Pibgorn by Brooke McEldowney

Tags: squish, Sparks, Oh, my!, Dangers of Left Hand Smoke, GOTCHA!, Pighorn, singed, fur. Add Tags

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Joe Minotaur said, 5 months ago

Just got through checking my email that Brooke responded and posted to the OTC about the strip being late and what do I find?
bmonk said, 5 months ago

Just showed up! Oognat looks like she’s in trou-ble!
KalahariNight said, 5 months ago

My, what long slender fingers you have, Smoke-Demon!
Joe Minotaur said, 5 months ago

On behalf of fear-ciuil:
If you are new to Pibgorn, start with The Old Wolf’s Pibgorn Tribute Page, which gives story and character info:
http://home.comcast.net/~ccdesan/Pibgorn/Pibgorn.html

The Old Wolf 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

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

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/
The Pibgorn books are available at: http://pibpress.blogspot.com/

Today’s 9 Chickweed Lane can be found at:
http://www.chron.com/apps/comics/showComic.mpl?date=2009%2F6%2F10&name=9ChickweedLane

Links to the strips that comprise the Borgia Cantus arc can be found here:
http://tinyurl.com/borgia
Sisyphos said, 5 months ago

Welcome, today’s Pibgorn! Oognat seems well and truly in the grip of Big Fumous Ugly!
Gweedo Murray said, 5 months ago

Kalahari sez it’s a nice Demon.

I DON’T THINK SO !
jcordaro64 said, 5 months ago

Hmm, I guess Oognat didn’t see it after all .. and the sparklies are the same colors as the trail Pib followed back to Geoff.
jcordaro64 said, 5 months ago

I also see that we can’t see her hairy parts in Smokey’s grip - I wonder what she’ll look like in the dream!
Saskfan said, 5 months ago

Ah! It’s up, and repaired itself while I was catching up on the end of yesterday’s comments.

MY Mini wasn’t a Beemer; it was the last of the “original” Mini’s sold in Regina. They changed the design for 1980, and stopped exporting to North America.
Saskfan said, 5 months ago

Reload the page after editting, and there’re nine comments and NONE of the show. Hmph.

Lady Grey Tea and toast with jam or marmalade are now being served.
eagleowl said, 5 months ago

Nicely turned calf, I might say!!
bmonk said, 5 months ago

@Kalahari, yes, they are lilacs, in honor of their blooming here and ushering in late spring.
maeverin said, 5 months ago

i wish the sparklies weren’t red–it looks like the smoke-hand is squishing her!
al505 said, 5 months ago

Ooop! Big, bad smoke monster didn’t know its own strength! Wait, is this Pibgorn or Lost???
Joe Minotaur said, 5 months ago

I see that Oognat is comming to grips with the new plot development. I hope that she can handle this turn of events. I just can’t put my finger on who this puff of smoke is. You gotta hand it to Brooke, he sure knows how to manipulate a good story.
BikeNBoatN said, 5 months ago

You can see Oognat a little clearer in the sketch, though no hairy parts.
maeverin said, 5 months ago

joe, stop. just…just stop.
Sisyphos said, 5 months ago

Up to your old tricks, I see, Joe! Oognat is properly startled at suddenly being in the firm grasp of the Right Hand of Darkness!

I hope all members of the OTC, and casual visitors, too, will take heed of Honorable Master’s explanation (posted to “yesterday’s” comments, page 3) that the delay in the appearance of today’s Pibgorn was a glitch on this side that held up posting of his (and possibly others’) submitted work.
Lisa said, 5 months ago

Unhand her!
kestrelle said, 5 months ago

Rather looks like fireworks. Oognat’s gone sparkly.
Sisyphos said, 5 months ago

MINI terror-tales shall not deter me! Saskfan, “-40C” (if that is really what you intended to write) is as it happens also -40F, and it just doesn’t get that cold where I am (Chicagoland); our max cold records are around -20 to -25F or so. And anexplorer in Toronto, I have an extended warranty, so any planned “just after warranty expires” failure of transmission, or anything else, would have to be variable and seems anecdotal to me (I’m on a social networking site’s owner’s page that posts more current problems some MINI owners have encountered).

Hmm. Are all of these horror stories Canadian?

