Least I Could Do

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Least I Could Do
LICD January Header Featuring the Main Cast
Author(s)	Ryan Sohmer & Lar deSouza
Website	http://www.licd.com
Current status	Monday to Saturday
Launch date	February 10, 2003 [1]
Genre(s)	Comedy/Adult

Least I Could Do (LICD) is a humor webcomic by Ryan Sohmer and Lar deSouza, which debuted on February 10, 2003. Although Lar deSouza is the current artist, the comic was previously drawn by Chad W.M. Porter, for two years, and before that, Trevor Adams. The primary theme of the strip is sexuality, especially the promiscuity of the primary character, Rayne Summers, a modern-day Casanova.

The strip updates every day but Sunday. Stories tend to last for only a few strips, but some have gone several weeks. The strip has done fairly long parodies of characters, such as those from The Lord of the Rings, (having Rayne being placed as Aragorn), X-Men (with Rayne as Wolverine) and GI Joe, each taking place where Rayne is either struck unconscious, falls asleep or blacks out.

Contents 1 Important events 2 Main characters 2.1 Rayne 2.2 Noel 2.3 Issa 2.4 Mick 2.5 John 3 Supporting characters 3.1 Recurring 3.1.1 Family 3.1.2 Co-workers 3.1.3 Minor Characters 3.1.4 Women in Rayne's Black Book 4 Books 5 Awards 6 Animated Series 7 Neologism 8 Blind Ferret Entertainment 9 Spin-offs and New Projects 10 References 11 External links

[edit] Important events

In late 2004, I Have My Moments was released, a full colour book featuring the first year of LICD with Chad Porter as the artist. The original artist for the strip was Trevor Adams, who drew the strip from its debut until July 18, 2003. Chad took over on July 28 of that year.

In early 2005, the strip underwent a major change when Rayne's friend Noel arrived. Noel was often given roles that previously would have gone to the character John Gold, whose frequency in the strip was reduced. Soon after, Rayne became an executive assistant on falsified credentials, with the intent of sleeping with the CEO of IDS Enterprises, Marcy.

Least I Could Do "3.0" launched on August 15, 2005 with the departure of Chad as the artist. Lar deSouza, a long time friend of Ryan Sohmer, and his artistic partner on the daily comic In Other News, has taken over the reins as the artist for Least I Could Do. The comic and website has been undergoing some major changes as a result.

December 2005 marked the release of My Will Be Done, the complete 2nd year collection and final works of Chad. It also included a mini-comic drawn by Lar, depicting the origins of Bra-Man. In July 2006 the first Bra-Man comic was released.

In November 2006, Because I Can, the 3rd year collection, and the first to feature current artist, Lar deSouza, was released.

Though the primary character is Rayne, there are a large number of supporting characters, and the strip will sometimes go for up to a week without a strip featuring Rayne. These usually involve large story arcs involving the other characters, though Sohmer still specializes in the one strip joke.

[edit] Main characters

[edit] Rayne

Rayne Summers is the protagonist of the Least I Could Do universe. He is a petty, perpetually horny and childish twenty-something with an underdeveloped emotional intelligence and a heart of gold. Rayne is fiercely loyal to his friends despite messing with them constantly (generally through elaborate and somewhat sophomoric pranks.) He demonstrated extreme nobility at times, such as when he defended his gay proctologist from a homophobic woman or when he proved willing to sleep with a plain, overweight woman so his friend Noel could get laid (see wingman).

Rayne is an attractive and extremely promiscuous man, having slept with fifty women at the strip's opening, and many more women (and one man, in exchange for protection in prison) over the course of the strip. As of 2006, the highest total that has been given is 1,000 in number but there were at least 10 other instances he could have added to the estimation in the May 22, 2006 strip (the one that gave 1000). He briefly had a serious relationship with Cyndi Wang, however a meeting with her parents went badly and so the relationship never properly started, though they did sleep together at a New Year's Eve party a year and a half after they broke up. He currently has a casual relationship with his boss Marcy, although it is clear that he still sleeps with other women. Although Rayne once had doubts about his behavior regarding women, he recently realized that his intentions were always clear and that he was never pretending to be anything he wasn't.

