Buttercup Festival

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Buttercup Festival
"The protagonist ponders an unponderable durable pond." -(author's caption)
Author(s)	Elliot G. Garbauskas (alias of David Troupes)
Website	buttercupfestival.com
Current status	Completed
Launch date	2000 February 17
End Date	January 10, 2005
Genre(s)	Humor

Buttercup Festival was a print/web comic that ran from February 17, 2000 to January 10, 2005. It was authored by "Elliott G. Garbauskas", a pseudonym for David Troupes. It was originally written for, and published in the University of Massachusetts newspaper, The Daily Collegian, where Troupes was an editor. At various times during its run it was published in the newspaper, on its own web site, and in other student newspapers and independent periodicals.

Buttercup Festival's typical format was short strips of three or four panels, with the last often a non sequitur. As the author's skills matured, he began drawing larger tableaus and events; see #127, Vol. 3 for an early example.

The comic's humor is marked by whimsy, puns, parody, and a gentle, eccentric madness. However, not all strips are wholly humorous; many are intended simply to evoke a sense of beauty or wonderment at nature, somewhat reminiscent at times of Calvin and Hobbes.

Individual strips were collected in three print editions: Buttercup Festival, Irony is Killing my Soul, and Buttercup Festival: Unsinkable Affection for the World. As of January 2005, all are out of print. The author's other works include a short poetic graphic story called An Island People Go To, likewise out of print, and another webcomic called Green Evening Stories.

[edit] Characters

Though Buttercup Festival has little, if any continuity from one strip to the next, and does not build on past strips, the same protagonist appears in every strip, and several other characters recur.

The strip's protagonist resembles the Grim Reaper, dressing in black robes and carrying a scythe. However, he is not intended to be Death; rather, his appearance was a parody of the Goth sub-culture, and he never uses the scythe except occasionally to nudge things. The protagonist's defining characteristics include limitless optimism and an idiosyncratic perception of reality (in one strip, for example, he thinks that his Game of Life board is a city map). It is also worth noting that the protagonist has been identified as 37 years old, and apparently has a child with whom he plays "catch." Throughout the strip's earlier additions he also displays marked sadomasochistic tendencies; these however seem to abate as the strip progresses.
The voice of an unseen and unnamed character comes from off-panel in many strips. This character is frequently a foil for the protagonist, questioning his actions and correcting his misperceptions.
Rodney the second-grade T-ball jockey is, as the name suggests, a second-grader with an aggressive attitude whose life revolves around tee ball.
Future Boy is a jet pack-wearing boy who occasionally appears and reveals interesting facts about what happens in the future.
An alien being called 'Cosmic Protean Intelligence' is sometimes featured conversing with the protagonist in an alien language. We gather an understanding of what the being says because the protagonist replies in English.
A couple of strips feature a sentient balloon that believes itself to be human.
A caricature of the musician Moby has appeared in several strips.