My first Mini experience, as I noted once before, was more than 40 years ago, in a European country with poor roads over much of the land outside the capital city, where a friend and co-worker had an original Mini in which I often was passenger. I liked that car then, and I like mine now. And I know that any car can have problems: I don’t expect miraculous perfection. It’s a machine–albeit a drat-fine one!

P.S. I use “MINI” for current models, in accordance with BMV corporate style, but “Mini” for originals….
CoBass said, 5 months ago
Re: 9CL and racing stripes - Yep, Lois McMaster Bujold and A Civil Campaign sprang instantly to mind when I saw the strip. I suspect, though, that if we want a glorious cockroach, Seth is going to have to get involved.

Did Lois McMaster Bujold and the Vorkosigan saga ever make its way on to the list of books and authors we were discussing a week or two ago? KalahariNight?

And incidentally, I blame Sisyphos for the late arrival of Pibgorn today. Quoting him from page 2 of yesterday’s comments: “Just 2 more after this to make 100 comments…”

The “logic” train goes like this:
1. Sisyphos wanted to get over 100 comments for the day.
2. Any late arrival of the daily Pibgorn generates dozens of comments.
3. Q.E.D.
EDIT: Formatting fix
Sisyphos said, 5 months ago

Just another example of why the “logic train” derails so often, CoBass!
(FYI: for a long time at first I imagined your screen-name was of two three-letter syllables ♭♩♫♪♩.)
mjolnir 9 said, 5 months ago

Yes…given yesterday, this particular moment did seem predictable…

Which does not detract from a spectacular one-frame piece of story-telling…

But which does make it difficult to dream up new paired snacks. What was about to happen yesterday…happened today.Tell ya what! Let’s just have a whole lot more of what I brought yesterday!

For those who can’t reprise June 9th’s Couch Comments (and it seems, at the moment, that we’re having enough trouble just getting the strip to run), the entree was:

Bad Hair Day Shrimp!

Provided by Takashi (Japanese/French/American, located in Chicago), that’s (really big) shrimp, wrapped in ohba leaves, then wrapped in phylo dough, then fried. The frying makes the dough stand up just like Oognat’s hair in today’s episode.

Liquid refreshment - in honor of Oognat’s nut-brown hairiness -was Samuel Smith’s Nut-Brown Ale (snagged at The Hair of the Dog in Palm Springs). I chose it for the old bar ballad (best sung in attempt at harmony by many well-lubricated singers):

NUT BROWN MAIDEN

“…Nut brown maiden, thou hast a slender waist to clasp,
Nut brown maiden, thou hast a slender waist!
A slender waist is thine, love,
The arm around it’s mine, love,
Nut brown maiden, thou hast a slender waist…”

…and so on, describing other attributes of the nut brown maiden and usages of same by the singer(s)…many of which, as the evening becomes more inebriated, are not suited to a family publication and will not be discussed here.

Feeling a little guilty about this snack repetition, I went all out in choosing goodies for the Couch wildlife: Tom Yum (Thai cashews with lemon grass and chilis) for the squirrels; Kiwi fruit for the fruit-bats, special goat-mix (from the petting zoo at the Topsfield Fair - best local fair in Massachusetts) for Gruff and a nice coca leaf for Llefty (she really seems to like food from the homeland).

I leave you this morning with a musical number, the title tune from Hair (saw the new revival - really good - catch it if you can), as we await the episode tomorrow (hopefully) which reveals (or doesn’t) what everybody keeps referring to as the ‘hairy parts’…

“…down to here, down to there, down to where it stops by itself…
Sisyphos said, 5 months ago

Test:

☺ ☺ ☺ ☺ ☺

Hmm. My “white smiling face” Special Character looks like a frowny-face to me! Apparently there’s a glitch in my character-set….
KalahariNight said, 5 months ago

Now Gweedo, I didn’t say “nice demon” - I said “not evil.” There is a difference, oui?

@CoBass, I’ll check the file - I haven’t been able to work on it very much due to the brace on my wrist. (Which, when I got it, prompted me to tell the doctor, “But I can’t type with this on!” To which he replied, “Exactly.”
StradMan37 said, 5 months ago

maeverin said, about 1 Sparkly Sprite ago

i wish the sparklies weren’t red–it looks like the smoke-hand is squishing her.

