Guys, yes, Duchess has certain female qualities that other female characters have not shown. Ever since the Cerberus thing I’ve been trying to work out other ways to vary new female characters visually than just eyelashes.
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Even though King is stuck with Duchess for the Valentine’s Show, I much prefer Bailey for King at the event!
I’m sure she’ll show up.
Which begs the question: What’s going to happen when she sees King with another female dog?
yeah, and then she’ll be like ” why are you with her!?”
Baily was just kind of flirtatious. It’s not like they were dating or anything, so if she does do something and if she does have feelings for him, she will most likely just redouble her efforts. IF, that is, she even shows up.
I think she’ll just run crying(but not before King see her in the crowd).
She doesn’t seem to make a big fuss about things.
Very nice.
Jumping through a ring of fire will make anyone adorable.
I don’t know about that… was Johnny Cash adorable?
he fell into one, doesn’t technically count
The guy in “Old School” disagrees…but the idea of King doing it is funny.
Watching King going though it again while eating popcorn! XD
Was Evel Knievel adorable?
Rick, we could tell…
….And we are all sorry we bugged you about it.
right children *looks around*
*nod* yes father
King was in a pageant? That’s a story I want to see.
Verily
I think this might be the comic that the pageant was, but I could be wrong: http://www.housepetscomic.com/2010/05/24/king-in-a-series-of-costumes-at-the-sears-photo-center/
looks like it to me.
No the second panel is from that pageant so the dress up was not part of that.
I suppose you’re right, but I like to play along. =)
Come on pageants always have a dress up segment
I actually think it was this one
http://www.housepetscomic.com/2011/08/10/the-artist-makes-no-claims-to-the-accuracy-of-the-view/
There’s no wrong answer to that.
Same here
I kinda figured this is what happened but more that Pete was intending to do so, not that it had already happened. I wonder if he won fair and square or if Pete cheated. (not that it would be hard for King to win on adorability alone)
I wouldn’t put it past Pete to have cheated to LOSE so as to humiliate King.
Yeah, Pete might of cheated to win.
Remember how eager King was to live with the wolves? There’s no limit to how much embarrassing and painful stuff Pete could have crammed into the year or so he had King under his thumb… er… talon.
I hope we see more flashbacks like this.
go King! he will win the king not sure on her being queen. hope he get paid well.
Pete had him do a Pageant once? Why? I would assume just to humiliate him I guess.
I do not really see the point in pure humiliation :/
Remember, the point of Joel being a dog is not only the underlying game, but also to teach him a lesson about the hardships of being a dog! My 2¢
No it wasn’t, King just thought it was at the time. Pete turned him purely for the game and nothing more.
And I was under the impression that the only real reason for turning Joel into King was to try and exploit a rules loophole to gain a cheap advantage in a game. Everything else appeared to be a rather clumsy attempt at manipulating Joel / King into “voluntarily” becoming Pete’s avatar.
Pete’s a huge jerk and was being mean to King for lulz. After the first King arc I thought maybe Pete was also trying to teach King a lesson but after awhile I figured that was just his excuse to keep Joel from complaining 24/7. I think he did it just to be cruel and have someone to torture.
Pete might have started out trying to get an advantage in the game, but the stuff he was doing was more along the lines of a mean little kid abusing his toys. I wouldn’t be surprised if that was half the fun of the game for him.
I’m guessing he just did for laughs and sorta humiliated him in the progress.
Yeah it was totally for humiliation.
Also, Pete is a fan of winning.
Ok, I don’t mean to defend Pete or anything, but, has anyone elts, besides me, realized that all the things that Pete did to and made King do sounds more like things a strict and obsessive owner would do? Think about it; he made him eat dog food, what average middle class owner doesn’t feed their dog dog food, he didn’t let King use the toilet, how many dogs do you know use a toilet, so would you let your dog use a toilet unless you’re like Bruce almighty, he made King get his shots, all dog owners are supposed to bring there pets to get their shots, and he made King do a enter a pageant, not uncommon among pet owners.
The only sign of abuse I have seen is having him jump through a ring of fire.
And I know some of you are thinking “What about the time he wouldn’t let King go to the party?” That’s not being abusive it’s being a strict parent, or owner in this case.
I don’t think anyone is saying that Pete was abusive to King just that he only turned him into King to play the game with him as an avatar and to use a loop hole to get a better one. Hes a jerk no one can really deny that IMO, but no one is saying that he was abusive at all just an uncaring jerk.
It’s the Return of the Wall of Text!
