NEW VOTING INCENTIVE! MOVIE POSTER!?!
Something new is up on TWC! It's actually just the newest two pics that I'm using for the cover of Puck Volume Two, only I've gussied the pics up and made a slightly more entertaining product out of it! It's bound to be stupid, so...
VOTE FOR PUCK AND KEEP THE STUPIDITY ROLLING!!!
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…
The trip to the comic store ends. And it didn't take half a year! For once, I said I'd do a little short mini arc and I actually pulled it off in a little over a month. The next arc, though, won't be so short.
Also, I realize now that Tyler went along for this whole thing and he didn't say anything, do anything, or interact with anyone the whole time. In fact, when I started the comic, I'd planned to have him tag along, but then I was mapping out the first panels and I thought, "Should I cut him? It would make framing and drawing easier if I did." Then I thought, "Nah, it feels like he should be there." Then I struggled to frame the next few comics, often just 'TV edit' cutting him out of frame. I am nothing if not inefficient as both an artist and storyteller.
Nerdy social reject bond? You’ll think nerdy social reject bond when you are doing five to ten at whatever Canada’s toughest prison is. “”Eh, don’t go outside the wire, mmmkay?”
Eh, Tyler can add to a scene without saying anything. I mean, yes, his major role is as Daphne’s tag along not boyfriend, but he can do it in a Solon, cool way.
It’s sad really. Venosaur is a dinosaur tank with a solar cannon on it’s back, but Charizard and Blastoise are so much better that no one takes Bulbasaur.
Doing pretty good. I’m guessing that the convention will soon erupt. One of the sisters is attempting to out do the norm for public displays of obsession.
I haven’t. I honestly (sadly) don’t read many webcomics, because I’m too busy making this one. And reading webcomics takes focused attention, so I can’t read them while drawing my own, unlike Youtube videos which I can half-watch while drawing.
I also feel disinclined to read Shotgun Shuffle because the artist is so very, very good, and just looking at it makes me envious and hate my own work and makes me want to quit right now.
Salem, the animated cell phones? That was a bit of a one off riff to show real time communication interaction.
By the way, same sister fyi.
Gecko, I can understand a bit, but I see the styles as being different. Like a Stephen King book to a Stephan King movie. Or how Spider-Man II was better than Spider-Man II. Personally I think both of you are better than Brian O’Malley.
Hm, sampled “Shotgun Shuffle.” Art: fair, but not up to EG standards. Plot: Impossible to follow; not up to John Allison plots. No giant exploding walnuts or ghostly rock singers, no He-Man clones out jogging with their sons or short Ganster-types falling in love with fit-mums..
*goes back to reading “Giant Days” that I bought yesterday*
@EG: *grumble* That would be teenaged anime-lovers? Well, you are right on both counts.
@Salem: Yeah, my ears are located by my mastoid and temporo-mandibular joint, and my facial skin is nice and smooth. 😛
I like how Tyler was present for the entire thing but was basically treated like air. I, on one hand, feel bad for the guy.
On the other hand, it’s Tyler and I’m pretty sure he spent 99% of his time looking at… Everything, pretty much. Hm.
The fact that Tracee has a last name according to the poster surprised me. A lot.
Tracee’s last name was first revealed in strip #164, but no one seems to have seen that because everyone is surprised by it. I mean, it WAS about six or seven years ago.
I always found it funny that the nerdy “rejects” have more closely-knit social relationships because of their forced companionship and/because of their shared interests.
If you haven’t been tromping through a dungeon together, along with a neo-Nazi mage, a nymphomaniac cleric of Sune, and a halfling thief named Jack the Toad, you will never really know anybody.
Congratulations, Colin. Based on how Daphne is turning out, you are a great dad . . . . . . of course, you do still have Miranda to raise, so no slacking . . . . okay, that’s basically your parenting style, but there’s slacking and slacking, knowwhatImeancourseyou do!
I was thinking this entire conversation is more or less clarifying the unanswered question of what exactly some of the relationships are in that house.
Puck Adopted Daphne, and is an engaged couple with Colin, but clearly Daphne doesn’t regard either of them as “Mom & Dad”, despite living with them for… what, 10 years?
