If you’ve ever caught your Mr. Happy in a zipper, you can imagine a cat making a scratching pole out of one would certainly take the romance out of any situation. Bud seems to get around E.R. rooms a lot. Takes a licking and keeps on ticking…
🙂
There are times I get really happy with my sketch versions of the comics and then when I ink them the “energy” or looseness is somehow lost in the translation. I have gotten more at ease with my inking and just have at it, but it’s still basically tracing. I will clean this one up and do the ink/color job to it, but I wanted to let this version out for a bit as I just like the look. Also, I ate up most of my evening editing a 20-year-old S-VHS video I shot of Bachman-Turner Overdrive in concert. I thought the tape was lost, but emerged recently in a bunch of boxes found in an old office of mine. I spent most of my time taking the audio and beefing it up. BTO cannot be “meek” and I’ve added some much needed punch.
I’ve updated the comic and done something I’ve never done before… no, it’s not showing an erect penis, but I changed the 4th panel punch line to be more stinging with today’s current events. I will not open up the health care debate on this comic post, I’ll save that for a blog post here in a bit, but I felt strongly enough about the subject to change the punch line. It’s not as funny as the original, but it is more relevant at the moment. As a person who’s been without any health insurance for 5 years now (long story) it is not the Health Care Bill Americans should be afraid of, but rather the fact that we *need* health insurance at all. America is the only country in the world who’s health care system is run for profit. And by doing so, we’ve ruined our system with greed and abuse by all sides. I’ll stop there. Look for a blog post in a bit.
What a perfect song for today’s comic, and released in 1977 to boot! Double Jeopardy points! Ted Nugent rocked hard and loud. Despite being a real nut when it comes to hunting and stuff, Nuge sure can play a mean guitar. Favorite Nuge riff is from “Great White Buffalo”. There are no social mores in Nuge’s lyrics, but who is listening to them anyway? I wasn’t.
***********************
Discussion (33) ¬
Ah, Ted Nugent. Totally rabid-insane – ‘madder than a cut snake’, as the Aussies say – but he does understand the magic of loud noises. Also, he’s a Gibson man. That gets him eleventy million points in my book 🙂
I think the cat will have to go. Though possibly not until it’s inflicted a lot more comedic damage…
Gibsons rock, period. People like what they like, but I will always love the sound a Gibson makes. Not a Fender fan at all. Can’t stand the Jazz bass myself, but that’s me.
The cat has a few more comics left in it before it’s nine lives are used up.
🙂
~nods~ It’s cool for cats, you know…
😉
heh.
trying to find depth in a ted nugent song’s lyrics is like trying to find a chocolate bar in a bin of tomatoes. ain’t gonna happen.
😀
uhoh…wotchu got against fenders, taffy? 😐
byron, having trouble accessing the site again. started at 1:38am mountain time. i’ll try off and on over the next couple of hours to access the site and tell you when it’s properly accessible again…
hurm. site access seems to be better right now as of this reply. weird.
I’ve noticed that down here in the arse of the planet…sometimes the page runs like molasses and sometimes quite simply refuses to load at all, usually in the middle of the (local) night. Hmm. At least it’s not just me!
I’ve got something against ‘taffy’ for starters – never call an Irish person by a derogatory Welsh nickname 😛 😛 😛
Seriously though – Fenders have their uses (and not just as firewood). My love for Fender basses will never die; beautiful things, classic things, especially the old Jazzes. Fender acoustics – sweet, cheap and cheerful. Fender electrics… um… er…well, I certainly known some Strat players who made great music, but pretty much invariably *in spite of* rather than *because of* their chosen instruments. IM(TA)O Strats – and Tellys – can be filed honourably under two categories: Nashville and Stax/Volt-Atlantic/Atco-Motown-TheImmortalJamesBrownSound, and that’s about it. As for the in-spite-ofs, lessee… Jeff Beck, Ritchie Blackmore, Robin Trower, the Gilmour, Rory (bless his iconic cotton socks), and a teensyteensy handful of others are all that spring to mind ATM. There are some famous Strat-playing names missing from that list, yes, and yes, that’s very, very deliberate on my part.
Again IMTAO, Gibbos tend to make a guitar player of almost anyone, while Strats tend to make almost anyone sound like they’re strangling a seagull.
I has spoken 😛
The only “taffy” I know are apples, so I’ll stay out of the conversation.
I’ve been told that around 3:00amEST my hosting company runs a server “dump” or something that requires like a half hour or so to run. It slows down, BIG TIME, the database server for the comic, which of course serves up like… everything. I’m not really happy about it, but sometimes you just have to go with the flow.
I’ve made notes of your timings and they seem to be around that time frame.
Oh well. ‘What can’t be cured must be endured’ and all that 🙂
Stupid cats….
Cat Scratch Fever reminds me of when I saw Kiss in Concert 5-6 years ago in Montreal. Ted Nugent was opening for them. He came in with his usual Native American outfit. At some point he said that all French people in America should be thrown out of the continent. I never saw so many people booing so heavily in a concert at the same time. Then, in less than 2 minutes, Ted said: After this, it’s time for a good Motown Classic. Then they started to play Cat Scratch Fever… I never saw so many people forgiving someone that fast! 😛
Ted likes to stir the pot, no doubt. I ignore his ramblings and just listen to his guitar!