Well, lets see…
Eating dog food wasn’t really a major point – but it generally isn’t claimed as one.
As far as using the toilet goes, these pets are intelligent, civilized, and stand upright. There have been a few jokes about ferrets not using toilets, but no mention at all of cleaning arrangements for the neighborhood. Ergo, I’d guess that most of the pets use toilets; it seems to be implied.
As for making King get his shots – why did Pete give Joel / King a body that needed them? For that matter, from what little evidence we have, Pete did take about thirty years off of Joel’s potential lifespan by transforming him – and tricked him into an after-the-fact “consent” to that.
As for entering a pageant – would you enter a protesting, unwilling, child into one? After all, dogs in the housepets universe are a lot more like children than real dogs.
Now, if you want direct abuse.. here you are; http://www.housepetscomic.com/2009/12/25/so-this-is-christmas/
As noted in the comments for that strip:
“Squashing the hopes of someone who’s already depressive, traumatized, and emotionally fragile is pretty cruel.
It’s not like substituting the phrase “not just yet anyway” for “whoever said anything about changing you back” – or possibly producing a cup of something hot and saying “Merry Christmas” – after the “I’m real proud of you” would have cost Pete anything or changed anything – but it would have been a lot easier on King.”
When Pete made Joel / King dependent on him, and took him as a pet, he took responsibility for his physical AND emotional well-being. He didn’t live up to that responsibility. Neglect and emotional abuse are still abuse, and every bit as cruel as using a whip would have been.
There are still a few ways that Pete could be a good guy – but they’re becoming more and more far-fetched.
I’ve always loved reading your comments, Thoth. They are so well-thought-out (not saying nobody else’s are!) and dead-on that I can’t help but think you ponder every aspect of the strip the moment it’s posted for hours on end.
Why thank you! It’s nice to know that I’m not driving everyone crazy with my tendency to analyze things…
Pete seems to be more interested in manipulation and humiliation then abuse. Also the wall of text reference reminds me of Res.
As I said, I’m not defending Pete, I still beleive he’s a pompas jerk how go jump off a bridge with his broken wings for all I care. I’m just saying people portray him as the bad guy, but they can’t know for shore if Pete is good, bad, or neither. The only person who can know for shore is non other then the one who created him himself, Rick Griffin,
However; though I do see Pete as a real jerk, I can’t realy see him as a bad guy. After all, with out Pete there would be no King, Joal would still be human and probly back in jail, he and fox would have never had become friends ( though I strongly think King needs to eventualy tell Fox his preveous identity and that will be the strongest test in their friendship) and he would never had met Baily.
On the other hand Pete did probly shorten Joals lifespan by turning him into a dog, but remember this is housepets, the pets could possibly have the same life spans as their owners, after all this is a cartoon.
Well…
There being a King is amusing to the readers – but it has yet to be of any great benefit save, perhaps, to Sasha – but there’s some suggestion that she was “protected” anyway.
Per the title of the first strip in “It’s a wonderful dogs life” Joel’s sentence was going to be time served.
Friendship and a romance of sorts are important – and may well be worth a large chunk of lifespan – but neither seems really likely to have been arranged by Pete. The friendship helped mess up his scheme by bringing King to Dragon’s attention and the romance was well after Pete was out of the way.
Per Rick, the lifespan of the Pets is about twice that of the various types in reality. Thus the thirty year estimate – although it does, admittedly, have a wide margin of error. For all we know, Pete gave King immortality (although that would contradict the next item) – or left him what was apparently his late twenties with relatively little time left.
Of course. Pete did give Joel a far easier ticket into Heaven. While we lack a comparison between human and canine heaven, we can probably take it for granted that they’re both very nice. This would be one of the possible “Pete is a nice guy after all!” scenarios save for it failing to account for the gratuitous humiliation.
The easiest way I see for Pete to be a good guy is still for King to somehow wind up substantially improving the legal position of pets – fulfilling what seemed to be Joel’s life goal and doing good for millions of pets. Something in his being a dog with a human skill set might be crucial to such a goal. (Who knows? Perhaps his registered name is Martin Luther King. That would be a long set-up, but “You’re a GIRL!?” was also a long setup).
Joel needed to see firsthand just much junk pets often have to deal with, in order to be able to judge their shortcomings fairly. He needed to realize that if sometimes they just snap, it’s not because they’re “just animals”, but because they have problems every bit as real as those of their owners. So in that sense, Pete’s treatment of King was rough love.
