I need to keep my head in the game; I put this comic together Monday night, finished it up… then forgot to upload it to the website until late on Tuesday.

At least I remembered eventually, eh? So far I’ve not missed and update and I’d like to keep it that way!

I don’t often reference the traditional role of the rubber duck in modern society, so when I do, I figure it should be a subversion of some sort. And here you are, courtesy of the car wash across the street from where I work.

Also? It was nice to do another outdoor shoot. I think I’ll do a bit more of this during the nicer months this year. Come to think on it, the comic’s anniversary isn’t that far off. Maybe something special will need doing. Hmmmm.

…

Apparently, my birthday present to myself this year is to have done the comic five days in advance so I don’t have to worry about it. Mind you, at some point on my birthday I’ll have to worry about Thursday’s comic…

If you’re going to play, you need to agree upon the rules beforehand.

This one’s an example of why I need to start planning these out a bit better before shooting: I intended a three-panel joke setup with a kicker, sure, but I didn’t actually have the kicker figured out in advance so I had to come up with one during assembly. And… I’m not really happy with it. It’s pretty obvious where I tried to go with it, but the journey isn’t actually funny.

Mind you, I also need to get more on the ball about comic production so I’m not assembling during the 10-o’clock hour on a Sunday night, either. (I goofed off a bit during the afternoon when I could’ve been fixing up today’s comic, then the Sunday night gaming session went way damned long…)

Don’t be silly. Nobody here would slaughter cats just to collect their eyes. That would be hideous.

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I use Roger mainly to tell jokes that make people groan. I use Li mainly to tell jokes that are somewhat… inappropriate.

That is, even more inappropriate than your average bad pun, of course.

Sorry, no bonus points for matching the ducks to their original counterparts. Or for guessing what the “A” stands for. I know: I’m no fun anymore.

And no, I’m not going anywhere with this… I just like doing these little bits and moments, you know?

I bet you weren’t expecting those guys.

Nobody does.

Even the easy-going, happy-go-lucky sort of duck likes a somber, down-tempo song every now and again.

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Yes, it’s more Genesis. No bonus points for figuring out why I picked this song. Sorry, folks. (And yes, I took some liberties with the lyric selections. They’re in order, but I skipped some…)

As you can see, Rusty is capable of enjoying a rich fantasy life. It’s not often, however, that he gets to externalize this for the sake of others’ amusement.

We’ll explore some of Rusty’s “Walter Mitty” tendencies later on, I think. It’s about time that he’s given more to do than providing reaction shots to bad puns.

…

C’mon, now. You don’t really think that Score’s concerned about what Bugs and Daffy think of him, do you?

See, it’ s not that Rusty lacks a sense of humor. He just doesn’t like puns, that’s all.

He probably doesn’t know that he was supposed to take the Elmer Fudd role. This is probably for the best; I’m not sure he’d know which way to hold, let alone aim, a shotgun…