Puck 432

Chapter: One of the Boys EpilogueCharacters: Colin Cy Daphne Tyler (aka Taylor)Tags: boba fett bounty hunter natty nerd nerd Star Wars store
NEW WEEKLY VOTING INCENTIVE! VOL 2 PREVIEW!! Follow along as I draw the cover for Puck Volume 2! The second entry is up now, so... VOTE FOR PUCK AND MAKE RUTABAGAS EDIBLE!!! 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… No offence to Boba Fett fans out there, of course. But he's become the New England Patriots or the Manchester United of the Star Wars bounty hunter world. As per usual, I spent a rather ridiculous amount of time drawing various background nerd store details, only to have said details almost entirely obscured by characters and dialogue boxes. Oh well. For those who are interested, I'll post a shot of the full background art on Patreon and you can play the 'recognize the nerd refs' game that a lot of people had fun with last week. There is some evidence, by the way, that this store is the source of Daphne's shirts. One of her previous tops (featuring yet another Star Wars bounty hunter) hangs on the back wall.

163 Comments

  • SalemCat

    Hmmmnn….

    It appears to me this is a COFFEE SHOP posing as a Nerd-Heaven.

    Hmmmnn….

    (don’t really care as long as Emily makes another appearance)

  • pat

    Well, at least he didn’t ask the length of the Enterprise from first to last starting with the first one.

    • SalemCat

      @pat

      12 parsecs ?

    • ElectricGecko

      There’s being a nerd, and then there’s being an obsessive numbers-obsessed weirdo. I put those people in the same camp as those sports nuts who can tell you the batting average of every player in the major leagues. For every year. Since 1971.

      CRAZY. And with too much time on their hands.

      • pat

        What, they gotta talk about something in their respective off seasons. Besides, how else are you going to get lunk headed jocks interested in higher math?

  • SalemCat

    No love for GREED-O ?

    (apt name)

    • ElectricGecko

      Greedo is an unorthodox yet acceptable answer. Few people like him now, especially what with his sudden ability to shoot first which developed in the late 90’s.

  • Well, personally, I’d like a better look at the objays-de-nerd on the shelf, and the blackboard menu, too. But I’m on my laptop now; I’ll try a bigger screen tomorrow.

    • ElectricGecko

      I don’t think a bigger screen will help, what with the awful resolution here. A bigger image (and the full background pic) are up on Patreon now, so you can make better use of that enormous screen there.

      • Yeah, it’s an easier squint, but it’s still not there. Two emojis, if that’s what they are, a monkey, a dinosaur, and something that looks some kind of scale model of a tank (with tread, wheels, and a buzzsaw.) (I’ll look into Patreon when my post-retirement finances stabilize.)

  • Bunmi

    So much nerd stuff in this comic. I love it.

  • Grimjac100

    Sorry, *real* nerds answer the question “Who’s your favorite bounty hunter?” with an eye-rolling sneer and, “John Gaunt.” Then we give the questioner a wild-eyed manic grin and ask, “Why, who’s yours and how much is he worth to you?”

  • “We also would’ve accepted ‘Spike Spiegel’ or ‘Samus Aran.'”

  • SalemCat

    Jack Skellington, Monster Machine, Yoda, PokΓ©mon, Godzilla, Diddy Kong, Pac-Man

  • SalemCat

    This guy is a FRAUD.

    Not a ROBOT in sight.

    • Crazy Lou

      Clearly you’re not looking hard enough. Take a look at the coffee cup in his hand!

      • SalemCat

        @Crazy Lou

        That’s just Astro Boy

        • SalemCat

          There are only FOUR worthy Robots, IMHO.

          Maria, Robby, B-9, and The Iron Giant !

          • ElectricGecko

            You have a very narrow definition of worthy. I mean, you forget the greatest, most imposing robot of them all: Cy-Kill.