Daphne was pretty jaded and world-weary when she arrived in Puck’s care. I think that doesn’t really lead to someone developing proper parental identification. It might eventually manifest into a sort of ‘big brother/sister’ dynamic, but a full parental relationship is unlikely.
I remember playing Goldeneye with a friend. Jerk knew the maps inside and out cause he owned the game. I never stood a chance.
Honestly, I had a lot more fun playing Pokemon Snap and Pokemon Coliseum in the unattended minors area of airports. 11 year olds flying alone are the only people that hope for long layovers.
Alternate translation: ” I tolerate you because you provide me with room and board.”
“I desperately want your approval and affection but I will settle for occasional verbal abuse and tolerance.”
I’m not sure Colin desperately wants anything except not to be struck by an out of control Puck (…no doubt why he never played hockey…) so his affection, at least, seems sincere.
Daphne’s? One can never be sure of anything but she did start out like a child abandoned by who-knows? When you take in an abandoned cat, at first their focus is on controlling the relationship but eventually they develop actual affection, or at least habits that appear similar. Sometimes the relationship between actions and feelings are ……… complex.
I was thinking of Daphne as a stray cat metaphorically, not biologically. Her parentage would be a literary device with which Colin, as an English teach (?), might be familiar although I don’t recall whether it has name. Perhaps it is a modern device since so many characters in contemporary fiction (…assuming we consider graphic novels and such to be literature…) are bispeciel.
—
I myself have had as many as six cats at a time (all of them from shelters) due to complex human family dynamics. Perhaps when I retire I’ll open a feline foster home – what could be more delightful?
What could be more delightful? A Thanksgiving dinner with two family members that voted differently in the last Presidential election comes to mind. I may never eat cranberry sauce again. I had my bf fake- an emergency room call to leave.
I’m worried that Tyler (Taylor) has serious damage from the ‘incident(s)’ at Canada’s Funderland. Sad. He seemed such a nice young man. C’est le guerre…
Thanks. It’s really just sort of design by demand, because I wasn’t about to redraw another streetscape, because I’m too lazy and time-pressed to do that, so I needed to reuse the image from the earlier comic. And so now we see them walking away from behind. I thought it worked.
And we probably never will. Though I’ve had a nascent story arc in my mind since 1999 where we meet Daphne’s birth mother. Not sure I’ll ever get to that. Not sure we need another character thrown into the mix.
Beyond Puck being the “ancient fairy of lore” and mentions of Shakespeare in early strips, we don’t really know anything about where she came from Either. Phoebe being the daughter of the actual devil is the most backstory we’ve gotten for any character really.
D’waaaah! Who’s an adorably generic surly teenage girl! YOU are! (pats head)
…
(Abruptly jerks hand back as the dog-girl tries to bite him.) “…Yeah, that’s fair.”
NEW VOTING INCENTIVE! MOVIE POSTER!?!
Something new is up on TWC! It's actually just the newest two pics that I'm using for the cover of Puck Volume Two, only I've gussied the pics up and made a slightly more entertaining product out of it! It's bound to be stupid, so...
VOTE FOR PUCK AND KEEP THE STUPIDITY ROLLING!!!
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…
The trip to the comic store ends. And it didn't take half a year! For once, I said I'd do a little short mini arc and I actually pulled it off in a little over a month. The next arc, though, won't be so short.
Also, I realize now that Tyler went along for this whole thing and he didn't say anything, do anything, or interact with anyone the whole time. In fact, when I started the comic, I'd planned to have him tag along, but then I was mapping out the first panels and I thought, "Should I cut him? It would make framing and drawing easier if I did." Then I thought, "Nah, it feels like he should be there." Then I struggled to frame the next few comics, often just 'TV edit' cutting him out of frame. I am nothing if not inefficient as both an artist and storyteller.
Nerdy social reject bond? You’ll think nerdy social reject bond when you are doing five to ten at whatever Canada’s toughest prison is. “”Eh, don’t go outside the wire, mmmkay?”
Ehhh, Tyler is a nerd social outcast. But he’s more of the strong silent type who likes to stare at hot nerd girl butts.
True. It is a role. And the role is a noble one.
I thought he was pretending he doesn’t know them in public.
He’s learned well.
