IT'S JULY! NEW VOTING INCENTIVE!!!
Patrons had a bunch of choices of 'C' words and they chose 'cabaret'. Delightfully dated.
VOTE FOR VINTAGE VARIETY!!!
In other news...
First, this comic is brought to you again by the good people who support me on Patreon, with a special shout-out to The Lurker, Paul Gabbard, Jeremy, and alphanor, who ALL became Mayor of Pucksburg for this month! It's a title that comes with rewards, including actual original comic art getting mailed to you. If you're interested in keeping the Puck comics flowing, and maybe gaining some fun perks, CHECK OUT THE PATREON!!!
As for this comic...
For those who don't know what Colin is talking about, he's obviously referencing Flash Gordon - and like a real nerd, he's not just going from the 80s Dino De Laurentiis remake, but he's going back to the original 1936 serial. I actually never saw the 80s version as a kid, but I did fall in love with the older serials. They're great fun - obviously made on a shoestring budget, but also made with love.
Puck 817
Chapter: Prince of Dappled ShadeCharacters: Bethany Colin Cy Emily the Cat GirlTags: aikido ming nerd stealthy
IT'S JULY! NEW VOTING INCENTIVE!!!
Patrons had a bunch of choices of 'C' words and they chose 'cabaret'. Delightfully dated.
VOTE FOR VINTAGE VARIETY!!!
In other news...
First, this comic is brought to you again by the good people who support me on Patreon, with a special shout-out to The Lurker, Paul Gabbard, Jeremy, and alphanor, who ALL became Mayor of Pucksburg for this month! It's a title that comes with rewards, including actual original comic art getting mailed to you. If you're interested in keeping the Puck comics flowing, and maybe gaining some fun perks, CHECK OUT THE PATREON!!!
As for this comic...
For those who don't know what Colin is talking about, he's obviously referencing Flash Gordon - and like a real nerd, he's not just going from the 80s Dino De Laurentiis remake, but he's going back to the original 1936 serial. I actually never saw the 80s version as a kid, but I did fall in love with the older serials. They're great fun - obviously made on a shoestring budget, but also made with love.
That’s some real old, old, old school nerd cred talking there. The pigeonholer has become pigeonholed. Bethany is going down.
I may have been watching too much EPIC RAP BATTLES OF HISTORY of late.
Should we ask for Ming vs. Palpetine?
oh hell yes! there can never be enough epic rap battles!!
You should. You really should.
What you mean to tell me that Bethany is nothing more than a wannabe ?
Even I thought she was a true master of being a trivial nerd.
She’s more than a wannabe. But she’s an arrogant know-it-all, and nothing gets under the skin of that type more than somebody knowing something they don’t.
Olde Skool Nerdism!
Who knows what nerdity lurks within the hearts of man? The Shadow knows.
OMG, I know the cranston ref, as well as the gordon ref.
Does that mean I am a nerd? Or just really, really f’ng old.
1930 feels like it was just yesterday.
Now THAT is a vintage nerd reference. I liked listening to the old radio serials. I liked the 90s movie less.
Looks like Colin is going to bring the hammer down on a wannabe nerd. Beat he like a tent stake Colin! Strike a blow for true nerds. Like the ones that KNOW Han shot first and didn’t need to have the Force explained by midi-chlorians
I’m not sure that’s real nerds you’re talking about. I think it’s old nerds you’re talking about. But as an old nerd, I’m happy to agree.
Ming The Merciless was always my favorite title
My favorite title of anything ever is “Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe”. What a great title.
Beats the hell out of “Santa Claus Conquers the Martians”!
David Letterman (on Late Night, ca. 1982): Pia! . . . Zadora!
Pia Zadora: [Hits Letterman with death stare; wholly ineffective; audience laughs asses off] 😀
You know what surprised me? “MOM AND DAD SAVE THE UNIVERSE.”
These people are IDIOTS. I really never grokked the wannabes who did not get that movie. It was a whole pimp slap at nerds like her. And I spy with my little eye…
Really depends. Does Colin know it from the books, the comics, the serials, or that dreadful movie?
But it’s so dreadful that it’s gloriously dreadful! “Dispatch war rocket Ajax to bring back his body!”
That dreadful movie with the fantastic sound track, if you please. Accuracy is important in Nerddom.
I love the theme song. Did you know that De Laurentiis had never even heard a rock band of any kind before hiring Queen for the soundtrack? Kooky old Italian man.
There’s no worse movie than a bad movie with a great soundtrack.
Nightbreed, anyone?
I know it from the many 30s serials. Comic came first, though.
A yankere in nerd’s clothes?
Oops, That was supposed to be a general comment, not a response to your comment. I should not try doing this on my cell phone; I’m not in the right generation for it!
Nor I.
