!!!
As for this comic…
This may or may not qualify as character growth. But it probably doesn’t, because I’m writing it, and character growth sounds like something that’s beyond my limited scope.
Minor note: I drew this entire comic, colored it, finished it, and was ready to post when I realized that I’d totally forgotten to put Miranda anywhere in the comic. She’d just disappeared. I’d done that before with some comics, but I’d often been able to explain it away by saying, “Oh, Miranda’s probably just with her dad.” But she couldn’t be with Dad this time. I was stuck. So I added her in her little car seat carrier thing at Puck’s feet. I don’t sweat continuity that much, but some oversights just require fixing.
Puck 414
Chapter: One of the BoysCharacters: Daphne Miranda Phoebe Puck Tyler (aka Taylor)Tags: adopted care court order family social obligation
OCTOBER WEEKLY VOTING INCENTIVE!!! ADDAMS FAMILY COSPLAY!!!
A new (and pretty crazy) voting incentive’s coming on Nov. 1, but until then, I put together this little group shot of this month’s cosplay. Ooh, and remember, this voting incentive was chosen by special fans who donate $5 or more a month! If you want to join their controlling ranks, HEAD ON OVER TO PATREON and join the select club!
VOTE BECAUSE I REALLY NEED VOTES, MAN!!!
As for this comic…
This may or may not qualify as character growth. But it probably doesn’t, because I’m writing it, and character growth sounds like something that’s beyond my limited scope.
Minor note: I drew this entire comic, colored it, finished it, and was ready to post when I realized that I’d totally forgotten to put Miranda anywhere in the comic. She’d just disappeared. I’d done that before with some comics, but I’d often been able to explain it away by saying, “Oh, Miranda’s probably just with her dad.” But she couldn’t be with Dad this time. I was stuck. So I added her in her little car seat carrier thing at Puck’s feet. I don’t sweat continuity that much, but some oversights just require fixing.
Hmmph. Here I thought that she was worried that the premium on the life insurance didn’t get there in time.
Well, that’s still a possibility.
Life insurance policies consider you covered under a grace period from the point you’ve ordered the policy and handed them a check for the first month premium. They’ll then do the full underwriting to see if you’re actually qualified to be insured, or if they have to adjust the rates due to discovering you’re higher risk after going through your medical history… but if you die in the few weeks between handing them the check and them handing you your official final copy of the policy (and there’s not indications of deliberate fraud) then they will indeed pay out.
I’m sure this is the official line, but I’m almost positive that insurance companies will, in practice, find ways out of this. (Everything I know about the insurance industry I learned from The Incredibles.)
I can vouch for this.
I’ve even had insurance companies try to ‘back-date’ a cancellation – hoping you didn’t keep your receipts.
1) Pay your premiums Jan-Oct.
2)Have a problem in Oct.
3)Insurance company: “Ohh! You didn’t make your April payment! You’re cancelled!”
4)Pull out April receipt.
5)Insurance company: *puts fingers in ears* “LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-ICAN’THEARYOUICAN’THEARYOU!!.”
It’s an industry built around being as merciless as legally possible. It’s not their fault that they’re awful people, really. The industry made them that way.
You’re not wrong. The life insurance industry as a whole is incredibly shady. Have been since at least the 50s, although it was originally invented by farming communities genuinely intending to look out for each other if ol’ Jebediah fell under his thresher and left his wife and three kids under the age of six to try and run the farm without him. It started out as pure Term Insurance. (You’re not insured until you die; you’re insured for 20 years until your sons are grown enough to run the farm without you, at which point you didn’t really need to be insured anymore). Insurance companies that grew out of these farming community agreements eventually found that this very reasonably priced product wasn’t making enough money to buy their CEOs the boats and mansions they wanted, so they introduced a new product called “Whole Life” Insurance. You’re insured right up until you die, whenever that is… as long as you keep paying premiums, which are 5x as high as Term insurance, and since there’s a 100% chance of you dying at SOME point, the payout is also about 1/10th as much money… or typically enough to let your surviving family members keep their house for about a year before they’re all on the streets begging for change. Pretty much every new type of product since then is a scam of some sort (Universal Life, is a particularly insidious trap… but explaining how it works is an essay onto itself, so just trust me that is looks good when you sign the paperwork, but blows up in your face later.)
