Pibgorn (webcomic)
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| Pibgorn | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) | Brooke McEldowney |
| Website | http://www.unitedmedia.com/comics/pibgorn/ |
| Current status | Monday, Wednesday, Friday |
| Launch date | March 11, 2002 |
| Genre(s) | Fantasy |
Pibgorn is a webcomic by Brooke McEldowney that started March 11, 2002. The title character is a fairy whose adventures span the fantasy and real worlds. McEldowney also creates the syndicated comic strip 9 Chickweed Lane.
Contents |
[edit] Format
Pibgorn is published on the World Wide Web by United Feature Syndicate (an unusual move by the syndicate) on their Comics.com website. It has also been published in a graphic novel, Pibgorn: The Girl in the Coffee Cup, which was released in October 2006 and is now available exclusively through the publisher Pib Press at pibpress@verizon.net. Possibly because of graphic novel considerations, Pibgorn is characterized by involved story arcs which may seem better suited to a graphic novel than a daily comic, and it is also notable for its creative use of color and large format, together with strong themes of violence (explicit) and sexuality (generally implicit), attributes not usually associated with daily print comics. The artist has made the point that he wants to create a story without worrying about the editors of family newspapers, and he is making the most of that freedom.
Pibgorn originally ran daily Monday through Saturday, but on February 8, 2006, it was announced that beginning on February 13, the strip would run only on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. McEldowney stated the burden of writing two daily strips concurrently as the reason for the cutback.
[edit] Characters
© 2005 Brooke McEldowney
- Pibgorn
- The title character, a fairy who is not satisfied flitting around when she could be getting in trouble instead. She's sweet, effervescent, charming and flighty, with a succubus for a best friend and a human for a sweetheart. She has a talent for trouble, a knack for friendship, and a magical kiss -- the baiser de la fee -- which can effect miraculous healing or change the size of herself and others.
She is drawn as a lithe young woman with alternatively red and blonde hair, and arm-sized insect-like wings growing from her back. She is neither clothed nor nude, McEldowney describing her as being "dappled", with most of her body covered by varying shades of green. She can however wrap her wings around her body, transforming into clothes.
- Drusilla
- A rather manipulative succubus who is used to getting what she wants, she seems to have resigned herself to the fact that Geoff genuinely loves Pib rather than her. Granted, this is after murdering Pib when she first decided she was a rival, but since it didn't stick, well, if you can't beat them, join them. She has made it exquisitely clear, though, that if Pib hurts Geoff, Dru will make her very sorry. They now seem somewhere between a wary alliance and a developing friendship.
Like Pibgorn, her body is "dappled", covered with shades of magenta and violet, but arranged to accentuate her bosom and naval. She has black hair, which she often wears in long tresses to cover her ears, which possess a stag-horn shape and are indicative of her status as a demon.
- Geoff (surname unknown)
- Pib's slightly geeky sweetheart, he's a former church organist and now Pib's and Drusilla's accompanist, having been ostracized from the community when Drusilla accidentally revealed her true idnetity to the local pastor. He is loyal and affectionate, and protective of those he cares about. Not a stereotypical swashbuckling hero type, Geoff nevertheless has consistently shown bravery in order to help save Pibgorn and others around him from danger. He is also getting better acquinted with the supernatural world and has on occasion been able to guestimate a solution.
- Oognat
- The hair fairy -- not as bold or adventurous as Pibgorn, Oognat nonetheless ends up in many of the same difficulties as her companion fairy.
- Thorax
- Is he a visitor from another galaxy? He's at least a visitor from another comic strip: 9 Chickweed Lane.
- Maurice
- A field mouse, he's been a friend of Pib's from the very beginning, and he tries valiantly to keep up and help where he can.
- Prince Crewth
- The fairy monarch who was exasperated enough by Pib's flouting of the rules to order her assassination.
- Gaggot
- Prince Crewth's oily lawyer/doctor, who seems to fancy himself as something of a power behind the throne.
- Luciano
- a horsefly who is Prince Crewth's consultant and sometime court assassin, whose only weakness appears to be Pib. He proves to be completely unable to bring himself to hurt her, and instead falls head over heels.
[edit] Origins
Pibgorn slowly evolved over the years after 9 Chickweed Lane was begun by McEldowney, who in fact used Edda as a prototype Pibgorn in one comic strip in 1998. He finally started adapting the idea into a proposed spin-off entitled "The Titans," which was rejected by syndicate editors, in 2000. These proposed strips and accompanying sketches were presented on Pibgorn's website in 2005 during one of McEldowney's hiatuses from the strip.
