Sluggy Freelance
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| Sluggy Freelance | |
|---|---|
 Cover of Book 1: Is it Not Nifty? |
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| Author(s) | Pete Abrams |
| Website | http://www.sluggy.com/ |
| Update schedule | Updating every day (guest strip on Saturdays) |
| Launch date | August 25, 1997 [1] |
| Genre | Comedy |
Sluggy Freelance is a popular, long-running webcomic written and drawn by Pete Abrams. The comic has over 100,000 daily readers[1] and a new comic released daily since August 25, 1997, except for 8 days in August 2001 and filler art on many other occasions.
The characters constantly find themselves in strange and usually dangerous circumstances and surroundings. There is plenty of sexual innuendo and cartoon violence (one fan site keeps track of how many kills each character has accumulated) but the comic contains no strong profanity or explicit nudity.
While the strip began as a gag-based series in which the three main protagonists (Torg, Riff and Zoë) would stumble from one brief, bizarre, parody-centric adventure to the next, the characters and plotlines have gradually developed to the point that the storylines are longer and more serious. However, even the more dramatic and soap operatic story arcs often conform to the established gag-a-day format.
Contents |
[edit] Characters
The characters in Sluggy Freelance are a varied and diverse sort. The primary protagonist, Torg, is a cheerful, impulsive sort, who frequently finds himself going on wild adventures regardless of whether he wants to or not. Often, these adventures are enabled by Torg's genius inventor friend, Riff. Zoe, the only truly normal character of the bunch, serves as the futile voice of reason for the cast. They are accompanied by their sometimes-witch friend Gwynn, a psychotic switchblade-wielding rabbit Bun-Bun, the hyperactive ferret Kiki, and a shapeshifting alien named Aylee.
[edit] Storyline
[edit] 1997
The early strips introduce us to the main characters. Torg, a freelance web designer, buys a cute talking rabbit with attitude, named Bun-Bun. Riff, Torg's best friend, summons demons for beer, and their neighbor Zoë is trampled by a "bikini-suicide-frisbee" match. Riff, with his Dimensional Flux Agitator (DFA), accidentally warps Torg and himself into a Star Trek /Alien parody. The man-eating alien Aylee comes back to Earth with them, and is eventually hired on as Torg's secretary.
Sam Sein is introduced as a wannabe ladies' man and host for many parties. Bun-Bun is captured by and escapes from an animal testing center (meeting/terrorizing Dr. Schlock along the way). The other escapees, including a hyperactive ferret named Kiki, move into Sam's place. Dr. Lorna, a parody of Dr. Laura, is introduced as Riff's mom. Santa is introduced as having a rivalry with Bun-Bun. Gwynn is introduced as Zoë's coworker at Sam's New Year's party, and dates Riff on and off.
[edit] 1998
Sam mysteriously disappears for a while and returns with a wife, Valerie. Valerie via Sam kicks out Kiki, who then moves into Riff's place, filled with shiny buttons that activate all sorts of weaponry. Bun-Bun hijacks Riff's giant robot in order to rob a bank, incidentally killing the Easter bunny along the way.
Torg is accidentally sent to the Dimension of Pain by the DFA. Torg escapes the clutches of the (somewhat incompetent) demons and finds the Sacred Circle of Protection. Since the demons can't enter the circle, Torg hangs out there until he is rescued by Alt-Riff and Alt-Zoë of the Dimension of Lame; a pinhole of a portal is left behind in the Circle of Protection, and so the Demon King orders the super-evil Mop of the Heavens so he can clean away the circle and get at the other dimension. Torg leaves for his own dimension with the help of Alt-Bun-Bun. Meanwhile, Riff and Zoë rescue an entirely different Torg, who happens to speak Portuguese. Eventually Portuguese-Torg is brought back to his own dimension by the Zoë of that dimension.
Zoë has college troubles, Bun-Bun is briefly marooned on a tropical island, Val comes on to Torg to the point of almost having an affair with him, and Aylee goes through several transformations. Riff highly distrusts Aylee despite Torg's assurances that Aylee is innocent.
After an initial attack by a vampire, it is revealed that Sam and Valerie are both vampires of the Lysinda Circle, who then kidnap Torg and Zoë in order to turn them. However, Riff takes Bun-Bun, Kiki, and Aylee to storm their lair and destroy all the vampires inside except Sam, who had betrayed Lysinda in order to let Riff survive the initial attack.