The Big Little Books might have pre-dated the comics. When I was younger, about maybe 10, so, 1975, one of my elderly neighbors lent me her collection of first edition Flash Gordon Big Little Books. She was a nerd before all of us. And, oh yes, she did know their value.
Ooh. Vintage nerd.
I will defend the Flash movie to the death.
FIRST WAVE! DIIIIVE!
I am with you, brother. Flash Gordon with Sam Jones, Max Von Sydow, Brian Blessed, Timothy “007” Dalton, Topol, and the smoking hot combo of Melody Anderson and Ornella Muti, is among the greatest of comic book movies. And furthers the convincing argument that every comic movie is better with a hint of Eurosmut.
See Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7Kx4XIs2tU
As a true nerd, Colin probably knows all those references.
Meh,
There’s so many different fandoms out there now that anyone can trip anyone else up by referencing a fandom they may not have heard of before
The correct answer, Bethany, is “Who died and made you the Gatekeeper of Nerd-dom? ”
The state of being Nerd extends to all. It’s within your heart, waiting for a hobby to start obsessing over
well yeah, of course there are too many fandoms to know them all, but some fandoms are just omnipresent+timeless…..if you have no answer to the eternal question of ‘star wars or star trek (or both)’ you can´t call yourself a nerd in my book.
Though as a true nerd, I can say that even that has been muddied over the years. Like Adam Savage once noted, the core difference between the two was that Star Trek was a utopia whereas Star Wars was a dystopia. But successive versions of both properties kinda lost that thread.
Did I do it? Am I a true nerd?
Yes, you succeeded, Professor Gecko. Anyone who can turn Shakespeare’s utopian Puck into the merry demonic dystopia we so enjoy is a true nerd indeed.
Well, I thank you.
Where’s that upvote button when we need it? 😀
Star Trek sure lost the utopia, but where did Star Wars get it? It definitely wasn’t in anything produced by Disney.
It didn’t gain utopia, exactly, but the aesthetics got all messed up with the prequels, and so I find them now fairly similar in tone. Trek definitely changed more, though. I blame Abrams.
What question? Which is on tonight?
You are right. Of course you are right. And I don’t believe Colin is sincere in this exchange. He’s just using her own arrogance against her to make the place a hostile environment for her.
Weird
And here I thought Puck and Daphne were the Apprentice and Master Sith Lords
You know, there’s a rumor that the real Lord of the Sith was meant to be Jar Jar Binks…
Nerd Judo.
True, but she is incapable of that, which is why Colin’s distraction is working.
The Filmation version of Flash Gordon is the first one I was exposed to, and still my favorite. If you’ve never seen it, you should check it out. Both the series and the movie can be found on Youtube.
Filmation made some good stuff. I must admit.
I had forgotten about the Filmation Flash cartoon. It was excellent and true to the original Alex Raymond strip and movie serials. The current version on the Comics Kingdom website is excellent too. The 1980 movie was indeed so dreadful tha Max von Sydow is still rolling over in his grave. Queen’s music was good but the cheesy chorus was so overused to punctuate every action point. After 45 years, I still have “Bumbumbumbum…Flash! Ohyah!” stuck in my mind anytime I hear a chord of Queen music.
Buster Crabbe, the OG Flash.
A bit harder to find the serials now but some of them are still around.
So much of the old stuff is hard to get now. Sad.
VCI Entertainment still has quite a collection. And there are boxed sets of Space Soldiers/Trip to Mars/Conquers the Universe. Though DVD, they’re in pretty good shape.
“Conquers the Universe” is my favorite. Bit higher budget, and the best name of anything ever.
Are we Bethany fans gonna get to see her in Princess Aura garb at some point?
Maybe? You Bethany fans. You can never be sated!
She . . . doesn’t know Ming? That’s like not knowing Wilma’s last name! Buck’s! Lamont’s! Deejah’s! Leave the shop, you, you poseur!
We could accuse her of being just being too young, but we’ve already established that Bethany’s pushing forty, so…
I think the may reference Flash Gordon and the Water Worlds of Mongo.
I bet she doesn’t even know Radar Men from the Moon or The Phantom Creeps.
Or the Republic serial that features the female ZORRO.
Unlikely.
She probably thinks Buster Crabbe is the weekly special at Red Lobster.
Admittedly it sounds delicious.
If Colin has to deploy the REALLY BIG guns, he could mention the Lensman books by E.E. “Doc” Smith, the original Martian Chronicals by Ray Bradbury, the original Buck Rodgers, and possibly Space: 1999…
“Space: 1999” was the show that was so unappealing and so British that it overcame my inherent nerd nature as a child and made me change the channel every time it came on.
Try Smith’s first “Skylark” book—that and the original Buck Rogers story were both first published in the same issue of Amazing Stories.