🙂
That can’t be good. I hope his wang-dang-doodle doesn’t get infected. Cats are nasty bitches.
Wham-bam, OUCH. Cats have their moments, but when they turn on you like that it’s more than annoying.
I’m an animal lover and despise any type of animal abuse… but… our female cat, Libby, as a young cat hauled off and bit me while I was petting her. She was quickly picked up and tossed outside into the big snow pile on my deck. She and I have an understanding now, and she gives me a warning sign before inflicting pain. She does not like snow.
🙂
I am not even getting into the fact that you call it Mr Happy. When you get older and it can’t get up does he change his name to Mr Sad.
No…. my bets are he’ll rename it Mr. Floppy! *snort*
What? Mr. Happy is not a good name for a penis? Come on… I think Robin Williams is where I stole it from, and who knows where he got it from. But when used right, Mr. Happy makes everyone happy…
🙂
I know somebody who actually had an incident with a cat just like that! And to think that wouldn’t even be the worst groin accident I ever saw. 😀 The more I think about it I’m starting to question if I was hanging out with the right or the wrong people in my youth. LOL.
LOL! I *know* I hung with the wrong people in 1977 to 1979, but what you gonna do? They were a ton of fun if not a bit nutty as well.
I’ve had a couple close calls with cats and dogs at certain moments in my life, and it was those “near misses” that inspired today’s comic theme.
😛
The Nuge! – aka: Atrocious Theodocious. Say what you like, outrageous, controversial, even cartoonish at times… the man can spank a mean fiddle!
Dee, I have to chime in with support for Tafkan on this one, tho. Whilst I am a supporter of fine guitar playing period – brand be damned, you just can’t get the same howls & growls Mr. Ted got out of the Byrdland, on a Strat. Also, while there are/were some legendary & incredible Fender slingers (Thanks for the nod to Monsieur’s Beck, Gallagher, Gillmour & Trower especially, Tafkan – my particular favorite Fender-man was Roy Buchanan), just about all – even Jimi, play/ed Gibsons at one time or another, while some of my all time favorite axe men like Frank Marino, Tony Iommi, Leslie West, Michael Schenker, were/are exclusive Gibson players…
Aw, man… just the mention of Iommi, West and Schenker in the same sentence gives me goose bumps. Now, them’s some guitar players for sure.
I’m extremely tolerant about music… I don’t care how it’s made as long as it’s good. But, the majority of what I like has been made with Gibsons. Randy Bachman made his Strat sing back in the day, but uses a Gibson for most of his stuff today. But, when he cranks some BTO tunes, he still pulls out that white Strat and makes some wonderful noise!
🙂
Seconded on Iommi|West|Schenker! Delicious.
M’sieu Mac — I remember Buchanan. Very quiet man, but his guitar work spoke volumes! I think we’ll have to give Link Wray a nod here too, Jurassic though he was – I did a session with him waaaay back, when I was barely 14, and he was playing a Fender (possibly a Telly, if memory serves; I was rather stoned at the time) and doing some amazing things with his tremolo bar.
Jeff Beck is not of this world. I suspect he could get amazing music out of an *actual* strangled seagull 🙂
OW!!! Talk about the worst possible scenario. That’s definitely not something you want mistaken for a scratching post. At that point the cat would have to be buried when I got back, cause I would have surely killed it after that.
Bud will get his revenge, I’m sure…
🙂
I feel privileged to have seen the awesome sketch version of this comic, along with the original punch-line. Having seen it both ways feels like I had access to exclusive content when I checked in last night before bed.
I continue to enjoy your comics, Byron, and have a solid appreciation for anything you do to keep 1977 entertaining, rompingly fantastic, and modernly relevant.
As a rocker, I have to give begrudging respect to the Motor City Madman for his skill on his chosen axe. I’m no fan of his politics, but the man has created some seminal riffs (see how I tied this back to the comic?)
oooooooouuuuch. Poor Mr. Happy ain’t very happy no more. Wow, that sentence was littered with double-negatives.
Oh, man – I know I keep saying stuff like this, but I actually had a similar experience myself!
My then-girlfriend and I had gotten a kitten. Her first morning in the apartment, she was feeling frisky. A “certain something” moved beneath the sheets. POUNCE! Satyr yells, kitty goes flying. She never did that again, thank gods, and there was no notable damage. She became my favorite kitty, and lived with me for 18 years before finally passing away from old age. And despite our initial “close encounter,” Salome still slept each night on my bed – usually on my pillow – until the day she died.
As for Nugent, I used to be able to shrug his antics off. After he toured the country waving guns around and bragging that he’d shoot Obama (to great applause), I added him to my blacklist of artists I will never listen to (much less support) again… a list that includes some neo-Nazi skinhead bands and Varg Vikirnes, a Scandinavian Black Metal “artist” who literally murdered his friend for fun.
So yeah – no Nuge for me, thanks.
I’ll just stick to Nashville Pussy. Rueter Sys is hotter than Nuge anyway!
If I had a sheckel for every silly nickname for a penis I heard…
The cat has never bothered me, but I used to have a dog who introduced the “cold nose of reality” (a distant cousin of the fickle finger of fate) into the bedroom on occasion.