"Titans" would have been a gag-a-day format strip, in which Pibgorn (here known as Oola Inch), disenchanted with her expected role as a fairy, usually would break away from her regular routine to wax philosphically. Unfortunately, Oola was also one of life's losers, her dialogues often resulting in misfortune, such as having a magic 8-ball roll over her, or nearly be eaten by whatever animal she's conversing with (a spider, a duckling, etc). The strips also showed a darker side to her character, as in addition to managing dewdrops, her responsibilities include serving as the "voices-in-my-head" of disgruntled government employees, driving one to attempted homicide on at least one occasion. The final set of proposal strips showed Oola running afoul of Prince Crewth and Gaggot, here named Prince Grabstein and Rhune, when she petitions to leave "dewdrop brigade" and become a stand-up comedian. Unable to tell if she's laughing with him or at him, Grabstein outlaws laughter altogether and sets Luciano after Oola, only for the fly to fall in love with her. These situations were later recycled as part of the early Pibgorn story arcs.
[edit] 2006-2007 story arc
From February 2006 through March 2007, the story arc was an adaptation of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, set during the 1920s or 1930s in metropolitan Athens City, with no explanation for the shift in setting. The three main characters all play the fairies, although their original states as, respectively, a fairy, a succubus, and a human remain. A female version of Puck is appropriately played by Pib herself, although it is established here that the more feminine-sounding Robin Goodfellow is her official name, rather than an alias of Puck's as in the original play. Fitting matches to Pib's Robin are Drusilla as Titania and, of course, Geoff as Oberon.
Many characters from 9 Chickweed Lane appeared playing parts in the adaptation:
- Broadway producer Theseus -- Thorax
- Hippolyta -- Juliette Burber, barely-recognizable with a curly hairdo
- Egea (a female version of Egeus, an increasingly common practice by modern productions) -- Gran Burber
- Hermia -- Isabel Florin
- Helena -- Edda Burber
- Lysander -- Edda's roommate Seth Appleby
- Demetrius -- Edda's nemesis, Burkhardt Kriegl
- Stage manager Peter Quince -- Amos van Hoesen
- Nicola Bottom -- Oognat the hair fairy.
- McEldowney refers to himself as the "Director" of the play.
The 'mechanicals' who will be putting on a show have been replaced by an all-female chorus. Also, the Indian boy who is the subject of the dispute between Oberon and Titania is a portrayed by an entirely original character for this storyline, and is a strapping young man whom Titania is having an affair with.
Regardless of what manner of being their characters are in this play -- human or supernatural being -- all the characters remain what they are in their usual stories. For example, Edda, a regular human being, plays the character Helena, also a regular human being. On the other hand, Oberon, Titania, and Puck -- while still being referred to as fairies -- are instead respectively a human, a demon, and one true fairy, as Geoff, Drusilla, and Pibgorn are. Oognat is the only supernatural being who plays a human in this story, although her transformed state as a donkey returns her to her normal hair fairy appearance, albeit with donkey ears and hooves in addition.
Despite the change in setting, this arc was almost completely loyal to the play's storyline. McEldowney has used Shakespeare's original dialogue during this story, little-changed except for abridgements and slight adjustments for reasons of gender. The characters also deliver the lines with a more modern form of delivery, with changes in emphasis and tone, and even double entendres, such as Theseus and Hippolyta's discussion of "solemnities" during their honeymoon. The only big difference is the relationships of the Fairies at the end. Here, in spite of his manipulations, Titania does not return to Oberon, and at the end is seen being escorted about town by the Indian boy, passing by a diner where Oberon and Robin are recuperating from the night's activities. While delivering her final soliloquy, Robin then uses the juice of the "love-in-idleness" on Oberon, who had been carrying a secret affair of his own with her but had not truly reciprocated her love, who proceeds to carry her off in his arms.
As of March 7, 2007, the strip is running single-panel "closing night cast interviews" with Edda and the other Chickweed characters, so how this storyline ties into Pibgorn’s continuity, has yet to be seen. It should be noted that only a handful of the Chickweed "actors" are involved in theater in their own strip, and even the exceptions (Edda, Seth, etc.) are ballet dancers and musicians, not actors. Thus, it is not out of the question that this entire sequence has been a piece of metafiction, existing outside of either comic strip's continuity.