Awww… She really does care 🙂
But she’s still a teenager, so she won’t acknowledge him in public
It’s the closest thing to caring in the teen brain.
Eh, Tyler can add to a scene without saying anything. I mean, yes, his major role is as Daphne’s tag along not boyfriend, but he can do it in a Solon, cool way.
Well, I felt he just sort of needed to be there for some reason, so I’m glad someone else kind of supports my belief.
Bulba. Bulbasaur!
He’s everyone’s third … fourth favorite Pokemon!
It’s sad really. Venosaur is a dinosaur tank with a solar cannon on it’s back, but Charizard and Blastoise are so much better that no one takes Bulbasaur.
All this “Cake & Candy” ?
EASTER IS OVER
What gives ?
Is PUCK becoming a Soap Opera, or….. WAIT
I see it now. Daphne is simply setting up THE LONG CON!
Col, Watch yer Wallet !!
(cy and even emily are in on it. and the natty nerd no more than a pop-up to set the scene)
I’ve seen this movie.
The minute they round the corner, a U-Haul pulls up.
Cy, Emily, and three roustabouts remove every banner, every shelf, every toy.
In nine minutes flat the store is gone – emptied. Only cobwebs remain.
Windows once more boarded up – FOR LEASE on the Door.
And Daphne sports a sly grin as the wheels in her mind spin on.
Well, you need the odd moment of kindness. Daphne comes off as less than wonderful in the next arc, so maybe I’m just countering an upcoming low…
@EG
Ooooh…..
I called it – AGAIN.
Who says PEEPS make you stoopid ?
I do, because it all comes down to who you hang out with.
@pat
How is Shotgun Shuffle doin’ these days ?
I like it, but then somehow it got too complicated for me.
Been meaning to go back.
Doing pretty good. I’m guessing that the convention will soon erupt. One of the sisters is attempting to out do the norm for public displays of obsession.
But still wondering if Gecko has read it. . . . .
I haven’t. I honestly (sadly) don’t read many webcomics, because I’m too busy making this one. And reading webcomics takes focused attention, so I can’t read them while drawing my own, unlike Youtube videos which I can half-watch while drawing.
I also feel disinclined to read Shotgun Shuffle because the artist is so very, very good, and just looking at it makes me envious and hate my own work and makes me want to quit right now.
I should totally go back.
Several Arcs were quite amusing.
Like the one where a Sister has an enormous crush on Dept Store Santas. And when I say “Crush”, I mean activity generally attributed to TRACEEE.
I stopped reading when they went all animated in Cell Phone conversations.
I have a very short attention span – sigh.
Salem, the animated cell phones? That was a bit of a one off riff to show real time communication interaction.
By the way, same sister fyi.
Gecko, I can understand a bit, but I see the styles as being different. Like a Stephen King book to a Stephan King movie. Or how Spider-Man II was better than Spider-Man II. Personally I think both of you are better than Brian O’Malley.
Hm, sampled “Shotgun Shuffle.” Art: fair, but not up to EG standards. Plot: Impossible to follow; not up to John Allison plots. No giant exploding walnuts or ghostly rock singers, no He-Man clones out jogging with their sons or short Ganster-types falling in love with fit-mums..
*goes back to reading “Giant Days” that I bought yesterday*
@Susan
You are so HARSH !
(it’s your most endearing quality 😛 )
It would take a lot more than this arc to make me like Daffy, or even emphathize
Well, you weren’t my target audience, really.
Oh Susan, you’re nothing like Daphne !
@EG: *grumble* That would be teenaged anime-lovers? Well, you are right on both counts.
@Salem: Yeah, my ears are located by my mastoid and temporo-mandibular joint, and my facial skin is nice and smooth. 😛
Daphne is the only one wearing a proper nerd-shirt…
I’d be hurt she hadn’t told me about it before.
Well, the secret club isn’t secret if you don’t keep people out for at least a certain length of time.
I like how Tyler was present for the entire thing but was basically treated like air. I, on one hand, feel bad for the guy.
On the other hand, it’s Tyler and I’m pretty sure he spent 99% of his time looking at… Everything, pretty much. Hm.
The fact that Tracee has a last name according to the poster surprised me. A lot.
Tracee’s last name was first revealed in strip #164, but no one seems to have seen that because everyone is surprised by it. I mean, it WAS about six or seven years ago.
