Pibgorn by Brooke McEldowney

Tags: Thought provoking Broadway symbolism, Humma-humma!, Double entendre to go!, lights, camera, action ...... whoa, cut the action. cut the action, It*s getting hot...and hotter still..., Looks like the volcano is having another erec... uh ... eruption, A mountain getting its rocks off.... Add Tags

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fear-ciuil said, 7 months ago

If you would like to ‘favorite’ the strip, (and maybe the sketch, too), simply log in and click on the ‘Favorite’ star directly above the strip. Mr. McEldowney very kindly asked for us what purpose is served by favoriting, and this was the answer:
I asked my editor at Gocomics about the purpose of “favoriting” a strip. Her answer was this: “‘Favoriting’ allows people following you to see what comics you like. ‘Favorited’ comics also show up under your profile, and allow us to see what comics people are enjoying.”
Basically, I think it provides a method for spreading the word.
Brooke

A number of resources have been provided by members of the Order of the Couch, and links can be found here:
http://www.talkaboutcomics.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=45301
For registration assistance, go to: http://marmoe.livejournal.com/34590.html

If you are new to Pibgorn, start with ccdesan’s Pibgorn Tribute Page, which gives story and character info:
http://home.comcast.net/~ccdesan/Pibgorn/Pibgorn.html

ccdesan has also created a GoComics comments posting guide to special formatting: italic, bold, indents, large fonts, etc.
http://home.comcast.net/~ccdesan/Pibgorn/StyleGuide.html

Come one and come all, de-lurk and join in! Add your own voice to our great, joyous din!
Just one bit of wisdom ere joining our game: Read all of the comments, or you’ll miss something! (Shame!)
(No trolls need apply.)
Please do not feed the cuisine-challenged bridge substructure symbionts. Just flag them.
http://picayune.uclick.com/comics/pib/2002/pib021218.gif
Mr. McEldowney’s Pibgorn blog: http://officialpibgorn.livejournal.com/
Mr. McEldowney’s 9 Chickweed Lane blog: http://chickweedcafe.blogspot.com/

Today’s 9 Chickweed Lane can be found at:
http://www.chron.com/apps/comics/showComic.mpl?date=2009%2F4%2F24&name=9_Chickweed_Lane
txmystic said, 7 months ago

I think his piece just flew out of the volcano…
Margueritem said, 7 months ago

I guess he showed her where he was stashing his piece.
txmystic said, 7 months ago

…at a large velocity…
txmystic said, 7 months ago

…with some other stuff.
txmystic said, 7 months ago

GoodNightNow!
fatuncle said, 7 months ago

Yowsa!

‘Twould appear that the volcano is directly inspired by Dru - not just an event that once underway is a machine that runs by itself.
Sisyphos said, 7 months ago

The metaphoric use of the volcano is pretty overt. Meanwhile, what is Pibgorn up to, apparently just cruising over the rooftops of the Big Apple?
Fairportfan said, 7 months ago

Ah, well, no excuse for a flicker.

I guess i just have to inflict this on you cold: http://fancyadventures.com
Fairportfan said, 7 months ago

Pib isn’t cruising - she’s miles away (consider how high that volcano must be), and the previous strips have all taken place in demon/dream time, so it was probably only a minute or two sincs she dropped Bustard and took off to hunt Geoff…
VicTR said, 7 months ago

Go get her Pib!
Sisyphos said, 7 months ago

Are the flames in the background of panel 6 “real,” or just another visual metaphor, like the volcano? Is the fabric of Dru and Nat’s lusty little dream being rent asunder?

And indeed, just where is this arc going? So far it has been a series of delightful but stand-alone episodes, with no clear overall storyline. What does Honorable Master have up his sleeve, if this is not to be an extraordinarily short arc?
wndrwrthg said, 7 months ago

Is his piece a Buntline Special?
Sisyphos said, 7 months ago

With all that groin grinding going on, wndrwrthg, I wouldn’t be surprised if it were!
CoBass said, 7 months ago

@liamsmom (From late “yesterday”) You said you didn’t get the joke in Sequential Art.