Though there’s also some few companies that were created specifically to fight against the shady life insurance industry, hoping to drive them out of business by the sneaky and vicious method of teaching the insurance companies’ customers how their products really work, explaining the scams so they can’t fall for them again, and then offering to insure them properly. Primerica Financial Services is probably the best example. Founded in 1977 by a bunch of very angry men who had been ripped off by crooked life insurance agents or had their family members cheated by them. They sell only Term Life; the original, affordable product that actually does what it promises to. They later expanded to helping families who were ripped off by banks and credit unions as well.
They leave behind them a trail of families whose complicated financial situations are set right, with a solid plan to proceed in the future, and who have been educated in how the scams work so they can’t fall for them again.
I really think a lot of the company! They proved that you don’t have to @#$& people over to turn a profit (you can @#$& over the @#$&ers instead! :D)
Plus I’m wondering if she just grabbed his hand unconsciously.
Ok, what’s Phoebe knitting ?
A onesie for Robin’s next child ?
Does Colin even know ?
Probably a sweater. A tight pink sweater.
@EG
In that case, I believe it is complete.
Hey, Daphne, dude. Taylor or Tyler is right there next to you.
Just what I was thinking.
JINX!
Well, yeah. Though we don’t know if he’s been compelled to care for her by court order.
More likely by blackmail or extortion…
Too true.
I am thinking something between Boredom and Reproductive Urges.
Will Daphne and Colin share a cheese-wham power up again?
The future is cloudy.
What? Too cliché?
@EG
Time to flip the EIGHT-BALL ovah…
I love how despite all the disfunction and craziness in their lives, these guys really are a family 🙂
Kind of, yes.
I can finally see the alt text! It’s a Christmas miracle!
How, pray tell? Did you trade in your iPad for some real technology?
ZING !
The tags are quite amazing this week, EG. (Yes, I do read them.)
As for the comic, I can’t really argue with Daphne’s point about Puck effectively being forced to adopt her and Colin just going “Oh, you got an (adopted) kid? Alright, cool”.
Most guys would freak the hell out if they found that out.
So yeah. Props to Colin for that.
As for forgetting to put Miranda somewhere, I was going to say “why not claim she was being held off-screen” until I noticed that Phoebe was sitting to the far left. So ignore that.
I do put thought into the tags – mainly in the way that I try to think of key terms that someone might remember a comic by, in case they were ever searching for a comic they vaguely remembered. It’s an imprecise science.
And I don’t think, outside of the dream narrative, that I’ve ever drawn Phoebe holding Miranda. Though I might be wrong on that.
Miranda could have been in a carrier on the seat next to phoebe
Well, true. But I think that would have stretched credibility.
Miranda napping while Colin’s asleep might be the most sensible approach for everyone. Too bad they all didn’t get a toot of what Col got.
—
And yay character development. It makes the hijinks even hijinkier.
I make the hijinkiest comic in the known world!
Will you actually show the surgery in the next comic? I’m waiting for it…
No. I won’t. But we will check back with Colin in an unexpected way.
Aw, come on! Why won’t you show it!?!? I’ve been waiting all this time for it!!!
You are probably the only one who eagerly wants to see that.
You’re right. But please do it anyway.
If baby-Daffy showed up on MY doorstep, I would slam the door and call Animal Control! *works on background of my favorite fan art some more* Oh, BTW, perspective is hard. My bf after viewing my efforts said I know about as much about perspective as a pine marten knows about Plato. 🙁
Well, perspective IS hard. Anything beyond one-point perspective is hard because the vanishing points are usually WAY off your page. Old timey draftsmen would work on desks that were six feet wide sometimes, just to accommodate those long vanishing lines. I often just sort of eyeball stuff. I’m lucky in that characters usually crowd the foreground of any panel so they tend to cover up any really obvious errors.
@EG
Baldie WAS an old-timey Draftsman.
Those huge boards were indeed a joy. They went up, they went down, they tilted to AND fro.