In my defense: I thought that was some form of nickname she had, not her actual name.
We all figured TRACEEE was such a spectacular persona, she requires no Surname.
Beyonce, Prince, Satan, …..
Attila, Messalina, Tamerlane…
I noticed that no one said Hitler.
@pat
That’s because he has two names; both very well known.
In my life, inefficiency rules. Come ‘er and give me a hug, bro!
I am glad I’m not alone.
Tracee Topaz sounds like somebody who works in the adult entertainment industry.
Doesn’t it?
@Susan
Satan is an ADULT, and TRACEEE entertains him.
Is that what you meant ?
If you think he is the only one she ‘entertains’, you have another think coming.
@Susan
Well, yes, I find TRACEEE entertaining.
I conclude, by your comment, you do as well.
😛
I know her to be ‘entertaining’ people for money. That is entertaining to some folk 😛
I always found it funny that the nerdy “rejects” have more closely-knit social relationships because of their forced companionship and/because of their shared interests.
No bond is stronger than the bond of “Everyone else rejects us.”
If you haven’t been tromping through a dungeon together, along with a neo-Nazi mage, a nymphomaniac cleric of Sune, and a halfling thief named Jack the Toad, you will never really know anybody.
Congratulations, Colin. Based on how Daphne is turning out, you are a great dad . . . . . . of course, you do still have Miranda to raise, so no slacking . . . . okay, that’s basically your parenting style, but there’s slacking and slacking, knowwhatImeancourseyou do!
I was thinking this entire conversation is more or less clarifying the unanswered question of what exactly some of the relationships are in that house.
Puck Adopted Daphne, and is an engaged couple with Colin, but clearly Daphne doesn’t regard either of them as “Mom & Dad”, despite living with them for… what, 10 years?
Daphne was pretty jaded and world-weary when she arrived in Puck’s care. I think that doesn’t really lead to someone developing proper parental identification. It might eventually manifest into a sort of ‘big brother/sister’ dynamic, but a full parental relationship is unlikely.
@EG
Being raised by Regis Philbin can do that to you.
Enh, Daphne is not perfect. And by “not perfect” I mean “notorious criminal”. So yeah.
I remember playing Goldeneye with a friend. Jerk knew the maps inside and out cause he owned the game. I never stood a chance.
Honestly, I had a lot more fun playing Pokemon Snap and Pokemon Coliseum in the unattended minors area of airports. 11 year olds flying alone are the only people that hope for long layovers.
There’s an “unattended minors area” in an airport? Whoa. You learn something new every day.
Second the notion
I initially joined the comic thread while this particular arc was in progress, so I gotta say that the voting incentive ROCKS!!!!
Glad you approve. It’s still, to my mind, the best story arc I’ve ever done.
Translation:
“I love you, Dad.”
“I love you, too, my daughter.”
Alternate translation: ” I tolerate you because you provide me with room and board.”
“I desperately want your approval and affection but I will settle for occasional verbal abuse and tolerance.”
I’m not sure Colin desperately wants anything except not to be struck by an out of control Puck (…no doubt why he never played hockey…) so his affection, at least, seems sincere.
Daphne’s? One can never be sure of anything but she did start out like a child abandoned by who-knows? When you take in an abandoned cat, at first their focus is on controlling the relationship but eventually they develop actual affection, or at least habits that appear similar. Sometimes the relationship between actions and feelings are ……… complex.
Well, we know he wants that, and ice cream. Beyond that all I am doing is speculating
@rewinn
Never call Daphne a “CAT” in front of EG.
I learned that the hard way.
🙁
Hey, it’s still up for debate. I mean, most people seem to identify her as vaguely dog-like, but it’s up to interpretation.
Her personality is definitely more cat than dog, although that’s true of most teenagers.
Observant. Sounds like you’ve taken in a few strays over the years.
Her personality is either Jackal or Hyena. I lean toward Hyena because of the breath.
@Susan
Whoah !
“Hyena Breath” was one of the worst things you could say about anybody when I was in high school
For Tyler’s sake, let’s hope Daphne is NOT a hyena.
@EG
Considering that Tyler is, quite likely, innocent of many of the ways of the world, he may not even think anything was even amiss “down there”.