Rayne is quite a geek, as well as a huge fan of science fiction and fantasy books and movies. His passion for George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy book series and the Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings movies having been specifically noted in several strips. In particular, Rayne is obsessed with the character of Aragorn from The Lord of the Rings, and has had several elaborate fantasies of being the character while unconscious and once even suggested that given the chance, he would have sex with the character. He has also been willing to dress up while attending both Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings premieres, and has even adopted an Aragorn costume while going out to a bar to look for women.

Previously, he was a columnist, but after hearing about Marcy McKean, the attractive billionaire CEO of IDS Enterprises, he became determined to have sex with her. With a little help from his friend Mick, Rayne was able to falsify his resume and landed a very high-paying job as an executive of IDS Enterprises. Despite his questionable motives in joining the company and seeming lack of qualifications, it is evident that Rayne's employment has had a positive effect on IDS, as Marcy states that Rayne is the reason the company has been generating record profits. Rayne has been involved in several notable incidents while at IDS, which include driving Marcy's pregnant secretary to the hospital when her water unexpectedly broke. The dangerous drive through city traffic won him Marcy's respect as well as his first kiss from her, despite utterly destroying her car.

Within the strip, Rayne is noted for his coining of the term "vagoo" (meaning vagina), after deeming the original term too clinical and uninviting. The word has fallen into regular use in the strip since then.

Rayne recently discovered that he has an older half-sister named Emily, the result of a teenage pregnancy by his mother, and a niece, Ashley, with whom he has since formed a close bond. He owns a cat named Baby (a gift from his parents), who Rayne has tried to mate with Mick's dog, despite the fact they are of different species and both females. Rayne recently bought a brand new Audi RS4 adorned with the Autobot logo in an attempt to outdo his brother's new BMW 6-series.

Rayne had a recent near-death experience during a sky diving trip where he fell out of the plane without a parachute. In a week's series of strips, the strip focused on Rayne's funeral, which included the unveiling of a statue of himself complete with fully-erect penis (so women could "pay tribute" instead of leaving flowers), and, per his will, his brother Eric getting kneed in the groin by his lawyers. The whole scene was revealed to be a fantasy when the strip returned to reality and Rayne was rescued in mid-air by his diving instructor and escaped with only minor injuries. The incident also sparked one of the strip's more touching moments: after Rayne and friends returned to the city he announced that his brush with death had led him to think about priorities, and that he had to go see about a girl. While his friends starting placing bets on which on of his girlfriends he might be seeing, Rayne actually went to see his young niece Ashley.

A recent storyline shows Rayne in a different light. After a failed escapade in online dating, Rayne began to reflect on how his life has turned out so far. In a parody of A Christmas Carol he was visited by a spectral apparition of Kiera Knightly (Rayne's favorite celebrity fantasy), who showed him his past, his present and his future. It was revealed that Rayne began his promiscuous adventures after a girl left him heartbroken at the age of sixteen. In the present, Rayne realizes what effect he has had on a girl who (perhaps foolishly, by her own admonition) expected more than a one-night stand from him. The storyline also gave the reader a glimpse of Rayne's future: In forty years, he is a retired CEO (possibly of IDS) who lives in a house built to resemble Minas Tirith. Rayne built the house for himself and Ashley when her family moved away a year before she went to college, and there is evidence suggesting that she will succeed him in his business. Ashley and her family (including a pair of twins who call Rayne "Grunca") continue to live with him. We also see the entire LICD group together, grown old, having a cookout. The storyline left Rayne with the knowledge that he isn't half the asshole he thought he was (and that he will age fantastically). However, the future is left open, given the whole storyline was actually a hallucination resulting from a mild red bull-induced heart attack

[edit] Noel

Noel is Rayne's best friend, a later addition to the strip, first appearing on January 10, 2005. Before showing up on the comic, he had been dating an overweight woman (instead of that woman's attractive friend, whom he was actually interested in) for five years, during which he had become alienated from his friends. When Noel came back, he was readily welcomed back by Issa and Rob, but Rayne was marginally harder to win over. Rayne had Noel read a verbal contract promising that 1) if Noel were to disappear again for a woman, he would make sure that she was at least semi-attractive, and 2) that Rayne was entitled to mock him endlessly for having gone out with a fat woman.