Some drew sitting, others standing.
But honestly ?
Drawing a simple straight line then was a SKILL. Computers and CAD are a major improvement.
I respect the old ways. The old ways were always the better ways. ALWAYS.
Hey EG, you know what would be an APRIL FOOL’S hoot ?
A single week drawn by the guy you had draw the strip back in the 90’s.
They may have been simple Black-and-White drawings, with non-existent backgrounds, but they were still funny as hell !
Well, that guy was me. And my drawings can look like that again. I just need to work on a smaller scale, with less skill, and not really care. And then bam.
@Susan
Many of us would adore a re-imagining of Puck #3.
Where something ELSE would happen to Daphne.
😛
How funny would a slammed and locked door and a guy in a dogcatcher outfit carrying Daffy upside sown in a butterfly net to an Animal Control van be? I think I could just manage that.
NB: my bf is trying to correct my messed up Puck feet and frames for Miranda, and Phoebe’s portraits. There was a lot of swearing. 🙁
I do not endorse this fan fiction.
Heh, don’t worry. My muse is not whispering in my ear
@Susan
But I endorse it without hesitation.
(I can only imagine what Daphne has “on” EG.)
Okay, this is my reimagining of “The Happiest Place in Canada” after I added portraits of Miranda and Phoebe and my bf corrected the portraits. Oh, and fixed Puck’s feet.
https://imgur.com/a/bM20h
@Susan
SIMPLY ADORABLE !
I love how Miranda is innocently looking away, but Phoebe can’t resist a look !
BEST FAN ART EVAH !!
Thanks, Salem. I apologize for the poor scan. Something todo with the spiral on my bf’s sketchbook
So, this proves that Daphne sees Colin as her father, no matter what she calls him. I like that. 🙂
Yes. Yes, it does.
[through a scuba breathing tube]: “Daphne…I am your father.”
Yeah. Once a child was left at my house too, and I didn’t adopt it. It turned out to be really socially unacceptable. The parents hated me, I’ll tell you!
Let me make sure I got this straight… Not adopting an abandoned child is socially unacceptable, but abandoning your child is not only ok, but gives you the right to judge the person you abandoned it with?
What’s wrong with that picture?
Who said that was okay?
Well, understood.
BTW, here in Witchcraft Heights in Salem, Mass, we had 300 Trick-or-Treaters by 7:45 PM.
It was warm, dry, beautiful. Nearly a Full Moon, too.
Baldie was quite nearly in full sob mode. He’s never had to pull-the-plug due to lack of goodies before.
The sad thing about Trick-Or-Treating is it is so dependent on the weather. You just never know.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN TO ALL !!!
We gave out over 600 pieces of candy last night. And my bf scared off several teenagers, one of whom said he was a pimp. With no costume. My bf asked where his [string of girls] were. Reminds me of how I hated teenage boys even when I was a teenage girl.
I had fifteen kids come by. It was sad. I live in an area with lots of natural trails and almost everyone who lives here is a ‘healthy, active lifestyle’ type who disapproves of letting kids eat candy. So the numbers have dropped every year.
And your dislike of teen boys is totally something I am not going to argue against.
Yeah, I had 11 kids come by… Least it was an improvement from the 8 of last year…
My count goes down every year. Though the amount of candy I give out keeps going up. So I know I’m not part of the problem.
@EG
OMG
I’ll bet you just forgot to put out your FREE CANDY sign, didn’t you ?
@EG
THIS ONE looks like it would do the trick !
@Susan
Wow Wee ! 600 is overwhelming !
What treats do you pass out ? (White Chocolate I hope hope hope)
(I think EG passes out single Kernels of Candy Corn. If he upped the ante he might get 600 like you !)
Mostly bags full of Mars and Hershey “Fun Sized” bars. One bag of Trader Joe’s dark Belgian chocolate bars, for my friends and neighbors.
@Susan
Yumm !
That’s what Baldie gave out – but after the 300 came and went there was NONE LEFT for him !!
In fairness to EG, they prolly don’t have really good Candy in Canada.
Mebe they give out Apple Slices and Organic Carrot Stiks.