That, and Pete remains kind of a jerk.
I agree with you both, in theory.
Isn’t it obvious? Pagents like that give King a bit of extra Exp. Pete was just trying to power-level him up a bit.
It does make sense. King was transformed as a pure breed, so I suppose Pete made some dough off king at a show. And King, your collar is just fine :b
I kind of liked not being able to tell what gender an animal was at first, really. Made me pay more attention to their personality rather than what I subconsciously thought they should conform to. It’s one of the reasons I like housepets so much.
Well sometimes it doesn’t happen like that . . . I mean, many of the characters are obviously male, so the other way around ought to happen at least some of the time too
I’m gonna ask just to get it out of the way. Is this something only some female characters are going to show or is it going to apply to all of them?
ALL THE FEMALES WILL HAVE THEM, GIANT ENORMOUS ONES no of course not silly
Be wary of where you vent Rick.
Aww, you got my hopes up. : (
I can’t wait to see how this will be used in the future.
Also Diss, someday…
How close are we to breaking the PG rating now?
LIPSTICK AND ALL!
ok, sorry. just had to throw that in there X3
In all seriousness though, Rick isn’t getting any closer to breaking a PG rating here unless he starts getting flashy with it, which would then be silly >.>
Now I just kind of wonder how far back the term “New” is going to go since Duchess showed up before and is therefore not new.
Right when my attention is going I see a comment like THAT by the creator. Man, I love this!
[Duchess has been like this since her first appearance]. (That is a link.)
I can see it now, HOUSEPETS THE ANIME!
All the females will wear short school-girl skirts.
Characters usually don’t change appearance that drastically. I don’t think it’s adding as much as introducing new characters with features. Some are obviously male some female. On a lighter note a anime Halloween would be interesting.
Honestly, I didn’t even notice it until you guys started mentioning it.
This is a rather… strange conversation for Housepets…
)
(Oh, and Diss; your giving a BAAAD example. You should know better as a Great Risu
*snickers at the thought–Pets with “huge tracks of land*
Seriously, though, if the tags hadn’t said she was female (and that strip at the dogshow last August), I wouldn’t have thought anything of it–she’s just beautifully marked.
When I first saw Duchess, my reaction was, “Oh, a new, female, smarty pants, okay.”
I’m fine with the “additions”. While it’s true real animals/pets don’t have them, I (for a very brief moment) was at first confused with a few characters. You’ve usually been good at making it relatively easy to tell, Rick, but on Duchess, I hardly even noticed. It just is so subtle, and I think it somehow suits her (like, she’s more grown-up than all the other dogs we’ve seen so far. Or something).
Yes, it does suite her, now she really looks like she’s some high class thing.
Thankfully my sarcasm metre isn’t broken.
I agree with Lenn. Rick, I think the addition on female characters is distracting and takes away from the personality of the dogs themselves. I never had a problem telling the males from the females. What they said was explicit enough.
Uh… are we talking about the same character here? So far all we know about her is that she goes to the salon, uses a parasol, enters dog shows, and is pushy. Don’t you think with a personality like that, she should have such a body?
Whoa! Am I seeing double?
I think there were character off from the start that were unmistakably male though.
…Like Grape!
>.>
…Oh, hey little Max. I see your ear’s not bit off yet. Let me solve that for you.
Hey, Grape! Over here!
“Hah! My ear only gets bitten before I find out about Grapes femininity, but since I’m making this joke, it’s clear that I already know, thus making your ear biting attempt invalid!”
“That doesn’t even make sense. If you already know, your ear should already be bit… Maxie, don’t make me retcon your ear for you and then balance them out, okay?”
Grape’s unmistakable maleness is debatable, I actually thought Grape was a girl from the start as her personality reminded me of some women I know and for some reason the name Grape never sounded masculine to me.
Ooh, better hope Bailey doesn’t find out..
Don’t forget the rule. “When in doubt, hurt the corgi!”
Yikes. If Rick is responding to it, then I’m a bit worried about how heated these alleged Duchess discussions were getting.
Also, King is a sellout.
Actually I think he’s doing this to be able to afford a phone so he can call Bailey.
Already making predictions are we?
Or he just wants cash, who here wouldn’t do that for easy money?
Not King apparently, who already jumped through a flaming hoop of fire.
Yeah but Duchess won’t him repeat it.
Or will she?
I’m thinking that too.
I think Bailey might show up unprecedentedly instead of him calling her.