Noel's appearance greatly reduced John Gold's importance in the strip. Interestingly enough, the appearance of Noel's character within the strip lines up with a period in author Ryan Sohmer's life where he was becoming increasingly more distant from the real-life friend that the John Gold character was based on. Sohmer says in the liner notes for the "My Will Be Done" book that he did not feel that he could continue writing the John Gold character in the same way, but the Rayne character itself needed a comedic foil. Therefore Sohmer felt it was time to introduce a new character based on another one of his real-life friends, and the character of Noel was created.

Noel usually plays Rayne's wingman, and although he does not always appear to approve of Rayne's promiscuity, he is markedly less critical of it than John.

Many of the comic’s strips feature Rayne and Noel walking through a park, where the two characters will discuss topics such as Rayne's recent escapades, current politics, or modern culture. Noel will usually end the strip with a sly one-liner that illustrates the flaws in Rayne's logic.

Noel never seems to grow frustrated with Rayne, despite Rayne's usual self-centered and childish regard for the world around him (as well as his tendency to insult Noel whenever he is unhappy with certain events.) Noel instead chooses to shake his head in amusement and wait to see what happens next. A downside to Noel's easygoing nature, however, is that he often winds up in the thick of it alongside Rayne, horribly out of his depth in situations that occur against his better judgment.

[edit] Issa

Melissa "Issa" Alie is one of Rayne's only female platonic friends, if not the only one. Rayne continually makes sexual advances on her which she continually rejects. Despite this, it sometimes seems as though she has a slight crush on him. When she introduced her friends to her farmer-boyfriend, Huck, his resemblance to Rayne was noted by the crew. John and Mick went so far as to suggest that she was dating him because he looked like Rayne, suggesting a subconscious interest in him. However, the character of Huck has not appeared since that arc so the status of the relationship is unknown. Issa also voiced an attraction to Rayne's brother Eric when Eric came to visit, so much so that she was willing to be part of a bet between Rayne and Eric, but Issa's attraction to Eric could more easily be explained because of the fact that Eric is a doctor (and Issa has been trying to find a rich boyfriend since the early days of the strip.) Issa works as a clerk at a gas station, Esco. Filler strips frequently involve her in revealing clothing, or jokes about readers' attraction to her.

Issa has known Rayne since at least his teenage years. This hints at the idea that she may well be Rayne's oldest friend, save for perhaps Noel; subsequently, it also means that she, of all the female characters, holds the record for holding out against Rayne's advances (perhaps up to a dozen years or more).

[edit] Mick

Mick Alfa is an overweight and socially awkward friend of Rayne's, whom he often uses as a wingman. Rayne often enlists Mick in elaborate (and occasionally bizarre) charades to help him get laid, such as having Mick pretend to be retarded to make himself look compassionate and dressing him up as a Nun named "Sister Likestacos" for the same reason. Rayne also makes Mick the target of frequent bestiality jokes, going so far as getting him a sheep's phone number. Despite this, Mick and Rayne are good friends. Mick helped Rayne secure his job at IDS by pretending to be a NASA representative. He also seems to be fairly comfortable with his body, often making light of his weight and bad luck with women. Mick himself is a TV program director. While Mick strikes out more often than not, he has had a greater number of steady relationships than Rayne, Noel and John combined, to Rayne's great shock.