(No wonder the poor tykes just stay home)
The candy in Canada is better than the candy in America. But only if you’re Canadian. Americans think our candy is overly sweet and gross. We Canadians think American candy tastes funny. And that’s just the way it is.
@EG
Well, I’m just pleased that in another few days the local TRADER JOES will have 100% PURE MAPLE SUGAR CANDY for sale.
It’s likely from Vermont, but I’m betting that any country who has an actual MAPLE LEAF on its flag does a better job of it.
You prolly keep all the good stuff for yourself.
Can’t blame you.
BEST VOTING INCENTIVE EVAH !!!
Purrrrrrr………Purrrrrrr………Purrrrrrr……… and then some
Thing will never look quite the same to me.
—
I never really noticed but she’s got quite lovely … hands.
I’m glad you approve.
Well, can’t say I like it much, but it is better than another Daffy one.
Oh, btw, over at the Scary-Go_Round website, Amy seems to share Phoebe’s love for opera length gloves: http://www.scarygoround.com/
I’ll bet it’s to cover the tattoos.
Okay, here is a photo (mine) of “The World’s Happiest Place. Much better than the dumb scan, though too dark. https://imgur.com/a/KEe9n
@Susan
Kewl !
I’d love some “Action Lines”.
Mebe some “Exclamation Rays” emanating from Daphne’s Head, of “Impact Dust Clouds” from her butt.
Tho often “less is more”, and they could actually detract from the image.
Certainly EG does not rely on “Action Lines”.
I don’t rely on action lines because there’s almost no action in Puck. If you look at old stuff of mine that actually had action in it, I had some action lines. Or action transparency effects, I guess: https://electricgecko.deviantart.com/art/High-Seas-Issue-1-Page-12-92766080
So Cool !
Jet = Robin
Sebastian = Colin
Sophie = Daphne
Well, there’s certainly recurring character types in my work. That comic occurred in the years immediately following the first run of Puck, though, so the Puck cast came first.
@EG
Can Monica McTasty visit Hamilton sometime ?
(MATURE CONTENT)
Not my character. And probably not.
@EG
But But But…
Your drawing of her is *AMAZING* !
I’ll just have to settle for that brief flash of your genius.
I had never, ever even heard of Monica McTasty.
I figured EG had invented her.
No, you wouldn’t have. That pic dated back to a time when I had more time on my hands, and a time when DeviantArt was a thriving community of art-types. That pic was a bit of an informal art trade between me and a Brazilian friend of mine on the site, who has since largely dropped out of the whole art thing – as most people do over time. So the character is an OC (original character) of someone else.
Hey, EG, somebody posted on that page. *whistles*
@EG
It’s sad HIGH SEAS neva caught on.
I thot about it a lot – then it came to me.
One Word: FRECKLES.
The Delia character (introduced on the final page and modelled on my wife) had freckles. But we never got past that point.
Well, the finished piece really does work, I must say. I approve. Even if it’s still not canon.
*glows* Of course it’s not canon, silly lizard. That’s why I had to nag my bf into drawing it. As Stalky and Beetle and McTurk said “I gloat, I gloat!” See “Stalky and Company” by Rudyard Kipling. As and English teacher should know. 🙂
Like pics of tipsy Phoebe aren’t canon, but still ended up in “Fan Art.” Hint, hint
Well, it can be entered into the halls of fan art, for certain.
@EG
Hooray !!
Yay! My dream has come true!
Is Puck once more with child?
Are you implying that Puck is GETTING FAT? Better start running, now. 😛
@Greg White
Of course Robin is “with child”.
Miranda’s right there !
What I meant is Puck pregnant again?
I’m glad you remembered Miranda, she looks so cute by her mam’s feet ^-^
Yeah, me too.
So much information put into your work…especially those backgrounds. You certainly don’t take panel space for granted.
Enh, that background was actually recycled from an earlier comic where Colin was in the same waiting room. Which makes no sense, but I really didn’t want to draw a new background. But definitely I tend to run low on panel space. Curse these limited panels!
Tylor’s RIGHT there.
Well, he knows his place.