A fearsome warrior. An absurdly large cute puppy.
June 19, 2016 1:55 AM   Subscribe

After five years and over 250 pages, the Eisner Award Winning webcomic, Battlepug by Mike Norton (previously) has finished its epic tailtale (but with promises of more pug tales to come). It started here. (some NSFW, due to violence, language and nudity, including that of the Narrator)
posted by oneswellfoop (24 comments total) 27 users marked this as a favorite
 
wheeze

wheeze

snort

BRAP BRAP BRAP BRAP!
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 4:05 AM on June 19, 2016 [3 favorites]


Geesh, how did I miss this? This is awesome.
posted by beowulf573 at 6:08 AM on June 19, 2016


I recall bookmarking this several years ago and somehow I forgot about it. This is a great excuse to go back.
posted by Fizz at 6:42 AM on June 19, 2016


Loved this from the beginning, though I have to be honest and admit I checked it out simply because it stars a giant pug. I'm glad there's a good possibility of some additional works in the future.
posted by tommasz at 7:06 AM on June 19, 2016


Cool, thanks for reminding me of this; like a lot of other webcomics, I think I'd forgotten about it because of sporadic updating.
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:12 AM on June 19, 2016


Giant baby seals, giant pugs, and then, after the giant Axolotl: "Why must I be plagued by these ridiculous animals?" Fantastic.
posted by Gaz Errant at 10:13 AM on June 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


I just got to the end. Fun!
posted by Harald74 at 11:50 AM on June 19, 2016 [1 favorite]


scribbly
posted by delfin at 11:51 AM on June 19, 2016 [3 favorites]


Awesome. Thanks. I enjoyed every moment.
posted by evilDoug at 12:56 PM on June 19, 2016


That was very cool. I hope the author does more.
posted by Canageek at 12:59 PM on June 19, 2016


What kind of dog is Colfax?
posted by WizardOfDocs at 1:15 PM on June 19, 2016


Side note: all the place names in Battlepug seem to be places in Illinois. Being from there, I found the ones I recognized jarring.
posted by WizardOfDocs at 1:19 PM on June 19, 2016


I see no problem with places in Illinois having existed in a legendary ancient past. Well, maybe not Peoria.
posted by oneswellfoop at 1:31 PM on June 19, 2016 [2 favorites]


This art. This STORY.

On one hand, I think I could kill from envy. On the other hand, something to strive for.

Thanks for posting.
posted by Mooski at 2:11 PM on June 19, 2016


wait, the narrator is nude?
posted by dreamling at 2:57 PM on June 19, 2016


well, the storyteller, as shown in the first page...
posted by oneswellfoop at 3:05 PM on June 19, 2016


Why is she rolling around naked in bed with eyeshadow and lipstick?
posted by Scattercat at 6:13 PM on June 19, 2016


some people sleep naked, some people are naked around the house frequently, mystery solved, let's move on
posted by Hoopo at 7:56 PM on June 19, 2016


There's an explanation for the nudity late in the story.
posted by Eikonaut at 10:52 PM on June 19, 2016


She has to breathe through her skin. No, wait...

Her costume is made of her hair, which is also her weapon, so when she attacks people with her hair... that's not it either.
posted by Hogshead at 4:53 AM on June 20, 2016 [1 favorite]


Hrm. Really fun story of a warrior and a ridiculous goofy beast.... but wrapped up in a pretty lame save-the-princess-in-the-castle meme as a wrapper. Complete with gratuitous princess nudity (uh,to be more sensitive?) and of course the implication that our hero's gettin' it on at the end.

The warrior and goofy beast story was really good and fun! But the classic sexism of the wrapper just kept taking me out and feeling kinda meh. Particularly as it would have been so easy to modified/make-it-not-classically-sexist. Even just a drop of giving her some agency. Or just drop it, as other than the talking dogs (who were great), it didn't add a ton.
posted by redbeard at 5:31 AM on June 20, 2016


Ooo I was wondering if anyone else on the Blue read this! I enjoyed it quite a bit despite all the usual tropes. The pugs (of all sizes) really kept me wanting more.
posted by numaner at 8:55 AM on June 20, 2016


The tastefully-nude princess narrator was not great, but the "save-the-princess-in-the-castle meme" wasn't even relevant until the last few pages, when the storyteller and the story intersected, and the intersection was one of the most "tropey" things in the story. But the way the Big Bad was ultimately defeated was surprising and satisfying, and throughout the story, the characters ranged from typical to unique (I was genuinely tickled by the Old-West-Sidekick-type doing the "scribbly" bit). Not a perfect Fantasy Webcomic, but well above average, with superb art, and thankfully ZERO D&D game tropes (which are the #1 cliche in Fantasy Webcomics... the constant 4th Wall damage is tiresome).
posted by oneswellfoop at 10:01 AM on June 20, 2016 [1 favorite]


Read the whole thing. It was mostly enjoyable, but it kind of fell apart in the end for me. Too rushed, too much narrative convenience, and the explanation for Moll being naked was "she breathes through her skin" level of eye-rolling justification of casual objectification. I'd have been happier if there was just an author's note at the beginning that said "I like women and enjoy seeing them sexually, so I'm drawing this character naked through this whole thing just for myself."

But I do not regret having spent an hour reading it. It was amusing. I just wish it had tried harder with the princess in the tower nonsense. Just because you're rehashing Conan doesn't mean you have to do everything Robert E. Howard did. (I also wish it had stuck with the initial apparent premise of all the terrifying monsters in the world being adorable. A final fight between Battlepug and a chibi demon would have been epic.)
posted by Scattercat at 7:53 PM on June 20, 2016


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