[edit] John

John Gold is Rayne's roommate, who often acts as a foil. He continually expresses a resigned discontent with Rayne's promiscuity. John is looking for a wife, which has been shown to lead him into being somewhat needy and over-hasty in relationships. He is a grade school teacher, and has on two occasions romanced Rebecca, a recently-divorced single mother of a child in his class. Another brief relationship of John's was with a woman named Hannah, who became a major part of his life and even moved in with him . However, the relationship proceeded too quickly for Rayne's liking. Hannah, in turn, didn't care for Rayne, and when she issued an ultimatum forcing John to decide between her and Rayne, John demonstrated extreme loyalty and chose his longtime friend.

John's temptations are represented by a small Darth Vader, in a parody of the shoulder devil cliché. This Darth Vader character frequently appears, not only to tempt him, but also to voice the darker thoughts that John represses. John's Darth Vader has even had a brief relationship with Rebecca's own "shoulder devil" cliché.

John was a major character in the strip's beginning (second only to Rayne himself,) but since the emergence of Noel and, to a lesser degree, Mick as major characters, John has faded into the background to the point where he seems to exist only to be tormented by Rayne, or to join in on activities where the whole group is involved. Examples of this include the skydiving vacation or the IDS company boat storyline. His temperament which had previous been rather laid back, has been replaced by one that is easier to be annoyed and is more willing to avoid being involved in Rayne's capers.

[edit] Supporting characters

[edit] Recurring

• Rob Penfield is Rayne and John's neighbor. He lives with his domineering girlfriend, Beth, who is never seen. His friends frequently accuse him of being "whipped." He works in marketing. Although he is listed on the site as a main character, he has rarely appeared since Lar took over as artist. His last major appearance saw him involved in a round table discussion on Anal Sex. He has not shown up in a character header on the site since the end of 2005.
• Cyndi Wang is Rayne's ex-girlfriend (so to speak). She met him while working as a waitress at a Chinese restaurant, where Rayne invited her out on a date horseback riding after convincing her that he was an "expert" equestrian. Rayne almost wrecked the date by trying to pay the Suck For A Buck Lady to give his horse Wild Rage oral sex in order to calm it down, but saved it with a memorable picnic (August 28, 2003). This strip provided the title of the year one book, "I Have My Moments". After this they began dating. However, he lost her parents' approval by describing his sexual plans for her. In the years that followed she would occasionally make brief appearances in the strip. Although she told Rayne she wanted to remain "friends", (which he translates as "I will NEVER sleep with you") after a wild New Years Eve party, Rayne woke up to find Cyndi naked in his bed. After much discussion, during which it was revealed that Rayne had initially passed out during his initial attempt, Rayne and Cyndi would spend the next eight hours having sex. Cyndi disappeared the comic then, though she was one of the ten women from a dating website he invited to a bar for an ill fated "battle royale" for the right to sleep with him. Cyndi wisely watched the spectacle unfold. Judging from her desire from Jon and Mick to keep her identity a secret from Rayne, he most likely did not know it was Cyndi when he sent her the invitation. It is implied that she is the one woman Rayne has deeper feelings for, besides perhaps Issa and another unnamed woman who had left Rayne heartbroken at the age of sixteen.

She returned on February 14, 2007, as a part of the Valentine's storyline.

• Urchin is a street kid that does odd jobs for Rayne, either for his amusement or for trying to get women. He acts as Rayne's assistant and is paid in jelly beans. He is the creator (or at least tester) of The Bird Catapult, and sleeps in Noel's car.