The Halloween party marks the start of a tradition: The Dimension of Pain sends out a demon to capture and/or kill Torg every Halloween, beginning with the hilariously incompetent Reakk. Since Torg was covered in hair as the result of fueling a fog machine with Rogaine instead of propane, Reakk didn't recognize him and instead attacked Kiki's robotic Torg costume.
Riff and Torg later set out for an Egyptian pyramid in which they get trapped. Inside, they befriend an incredibly slow mummy, feast on the snakes in the snake-pit, and celebrate a "Sluggy Mummy Christmas." They escape with the help of a parody of Tomb Raider's Lara Croft. Meanwhile, Santa sends out the three ghosts of Christmas to (unsuccessfully) battle Bun-Bun.
[edit] 1999
Berk, a man from the future, is introduced and threatens Torg before being chased off by Aylee, but not before freezing Aylee in time first. Meanwhile, Gwynn gains magical powers from the Book of E-Ville. The demon K'z'k inhabits Gwynn's body, but, like Gwynn, is as blind as a bat without glasses. K'z'k is freed from Gwynn's body by Torg and sent back in time by Berk's time-freezing machine. However, Gwynn's soul is still with K'z'k, and so she falls into a coma.
Since the Easter bunny was squashed last Easter, Santa collaborates with the other Easter rabbits to build a mecha-Easter Bunny, in order to deliver Easter eggs, kill Bun-Bun, and destroy Tokyo. Bun-Bun tricks the mech into a steel mill and melts it. Afterwards, Bun-Bun goes to confront Santa and both disappear after Santa's workshop explodes. Later, he shows up in the custody of some kids, with amnesia, but is shocked out of it by simultaneous exposure to telemarketers, a switchblade-comb, and Baywatch. Bun-Bun accepts the job of the Easter Bunny, not knowing what it entails, since he killed the former Easter Bunnies.
Riff builds a time machine to make sure the Y2K bug doesn't interrupt beer distribution. Zoë, in an effort to prove herself not boring, willingly comes along with Torg. However, the time machine isn't Y2K compatible, and sends Torg and Zoë far back in time into an "Army of Darkness" parody. Riff, in an attempt to get Torg and Zoë back, finds a man from the future named Dr. Schlock, who has an inflatable time machine.
Meanwhile, Torg and Zoë are separated in the far past: Torg is mistaken as the leader of the Mercians, and since the real leader, Lord Torgamous, is incapacitated, Torg acts in his place. Also there are Valerie and Lysinda. Zoë, thanks to her shotgun, is believed to be the "Storm Breaker" and savior of the Trents. The Trents are at war with the Mercians, but K'z'k crashes the party with his own army of demons, and steals the Book of E-Ville from the King of the Trents. Torg and Zoë reunite and set out to find the Book of Güd. They travel to the Cave of Yffi, and thus defeat K'Z'K. Gwynn reawakens in the present, and Riff goes back in time to bring back Torg and Zoë.
Torg, Bun-Bun, and Kiki take a road trip and get lost in the woods. They happen upon the Isle of Dr. Steve (in the middle of a forest), and Oasis, a gymnast assassin who was apparently brainwashed by Dr. Steve. Dr. Steve hints that Oasis is really a robot and instructs Oasis to fall in love with Torg. Shortly thereafter Kiki accidentally sets the place to self-destruct.
This Halloween, the ghost of Squeekybobo, an elf who used to work for Santa, attacks Torg. As part of Riff's scientific experiments, Kiki is given an ordinary Pixy stick and proceeds to move at supersonic speeds. Aylee is sent to cannibals anonymous and befriends a wooly mammoth named Percy. Torg goes off to meet the crew of User Friendly while A.J. from UF helps Riff battle a giant monster made of old coffee, oily hair, and Microsoft programmer parts - the Crudosaurus, a giant version of UF's Crud Puppy. On Christmas, Mrs. Claus battles Bun-Bun.
[edit] 2000
When the year 2000 hits, Torg, Riff, Zoë, and Gwynn fall into a coma. The Dr. Schlock of the future recognizes Kiki as a subject of one Dr. Crabtree, who experimented with nanites that would spread like a virus. However, they weren't Y2K compliant, so they would eventually destroy their host. After some strong-arming from Bun-Bun and Sam, Dr. Schlock shuts down the nanites and the cast reawakens. The Dr. Schlock of the present later has his brain eaten by a nanite-enhanced Dr. Crabtree.
In the Dimension of Pain, Reakk awakens one of the three Dragons of Annoyia. The dragon then proceeds to decimate the countryside with its flowery breath. After several unsuccessful attempts to appease it, Reakk chases the dragon away by boinking it on the nose.