@maeverin:

From the look on Oognat’s face - one of puzzlement, rather than pain - I’d say there’s nothing to worry about………..at the moment.
Orgelspieler said, 5 months ago

Whoopsie. I wonder what a cloud demon looks like with a hairy tongue?
Gweedo Murray said, 5 months ago

@KalahariNight. That’s why I didn’t put it in “quotes”, but let’s not split nut brown hairs over it.

BROOKE’S

Smokin’ today!
Lunatic_fringe1 said, 5 months ago

Sisyphos said, Just another example of why the “logic train” derails so often, CoBass!
(FYI: for a long time at first I imagined your screen-name was of two three-letter syllables )
.
I had wondered about that the day before he explaned it, but I didn’t want to ask if he was a farm boy or had unnatural urges.
bhandraoijo said, 5 months ago

So happy to finally see the new toon - was starting to have withdrawals! RL kept me from looking since earlier -

I too noticed Oognat’s missing plummage - fantasy dress for her will be interesting - and how will she adapt?
Sisyphos said, 5 months ago

KalahariNight, sympathetic best wishes regarding your RL problems….

mjolnir9: how about finger sandwiches? …Unfortunately, the original Broadway Hair is not on YouTube, probably copyright-forbidden, and only this very lame version from the 1979 film can be had: http://tinyurl.com/kn6rmx
kcboomer said, 5 months ago

Maybe we will get to see Oognat in “hottie” mode!
bopchee said, 5 months ago

Holy shplut!
DaveGlass said, 5 months ago

If the smoke demon gets caught, will it be a-wrist-ed?
fatuncle said, 5 months ago

CoBass said

”Did Lois McMaster Bujold and the Vorkosigan saga ever make its way on to the list of books and authors we were discussing a week or two ago?…”

Yes. I among others added her to the list. Most seemed to like her Miles Vorkosigan more than her fantasy - I like her Chalion series, am less enthused by the Sharing Knife… and both come in a poor second to Vorkosigan.
Burgundy2 said, 5 months ago

I love how even in adverse circumstances, like being nabbed by a smoke demon, the ladies’ toes always remain elegantly point like a ballerina
fatuncle said, 5 months ago

Bugger, there goes a 8’ florescent tube. Off to do household M&R.
DanEd55 said, 5 months ago

I hope the red and white droplets don’t spell the end of our favorite hair fairy
Fairportfan said, 5 months ago

Saskfan said:

“MY Mini wasn’t a Beemer; it was the last of the “original” Mini’s sold in Regina. They changed the design for 1980, and stopped exporting to North America.”

Stopped selling them in the US in 1967 (i think, maybe ‘68) because there was no way to install a collapsible steering column that met the US safety standards; the Cooper “S” model had exited the US the year before, over smog standards.

(And, for those not familiar with real Minis - not all Minis were the “Cooper” model; the Cooper was a tricked-out model that {designed by an outside engineer} had beefed up suspension and engine, and the “S” had an even hotter engine. The base rating of the 1275cc engine used in Coopers was about 70HP, and i believe that “S” rated around 80. And someone who knew what he was doing could mod it up to 125 street-reliable dyno HP with a redline approaching 8000RPM … if you were willing to buy your gas [illegally] at airports or lived in an area where Sunoco operated; if i could have come up with $1500 in 1974, i knew a champion SCCA G Production racer with his own shop who would have done it to my ‘69 Austin-Healey Sprite.)

Sisyphos said:

“Test:

☺ ☺ ☺ ☺ ☺

“Hmm. My “white smiling face” Special Character looks like a frowny-face to me! Apparently there’s a glitch in my character-set….”

Too hard to make out here - perhaps you could have underlined it with equal signs?

kcboomer said:

“Maybe we will get to see Oognat in “hottie” mode!”

Check back to the very beginning of the Mozart arc (just after the spell) - very nice gold (as i recall) Chinese dress, and later in the arc in full chantoozy mode at the Moulin Noir…

fatuncle said:

”’Did Lois McMaster Bujold and the Vorkosigan saga ever make its way on to the list of books and authors we were discussing a week or two ago?…’

“Yes. I among others added her to the list. Most seemed to like her Miles Vorkosigan more than her fantasy - I like her Chalion series, am less enthused by the Sharing Knife… and both come in a poor second to Vorkosigan.”