[edit] Family

• Eric Summers is Rayne's brother. They have similar views of the opposite sex and a similar sense of humour. Eric is a doctor. He constantly brings up this fact to taunt Rayne, since he is a doctor and Rayne isn't. This is a constant source of annoyance for Rayne. In Eric's first appearance, he is challenged by Rayne to a "bake-off" in the bar, where each point is won with a verified phone number or kiss by an attractive girl. In the end, Rayne was victorious, after the game went to a sudden death match where Rayne was clearly the winner. He made a brief cameo, during a phone conversation in which he and Rayne learn of their half-sister. He also appeared in another recent strip where it was revealed he is starting sensitivity training, after consoling the bereaved family of a dead patient with the words "shit happens." He appeared in another strip where he antagonized Rayne once again for not being as successful and bragging about his brand-spanking new BMW (whereas Rayne doesn't own a vehicle at all), prompting Rayne to go on a quest for a better and more expensive car. Recently he starred with Rayne in a story arc involving them playing Battlefield 1942 together. They both took the week off from work, and continually murdered each other in game. It is also noted that Eric is partially a cause for Rayne's view of commitment, as throughout their childhood, he would enter Rayne's room in the middle of the night and scream in his ear "Relationships suck! Be a whore!" nightly. He recently went out of his way to torment his younger brother on a skiing trip, encouraging Rayne to attempt a run down a steep and dangerous slope. Rayne got his revenge through Ashely who manipulated Eric by addressing him by the formal and incorrect title of 'Uncle Rick'. Eric is modeled off Ryan Sohmer, author of the comic strip.
• Ashley is Rayne's niece from his half-sister Emily. She is four years old, and calls Rayne "Unca". Though she initially does not speak to Rayne, (out of shyness), she has warmed up to him after he took her for ice cream and a walk in the park which led to the two wreaking havoc in a local Toys "R" Us. Ashley shares Rayne's short attention span, mischievous streak and appears to share his love of Lord of the Rings (she even has a stuffed Aragorn toy which she sleeps with) and Star Wars as well as shown when she attempts to use a Jedi Mind trick on him. Likewise, Rayne is slowly getting used to kids through interactions with her. You would think that visitation rights might be limited as Rayne has managed to teach her swear words and terrify her all in one day, but Emily knows how much the two like each other, and recently traded one of her friends to get Rayne to go with Ashley to space camp (although Rayne was willing to sell John into slavery in order to go). The two wreaked havoc at camp together, and Ashley also became involved in one of LICD's more touching moments; after Rayne narrowly avoids death in a skydiving accident, he seems pensive and tells his friends that he has to go see a girl. His roommates speculate and bet on whether Rayne will be going to see Cyndi, Marcy, or Julie, but instead Rayne shows up in Ashley's room asking if she wants to play. It is also made clear that Ashley much perfers Rayne to her other Uncle Eric, who she mockingly addresses as 'Uncle Rick.' The importance Ashley's relationship with Rayne was cemented in a storyline in which Rayne got a glimpse into his future. According to the vision, Ashley's parents will move when she finishes high school, and rather than tear her away from her friends and college plans, Rayne will build a house for he and Ashley (Built to resemble Minas Tirith). He will become a CEO, and, when he retires, she will succeed him. She will continue to live in his home with her husband and children (twins, who look strikingly like Rayne), who refer to Rayne as "Grunca".
• Emily - Rayne and Eric's older half-sister, she was the result of a teenage pregnancy of Rayne's mother. She was given up for adoption upon birth. Emily would hire an agency to find her birth mother and was soon introduced to the family. Emily works as a lawyer, but is currently off on maternity leave. She has two daughters and seems to be significantly more grounded than either Rayne or Eric though she has quickly realized how their family works, as she once offered up a recently divorced friend to Rayne, in exchange for taking her daughter to Space Camp (Rayne would have done it without the sex, but he wasn't about to complain). She prefers Legolas to Aragorn, which makes Rayne question whether she is actually related to him.
• Mr. and Mrs. Summers are Rayne and Eric's parents. Introduced as occasional flashback characters before their appearance in 2006, it's been made clear where Rayne and Eric get most of the traits. They have long ago come to terms with their sons' promiscuity and during several occasions it's been implied that both Mr. and Mrs. Summers were similar to their boys in their own childhoods. Like everyone else in Rayne's life they are used to his outrageous behavior and often anticipate the worse case scenarios when Rayne gets overstimulated. It was revealed that Mrs. Summers had another child, Emily when she was a teenager and has recently reunited with her daughter.
• Charles is Emily's husband, who has not appeared very much in the strip.