He did make a resolution to enjoy his life as a dog rather than thinking of it as a bad thing. As long as he’s in the pageant just for fun (which I doubt Duchess will let him do) it would be in his best mental interest to just go with it!
It actually scares me that Dutchess knew she could appeal to this… rather human trait
Who doesn’t like money?
Well they do use money after all. We have seen Fox spend his allowance.
The Ferrets certainly love their money.
Joel / King would be better off asking what “handsome pay” means for a dog, even without Alt-Text word play…
“What’s all this?”
“You’re payment”
“But it’s food!”
“Yup. Enjoy it, dog”
“AUGH!”
I love the look of kings face when asked to jump through fire.
And that would be the cutest thing in *this* strip
(Following King making a snowdog in the last one)
Wow, Pete really knows how to mess with a guy.
Remember the Sears photo shoot? Seems like that was only the tip of the iceberg
It looks like the iceberg was on fire!
Oh no! That means it melted while King was still on it!
…I actually can imagine Pete doing that…
Nice touch showing part of the “Or is it?” kitsune statue. There’s several Housepets characters i like more than King, but i can’t wait to see where this is going
Somewhere in Grape’s room is the feather of an “emu”.
“Lovely little sculpture you’ve got here. Is it Meiji era? Or perhaps Shōwa?”
“Yeah… er… something like that”
So I went back to see if there was an “emu” feather anywhere in Grape’s room when Res climbed it (there wasn’t), and I couldn’t help noticing that her Pridelands poster was missing. What would Res’ reaction have been had he seen it?
Maybe the giant feather was a dream in a dream?
That is pretty adorable
What is the world coming to when we consider adorable corgis jumping through hoops of flaming fire “cute”.
Anthropomorphic talking corgis at that.
Actually that would be very cute in the real world.
He will probably be paid handsomely in doggy treats instead!
Alt text for you tabby users. Er… tablet. “by paid handsomely I mean you’ll be paid by a someone very handsome”
So he’ll be paid by Boris?
Tabby users? All right! Which of you are using your cats to read the comic with! Fess up or I call animal control!
“it’s not my fault that my human is a moron. I had to do something to give them a bit of class.”
Not me, I swear!
Sent from my Siamese cat.
King has a “good” collar? o.O
Maybe a gift from a friend. Maybe one of the few things left lying around when King/Pete’s house vanished overnight (the papers being one of the others, I guess).
Zing! Heyo!
Seems to be wearing it in the second panel.
Well, I’m sure King was a hot dog afterward.
*gets bricked*
When someone is playing hard to get, always bring up the possibility of pay.
Whoa that subject is slippery slope, let’s keep this PG.
But…
what’s a little potential romance gonna do? I feel some people are too sensitive about the PG rating. What’s wrong with a few mature undertones/overtones?
I think you’ve missed the point. I was slightly joking, but there is some concern. “playing hard to get” usually refers to difficult to seduce, the second half of the sentence states that if this is the case pay money. Paying for shall we say “romance” seemed like a subject we should probably avoid in Housepets.
King gives up personal dignity for money? SIMPSONS DID IT! SIMPSONS DID IT!
It’s kind of funny to think that once upon a time King was human. “I’ll get my good collar.” he’s so much a part of the pet community now, it’s like it’s natural to him.
King is actually better at being a dog than a people. Remember, when he was drunk he didn’t accidentally start doing human things, he started hitting on other dogs. Probably has a lot to do with the way Pete scrambled his little brains though. His name was unlocked but I’m sure a lot of the transformation magic is permanent until he’s changed back.
Say, isn’t that the kitsune statue in the foreground? I wonder what Duchess thinks of THAT?
That she’ll buy it off him. It won’t be that hard apparently.
But what if all she has is Sterling Pounds?
King, you sellout! Who am I kidding, I’d do the same thing. I believe Pete was having fun while King was not. Just out of curiosity when did the pageant happen, before or after the watch?
Since Pete lost control of King before the watch incident, the balance of probability is that the pageant happened first.
Yes I just happened to remember that “after” I let the comment go. What I meant was at roughly what arcs timeframe do we asume it happened in.
Say… where is that watch? If King finds out how to use it, maybe he can tilt the odds in his favor.
But… that’d be cheating! D:
Cue The Fairly Odd Parents’s rulebook!
Well, at least now we know what will get Kings attention lol
Oh look, Pete’s back. That bird really had fun off panel during his time as owner.
It’s a flashback.
I know, he hasn’t been King’s owner for over a year but if Pete did that imagine all the other offscreen “fun” he had with King.
what are they going to do with money?
