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popculturebuffet · 2 years ago

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Breaking Cat News Years 4 and 5: Archived Footage (Patreon Review for Emma Fici)

Hello all you happy people and welcome back to my look at one of the best comic strips of all time, breaking cat news!

This time as you can probably guess by the title we're going back to go forward See as I outlined last time in what i'm supsecting to be late 2016, BCN was picked up by U-Versal U-Click, aka Andrews McMeel Publishing, aka GoComics aka Jimmy the Reach. For those not as familiar with them as a comic strip nerd like me a refresher: U-Versal/Andrews is a newspaper syndicate, which helps both distrbute comics to newspapers the traditional ways an din the last few decades also puts them online and maintains the archives, so even with print collections having died off for the majority of strips, you can still find the complete works of most strips. Their easily the biggest of the two that exist, having dozens of iconic strips under their umbrella: Calvin and Hobbes, Doonesbury, Bloom County (those two shared with the washington post writers group, a smaller syndicate), For Better or Worse, Phoebe and Her Unicorn, Heart of the City, Big Nate, Pearls Before Swine and SO much more. They also are nice folks who let you visit the archives for free.

Not only did they handle the collections, but they also gave her a nice bump, allowign Georgia to go from freeflowing strips published whenever she could to a daily format that still supported the long sagas the strip, and sundays to still do the one offs the strip was famous for. The fandom nicely moved with her, with many a longtime fan having come in from the web runa nd being just.. lovely to me when I started out. And with Go Comics still providing a digtial space there weren't a lot of downsides: Georgia got a more visable platform, more pay for her work, yearly collections.

This was all great news and in the long run it pushed the strip to even higher highs , and it's only gotten better. In the short.. it had one small drawback. For the next two years or so of strips… they had to go back. See it's the downside of a webcomic getting picked up: you need to spend some time, sometimes a few weeks sometimes longer, aclimating the newspaper audience, which pauses it for those who have been reading it all along. Most take a few months, wallace the brave did, crabgrass did, Phoebe and her Unicorn did, and reprint strips.

Georgia.. got a bit more ambitious. Instead of just reprinting the strip up to this point.. she redrew the whole damn thing. Every strip was represented either as a daily storyline that extended it or as a sunday strip, simplyt aking an old strip and reconfiguring it. Everything happened and even with two arcs skipped over, they still happened two, but it's simply expanded and redrawn to fit Georgia's evolved art style

So the big question i've had since considering this project in the first place is .. how the heck do I cover these. You'd think "oh well just skip em you stupid weak baby, you gonna cry now you stupid weak baby", and in that case.. please seek help or at least better simpsons refrences. But I really can't.. while the strip DOES go back in time… it's still moving forward in how Georgia does things: it's worth looking at how she adjusts to the format, changes up how she works with it, and what she changed. What she added> What new characters were introduced. And of course the handful of new storylines that are every bit as canon as what came before and simply come up between those stories i've covered.

There's entirley new running gags, character bits, and payoffs that simply were not there before. So I compromised: I'm still doing these bcause their valuable and well done strips, but I'm doing two years at once this time, discussing both how the strip evolves and the handful of arcs that are all new and all diffrent. And just as a heads up this isn't even the end of the semi-reboot as next time we have to deal with beatrix's arc, it's just out of the arcs covered that one has the most added bits.. mostly to help explain why bea didn't join the family.. but someone else we'll meet next time does. For now though let's get back on the ari and explore what's old, what's new, and what smells like toast.

Everything Stays, But It Still Changes

Something that caught me when doing this is that while a lot of story beats are repeated, Georgia used going back to the beginning to get new material, to use the fact she had to strip things back to do more antics with just the big three. We also get a nice prequel to Tommy's intro strip

You can also see with this the early strips of this run.. have a bit of a change. Georgia wasn't doing the coloring herself for the dailies. And .. i'm not a huge fan of it. I"m not against having the syndicate do colors, but it has to fit the art style. BCN has a very free flowy, painted style that's very beautiful and the coloring is a major part of that. I can't blame Georgia for trying it, being a daily cartoonist is exhausting and I also don't begrudge a single one that DOESN'T do their own coloring: the majority of artists don't. It's just in this case the syndicate also really didn't make the colors match the style, so their a bit flat.