[edit] Co-workers

• Marcy McKean is the CEO of IDS Enterprises and a self-made multi-millionaire. Rayne used false credentials to secure a job as a consultant in her company solely for the benefit of sleeping with her. Although he has received oral satisfaction from her, he has still yet to succeed at his ultimate goal. Marcy appears to still be unaware of the fraud, as well as the fact that sex is his primary goal. If anything Rayne has proven himself a good employee having made a great deal of money for IDS. For her own part, Marcy has a strong physical attraction to Rayne, but no desire for a relationship with him.
• Nancy is Marcy's receptionist. Before Rayne's interview, another man had shown up with the same goal, but Marcy realized the ploy, and threatened to fire Nancy if it ever happened again. Although Marcy has not yet realized Rayne's intentions, this has caused Rayne some guilt. When she went into labour, Rayne acted as mid-wife, but because of complications he had to rush her to the hospital using GTA driving skills. Rayne was given the honor of naming Nancy's son, and quickly chose Aragorn. Nancy returned after her leave of absence to take the position as Rayne's Administrative Assistant.
• Martin was Rayne's executive assistant. He is introduced to Rayne at the end of his first day at work. Martin is madly in love with Marcy and construes Rayne as a threat. His appearances have grown less common, having been replaced by Nancy though he is occasionally dressed up for Rayne's amusement.
• Mike von Huntington is an obnoxious man Rayne met at Space Camp. Born with a silver spoon in his mouth, Mike is everything Rayne is not: snotty, unpleasant, unattractive, condescending and elitist. Rayne has referred to him as an "arch-enemy" but his chance for revenge came when Mike applied for a job at IDS under him. Rayne tormented him for a while, but, to his great dismay, Mike's portfolio was so good and his proposal so accurate that Rayne was forced to hire him. He has a little sister named Julia who is, if anything, more condescending than he is. Julia is considered to be the nemesis of Ashley just as Mike is Rayne's. Julia, however, has not been seen since the Space Camp story arc.
• Jim was a down on his luck family-man who lost his son Lucas in the mall while out during the Christmas holidays with the family. Rayne found Lucas, returned him to Jim and his wife, and, in the spirit of the season, purchased them a tree, presents, and offered him a job at IDS Enterprises. He currently works there as the warehouse foreman.