Buy catnip?
Yeah, I know, they’re dogs, but you know, he still might want to get back on Bino.
They don’t sell it to pets.
Hire muscle. Buy parasols. Get a makeover with Sasha.
Get a cell phone to call Bailey of course.
True, as evidenced here:
http://www.housepetscomic.com/2011/12/02/a-holiday-extravaganza/
And with that, perhaps King is not a sellout after all.
will king ever get a break
Someone remind me… Cerberus thing?
Cerberus the guard dog (from the Not All Dogs Arc) that beat up Pete and arrested him (also used to date him) was at first confused for a guy by a lot of people because she was big and imposing and Rick just doesn’t want that to happen again.
http://www.housepetscomic.com/2011/04/27/would-never-hit-a-girls/
There were too many comments along the lines of “WHAAAT? CERBERUS IS A girl(s)?!?!?”
Cell phone to call Bailey GET!
http://youtu.be/nGE0P_jWWSg
Wait so when a poor guy pays a girl to date him that’s lame, but when a rich person does it it’s just classy or something? DANG that’s so unfair! I could’ve just funded pity dates then back in school. D:
I… don’t think this can be called a “date”…
is that the golden fox statue Duchess is looking at?
Looks like it! “Continuity! A sign of a quality comic!”
Quality vs Quantity, I always say!
…yeah. Sure, let’s go with that. That way I can explain away why my comic’s been on hiatus for so long… erm… nevermind.
At first I thought that it was just some golden fan… or something. But now I see it!
What’s ironic about the first line of my post, is that not only is Housepets! a quality comic, but it also updates frequently to boot.
Ahh money, the cause AND solution too, ALL of lifes problems
Besides her more female features, Duchess seems a lot more bossy than I thou… wait, you’re giving me a million dollars? What was I talking about again :/
That ring doesn’t look so bad,’it’s big and King is small. Seems like it would have been more difficult to jump through your average doorway.
The ring is also closer to the viewer. There’s probably not quite as much a disparity in size as perspective makes it appear in that frame.
The alt text made me giggle :3
I don’t know why, But I really like Duchess.
I’m not sure if it’s the fact she’s British, or that she talks posh, or that I like Salukis… Maybe it’s all three.
Some people will do anything for the right amount of money.
lol when i read “paid handsomely” i think about that guy with the glasses XD
No, King! You have to ask if it will be money payment!
He won’t.
That solves the issue of f Pete gave him papers or not.
King isn’t gunna get paid squat.
Daisy wins again! “Hi, I’m rich!”
She’ll pay him with Invisible Money™, the best kind!
They’re soo adorable!!! >.<
Alt text: Genius
Wow, King really had it tough with all the embarrasment
Wild guess, Bailey will be at the party, heartbroken to se King w/ other.
I predict shenanigans at the upcoming pageant/show/thingy. King’s definitely gonna be the center of attention.
Don’t do it king! She pays in kibble! ITS WORTHLESS OUTSIDE YOUR DICOTAMY!
Dicotamy? Wait what I don’t even
Anything with King makes my day, freaking love him!
King could use the money to buy a cellphone to call Bailey like he wanted to do, but the wolves had no work to offer. It was mentioned earlier in the comments. Just a thought.
Heh, well, I like the new look X3 it does look more feminine and doesn’t look corny or nuthin, good job person who can draw a million times better than me! X3
You know, I can’t help but wonder if the alt text for this strip was included as a red herring, like Fluffy snapping at Max in the flashback in the last arc.
Most if not All the Alt Text are Non-canon I believe
That hasn’t stopped other speculation in the past.
Kitsune’s gold statue on the first panel
2nd panel alt text: “You DO know that I have 4-inch legs, right?”
D’awww! King jumping through a ring of fire, how cute!
i love your comics they seem so real lol keep up the good work i read and scaned threw them all in two days pretty sweet ….. ps are you a furry lol
I can soo see Dutchess with a Russian accent.
great job
DANGIT!!! Finally up to date on this comic… i was kinda hoping it would last forever…..
I thought the EXACT same thing, when I read through the entire comic!
Kings body is weird in the second panel whats up with that?
its all ’bout da cash see. Thats what changes my opinion about every thing.
“NO.”
“We’ll get paid”
“did i say no? i ment to say lets go!”
Thats what King is like at the moment. ant way money or no money i would go.
Im the school Geek. so im single. my point is it is a excuse to have a temp. lady friend
Do hope Duchess keeps her word on the payment part lol!