Gwynn, still dabbling in black magic, creates a love potion intended for Riff; chaos ensues and Torg becomes angry at Gwynn. In order to keep Torg silent about her magic, Gwynn curses Torg so that he brays like a donkey whenever he wants to say anything important. Oasis shows up and kidnaps Torg, intending to marry him. Torg, to get around the curse, writes down everything important to him. Oasis finds a note saying Torg loves Zoë and goes into a jealous rage. Gwynn shows up, and Oasis immediately assumes she's Zoë. The two battle, and Oasis apparently dies for a second time. The demon K'Z'K turns out to be attempting to gain full control of Gwynn's body, hence the black magic.
Aylee, after being in a cocoon for so long, reemerges and is able to fly after eating a lot of potatoes and emitting an Electromagnetic pulse (EMP). Bun-Bun's Baywatch tapes are erased in the process; the rest of the cast flees from his wrath. Torg and Zoë take the opportunity to go on a retreat with several of Zoë's college friends, including Zoë's boyfriend Dex. However, the crew encounters The Evil, kittens which Satan spawned on a dare. Several minor characters die, including Dex. Torg and Zoë meet up with Riff and company in the Caribbean. Bun-Bun, in the meanwhile, hires Santa's old black-op elves in Santa's absence to track down the crew.
Dr. Crabtree then moves to attack Kiki, to keep her project a secret. However, Aylee releases an EMP nearby, shutting down the nanites in Dr. Crabtree's body, liquifying her. Torg pacifies Bun-Bun by buying a new set of unlabeled Baywatch tapes, forcing Bun-Bun to rewatch them all.
In the Dimension of Pain, Lord Horribus finds the Spear Calmadar, which turns anyone hit by it into a demon. Torg hires the demon hunter Steve Uozin, a parody of Steve Irwin. Steve is stabbed with the spear and returns to the DoP to torment the denizens. Sasha is introduced as Riff's new girlfriend (whom he never talked about before).
Meanwhile, a group of Santa's old elves mount an expedition to the North Pole in response to a distress call. It turns out Santa picked up some alien DNA and is not himself. At the North Pole, they discover a doctor who has invented a gas that forces the weaker DNA out of a body; Santa, too far gone, turns into a monster. Bun-Bun, as the Easter Bunny, exposits that he was forced to hide eggs during Easter, and wants to find a way out.
For Christmas, Torg gives Zoë a very fancy necklace he found while in the mummy's tomb. The necklace turns out to be cursed, and turns Zoë into a camel.
[edit] 2001
Riff is distracted from researching Zoë's curse by Torg's new, pre-ordered PlayStation 2. Since Riff is thus incapacitated, Sasha "hacks" into Riff's computer (with the password "beer") and discovers the word "Kwi" turns Zoë back to normal (albeit naked), while the word "Shupid" turns Zoë back into a camel. Several puns later, Zoë takes her revenge by destroying the PS2.
Gwynn is shown in some kind of dreamscape, along with the demon K'Z'K, who constantly tries to get Gwynn to look behind her. Riff, who sees the possessed Gwynn in his dreams, builds a giant robot with the firepower of a small army and an AI cribbed from an old See-'n-Say. Sasha, with Torg, searches out and converses with Oasis. Agents of Hereti-Corp show up and attack Oasis. Torg returns to an attacking Gwynn possessed by K'Z'K. Inside the dreamscape, Gwynn turns around and sees a vortex of oblivion, and throws K'Z'K into it, completely freeing her from K'Z'K and apparently severely damaging the demon, leaving it in fragments. Torg is injured and put in the hospital. He finds out that Oasis is there, because of wounds from the Hereti-Corp attack. He sneaks a visit, and while he's there she dies.
Torg's web design business goes under, and Aylee starts her own. Torg and Gwynn then go to work for Aylee, although Torg is fired shortly after since Aylee doesn't need a receptionist. Aylee also goes to see a therapist who turns out to be Dr. Schlock, who is looking to clone Aylee into a weapon. Bun-Bun summons up the Groundhog's Shadow in order to find some information about getting rid of the Easter Bunny gig, but is interrupted by Torg.
Riff and Sasha rebuild the DFA, along with a remote that opens a portal home. Riff, Torg, and Bun-Bun go to another dimension, but are zapped by lasers before they can return. The dimension they travelled to is a sci-fi universe populated by multiple parodies, including the Voltron parody Gofotron, the Lobo parody Lodoze, and the Darth Vader parody Lord Grater. After a long time and the destruction of the universe, Torg, Riff, and Bun-Bun make their way back home.