          • Lokitsu

            Salem, you’re forgetting Fred Saberhagen’s Beserkers, Johnny Five and Wall-E. Even R2-D2 qualifies as a robot, regardless of what George Lucas called him.

            BTW did you mean K-9 from Dr Who?

          • Mark Christianson

            B-9 – The robot from the TV series Lost In Space.

          • ElectricGecko

            I still prefer Robby.

          • SalemCat

            @Mark Christianson – You Nailed it !

            @Lokitsu –

            R2D2 is ok, but not in my Worthy Four due to lack of coherent dialogue combined with fairly simple design.

            Johnny Five and Wall-E are wayyyyy too cute to make the Worthy Four.

            C3PO might have made the cut, but he is essentially a simple homage to Maria.

            All these would be in the Top Ten, no doubt. I’ll admit that.

            I would also consider K-2SO.

            I’d stick Cy-Kill in the Top Ten, but you know, he’s not real (don’t tell EG).

          • Susan Schroeder

            Pish, tosh! You are leaving out TOBOR THE GREAT!! I saw him on TV in Ft. Worth when I was about eight and have never forgotten. WALL-E, pffft!

          • SalemCat

            @Susan

            TOBOR = ROBOT spelled backwards.

            Poor Susan !

            I was fortunate that as an itty-bitty I was introduced to “FORBIDDEN PLANET” long before “TOBOR-the-not-so-great.”

            TOBOR as a movie – meh. But I have reconsidered opening up spot No.11 simply for the COOL POSTER. Not as cool as THIS ONE, tho.

            TOBOR hails from 1954 – ROBBY from 1956. Until this moment I had no idea Robby was a KopyKat.

            BTW, FORBIDDEN PLANET in the UK is the largest NERD STORE on this planet !

          • ElectricGecko

            I watched Forbidden Planet many, many times as a kid, though I honestly found it too cerebral and boring for my kiddie tastes. The fact that the monster was invisible really irked me. I always disliked invisible monsters: the sure-fire sign of low production values. (See ‘Golden Voyage of Sinbad’ for more info … though ‘Golden Voyage’ does make up for that by starring Caroline Munro, which can save ANY movie.)

          • SalemCat

            A pretty girl in his arms won’t save this Turkey The Day the Earth Stood Still

            Uninspired, slow, dull, PREACHY – this movie sux.

            The rubber suit passed off as a robot – GORT, is not worthy to oil R2’s Butt Vents.

            No Top 100 for GORT !

          • SalemCat

            @EG

            “I still prefer Robby.”

            Both B-9 and Robby were designed by the same Japanese-American – Robert Kinoshita.

            Of course, as a mere TV Show prop, B-9 was made on a budget. Robby alone cost more than the average film of the time !

            Some have asked “If Robby and B-9 fought, who would win ?”

            The answer HERE

          • SalemCat

            Awesome Robot TRASH TALK !!

            I especially love the Electronic Music as Robby enters the arena.

            Forbidden Planet was forbidden to list MUSIC, due to a dispute with the Musician’s Union.

            Instead the Credits Listed “Electronic TONALITIES by Louis and Bebe Barron”

          • Re: Robbie the Robot: I saw him on several TV shows way before I ever saw “Forbidden Planet”—including appearances on “Lost in Space.”

    • ElectricGecko

      Well, we haven’t seen the whole shop yet. And one of the shirts (that we can’t see in the comic because Colin’s rudely standing in front of it) is a Transformers shirt.

  • Thisguy

    I’m a fan of Samas Aran myself.

  • Susan Schroeder

    If I had, by hook or crook, been inveigled into that store, and some loathsome nerd asked me who my favorite bounty hunter was, I would stand on my tippy-toes to my full five foot three inch height and say, “Josh Randall, because nobody *ever* has been as cool as Steve McQueen.” {the rest of this post has been redacted by my bf because he doesn’t like me to post on the internet while drunk}

    • ElectricGecko

      You are obviously not nerdy enough. Only nerds who want to gain cool points like Steve McQueen, king of cool.