Note the room number - Room 101. In the novel 1984, Room 101 was the torture room. “The thing that is in Room 101 is the worst thing in the world.”

The “There are four lights” line is from Star Trek - The Next Generation, the “Chain of Command” episode. Picard has been captured by the Cardassians and is being torturted. The Cardassian head torturer is trying to break Picard, and the “Lights” line is part of the process. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_eSwq1ewsU
EDIT: Typo fixes.
The Old Wolf said, 7 months ago

There’s a little debate on whether the reference is from Trek or Orwell. O’Brien asks Winston how many fingers he sees, and holds up four, but tells him there are five. I immediately thought of Picard, but I won’t swear that Jolly Jack wasn’t entirely focusing on “1984” because of the “Room 101” reference.

It was a great strip nonetheless.
The Old Wolf said, 7 months ago

Good Nyte, everybody!
mjolnir 9 said, 7 months ago

Well, we know it’s Friday, don’t we?.

Now, THAT…is a climactic moment!
I somehow feel…curiously, I don’t know, INADEQUATE watching that final panel.

Not that the climactic moment EXPLAINS anything, mind you. Anyone looking for catharsis at this point in the tale…well, I hope you brought plenty of coffee and cigarettes. You’ve got a long wait. The heroine - and title character - of the work is flying AWAY from the climax, totally ignoring it, in quest of something else (Geoff, one would assume, but we all know what assuming’s gotten us before).

That’s what I love about ‘Pibgorn’; it’s more fun than trying to analyze ‘Finnegan’s Wake’…the comic form of pure Masters’thesis Theatre…

Jamaican Blue Mountain and Sobranie Black and Golds on the coffee table for all who care to indulge (remember that caffeine and nicotine are non-addictive, in the world of Reality).

Oh…as to the photograph thing…”Of this time, of that place, of some parentage…what does it matter?”
pyotr2008 said, 7 months ago

Oh, so he’s not …erm, “really glad to see her”, that _is_ a gun in his pocket.

(I actually did have that conversation, once…)

pyotr
ejcapulet said, 7 months ago

Dru sure knows how to pick her fantasies!
zorchon said, 7 months ago

Sisyphos,
What, do you want to UNDERSTAND what’s going on in the story arc? You could as well ask “What does Naked Geoff sitting around in a field have to do with Suzerain? (SP?) For all we know…
The black cloud which the volcano emits could be the pupate form of the Demon’s love child which goes off to skulk around the mountains in Peru for a few centuries until it matures into it’s next life stage (an enchanted Jackknife of butter-spreading) which is sent back in time and acquired by the Government-guy (who wants to use the knife on Dru on April 10th.)

In short… we haven’t the slightest chance of truly knowing where this story is going.
(But boy is it fun to find out.)
desertdwlr said, 7 months ago

HI-YO
Saskfan said, 7 months ago

We must presume that there’s a story in all these charming vignettes. But are we going back to the burning hospital?

I’m waiting with as much patience as possible for it all to make sense. Still, lovely plumage…

Meanwhile, fresh pineapple and mango on the sideboard, with homemade yoghurt, and pancakes and bacon for breakfast. And the hair of the dog for them as needs it, of course!
Joe Minotaur said, 7 months ago

Full Steam Ahead!!
Nabuquduriuzhur said, 7 months ago

No, the EPA doesn’t count CO2 from volcanic emissions…
Nabuquduriuzhur said, 7 months ago

which is just as well. Can you imagine having to deal with several quadrillion tons…? Just the Mid Oceanic Ridge’s emissions alone would be something out of a nightmare. Imagine cleaning up a volcanic vent some 37,000 miles long!!
Be easier to license it. Here you are Mr. Neptune, a NEPA discharge permit…
Nabuquduriuzhur said, 7 months ago

Yick. Imagine the job of the EPA trying to fine 500 active land magma fields, 650,000 active seamounts plus several million smaller oceanic vents.