The three come home to find that Aylee's company is very successful, but security is very tight and no one gets to see Aylee in person anymore. Zoë, whose college grades were suffering, moved back home to Nebraska to finish college. Since the apartment Torg and Riff used to live in was turned into Aylee's office space, the two set out to buy a new home. They settle on renting a haunted house before setting to work on getting to meet Aylee. After discovering Aylee has turned into the ultimate evil CEO, Torg invites Aylee to the Halloween party.
At the Halloween party, two demons attached to one body show up, known as Isp and Osp. They become trapped in the basement with Torg, who converses with the main body while Isp and Osp are incapacitated by the fall. Torg asks the demon her name, who, after an ominous pause, scratches "Mosp" out on the wall. Meanwhile, at the party, Aylee paralyzes the guests as a warning to Riff, and leaves.
Afterwards, the mystery of the haunted house is unravelled. However, one ghost is unable to leave for some reason. For Christmas, Bun-Bun invades the hideout of the Alien Santa and prevents an alien invasion.
[edit] 2002
In Nebraska, Zoë is attacked by Oasis, being guided by the Hereti-Corp agent Kusari. Oasis is completely insane. She is frustrated by her relationship with Torg, she is confused by the way she dies and comes back to life, and she uses Zoë as a scapegoat. She is sent to a mental institution in the end. Torg hears of the attack and rushes off to meet Zoë. Afterwards, he goes off to meet Oasis, and proposes to her in order to keep her from trying to hurt Zoë anymore.
Bun-Bun solicits Gwynn in order to get the Groundhog's shadow off of him, since the Book of E-Ville has Gwynn's name written in it as its owner. Elsewhere, something happened to Zoë: She graduated.
At work, Gwynn spots Aylee eating a coworker and flees from the company. It turns out Hereti-Corp has plans to clone Aylee and create the ultimate weapon. It also turns out Riff was unknowingly helping Heretic-Corp with the project, and blows up one of HC's labs in retaliation. Sasha, Gwynn, and Torg are then kidnapped by HC, and Riff and Bun-Bun set out to get them back, after a quick stop at Schlock's place for exposition. Riff's giant robot leads the attack, and is quickly disabled. However, inside is Oasis, who kills all HC employees on sight. Aylee knocks out Bun-Bun and kills Oasis. Torg and Gwynn escape, and Schlock rescues the other prisoners. Then the real Aylee, a fire-breathing dragon, shows up, states crab-Aylee is really a clone, and helps Torg finally kill crab-Aylee. In an epilogue of sorts, Oasis is shown alive in the woods and decides to try to discover what she is, as opposed to finding Torg.
Afterwards, Sasha moves to Seattle and Zoë moves into the house, returning to the regular cast. For Halloween, Lord Horribus himself arrives and is made into a servant by Gwynn's magic. Torg, Riff, and Zoë are brought back to Wispydale to battle the Satanic kittens again. For Christmas, Bun-Bun discovers that if he kills Santa (whose new weakness is Nerf), he becomes the patron of Christmas.
[edit] 2003
Ian McDonald of Bruno the Bandit takes over Saturdays, drawing a series called "Meanwhile in the Dimension of Pain." In it, Lord Horribus is sentenced to be the cameraman for Steve Uozin as punishment for not killing Torg. Reakk awakens another dragon of Annoyia, who doesn't breathe flowers but is generally annoying to be around.
The haunted house turns out to be an elevator to hell, with ghosts in the gas tank. Sam shows up, having been unable to leave since the Halloween party, due to the house's spirit-sucking power. They battle a giant monster before escaping.
Zoë gets a boyfriend, Leo, who works as a human cannonball. Torg briefly stalks Leo. Riff gets a job and is transferred to Alaska. Meanwhile in the Dimension of Pain, an angel invades and chibifies all of the demons.
Bun-Bun kills the patron of Halloween, taking over the holiday, and puts Kiki in charge this year; the night revolves less around terror and more around sugar, poinging, and napping. At the Halloween party, a chibified Reakk shows up, steals a bowl of candy, and disappears, leaving the guests very angry at Torg. Bun-bun moves to take Thanksgiving and Christmas as well as finding the Deus Ex Ovum, which has the power to set the holidays straight. The year 2003 steals the Deus Ex Ovum, and Bun-Bun's shadow kills 2003, which ends in a very short time, forcing Bun-Bun to use the Deus Ex Ovum. Everyone Bun-Bun killed was brought back, and a normal Santa throws Bun-Bun outside of time.