The stories are still as sharp as ever, and like Tommy's storyline the characters moving in gets more expansion. For starters the woman is visibly pregnant for it, and is at the start of the strip, likely to speed up introducing the boy. While she was always precise with introductions, the newspaper run takes it to a new level as she had a very clear and well thought out two or so year plan. As such while , much like the original year one, we're mostly limited just to the main trio and tommy cat wise, things move on at a decent clip and the move is moved up, with Puck bringing his brother some tea and some nice moments.

The biggest most noticable change though.. is that THe Man and Woman are more active characters. They still have the primary role of doing thigns our heroes just don't understand or thrwarting them for reasons they don't understand while still being loved by all.. okay the Woman is loved by all, the man is loved by 2/3 and resnted by a cat who was there first dammit. While the strip had hints of it as it went, the daily run is where the man and the woman really become character sin their own right, with the woman becoming a vehcile for Georgia to chroncile her own life and foibles

And.. I love it. It feels like the last step to the strip reaching full speed. It's been great so far, at the top of it's game but allowing herself to be a character allows georgia to really vary up the humor. The primary focus is still on our intrepted reporters, as it shoudl be, but it opens it up for the woman/georgia's own loves of cozy mysteries, sci fi, and much more, to be fodder for some really great jokes. It's also where the strip starts to let more of Georgia's personal intrests in in general, leading to some great bits. The biggest of which we'll tackle later

And even with all the neat new stuff…. the old also gets a nice coat of paint as the cat's new level of expression (even if they still default to having no mouths when needed), makes already great moments even BETTER. Take for instance Puck's dramatic reunion with buzzy mouse after the people find him under the couch.

After this we get our first major addition to the lore in this new version, the mystical and wonderful creature, the mailman.

This also begins a trend for the strip that leans into the new format: normally most story arcs for the cats came and went: we saw something big happen, saw it play out , then moved on. The stories all had an impact.

Having a new format, Georgia now breaks up the storie, having ones that either play out over a few months with other stories inbetween or ones like this mailman that take quite some time to payoff. We also get the cats dealing with the terrors of the vacuum, their mortal enemy… another seed to payoff later.

I'm also glad because while i'm mostly glossing over previous material… there is one strip I DID not get to cover. okay there's actually a lot of them because Tumblr's image limit is bad and should feel bad, but there's one bit in paticular I was still sad I never got to cover and thought I never would as I was sure it wasn't recovered… but low and behold it was. Is it plot relevant? no, it's why I have to skip a lot of my faviorite bits sadly and enrouage you to read the full strip. But is it one of the funniest thing in the entire strip? HECK. YES. So when Georgia first had the baby someone around her she's never idenified… said this nonsense.. and the cat's reactions to this bullshit are just.. the best thing in the world.

After this glory we get more of the vacum as elvis gets stranded away from the others and his idnginacy soon turns to terror as the vacum strikes him where he is!

That last panel always strikes me as the most adorable thing. IT really underlines how close these two are, and during an earlier Vacum attack, Elvis rescued puck.. he really would do the same. So with that bit of bravery we enter our first proper full on new storyline. While this is somewhat based on the cats visiting the vet in the original there we really didn't see the visit any. Here though…

Also yes those are some familiar faces making an early cameo in the background. ALso I wish we'd see melty dog again. He's a very good boy.

We also meet Tommy's Woman earlier, as she's working as the vet's assitant.. and as a result gets to meet Elvis earlier too.. it goes about as well for her as it did for her fluffy boy

We also get our first new addition to the cast in this run, one who will be important when we catch back up with the regular timeline: Dr. Mann. And unlike the man and woman that's his actual name.

With the vet's visit over, Puck continues his mailman vigil, las gatos noches settle in up above setting them up for later and their woman gets a much earlier apperance, likely because Georgia decided to cut her intro arc.

The woman's costume confused me at first.. but the man's made what the heme was both more obvious and more awesome

Also yes, those really were their costumes for the boys first halloween. Just when you think you can't love Georgia Dunn more you find out this. As you can probably guess I fucking love little shop of horrors and let's just say if all goes well you'll be hearing more about that in october. Elvis takes his imprisonment well..

After that we get an arc that actually ran LAST WEEK at the time of this review. Yeah sadly the strip is currently in reruns as Georgia injured her wrist. Thankfully she's fully recovered and can draw again, it just means the strip is in reruns (ones chosen by the fans), until it catches back up. But it was still good timing as this arc about leftovers.. leads to one of the best stylistic touches of the strip: Waxing Lyrical. For those unfamiliar with the trope it's when a character drops song lyrics into conversation. The cats will drop many or throw in outright parodies of song staring with this banger.