    • SalemCat

      @Susan

      BF = Lieutenant Buzzkill

      • Susan Schroeder

        Well, considering what I was about to post, I have to admit that he had a point.

        • SalemCat

          @Susan

          Mebe something about Fur Wristlets ?

          • Susan Schroeder

            No, it was contemplative violence against a certain snarky jackal-girl. I am really glad I didn’t post it. Anyway, who says “original trig?” It should be “original tril”!

          • ElectricGecko

            It’s pronounced “oridge tridge” and it’s a standard fan shorthand. Though yeah, it’s a little weird and doesn’t entirely make sense.

          • SalemCat

            @Susan

            Oh…THAT.

            Unfortunately if CY hasn’t caught on that DAPHNE is wearing Tees that he cannot recall her ever actually PURCHASING by now, I fear he’s too chill to ever catch on.

            And even if he did, he’d just present her Guardian with the bill. And sadly, that would be Colin and not Robin – the person who actually adopted and raised the dear sweet pup πŸ™

            Prolly HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of Canadian Dollars by now.

          • ElectricGecko

            So, like, $29 American?

          • Susan Schroeder

            When did Daffy ever “purchase” anything? Shoplift, maybe! πŸ˜›

          • ElectricGecko

            Daphne would definitely pay real money (stolen from other sources) at establishments she believed in. We’ve already established that she’s fairly lawful and caring to people she actually knows and cares about. She seems to have an established friendship with this shop owner. I think we can assume that she pays real (stolen) money for her goods here.

          • Susan Schroeder

            *snarl* If you say so. *looks unconvinced*

  • Gustavo

    A bit long so I cut or rearranged a few words (my working out follows): “An alien refugee teams up with the human bounty hunter who almost annihilated her species to prevent a doomsday weapon falling into the hands of an evil empire. “Alien refugee is interesting enough without bounty hunter but human isn”t, so i switched it (if human not a bounty hunter then write in what he DOES do). Almost sounds better than nearly, but that”s subjective. A doomsday weapon clearly poses a threat to her home and the rest of the galaxy, besides which the logline is getting too long. The HOOK is the alien teaming up with the person who (tried to) wipe out her species, like the panda teaming up with the Chinese medicine man. That”s your most original element, that”s what I”d emphasize.

  • Kaiser

    Been meaning to ask (because I keep forgetting, thanks brain), is the city that Puck:co a real one, a fictional one or a fictional one based of a real one?

    As for the comic, I’m not a Star Wars fan and even I know that no one seems to like Boba Fett. That’s… Kind of weird for me to know, come to think of it. Huh.

    In regards for the voting incentive, your wife is correct: it was a cute picture.

    • ElectricGecko

      The city has been expressly identified as Hamilton, my hometown, within the comic. Some elements are fictional (like the nerd store, which is really an amalgamation of about five or six stores in the area), and some are real life places (like Hutch’s, the burger joint that Puck has visited). Some are real places that have been renamed. For instance, Puck went to McNiven University, which is an off-brand rendition of McMaster University, Hamilton’s big place of higher learning.

      The issue with Boba Fett was that too many people seemed to like Boba Fett (despite the fact that he did very little in the movies), and then there was a sort of Boba Fett backlash. He’s just overexposed. It’s cooler (and nerdier) to identify an incredibly minor character who only gets three seconds of screen time as your favorite.

      • Katrina

        I believe the real problem with Boba Fett is that in the original three movies, he’s an “Informed Bada$$”. We never see him do anything particularly impressive in the movies other than stand there and look vaguely intimidating. And in Return of the Jedi, he is dispatched bumbling idiot style by just being accidentally pushed off a platform.

        • ElectricGecko

          Boba Fett was, as I heard someone on YouTube recently say, a cool helmet. That’s all he was: a cool helmet. You can love that helmet, but it still doesn’t take you very far.

        • SalemCat

          @Katrina

          I loved Boba Fett’s death.