[edit] 2004
Sam and Torg encounter some vampires of a different circle. The Vykrolakas are mostly defeated, but their elder, Philinnon, remains. Riff returns to the house, and with Torg takes on some odd jobs for cash. Meanwhile in the Dimension of Pain, all the demons are chibified, but trick the angel into "falling," and into accidentally destroying himself on the Sacred Circle of Protection. Reakk mops up the Sacred Circle against the Demon King's wishes, and, after some power struggles, the DoP demons decide to invade the DoL.
Alt-Bun-Bun, from the Dimension of Lame, comes to Torg's dimension and reports the demons from the DoP have invaded the DoL. Alt-Bun-Bun takes Torg to the DoL, where he hides out from the demons. Lord Horribus becomes fanatical about finding Torg, and spends most of his time searching him out. Alt-Kiki (who has a bad attitude) and Alt-Riff are turned into demons.
It is revealed that Torg's sword, which he acquired during the Storm Breaker Saga, is able to talk when charged with innocent blood (of which there is an abundance in the DoL). Torg rescues Alt-Zoë from the demons and meets with Alt-Gwynn, who is merged with the alternate Book of E-ville, the "Book of Rothar-Niece". They hide out in the sewers, which the demons won't enter since it smells like flowers. Torg falls in love with Alt-Zoë and spends several months hiding out with her. Lord Horribus doesn't have enough demons to search out Torg and take over the DoL at the same time, so he focuses on finding Torg.
Torg is forced to flee into the DoP with Alt-Zoë and Alt-Bun-Bun, and so he searches out the bag of goodness locked away in the bottom of the Demon King's fridge. Horribus, hearing of this, hunts Torg down and confronts him. Mosp betrays Lord Horribus to repay Torg for his concern about her during the Halloween incident; in a background story, it is revealed that Mosp was denied her name and self-worth as punishment for betraying her people. Horribus, in a rage, kills Mosp and Alt-Zoë. Torg pushes Horribus into a chasm before going on to the Demon King's lair. He and Alt-Bun-Bun rescue Alt-Torg from the Demon King's freezer. Alt-Torg possesses magic arrows similar to Torg's sword; the two free the goddess inside the bag of goodness, who then takes them and flees to the DoL, forces the demons back to the DoP, and closes the portal between them.
It turns out the Torg and Kiki of the DoL had died in one of Alt-Riff's experiments; Alt-Riff, unable to deal with the loss, kidnaps new Torgs from alternate dimensions as an attempt to appease his conscience. The Torg that was rescued (referred to as Alt-Alt-Torg) is not from the DoL, and is egocentric and inconsiderate; he attempts to take the glory of the rescue for himself and refuses to attend Alt-Zoë's funeral. Alt-Riff, still a demon, is forced to lead the other DoL residents who had been turned into demons. Lord Horribus is removed from nobility, and Psyk is given the title of Lord Psykosis. Torg is brought back to his home dimension by the goddess, and experiences a tearful reunion with Zoë.
[edit] 2005
In early March, Clay Yount of Rob and Elliot replaces Ian McDonald as the Saturday artist, drawing the non-canonical series "Bikini Suicide Frisbee Days": daily gags pertaining to Sluggy's early days. In the main comic, faced with Torg's disappearance, Riff uses the DFA to try to get Torg back, but instead gets a Torg who has many tentacles (in his defense, he was under the influence of psychotropic drugs at the time). He also attempted to clone Torg from his toothbrush, and instead gets a very expensive clone of Torg's toothbrush; the cloners come by and take the house as collateral. Meanwhile Bun-Bun captains a pirate ship, the Bloody Bun, and sails through timeless space in search of a way back home; he believes it can be found in the legendary Teknokon One, a ship that can escape Timeless Space. The rest of the main cast engages in multiple parodies, including parodies of the Sony PSP, iPod, and the film 28 Days Later. Another parody occurs; Torg disappears, along with Kiki, and both are involved in the short story arc "Torg Potter and the President from Arkansas," the third installment of a (usually) annual Harry Potter Parody with little to no bearing on the rest of the strip. Riff, Gwynn, and Zoë receive a strange package, the contents of which are still unknown. Beginning (amusingly enough) on Talk Like a Pirate Day, the long-awaited "Oceans Unmoving II" concerns Bun-Bun's attempts to escape Timeless Space, competing for a way home with pirates and Baba Yaga. By skipping his usual holiday break, Abrams broke "Oceans Unmoving II" into two parts and ended 2005 with a "fully canon" flashback entitled "Christmas Ninjas 2002." This short tale occurs before "The Gift" story arc and finds Torg and Riff attempting to raise money for presents by hiring themselves out as ninjas- the two fail, and Riff decides to pursue the course of action that he does in "The Gift." "Oceans Unmoving II" continues in early 2006, and is drawing to a close.