Also why the Man was so opposed to giving the cats food I DO NOT know. I mean my dog also begs constantly, but you still give them a scrap.

We then get Elvis' Christmas Adventure Again, and this arc and the mice arc the next year are the main reason for the staggered introductions: Both stories NEED the Christmas setting and thrive off it: Elvis getting lost is all the more harrowing because of the winter chill, and also makes it that much easier to buy Tommy could talk him into finally accepting help, with with the mice the entire story revolves around it being christmastime. Both stories just dont' have as much impact if they aren't around santa season. So it was either skip them entirely and try to cram every character introduction into a week.. or simply slow it down slow it way down, which sadly means it's a while before we get back to present day… but as we've seen also allowed for a LOT of new stuff and will continue to.

While I was mildly inconvenienced by the former at first going through these archives allowed me to see the brilliance: while Georgia had to start over her it allowed her what all creators long for: a chance to go back to a story and add stuff they thought of only after they were done. Even as a reviewer myself, there are times after a review I think of a joke and simply can't fit it in the way the review's structured. So I can't begrudge her for seeing an opportunity to slot in stories from when the kids were babies or even new stories that just so happen to fit into the old timeline.

We also get SOMEWHAT of a payoff to the mailman storyline.. as afrter much exaustive searching… Puck's efforts bear fruit.

Sometime later, we get the introduction of Georgia's sister, aka the intruder, aka the love of lupin's life. We also get the start of another running gag where Georgia tries not to frame her special boy as the loveable garbage cat he is

And like many things the real elvis does do this. And it sounds adorbale. We also get to see some precious baby pictures of my precious boy as The Sister waas there for it

We then get the ceiling cats proper intro, the only big diffrence being we get subtitles this time for what fig's saying all the time, not just for the one strip. Though it dosen't change much it's still a nice touch

We do get an expansion on BCW, as it gets a new talent added to the roster

Who seems to be a take on Dusty Rhodes Baby. I approve. One match with a dq finish for Leapin Lupin to retain later and it's time for another grudge match…

Our heroes try the obvious tactic of just.. dumping the fur back on there but the woman simply vacums it back up leaving our heroes on the run… which is bad because Elvis can't run on linolem and puck refuses to leave a man behind. Luckily lupin leaps in, saves them.. but he's fed up and has a brilliant plan

Okay about as brilliant as you'll get out of Lupin. I love burt's caption humor here (explained in universe as him putting them on the archived footage) Also don't think I didn't notice him calling PUck cute ealrier. Maybe puck has a shot with him after all. Just saying.

As for said cutie, Puck's job is to guard the vacum's lair, aka the closet, as while Puck is the better boxer, the vaccum terrifies him too much. We also get a nice sweet moment from Lupin who reassures him it's okay to be scared. So with that the plan is a go, using the studio mikes and for Lupin the mobile teleprompter to cordinate. Lupin gets into naked fighting stance and while the woman sighs, Elvis tracks the cord and Puck decides to cautiously enter the lair…. and finds something shocking

Sadly he can't inform Elvis or Lupin in time as Elvis bites.. the av cord. I love that joke and that nice swerve. Puck swears this dusty cherub won't be an orphan, his exact words, and goes to stop lupin from fufiling his naked destiny. Thankfully he does and Lupin backs down, realizing she's simply been terriotiral because she's got a herd to protect. The bad news is Elvis is still trying to eat the cord to kill this mama bear.. the good news …

I mean in his defense The Woman, the toys are just as much for your amusment as him. Be honest about that…. though it's still really hard to loose an argument where the other person is trying to argue for choking to death.

Lupin and Puck take Elvis to the lineloim, a nice chekovs gun, and the Woman plugging the baby vacum in shows them. Elvis and puck order cords and take a nap and Lupin makes an agreement with the inanimate object

This arc is great: not only is it pateintly hilarious, but it has a weird but wholesome emotional core: yes we know what's actually going on but the strip does one of the things it does best: contextualize something from the cats point of view turning a simple vacuming session into a battle to the death and then a race to stop Elvis and Lupin from orphaning a majestic creature.

After this we get the million dollar debut of PENGO… he's the Boy's faviorite toy and willr emain a fixture for the rest of the strip, always by his child's side.