[edit] Minor Characters

• Bra-Man is Rayne's alter ego. When evil attacks the good, when darkness threatens the light, when 2 bottles of tequila are emptied, Bra-Man will be there. Real Life has Shirt-Ninja and VG Cats has Pantsman. Least I Could Do has Bra-Man.
• Little Vader is John's evil conscience. He comes to John's aid when he needs help, though often his advice is unwanted and inappropriate. He once tried to hide the Death Star in John's Apartment.
• Little Chewie could be considered John's good conscience, although he has only been seen in one strip (September 09, 2003). Like the original Chewbacca, little Chewie cannot speak English. Therefore, it is also possible that he was agreeing with Little Vader and encouraging John to sleep with the student's mother.
• Harry is a homeless artist. After being offended by John's condescension, he set up shop outside his apartment building. He is modeled off of Lar deSouza, the current artist for LICD, though he has only appeared once since Lar took over the strip.
• The "Suck For a Buck Lady" is a prostitute who often appears but never speaks. Introduced (July 03, 2003) as the one time Rayne was tempted to actually pay for sex, but he decided that, "It just seems wrong that I spend more on a pack of gum." Rayne would eventually save her from arrest and introduce her for various one-strip gags.
• Rebecca Brisko is the attractive, divorced mother of one of John's Students, Kasey. John is insanely attracted to her, and has slept with her on two separate occasions, with the prodding of Little Vader, to Rayne's great shock. (In her first appearance, Rebecca was named Jessica).
• Keira Knightley, presumably Rayne's favorite actress, has appeared twice to Rayne, the first in a dream, the second as his guide to his past, present and future, similar to the ghosts in A Christmas Carol. After their journey was done, Rayne was about to have sex with Keira until Urchin unfortunately resuscitated him from his Red Bull induced coma.
• Suzie is Mick's ex-girlfriend. Soon after he met her, she revealed she had dated John for nearly a year and had slept with Rayne multiple times (and that she had slept with over 30 men). Mick decided that her history didn't matter to him, and they continued dating even as Rayne made continuous "whore" jokes. Unfortunately for Mick, Suzie soon cheated on him soon after he decided to tell her that he loved her. After letting Rayne make her cry (with the help of the Suck-for-a-Buck Lady) he broke up with her. Suzie has appeared a few times since, usually with Rayne and Mick doing their best to make her life miserable.
• Huck is Issa's ex-boyfriend who lives on a farm. When Issa brought Rayne, John, and Mick out to the farm for the weekend to meet Huck, Rayne ended up offending Huck, and Mick got a sheep's phone number, courtesy of Rayne. John was sick after seeing Huck shoot a crossbow bolt through the head of a gopher. It should be noted that Huck shares a striking resemblance to Rayne, causing John and Mick to comment on whether or not Issa secretly harbored feelings for Rayne.
• Dr. Wilcott is Rayne's stand in internist when his regular physician was out of town. Trying to strike up conversation, Rayne found out he was gay, right before a colonoscopy. Initially homophobic, Rayne later joked with the doctor, and eventually defended him from a woman in the waiting room. Used as a vehicle to express Ryan Sohmer's deep objection to homophobia.
• Phil the Pharmacist is Rayne's pharmacist. He sells Rayne condoms by the caseload and has a boat named the SS Rayne. Almost had a nervous breakdown when Rayne decided to stop buying condoms from him, since he was sick of using them. He taught Rayne about various contraceptive devices, and Rayne ultimately decided that condoms were best.

[edit] Women in Rayne's Black Book

• Jean, a beautiful pharmacist, is one of the few (if not only) women to get the better of Rayne Summers in bed. At first ignoring Rayne because she thought he wanted a relationship, she later agrees to a bout of sex with him. Unfortunately, she likes it rough and beats Rayne up and even asks him to choke her. It seems that S&M is where Rayne draws the line (or at least when a testicle gets slapped), and he leaves, to be comforted by his mother.
• Karen was Rayne's childhood Babysitter. He re-encountered her early on in the strip's run, and slept with her. In a turn of the tables, She was the one who ended the one night stand, hurrying Rayne out the door as he had done to so many others. The irony of the situation, Rayne told the audience in a moment breaking the fourth wall, was not lost on him.
• Gina was a woman Rayne briefly had a relationship with. She had a baby son, and let Rayne take care of him, which Rayne found he actually liked doing. They broke up when Rayne panicked after Gina told him she loved him, but she let him take the baby out one last time. Rayne promptly used the kid as a prop in a girl-getting sob-story about losing his wife.

[edit] Books

Covers of Least I Could Do books 1, 2 and 3, and Bra-Man #1.

Least I Could Do books are published by Blind Ferret Entertainment Inc. Three books are available currently which round up the 2 years that the comic was drawn by Chad and the first year of Lar's work. The second book includes a mini-comic drawn by Lar that explains the origins of Bra-Man. They have also printed the first edition of Bra-Man, a spin-off comic based on Rayne's drunken alter-ego.