[edit] 2006
We return to "Oceans Unmoving II" as Bun-bun has his climactic battle with the Obsidian Teknokon. In the end both are flung from the ship into the Oceans Unmoving. In there we discover that the Obsidian Teknokon is actually Bun-bun himself. As hinted earlier in the strip, he had been flung out of time by Santa for the first time before he came to live with Riff and Torg. The Bun-bun we have been following is returned to our regular universe and is bought by Torg bringing him back to the beginning. Meanwhile, Uncle Time (Father Time's brother) refuses to return our Bun-bun until Bun-bun explains how he remembered being before unstuck in time and decided to follow his younger self out. From there the story follows the last survivors of his crew. They find Teknokon One, but Lady Noga seizes the ship and escapes after a short battle, in which Feder, Jaspers, and Stu are killed. Calix, Kada and B.A. start an army, freeing Face and Murdock, and the story ends with their planning an invasion of the port of Madagascar. At the end of "Oceans Unmoving II," Pete announces he has a third part planned but will not release it in the typical Sluggy format. He speculates the story might start production in a year or two, as a possible side project of Sluggy Freelance.
The story resumes some time after the occupants of Brie Meighsaton House receive the package, which contains Flipp (who was thrown from the deck of the Bloody Bun during Blacksoul's attack). Torg has moved out, due to his feelings about Zoë, and Dr. Schlock has apparently moved in. Aylee is still in her coma, and Schlock is investigating her condition. Torg is on a road trip with Bun-bun, hoping to talk with him about his feelings, but Bun-bun seems unreceptive. The next story, "Wayang Kulit" concerns Bun-bun's search for the tome called Wayang, for revenge against the groundhog's shadow; the tome has the power to make the shadow corporeal so that Bun-bun can attack it. However, the Guardian of the True Theater of Shadows banishes Torg, Bun-bun and Kiki to a shadowy world in which each of them must confront their deeper fears, or forever be trapped as a shadow puppet. Bun-bun is shown an image depicting the death of his mother, Kiki is presented with a sandwich that is made entirely of crust, and Torg must confront his fears about Zoë and feelings of guilt at letting alt-Zoë die. Each overcomes their fear; Bun bun shows as usual that he is afraid of very little and conquers his own feelings, and then proceeds to help each of the others conquer their fears so that they can all leave with the Tome. In this process, Torg finally resolves that he must hunt for Oasis before they can have any chance of happiness.
Ten Minutes at a Party revolves around Zoe and her job on a "shock jock" show at a radio station, and Torg and Riff's search for Oasis. Zoe is having trouble at work for belittling one of her co-workers (even though he makes frequent derisive remarks against her) and, when her co-workers fail to show up, insults all of her friends(using pseudonyms) on a show to fill time. She decides to move in with Torg for a while, and finds out that he is trying to locate Oasis. He is doing this with Riff by dressing up as cows and getting information from Grahammy, an elf hiding from Santa at the Neebler factory. Torg and Riff know about him from Bun-Bun. Meanwhile, Gwynn tries to restore her vision and get rid of the need for her ugly glasses by performing a spell, which requires monkeys as an ingredient. Gwynn inadvertently sends them to attack the person whom she is most angry at, which currently is Zoe, while Zoe is at a fancy work related party hosted by her boss. Torg, Riff and Gwynn go to try and stop the monkeys, but one thing leads to another. Gwynn kisses Torg (mistaking him for another boy, since she's near-blind without her glasses), Riff starts a stampede of cows which ruin the party, and Torg starts a fight with a Grahammy look-alike, which turns out to be Zoe's radio co-host Broadman. Broadman celebrates his victory over Riff and Torg, claiming that he "ownz" the cows. Mr. Chalmers believes that he literally owns the cows, and a cow bites the pie on his face before Broadman can say anything else. Broadman (and presumably Midgetski) is fired, and Zoë gets her own radio show.