We also get introduced to the woman's love of cozy mysteries. I really wish I could show EVERYTHING set up, but well blame tumblr. Or blame me for not picking the best format for this blog there's plenty of blame to go around.

We move on to the birth of the girl, the boys shedding up the man's wardrobe (He's a video editor for the record), Burt makes his debut again, Pengo gets a bath hobbes style.. and with that we come to our final arc for today as novemeber and december are taken up with strips remade into daily arcs and naturally all I want for christmas is revenge closing out the year. But at at time when most major stories were being reprtined.. one coudln't.. so Georgia found a workaround

Save Our Pucky

So as i've mentioned in the past two posts the ghost arc… wasn't adapted for this run. Georgia PLANNED to.. but realized the amount of newspaper clippings meant it just coudln't be compressed into a daily format. The same was likely true for Wicket. Problem is Wicket, while very important to Baba's backstory, isn't really relevant to the main story, still being at the shelter at the time of this writing and thus not a concern to the rest of the cast: baba had long moved past him, our heroes vanquished him and it's unlikely he's leaving the comy confines of the shelter this time. He occasionally gets mentioned on dr.scuttles blog and while he likely WILL return I can see why it was way easier to just skip over his arc and fill the audience later if he returns.

Conversely though Tillie, the cat ghost… had a lot more to explore, and Georgia clearly wanted to expand the concept, so instead of recapping her arc, Georgia simply made a sequel, still aclimating the newspaper readers to the fact there's a ghost in their home but it's better than being alone, but allowing her to move forward iwth the concept.

So this adventure begins with Puck discovering a way to the attic early in the morning and deciding to go for a nice brisk climb complete with hoodie and backpack, long before his brothers wake. But while our boy is more cautious than say.. Lupin, which granted a chiuana on cocaine and 3 cans of redbull is more cautious than lupin, he can still make a mistake or too.

What I like about this arc's conflict is the stakes.. are distresingly real. Sure there's a ghostly fix.. but the idea of a pet getting stuck somewhere they can't be found in time is every pet owner's nightmare. I still haunted by finding my own cat dead and it was from natural causes simply lying down and going onto his eternal rest. Thankfully this is a comic strip so tillie can help.. unfrotunatley the only cats who can see her are less than helpful

Also while this goes on we get in the sundays the first of the tails from the space heater, aka the boys tellign spooky stories. It sadly won't get brought up much here but their a delight every year.

Anyways Elvis eventually gets over himself when Lupin reveals a note from puck. Puck was thankfully conteious enough to say he'd gone climbing. I mean given how Elvis is, it's required but it still saves his life as elvis now gets why Tillie was haunting him and since she's apparently spent the last ten minutes getting hissed at by tabitha, she's more than willing to give him another shot . So whlie Tillie goes to get Tabitha (Since she needs BOTH cats to rescue puck) and assure puck heis rescues on the way the rest of her crew and their radio show gets introduced

Sidebar:Tabitha's hissy face is adorable. Anyways Elvis bridges the gap, as well as explaning it to the other two what's going on. The godo news is they can use the dumbwaiter.. the bad is they have to use elvis as tilly has to guide them, even if elvis is the worst climber. Lupin bids him farewell. I'd be madder at him for pulling his annoying younger sibling schtick at a time like this but I love his t-shirt for the mew.

While we find out the other reporters are all the cats form the shelter, and the golden mouse,…. but despite all our heroes efforts..

Luckily.. help arrives

So with that everything is okay, PUck carries elvis back down and the humans find the two in the dumbwaiter. And with that we conclude today's broadcast and these two arcs. It was a lot more fun than I thought it'd be and there's a lot of good content. So while the binge may be a bit wobbly as you'll have read some of these arcs already (And are free to just skip over them, as most are about the same), I still highly recommrend reading this era. It helped solidfiy Georgia as a character in her own strip, added some fun new bits to the series universe, and gave us a great ghost story

Next Time: MORE RERUNS.. but we rerun to the end as we get setup for the future and finally enter the present as the station gets a new visitor on a quest. What is her mysterious mission? Can our heroes help her? And what is her utterly heartbreaking backstory? Find out next month and thanks for reading!

#breaking cat news #georgia dunn #comics #cats #elvis #puck #lupin #tabitha #the woman #the man #the boy #the sister #dr mann

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