Neptune gets hauled into the 9th Circuit. “Mr. Neptune, do you realize that you singlehandedly created more gas than any other source except carbonate dissolution? What were you thinking, Mr. Neptune? For crimes against the ecosystem, we sentence you to an eternity sweeping up the ocean floor of muck and ooze.”
BikeNBoatN said, 7 months ago

Is this one of the few times BMcE has drawn his characters kissing open-mouthed?

Hope Dru doesn’t fall out of love with Geoff. That would be a major change of events.
jml58 said, 7 months ago

It is a gun, and I am happy to see you.
ThatCat said, 7 months ago

You know… I must have slept all wrong or something because I poked out my lip and felt all sour about things when looking at sweet Pib flying away.
I know she’s the poster girl for upbeat but it has to feel a teeny bit blah that every man she is with, Dru comes calling right behind and does it.. well, so much better. How many of us cause actual volcanos?
Gimme some of that Jamaican Blue Mountain please, I think I need it.
Squire_of_the_shire said, 7 months ago

You must remember this
A kiss is just a kiss
A sigh is just a sigh
The fundamental things apply
As flames go by

And with Nat’s Lips on Dru’s
The Magma’s gonna ooze
On that you can rely
No matter what the couchies Bring
As flames go by

Chorus (I’m at a loss)

It Starts Another Story
Bringing Brooke more fame and Glory
A case of love or fry
The world won’t welcome these lovers
As flames go by

(Chorus) Still stuck

You must remember this
A kiss is just a kiss
A sigh is just a sigh
The fundamental things apply
As flames go by

Anyone want to help me out with the chorus. I’m stuck. I still have some Lumpia fresh from the PI for those that would like some.
jaguarundi said, 7 months ago

Risitas, what a coincidence, George came up on my iTunes just as I read your first comment.
Squire_of_the_shire said, 7 months ago

My wife and I had a kiss like that over the cliffs of Northern Scotland. 25 years later we’re still trying to top that kiss. We haven’t been able to top it, but it’s been fun trying.
DeathDealer said, 7 months ago

BikeNBoatN says:

Is this one of the few times BMcE has drawn his characters kissing open-mouthed?

I don’t have my references on the current machine, but as I recall, there’s a lot of open-mouthed kissing in earlier strips.

In 9CWL, Amos describes kissing Isabel as eating a very ripe peach.
arsmall said, 7 months ago

Is this his dreamscape?
fatuncle said, 7 months ago

Would anyone care to venture an opinion as to why Nat Bustard is even involved in this story? I mean, Dru goes missing, Geoff goes missing, Pibgorn goes looking - why would she feel the need to hunt up a delusional demon and ask him to help? So far, that action doesn’t make too much sense - but then, it’s early days yet.
KalahariNight said, 7 months ago

Squire of the Shire,

…
whiskey and torch songs, never out of date
hearts full of passion, Bustard took the bait
Dru has the gun, but for Bustard’s kiss she cannot wait
while the volcano blows sky high
…
chairump said, 7 months ago

Squire of the Shire,

KalahariNight …

whiskey and torch songs, never out of date
hearts full of passion, Bustard took the bait
Dru has the gun, but for Bustard’s kiss she cannot wait
while the volcano blows sky high

If you will permit one slight modification in line 3 … (for tempo)
“Dru has the gun, but Bustard cannot wait”

Great chorus
kcboomer said, 7 months ago

Squire: I can hear Dooley Wilson singing now.

Nat is a smooth talking guy with the dames.
KalahariNight said, 7 months ago

@fatuncle, just look at you! All that fussing and here you are looking quite distinguished, with a beautiful smile. Thanks for joining in the dance of the avatars.

I think Pib could have wanted Bustard involved for several reasons: 1) sometimes it takes a demon to find a demon; 2) in his self-created reality he *is* a private dick who can connect with Dru’s alterego Dinah.