It is revealed that Oasis is residing in a small town. Oasis is a vigilante, killing anyone and everyone who commits the slightest offence. Oasis and her mysterious trainer Feng, are staying with a single mother, Kareen Zalia, her daughter Katie. Oasis's work as a vigilante stresses Kareen though her daughter is rather fond of Oasis who becomes her best, and possibly only friend. Oasis speaks to Feng when they train, she tells him all that she can remember except memories of Torg. When Feng mentions Torg's name, Oasis becomes furious and runs away. A reporter named Nash Straw shows up in the town to investigate the secrets of the town starting with the recently robbed liquor store. The local police chief, Officer Tod, arrests him without charge to teach him not to ask questions.
Meanwhile, Bun-Bun sends Grahammy to divert attention from him at Black Ops and retrieve any Naughty Nice records about Oasis. Grahammy presents Bun-Bun with a lead to an orphanage that housed Oasis 18 years earlier. A picture of Oasis is the only documentation of her existence at the orphanage. From the picture Riff and Torg are lead to Orsintos Research Center.
Officer Tod beats Nash Straw until he promises not to continue his investigation. While shopping with Katie, Oasis recalls a lost memory of promising Torg never to kill anyone, she then runs away again. Nash hits a local bar and picks up the local therapist named Lupae. The next morning, he wakes up in her home where she reveals all she knows about the vigilante. She tells him that the town was once owned by a Canadian crime syndicate who used it as a drug trafficking hub. In recent years, the mob fell victim to a vigilante who killed every hitman they sent after her. She also reveals that one of her patients, Kareen Zalia, houses the vigilante. Nash is forced to kill Lupae when she stumbles onto the fact that he is not a reporter, but an assassin.
While in the sewers looking for the research center, Riff and Torg receive a phone call from a ghost. The call leads them to a torture chamber with half burnt papers from a company called Orsino.
Nash Straw "successfully" snipes Oasis from a tree outside the Zalia residence. He retrieves the body and then goes to the police station for revenge on Officer Tod. Officer Tod fights back with an "obnoxiously powerful cannon" and incendiary grenades. Outside, Nash bumps into Oasis after she has regenerated again. Not knowing what to believe, Nash fights Oasis for a short time. Oasis mentions that she saw him point a gun at Katies face. (this happened after he short her in the room in which her dead body laid). Soon after Oasis hides in the trees. Nash then kills officer Tod and finds Katie who had come back with Feng and Kareen when they saw the smoke from the burning police station. He then takes Katie hostage in an effort to get Oasis to attack again. His plan works too well and Oasis almost kills him. Katie is initially horrified by Oasis's actions, but is reconciled in a group hug with Feng, Kareen and Oasis. The next day, however, Oasis reveals to them that she is leaving for an undisclosed destination alone, to resume the task of knowing herself. Nash Straw escapes form the hospital with the connivance of a female doctor and, like Oasis, leaves Podunkton for an unknown destination. Torg and Riff have salvaged boxes of notes from the underground labs and are on their way home when they see a fast-food franchise called "House of Cheese". The logo is identical to that of Hereti-Corp's...
[edit] Traditions
In an early 1998 plotline, one of Riff's inventions sent Torg to the "Dimension of Pain." Every Halloween since, a different demon is sent to Earth to try to bring him back, failing in amusing and unexpected ways. In 2004, Lord Horribus was deposed by Psykosis, and so it seems that this tradition has ended, since Psykosis does not share Horribus' obsession with Torg.
Bun-Bun and Santa Claus try to kill each other every Christmas, with continuously escalating violence; the fact that Bun-Bun became the Easter Bunny early on in the strip merely adds spice to the relationship. In New Year's Day of 2004, Bun-Bun was trapped in the timeless void by St. Nick, and therefore unable to battle him that year or in 2005.
Also every Christmas/Hanukkah, Torg and Riff have attempted to continue their own, private tradition of giving each other "a beer every year." Every year, they never quite get it right, for a variety of reasons, including being trapped in a mummy's tomb, selling their shoulders for science, and other random occurrences.
Every year on the 25th of August, the comic features a small animation to commemorate the comic's anniversary.
Every New Year's Eve storyline, Bun-bun gets drunk on 151 Rum, which often results in him being uncharacteristically kind and courteous (such as apologizing to Torg or praising the main cast). He might have done so as Overlord Bun-bun, had the theft of the Deus Ex Ovum not forced him to pursue the thief. There also is no evidence of his continuing this tradition in Timeless Space, where there's no time anyway.