          He was so annoying. and deserved the death of a FOOL.

          No awe-inspiring final battle for him – HA !!

          ROTG – so many classic scenes !

          (and ewoks – yuk)

  • SalemCat

    In the lower case:

    C3PO, Nerd Stash, PokΓ©mon Sleepag, Tradis, Sextoy, Dick Tracy, R2D2, Meowth, Planet of the Apes Board Game, Turkish Fez

    • ElectricGecko

      Some of those are right. Some wrong.

      • SalemCat

        @EG

        At least I got the really hard ones.

        C3PO and SexToy are pretty obscure.

        (BTW – the unobstructed view of the lower display case is visible, enlarged, in full glory, on EG’s PATREON PAGE. $1 a month is all it takes)

  • SalemCat

    And on the shelf, to the left of Godzilla, and behind Colin’s melon: TEEN TITAN CYBORG MIB !

    Gotta Get Them All !

  • Billy Yank

    Given that this is a webcomic, the answer, of course, is Jevee Ceeta

  • SalemCat

    Now don’t tell me that COLIN and CY don’t visit the same Barber !

    In fact, they look so much alike, it is almost like they had the SAME FATHER.

  • Randew

    No one else immediately recognized the Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors Saw Boss ? Man, I’m getting old.

  • Jordan

    Hmm, I wonder if “IG-88” would grant access to this nerdy land… Because after Fett, Greedo, and Bossk, it seems to be the last one that I can remember from Star Wars…

  • Grace

    What about the shape-shifting bounty hunter from Critters 2?

  • Lucas

    EMBO!!!!
    (I like his sombrero thing…)

  • Wyvern

    His name is Cy… his favorite bounty hunter is a droid… he must be a cylon!

    P.S. Does 4-LOM really mean “For Love Of Money”, or is that a backronym?

    P.P.S. What’s Cy’s ethnicity supposed to be? He looks Indian to me. (Or Pakistani.)

    • ElectricGecko

      More on Cy’s name later. You’re not far off.

      4-LOM really does stand for ‘for love of money’ and was intended as such. By whoever came up with the name, anyway. I don’t think the name was revealed until the action figure was released.

      And Cy would be Indian.

  • Susan Schroeder

    All are equally nerdish under the malignant eye of George Lucas.

    • SalemCat

      George Lucas has gone so PC, that he’ll soon be re-shooting every Star Wars episode, replacing every violent confrontation with a SLAP-FIGHT.

      It’s for the children.

    • Susan Schroeder

      If I had had George Lucas in the room with me the first time I saw Greedo shoot first, I would have bitch-slapped him silly and stuffed him into his custom pizza oven.

  • EcchiKitty

    Favorite bounty hunter? Hrrm… several spring to mind, none of them from Star Wars…. will have to go with Alita, she hunted bounties in the first book…

    • ElectricGecko

      I don’t know the source property much. I’ve only really seen the previews for the totally horrifying James Cameron-produced CGI nightmare movie that’s coming out. I can never unsee the eyes.

      • EcchiKitty

        I greatly enjoyed the manga, and the sequel series. The anime basically covers the first book, can give a solid idea of what you’re getting into. The live action…. yeeeeah… I’ll see it, but I don’t hold high hopes.

  • “Crowded Cast”? O.o

    You really think so? For a comic that’s been running 20 years (discontinuously).
    I counted 10 in my head before having to head to the cast page for a few more minor characters like relatives who have only appeared once or twice.
    Compare your work to “Negima: Magister Magi” who presented us with a seating chart for a class of 30 students right in chapter one (along with more than a handful of non-student characters).

    Your cast is quite modest.

    • ElectricGecko

      I’m actually glad to hear you say that. I really dislike comics with an insanely large cast of characters. I chalk it up to many webcomic types simply not understanding how narrative works. In a comic especially, you always have limited time to explore things. More development to fewer characters is ALWAYS better than less development to more characters.