• I Have My Moments: The Complete First Year Collection; December 2004 ISBN 0-9736946-0-2
• My Will Be Done: The Complete Second Year Collection; December 2005 ISBN 0-9736946-1-0
• Because I Can: The Complete Third Year Collection; December 2006 ISBN 0-9736946-2-9
• Bra-Man #1; July 2006

[edit] Awards

• Wizbang!'s Weblog Awards:
  • 2006: Won for Best Comic Strip^[1]

• Cartoonist's Choice Awards:
  • 2007: Nominated for Outstanding Comedic Comic^[2]

[edit] Animated Series

Work on the LICD: Animated Series has been going on for a couple of years now. After a false start with Chad, it seems to be taking off again. The LICD team, under their Blind Ferret banner, has been putting out the animated series for Ctrl+Alt+Del and will soon be putting out another animated series for PvP. Now, after that success, they have released their first screen test of a Least I Could Do show. The trailer for the animated series was released in April of 2006, and can be found on the website.

[edit] Neologism

Over the years Sohmer has created a number of new words to describe his thoughts on life and sex.

Vagoo - (created on February 23, 2005.) Rayne states that the word vagina is "cold, sterile and doesn't do the female anatomy any justice. Other synonyms don't do any better either. Just not good descriptions of something warm and inviting." It has since been frequently used in the comic. A t-shirt designed by the Least I Could Do team also featured the word.

AUFLS - (pronounced "awfuls", created on March 26, 2005.) Ass Ugly Friend who will want to Leave Syndrome. Apparently Rayne is still looking for the cure.

Frog King - (created on April 26, 2006.) Used in exchange of the phrase "fucking". Introduced in a cartoon in which Rayne and his niece Ashley go down to the toy store, and after Ashley attempts a Jedi Mind Trick on him, Rayne exclaims "You're pretty fucking cool, you know that?!" (teaching Ashley a new word). A clerk overheard Ashley repeat the word, mistook it as "Frog King" (whether he did this intentionally or not is unknown), and stated, "I'm afraid we don't carry any Frog King merchandise.". A t-shirt design has since been made to commemorate the event. The fact that it was misheard was confirmed by the artist of the strip on the strip's website forum.

Humpchies - (created on June 7, 2006.) 'Humpchies' was introduced as the unquenchable desire to hump something.

Vengerection - (created on November 1, 2006.) An erection brought on by the thought of upcoming vengeance. Rayne experiences it for the first time when showed Marcy's schedule for the day and seeing that his old nemesis from Space Camp, Mike Von Huntington, has an interview with her for a job at the company.

[edit] Blind Ferret Entertainment

A company started by Ryan Sohmer, the creator of Least I Could Do, and partner Randy Waxman, Blind Ferret Entertainment is an independent web, print, film, television production and marketing company that works to develop, market, distribute and represent high-quality projects that reach out to targeted audiences. The company seems to be working towards bringing webcomics more into the mainstream, and has linked itself with popular comics Ctrl+Alt+Del, VG Cats, Looking For Group, and 8-Bit Theater. Its most recent accomplishment is the creation of Ctrl+Alt+Del: The Animated Series. Work is also being done to bring Least I Could Do to television in the form of an animated series.

A recent announcement was the addition of PvP to Blind Ferret's animation work. A trailer is available on the PvP website, and the series is scheduled to release February 1st, 2007.

[edit] Spin-offs and New Projects

In July 2006, the first "Bra-Man" comic was released. The 24 page comic will showcase the adventures of Bra-Man, Rayne Summers' alter-ego. Bra-Man #1 was written by Ryan Sohmer, drawn by Lar deSouza, and coloured by Marc Brunet.

On November, 6 2006 Ryan Sohmer and Lar DeSouza came out with a new webcomic called Looking For Group. The Comic follows Cale'Anon (an elven archer) on his quest to save the world and Richard, (an undead warlock), whose quest is to have fun killing things. It has received positive attention at Stratics^[3] and the WoW community^[4][5].

For more information regarding Looking For Group, please visit the Wikipedia entry on Looking For Group.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Least I Could Do (After the strip of March 21, 2007 the website is also reachable under AntHillPenetration.Com domain.)
• Least I Could Do Community Forum
• Looking For Group
• Bra-Man
• Blind Ferret Entertainment