Later. He’ll play with her a while, before annihilation…
Admit, I didn’t recognize ‘Princess Aura’ and just skimmed the rest, assuming was something obscure or made up.
Well, obscure by design!
Colin is no ordinary nerd. He is nerdissimo! 🙂
Nerdississimo. He gets multiple ‘issi’s.
@EG, you have a way with words. 🙂
I know Ming. I mean, not personally. We’re not on a first name basis or anything and I wouldn’t pick him as a canasta partner. But I’ve heard of him. From here and there.
But look at the hope on Cy’s face! 🙂 Way to go, Colin!
We need a hero. We just never thought it would be Colin.
Hey, remember the Scooby arc . . . (I am saying, to the man who imagined and drew it, sheesh! ) too early to tell if this will be another ‘Respect The Colin!’, but it’s promising, very promising . .
I only half-remember, honestly.
Cy needed a hero. And he got . . . Colin? And it worked?
If all else fails he can pull the “I married THE Puck and have the devil and his succubus daughter living on my couch” card. I’m sure he has pictures.
That’s a card you play infrequently. And carefully.
She’s not exactly the pure of heart.
No. By no means.
…no one? Okay, I’ll bite.
“Death to Ming!”
I’m glad you bit.
Dum vivimus, vivamus!
I only saw a few episodes of the original serial of “Flash Gordon” and a few pages of the comic, but I know who Ming the Merciless is/was.
You win the deep cut award!
Battlestar Galactica was to be pitied.
The first three Star Wars were cinematic gold. Though the Ewoks were an evil omen of things to come….
Flash was 100% redeemed by the Queen soundtrack. Queen will never be matched.
Ever since Gina Carano was fired for stating elections should be legitimate, I cancelled anything Disney.
I was not really happy with ET, but do want to watch it again where the FBI are carrying GUNS and not Walkie-Talkies.
I hate it when Lucas or Spielberg attempt to improve perfection.
Which BSG, there were two. And why?
Carano was not fired for saying elections should be legit. She was fired for subsequently comparing the plight of Republicans to the Holocaust.
My local Woolworth never carried DC Comics, so Gold Key ruled my childhood.
The good news is there were oodles of Uncle Scrooge … incredible adventures that DC could never match.
And Magnus Robot Fighter was brilliantly illustrated by Russ Manning. Gorgeous Girls, Handsome Magnus, Fantastic Robots. The stories were a bit weak, but still better than Superman drek.
All yes the five and dime days of lurking around those racks! You missed Solar Man of the Atom, along with Turok, son of Stone and the Robot Fighter which were all favorites.
Gold Key. An underrated classic.
99% of Marvel and DC are bloody awful.
The origin stories are pitiful. Powers inconsistent.
Once you accept Ducks can talk and walk about without pants, everything Uncle Scrooge does is believable.
Well, there is that thing about swimming in the coins in his Money Bin. But it’s an allegory.
We all want to swim in gold coins. So we won’t question it.
I used to shoot Estes Industries Rockets.
That’s a sure fire nerd credential, right ?
I had a Chemlab set with the Uranium testing kit and a quart jar of mercury that I would float steelies in. If yours doesn’t count then neither does mine.
I’ll give it to you.
You know, felines may not have redheads, but we have CALICOS.
Every Calico is a female.
Gorgeous and deadly.
So pretty they get away with EVERYTHING.
And if they are a CHIMERA CALICO, your goose is cooked twice over.
I only date grey tabbies.
Smart cat.
There is no apostrophe in “first things first” What is it you teach?
Admission: I finished putting text and word bubbles in this comic about five minutes before posting. My art program crashed and in the process corrupted my most recent save file. Cuz I’m smart, I do make multiple saves, but it means I lost a few hours of work. Editing was sacrificed. Thankfully I have people like you to do the edit for me.
I can’t believe this episode had almost 100 comments! But I’m not a real nerd. Someone kindly posted a hyperlink. That’s my introduction to Ming. Scary guy!
He is merciless.
You know the topic has wandered far from the actual comic when there are this many comments.
@EG, yes, it has! I like that line about “aikido” whatever that is. Go Colin!!! 🙂
Aikido is a martial art (of questionable efficacy) that is all about redirecting the energy of the attackers against themselves. So that’s why it’s applicable here. Though the world’s most famous practitioner of aikido was … Steven Seagal. So draw what conclusions you will.
I had a lengthy thing disappear somewhere between typing and posting. I don’t mind. I’ll just say I was wrong up above, it wasn’t the first Flash Gordon in that issue of Amazing Stories, it was the first Buck Rogers.
I looked for your post in my spam filter. Wasn’t there. Sorry.
She doesn’t seem to want to process that he’s not interested. What were the circumstances of Cy nexting Bethany?
She wore him down by continuously asking him out, they went on a few dates, and he tried to end it. But failed.