Pretty disturbing.
Perhaps this matter will be resolved with the PROM arc.
Daphne is NOT a hyena. That I can promise.
@EG
No one should be a Hyena.
@EG
Tho it would be a path to the sickest comic in Top Web Comics.
An achievement of sorts.
Yuk
There’s already one of the comics in that list that’s gone there. And it’s much higher on the list than mine.
H.R. Giger, of the ALIEN films, worked long and hard to originate the grossest possible Life Cycle.
Who knew Mother Nature had already beat him to it ?
@EG
“There’s already one of the comics in that list that’s gone there. And it’s much higher on the list than mine.”
I – Do – Not – Want – To – Know
My Human Pet “BALDIE” wants to, tho.
I frisked up my fur, hopped sideways, hissed like a steam radiator, and raked his ass with my claws.
He no longer wants to know.
He’s a WISE jerk.
I was thinking of Daphne as a stray cat metaphorically, not biologically. Her parentage would be a literary device with which Colin, as an English teach (?), might be familiar although I don’t recall whether it has name. Perhaps it is a modern device since so many characters in contemporary fiction (…assuming we consider graphic novels and such to be literature…) are bispeciel.
—
I myself have had as many as six cats at a time (all of them from shelters) due to complex human family dynamics. Perhaps when I retire I’ll open a feline foster home – what could be more delightful?
@rewinn
SIX CATS !!
Baldie brought home a sweet orange calico kitten.
He was cute.
I named him MOXIE.
We chased Garter Snakes together.
Then he grew – and grew. Ate my food. Stole my sleeping spots.
HE DISAPPEARED.
How Sad (snicker).
Baldie even stapled MISSING CAT signs all over the neighborhood.
Waste of Time, Baldie.
Heh Heh Heh….
Six cats is objectively too many cats. Though I know many a cat lady who would disagree with me.
What could be more delightful? A Thanksgiving dinner with two family members that voted differently in the last Presidential election comes to mind. I may never eat cranberry sauce again. I had my bf fake- an emergency room call to leave.
@Susan
I wonder if my “MOXIE-SOLUTION” works on human “Family Members ?”
@Susan
Here’s what you do … psst psst psst whisper whisper.
And use a CUISINART.
Not, I repeat, NOT a Kitchen-aid.
@Susan
This works quite well, too:
BAT-O-MATIC
Ah, the good ole days.
When comedians spent their time being Clever and Funny, and not just bashing Politicians.
I’m worried that Tyler (Taylor) has serious damage from the ‘incident(s)’ at Canada’s Funderland. Sad. He seemed such a nice young man. C’est le guerre…
He’s still capable of speech. We’ll see shortly.
Oh and as to Daphne’s critterness… I have to go with Tolstohvosty galagones 😉
Just Googled it. It was terrifying.
I go with Crocuta crocuta 😛
Something special about that last panel that deserves a good framing. Very well done composition.
Thanks. It’s really just sort of design by demand, because I wasn’t about to redraw another streetscape, because I’m too lazy and time-pressed to do that, so I needed to reuse the image from the earlier comic. And so now we see them walking away from behind. I thought it worked.
It occurs to me we still don’t know anything about where Daphne came from, nor have we ever seen anyone else like her.
And we probably never will. Though I’ve had a nascent story arc in my mind since 1999 where we meet Daphne’s birth mother. Not sure I’ll ever get to that. Not sure we need another character thrown into the mix.
Beyond Puck being the “ancient fairy of lore” and mentions of Shakespeare in early strips, we don’t really know anything about where she came from Either. Phoebe being the daughter of the actual devil is the most backstory we’ve gotten for any character really.
au contraire, my friend. We have a great deal of backstory on Colin… Probably more than we want, to be honest!
Well, we know that she was depressed and lonesome in a Canadian college town, watching soaps and unwisely answering the door to lost jackal-girls
@Susan
Betta’ than lost Hyena-Gurlz.
PUCK remains the No.1 Educational Web Comic !
D’waaaah! Who’s an adorably generic surly teenage girl! YOU are! (pats head)
…
(Abruptly jerks hand back as the dog-girl tries to bite him.) “…Yeah, that’s fair.”
You know the dynamic.