      Webcomics do have the advantage of you being able to go back and read the archive to remind yourself of characters, or you can check the character page, but I feel strongly that if a comic requires you to know more than ten characters to really understand what’s going on, it’s probably somewhat flawed in execution.

      I’m only talking recurring characters, though: characters who show up and their very presence should be understood and should mean something to the reader. So for instance, Newman from Seinfeld is a character that, though minor, will generate laughs just through his appearance because we already know what’s coming. If a character is an incidental figure who only occurs in one story arc, they don’t count.

      An example (in my mind) of a failed minor character in this comic is the Hotdog Guy. He’s too minor and his appearances are too rare, so every time he appears, I always get people asking, “Wait, why does Puck have a hot dog and why is she in a psychiatrist’s office?” That is an example of failed character bloat, courtesy of yours truly.

      • Susan Schroeder

        *cough*Frivolesque*cough^

        • SalemCat

          @Susan

          Oui

        • ElectricGecko

          Frivolesque gets a pass from me because its very, very large cast of characters consists almost entirely of cute female characters. That’s one of the few scenarios where there really cannot be too much of a good thing.

          • Susan Schroeder

            *cough*malechauvinist*cough* πŸ˜› That’s the very reason I pick on it. On the few, rare, occasions that I drop in on it, I never can tell who half the characters are. I usually can pick our Mary Neigh, because she makes my annoyance meter go crazy

          • ElectricGecko

            I am NOT a male chauvinist! A male chauvinist (by definition) is a male who believes in the inherent superiority of men, and actively prefers men over women, whom he deems inferior. I really don’t like men. I spend very little time with them. And (though this current comic is unusually out of character on this front) I tend to give them very little attention in my comic.

            The complete old school term, though, was ‘male chauvinist pig’. And though I am not a male chauvinist, I will admit to sometimes being an unabashed pig.

          • SalemCat

            Ain’t CHAUVIN the guy who wrote THE CANKLEBERRY TAILS ?

          • SalemCat

            @Susan

            oh

  • Dark

    Sorry, Friendo, the best mercenary is clearly Grayson Carly-

    Wait, bounty hunter? That’s still a very obvious answer: The Bounty Hunter. The original, not Vic Tavers or “Walt Urizeman”.

  • Susan Schroeder

    Incentive alert! Phloebles is wearing Report Lawren two-piece platform sandals that I saw last weekend at Macy’s. https://www.macys.com/shop/shoes/all-womens-shoes?id=56233 And now I regret not buying them!

  • Zyphyer

    Jaycee and the wheeled warriors ftw!!! No one ever knows what I’m talking about when I describe that show.

  • DLKmusic

    hmmmm…. Coffee, Games, and Cosplay girls abound. All the nerd shops I know of round here are missing 2 of the 3 key ingredients!

    That’s it, I’m moving to Hamilton!

  • Hielario

    I agree with Daphne, some people should relax a bit about the original trilogy, even if I think it caught lightning in a bottle.

    • ElectricGecko

      I definitely get that from younger types who weren’t around for it. And I must admit that I feel a little less connected to the property now that Star Wars has swollen to market saturation the way it has. I feel saying (to rip off Brian Regan), “Okay, calm down Mr. Star Wars Man. You take your sales trophy and have a vacation.”

  • dark waffle

    Charlie Siringo, the real deal.
    “Bounty hunters go back to 1872, when the Supreme Court ruled they were part of the U.S. law enforcement system. Thus, the bounty hunter was pretty much a free agent; he was not held accountable to the rules of due process as sheriffs and marshals were.”

  • CuCernunnos

    A true geek would also have accepted the Bounty Hunter kit from the D&D 2nd edition “The Complete Thief’s Handbook,” pages 29 through 31.

    Although not a “named” Bounty Hunter, knowing that would definitely prove your geekdom. lol

    • ElectricGecko

      Indeed. Anything to do with D&D earns you a pass.

