2006 Archives

September 20, 2006

I really like when I get a chance to use Pumpkin in the strip. She’s used rather infrequently and has probably gone through more PHYSICAL changes than most other characters in the strip. Innitially, she was more of a chubby poofball. And in her second arc, I made her much more angular and severe looking. More like a school marm, as I wanted everyone to think she had become a villain.

I like this current version as a nice blend of the two. I really wanted to bring back some of her innocence and softness since I’m setting her up as a victim for Lil’ Dandy here.

September 22, 2006

If I may be so bold as to spill the beans a little here, there IS a point to this story, outside of just showing lil’ Dandy as a prankster. Really, it’s to allow ADULT Dandy to, when all is said and done, step out of that stereotype and allow for some more character growth.

If there’s one consistant criticism of the strip, it’s that Dandy can really be a JERK. Now, he’s going to get the perspective to see it for himself.

September 24, 2006

This request was for Maryweather without her sweater on. Now, I’ve done this as a gag before in the strip so I had no problem drawing it again. She’s a dog… she’s covered in fur and there’s nothing to see. If you’ll note, she’s the ONLY dog in the strip with any clothes ANYWAY.

Still, it does have something of an aire of naughtyness to it, hence the set up here.

September 25, 2006

This strip is a bit of a call back to a gag WAY back when I first introduced Pumpkin and her self-help group. Back then, it was an adult Dandy using tennis balls to taunt one of the other attendees. This version is entirely more evil, I think.

September 27, 2006

Now, I’ve gotten a few questions regarding Pumpkin in this story, and let me just say now that she does NOT know that “Danny” is Dandy as a little kid. As is pointed out here, she clearly notices the similarities but would never make the leap that the puppy she’s talking to IS Dandy. Really, how many times have YOU run into child versions of adults you know?

That said, this is an important strip. At the end of the last storyline Pumpkin was in, I ended it by having her rattle off most of Dandy’s WORST qualities only to recoil at the realization that she actually LIKED him. The implication there was that, her being so straight-laced and proper, she was attracted to Dandy as a scoundrel. It seemed like a fun idea at the time and I thought about having the two of them hesitantly become a couple. But in the end, I realized how overdone that idea was. Heck, it’s a part of Maryweather’s attraction to him as it is, so it never came up again.

This time, I found myself struggling to attach some kind of meaning to this storyline after a few strips in and finding myself bored with just playing up Dandy as a prankster… another idea that’s becoming stale. This storyline originally didn’t include Pumpkin at all, and was originally going to end with Dandy pulling a prank at Disney World (Or Our stand in: The Enchanted Kingdom) so LARGE in scope, that it would garner national media attention and force Dandy to re-evaluate his lifestyle if only to escape prosecution. Much of the same results can come out of THIS twist. Pumpkin can see right through him, and likes the REAL Dandy… the Dandy that Dandy doesn’t want anyone to know even exists.