Lord of the Dudes! #4-5 Are Up!

[Eugene Blackgaard]

Hey everypeoples, I'll be running my daily LOTR spoof comic strip in this thread, Hope you enjoy it!

[Eugene Blackgaard]

Commentary: Ah, The quest begins, and what better way to begin it with than Bill the Hobbit?

Bill was my first stick figure character ever, and made his debut in an older comic strip parody of mine, “The Dude”, a parody of “The Hobbit”. Unfortunately the strip was lost before I could finish it. Pity, I quite liked it.

I was kind of dissapointed at the way things turned out with Bill. I wasn't exactly planning out the comic or anything, it was all made up as I went. Due to the way things progressed, this comic is the only one with Bill up untill comic #27. Oh well, it's not exactly like we get a whole lot of Bilbo in the 1st movie anyway.

Bill is definitely one of my personal favorite characters, because he’s so plain, yet so distinguished. I've taken a certain liking to the pipe he always smokes. That pipe basically defines his entire character: un-extraordinary, yet charming. He has a British feel to him, which is exactly how I planned it. It's just a darn shame we don't get to see much of Ol' Uncle Bill.

[Eugene Blackgaard]

Commentary: This is one of my favorite strips, mainly because in this one strip tons of things are established. For one, Fro-Dude, Grump-Dalf, and Sam all make their entrances. And very good entrances I might add.

Grump-Dalf’s first words are particularly random… “Give me the ring, Dude!” I can't help laughing when I read that.

Another thing established is Fro-Dude’s quest. I thought it would take a while to build up to this, yet the strip mostly has a mind of its own, I just draw what it tells me to. And no, I'm NOT crazy! >:( Well, maybe just a little.

Anyways, this sped things up quite a bit, which is what makes my comic different than the books or movies. It is, in a sense, a layman’s LOTR. Lord of the Rings simplified, if you will.

I once had a friend who was too lazy to read the books or even sit through the movies. I, feeling deep pity for him due to the knowledge that he had never experienced Lord of the Rings, offered my comic to this extremely lazy man.

Well, after some coaxing, he finally gave in and braved the 5 minutes it took to read LOTD. Whence finished, he said to me “I think I understand LOTR now!” When he went to see the movie afterwards, he said he had a better understanding of what happened. Isn't it great how we can impact people? <Insert much sarcasm here.

Last and least, it is established that Sam is an Idiot. It really does not take much to figure this out anyway, but I brought it up in this strip just to make sure people knew. I have nothing against Samwise Gamgee, I rather like the fellow. But LOTD needed an idiot, and I liked FroDude way to much. Along came Sam, and 5 seconds after I had drawn him I knew I had my idiot. It was stupid at first sight. Really.

Anyway, Fro-Dude does not want his company. Neither would I, to be honest. Sam is one of those annoying types. Eager to help only when he’s not wanted, and always has something to say about what he knows nothing about.

Of course, that’s what makes his character great, and what also makes the certain love-hate relationship between Fro-Dude and Sam so fun to watch. It is evident as the strip goes on that Fro-Dude and Sam begin to become friends, even though Sam bugs the snot out of Fro-Dude.

Poor Fro-Dude. Poor, poor Fro-Dude. You all should have a moment of silence for poor Fro-Dude. I know I will...

*silence*

[Trent DeWhite]

Hey, awesome stuff, EB.

Think it'd be possible to compress your comic strips slightly . . . so we don't have to scroll left and right? Not that it's a big deal or anything. But it kinda messes up the text somewhat, too.

Go Fro-Dude!

[Eugene Blackgaard]

I'll work on that, the comics have long been in publication, I'd just doing it here. I'll try to cut the edges to make them fir though, and it shouldn't be much of a problem.

Thanks for your support! I hope this strip may gain a fanbase, because even though the comics are pretty lame now, they do get better later on.

[Eugene Blackgaard]

Commentary: Here begins a sort of Running Gag within the strip. Yes, I admit, I am a lazy artist, that is evident in the fact I draw stick-figures. I simply don’t have the time right now to do anything else. Personally I like what I’ve done with the stick-figures. Stick-figures have a certain charm to them, it comes from their simplicity. It’s amazing what you can do with a few lines.

I decided to put a cape on Fro-Dude to be more like the movies, but after one panel I realized how hard it was to Ink that cape. So I got rid of it. It’s kind of like the whole thing where most cartoon characters have four fingers. Artist decided they could save time and money if they simply stopped drawing the fifth finger. Most people did not notice anyway (contrary to what would have happened if they only had three fingers, because that is just plain bizarre).

[Eugene Blackgaard]

Commentary: Once again, the lazy puns. Well, it was Fro-Dude’s own fault for whining so much! He got what he deserved! Now, in reality it was actually harder for me to ink out an entire panel, so maybe I’m not as lazy as I thought… Nah. I am as lazy as I thought. And Ignorant too.

Someone once addressed the issue of what Sam was holding in his hand. They said to me “Is that a Popsicle?!” To any one who asks that question, my reply is…

"NO YOU INFIDELS! IT IS A SHOVEL! IF YOU HAD READ THE BOOKS YOU WOULD’VE KNOW THAT SAM WAS A GARDENER!!! A GARDENER WOULD’VE BEEN HOLDING A SHOVEL, NOT A POPSICLE!!!"

Whew. Sorry. Had to get rid of that rant. I am now 100% rant free!

… For the time being, that is.

[Eugene Blackgaard]

Commentary: Here’s another tribute to my laziness, I spent hours... ok, minutes, trying to come up with a design for Merry and Pippin. I couldn’t think of anything original, yet LOTR looking. All my design ideas fell flat (hey, it's hard designing stick-figures! Really!).

I was fed up with trying, so I took the easy way out. I decided the best thing to do would be to put two "Star Wars" type characters into the strip. Thus, Duke Schmoboker and Fonze Rollo were born.

Now, some of you might be be saying right now: "*GASP* What!? SW characters into a LOTR comic strip!? Blasphemy! Burn him at the steak, and his vile comics with him!!!"

My ever so witty reply would be: "More like, you burn at the steak, NERD!"
(Oh! I am ever so witty, am I not?)

I personally am glad I added these two to the strip, they gave it a bit of personality it would have lacked without them. I absolutely love Duke, because he is a quite the spaz. Fonze, however, made me rue the day he was put on paper.

Fonze turned out to be far more of an Idiot than Sam ever was. He had a gun, but never used it. His hair was supposed to be really big bangs, but looked to many like a ponytail. For a while, I got letters asking me why Fonze’s head was always turned the opposite way as everyone else.

Plus, Fonze wasn’t even funny, which is a must for my comic strip (it's the only way it can survive!). I was planning to get rid of him, by either killing him off or something else. And eventually, I did. But I won’t spoil how I did it for all you early readers… Actually I kind of already did… Oh well! ;D