I actually made it all the way through Sharing Knife 4 (just last week), and enjoyed it - but was unable to get through SK3. Have you read The Spirit Ring?

I met Ms Bujold manymany years ago at the Chicago WorldCon where she was accepting another Hugo - she was wearing a Dendarii uniform a fan had made for her.

{“You’re out of uniform, Roic.” just came to mind.}

Burgundy2 said:

“I love how even in adverse circumstances, like being nabbed by a smoke demon, the ladies’ toes always remain elegantly point like a ballerina”

I think it was Bunny Yeager who said that she learnt one very important thing (both as a photographer and pinup/nude model herself - remember she photographed her own centerfold pictorial in an early Playboy) from the time early in her career when she scraped up enough money to hire Bettie Page for a shoot - Bettie always, even when completely nude, walked on tiptoe or held her foot as if she were wearing heels.)
aerwalt said, 5 months ago

Number whatever: Late today. even retirees have to deal with RL on occasion.
CoBass said, 5 months ago

@Sisyphos, Lunatic_fringe1 Re: My screen name - Yeah, I realized fairly quickly that people were parsing my screen name incorrectly (The correct way was so obvious to me that I didn’t think of the other way!) and that I should have capitalized it when I created my account. Couldn’t figure out how to fix it for the longest time and “Support” at GoComics wasn’t any help. Finally fear-ciuil (I think) gave me the critical clue. (i.e. Making CoBass my first name in the “My Info” section of my profile would override my login name when posting.) I’m still stuck with it over at “Brand X”, though.

I’ve noticed a few people use different screen names here and at “Brand X” - I’ve always wondered a bit why. (None of my business, of course.) It’s hard to tell unless somebody using different screen names makes identical posts or mentions something uniquely personal.

@fatuncle: Re: Lois McMaster Bujold and the Vorkosigan saga. I’ve never read any of her stuff beyond the Vorkosigan books but I’ve heard other people with similar opinions. One thing I especially like is the way her books get better the further she goes into the series. The first one or two, before Miles is born, verge on Harlequin romances. The more recent ones are gripping stories. About the only complaint I have now is that she seems to have a tendency to drop new background facts in willy-nilly at the start of a story in order to justify the storyline. e.g. I think the first time cryo-amnesia is mentioned is at the start of Mirror Dance, where it becomes a crucial plot point. Similarly, I think the first time we hear of Imperial Auditors is at the start of Memory, where it becomes a crucial plot point. All in all, though, that’s a quite minor complaint.
fatuncle said, 5 months ago

@Fairportfan - Yes, I own a copy of The Spirit Ring.

@CoBass - I guess you can’t think of everything when beginning a series - it would tend to limit plot and character development! You have to invent things later.
Quasimodo said, 5 months ago

Decided to quit lurking and contribute. I’m finding this sequence very hard to follow. Without the community’s help I’d be both lost and, probably, absent. Thanks to someone (?) for linking the Borgia Cantus strips; helped a lot.
maeverin said, 5 months ago

Welcome, Quasimodo!
i see you have already sampled the ampled helpings of confusion:)
glad you can stick around.
jamadison4 said, 5 months ago

.
“I Say, Sir. …Unhand that Fair Maid” !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
aerwalt said, 5 months ago

46 place marker.
CoBass said, 5 months ago

@fatuncle Re: Bujold and Vorkosigan - I understand that she can’t think of everything at the start; I just wish she’d integrate new plot points more smoothly, maybe introduce them in the background in one story, then make them a major point in the next story. Right now, I feel like I’m getting slapped with a “This new development will be crucial in this story. Watch how I make it important.” statement.

As I said, I consider this a minor complaint, just one that bugs me all out of proportion.
John Sanford said, 5 months ago

Oognats has unwittingly fallen into -wait for it- “palm mystery.”
-ba-da-bing-shing. Thank you, thank you very much…
StradMan37 said, 5 months ago

Yes, John, she is held by “the Fickle Fingers of Fate”.

KA-TCHINGGGG!!!