Of course, if our Pib has a trace of Macchiavelli in her, she may also have had the merest possibility of the hint of a thought crossing her mind that Bustard might capture Dru’s love, allowing Pib to reclaim Geoff - giving him up was noble, but it can’t have been easy.

RL calls, and budgets must be allocated… I’m off to work now…
Gweedo Murray said, 7 months ago

AAAIIIIIIGGGGHH !!! fatuncle’s new face has washed my eyes like battery acid. Kalahari stole the “distinguished” word that I wanted to use. Actually unc I wanted to say that you’re just the kinda guy it takes to ride herd on a buncha squirrels.

Nice little ditty Squire. I bet pibfan could tweak that to perfection, or Frida, if she was around more often.
UncaAlby even though you’re not talking… hope you’re still reading. Good day to you and the missus.
Captain Smokeblower said, 7 months ago

fatuncle says:
Would anyone care to venture an opinion as to why Nat Bustard is even involved in this story?
I’ve been wrong so many times before why start anything new here. Geoff isn’t a demon so he can’t enter the volcano. Some dirty-old-men (DOM) of us might improperly dwell on Pib being on the right-hand side of that kiss, but that wouldn’t draw Dru out of her self initiated inferno. That leaves Nat as the only other “good” demon with a possibility of rescuing Dru. (Lot of weasel words in that last sentence, sorry.)
fatuncle said, 7 months ago

@Captain Smokeblower

Now that … actually makes sense.

Of course, making sense and being right don’t always shake hands in this ‘toon. But the one consistant thing about Pibgorn is that I never see what’s coming until it trundles by under my nose …
fatuncle said, 7 months ago

@KalahariNight

If distinguished is a synonym for uncombed, why yes, ‘tis true. (Preening)

@Gweedo Murray

You’re not the only one that thinks I’m squirrelly.
BikeNBoatN said, 7 months ago

DeathDealer says:

as I recall, there’s a lot of open-mouthed kissing in earlier strips.

In 9CWL, Amos describes kissing Isabel as eating a very ripe peach.

I do remember that. I guess I was referring to in Pibgorn if tongues were ever visible while kissing.
[Edit]: Tongues other than long demon forked tongues. Human-type tongues, like the lovely one Dru is showing us today.
DryGrub Willie said, 7 months ago

So glad this arc is happening in New York – I just found a guy who sold me that WHOLE VOLCANO for a mere $10K cash! –DryGrub Willie
bmonk said, 7 months ago

Saskfan says:

“We must presume that there’s a story in all these charming vignettes. But are we going back to the burning hospital?””

Errr, isn’t the burning hospital now under several thousand tons of hot rock somewhere at the base of that volcanic cone?
Anyol'tomcat said, 7 months ago

The story seems to be taking on a definite ballardian tone–a bit of synchronicity since J. G. stepped on his rainbow last Sunday:
http://tinyurl.com/d6g6vb
There are definite tinges of carnography here–characteristic holdover of noir I guess, but the ecological devastation in a bleak modern cityscape…. The Wind from Nowhere, The Drowned World and especially Crash which so prefigured the media obsession with–and cause of– Princess Diana’s death
http://tinyurl.com/cf5mwt

Isn’t Pib fleeing this destruction?

Amos’ peach metaphor was more in response to the way in which Isabel was kissing him. He found her technique far less comfortable and pleasant than Edda’s:
http://tinyurl.com/dc32mv
Frida Bonita said, 7 months ago

Hola hola,

Pib has seen too much orrrrrrrrrrrr she knows it’s gonna blow!! It’s could be defined as:

D & B’s kiss

His gun

Her gun

or I’ll leave the rest to our imagination

I’ll leave my RL avatar up for a while. JT and Frida B with little Frida Bonita the lovely crazed chiwhoawhoa.

Time to hit the road.

I leave a large plate of assorted pan dulse, fresh mango, papaya and pineapple for the couch. Mexican hot chocolate to keep the sugar high going.
Frida Bonita said, 7 months ago

fatuncle,

Lovely avatar! Nice to meet you.