[edit] Saturday Fillers
[edit] Meanwhile in the Dimension of *
Between January 18, 2003 and February 26, 2005, each Saturday's comic was written and drawn by guest artist Ian MacDonald of Bruno the Bandit. These strips chronicled the ongoing events in the Dimension of Pain, occasionally switching to the Dimension of Grief or Hell. Ian's work proved to be controversial among fans of the strip and led to a hostile climate towards guest artists. As the series went on, reactions towards most strips became negative and often rude. The conflict primarily stemmed from the fact that Ian and Pete have very different styles. There was also the general impression that Ian was adding canon material which included characters acting in uncharacteristic behavior. Another criticism against the series was Ian's tendency to rely on gags, sexual situations, parodies, and other low brow humor.
[edit] Bikini Suicide Frisbee Days
From March 5, 2005, Saturday duties passed to Clay Yount of Rob and Elliot.
Clay's strips take place at an indeterminate point between April and August of 1998, and center on the main characters. The strips are named after an early storyline, The Bikini-Suicide-Frisbee Match, emphasizing the light-hearted characteristic of Sluggy's early years. While it still remains to be seen what the ultimate reaction will be to Clay's Saturday comics, so far the results have been almost unanimously positive. Clay's filler strips have been officially declared "non-canon" in an effort to solve some of the problems with Ian's work and the climate it produced.
As of November 2, 2006, Clay announced on Rob and Elliot that he would be quitting as the Saturday artist by the end of the year in order to focus on a new comic he is creating, called Cosmobear.
[edit] Other guest strips and crossovers
Abrams invites other well-known webcomic artists to do the strip for a week once or twice a year, while he goes on vacation. A frequent result is a parody of the strip itself, other webcomics, other creative works and/or artists, including Scooby-Doo and Ayn Rand. Clay Yount of Rob and Elliot was guest artist several times prior to taking over Saturday duties.
Baen SF author John Ringo was profoundly affected by Sluggy while writing his Legacy of the Aldenata series; as a result, the crew of a massive mobile artillery platform that first appears in the third book of this series (When the Devil Dances) are depicted as die-hard Sluggy fanatics to comedic effect (up to, and including, naming their vehicle after Bun-Bun and painting a giant picture of Bun-Bun on it). They are joined in the fourth book (Hell's Faire), by a character based on the late friend of Pete Abrams who was the inspiration for Riff. A section of original Sluggy comics set in the alternate future world of the novels appears in the end of Hell's Faire, and a sampler of Sluggy storylines is included on the CD-ROM bound into this book. Pete possibly returned the favor shortly thereafter by entitling one subchapter "Hell's Unfair." Another possible Sluggy reference is in the short story "Lets Go to Prague" where one character uses the codeword Kizke. This is the common mispronunciation of the demom K'z'k,(no vowels in the proper pronunciation).
Also, the first two novels of Ringo's distant-future Council Wars series have appearances by an irascible, treacherous, switchblade-toting, telemarketer-hating AI in a rabbit-shaped body—created by a long-dead fan of an unnamed 20th-century webcomic.
In S.M. Stirling's Conquistador, one of the characters unleashes a self-destruct with the code word "Override B-1". Override B-1 is a program that causes Sluggy character Oasis to unleash her own level of destruction.
Numerous other webcomics have referenced Sluggy Freelance, and various guest artists on Sluggy Freelance have included their own webcomics' characters in their guest strips, including User Friendly who swapped A.J. for Torg for a week.
Additionally, shortly after the birth of Leah Nicole Abrams in the middle of "The Love Potion" storyline, Sluggy Freelance entered a three-week long side story. The story involved Ki and Fooker of General Protection Fault, Lindesfarne and Ralph of Kevin and Kell, and Bruno and Fiona of Bruno the Bandit attempting to play the roles of Sluggy Freelance characters and find the original cast. Other characters, such as Gav from Nukees, and Trudy from General Protection Fault, made appearances. The non-comic characters from Mystery Science Theater 3000 also appear, in their famous silhouetted form.
[edit] Critical reaction
The Sunday Times of London has described Sluggy Freelance as "TV buff heaven ... think The Office-style sardonic observations about everyday life set in Buffy the Vampire Slayer's universe, with Battlestar Galactica thrown in ... very funny indeed."[2]
[edit] References
- ^ Walker, Leslie (June 16, 2005). "Comics Looking to Spread A Little Laughter on the Web". The Washington Post, p. D1.
- ^ O'Brien, Danny (February 26, 2006). "The tooniverse explodes". Sunday Times (London), p. 27.
[edit] External links