      • Susan Schroeder

        Ick, Yoshimo, the awfullest NPC in BG2 was a Bounty Hunter. I learned the hard way not to pick him up in Caasa Irenicus! Nalia is not as good at first, and you can keep her all the way to the end of ToB!
        (did I sound nerdy? Oops!) *embarrassed*

        Oh, well, Mara Jade is the awesomest character in the Star Wars Universe, and she wasn’t in the “Original Tril” Disney is dumb for not inserting her into bombs like “The Last Jedi” πŸ˜›

        • ElectricGecko

          I know a lot of Mara Jade fans. I never read any of the Expanded Universe books, so I can’t personally say. But right now, I must admit that you’re sounding like a serious hardcore nerd. Your frilly shirts and cool dance moves can’t hide it.

          • Susan Schroeder

            It’s my bf’s fault, he got me into BG when they came out with the EE, and I went through the whole saga. Three times. I can pretend to be a nerd with the best of them, but you won’t get me into a dumb cat outfit with furry bracelets.

            Mara Jade can beat any bounty hunter in the ‘Verse. In fact, she did it in Heir To the Empire.

  • Sheeps

    …Did I come off that way on the last comic? πŸ™

  • Samman

    What, no love for Dengar? Now there’s a guy who should get a spin-off movie.

  • While I never considered myself an “Old School Geek”, this is the first time I’ve ever seen the term “Orig Trig” to refer to the first three Star Wars movies. (The Gs are soft, right?)

    • ElectricGecko

      Yes, the term (widely used on YouTube) is pronounced ‘Oridge Tridge’. And is always said with a certain reverence.

  • demarion

    ‘Orig trig’ reminds me of a Thatababy strip. Mom, lying awake at night, worried= Will he make friends at school? Will he get into a good university? What will the job market be like when he enters? Dad, lying awake at night, worried= Do I tell him there are only three Star Wars movies, or admit there are others?

  • Susan Schroeder

    Okay, then if Eps 4-5-6 are “the Original Trig” then the prequels are “The Original Tripe” and “The Last Jedi” is “The Latest Tripe.” only fighting an image, forsooth! πŸ˜›

  • James Dixon

    Sigh, not a single Colt Seavers fan in the house.

    • MSG Bob

      No, I have love for the “Unknown Stuntman” even if only for the association with the good-looking Heather – Thomas, that is. But you did have to jog my memory. Wasn’t Markie Post on that show for a while, too?

  • My continuing nerd traumatic memory is attending Mid AmericCon the summer before Star Wars came out. There was a small display with movie posters that looked interesting but I didn’t know enough to ask for some bling (“bling” was not even a word then) or take a photo. The next summer the movie came out and I realized my mistake. Ah memory!

    • SalemCat

      @rewinn

      Life is full of regrets, eh ?

      I’ve a few….

    • ElectricGecko

      The old word for bling was the acronym ‘swag’ – stuff we all get. Then Justin Bieber suddenly made ‘swag’ a short form for ‘swagger’ and the world got slightly dumber.

      But your story is a true tragedy.

  • Susan Schroeder

    …but then again, too few to mention…
    Who am I kidding?
    I refret that my father didn’t buy me 10,000 shares of MIcro$oft for my first birthday instead of that dumb doll.

  • Nice! I see Pac-Man on the shelf! And you’ve got to teach me how to do those cool clothes texture patterns you do so well πŸ˜€

    • ElectricGecko

      The clothing textures only work sometimes. I use a vector-based wrap technique. It’s best if it’s on a relatively flat surface, like the front of a shirt. When it’s on an arm (especially a bent arm) it sort of falls apart. If there are too many contortions to the plane, the whole vector breaks down and turns into visual gibberish. But I’ll be damned if I’m drawing actual hound’s tooth on a jacket, so I keep falling back on my cheap techniques.

  • Jodin

    Personally, my favorite Bounty Hunter is Samus Aran.

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