Seconded.

Meh, I thought the nip jokes were funny at first but this is taking it a step far. It's just crappy to see my favourite character, Max, acting like a druggie... So far this has been a happy-go-lucky type of humerous comic, and I count on it for a laugh every few days, a great way to get my weekdays started, and it's disappointing to see this.

I said it in the comments section;

It's more about the "drugs", the addiction, and then the dealer. Drugs, addiction, and drug dealers arn't very easy to make funny as it's a pretty serious problem in the modern world. It's a touchy subject because there are people who are addicts, like Max, and dealers, like Fester, and I guess it's kindof awkward seeing the more dark side of Housepets!.

That said, I still chuckled at it. I have a good sense of humour, dark humoured or not, and I appreciate a good joke as long as it's pulled off right. This isn't Rick's best comic, but I appreciate him for trying something a bit more mature.

Hmm well my personal thoughts were already up about this.. I really had no trouble with it over all. Wasn't a funny comic per-say, but it wasn't one I was up in arms about. I had no desire to see it come down, or to see future comics related to it taken down. But I can over-analyze as always, and figure out why people had a problem with it in the first place.

It wasn't the drugs that causes this. It's just about context, and presentation I suppose. That's what's causing the trouble here. In an earlier comic Grape stomped on an intelligent creature, then she, in front of all his friends, ate the poor creature whole causing the others to run in terror. One can say that, out of context, is a LOT worse then Nip comic. But it was presented in a childish, cartoony manner so it didn't matter. In the same way it really isn't a big deal if W-Coyote gets violently killed in an explosion. Similarly, the comic previous to this one was also present as if being 'rather silly' which is why very few people complained about it.

This comic I guess just came off as too 'real' to people. They did have the appearance of actual druggies almost, the way max was sat down, sharing a draw. The shield of silly presentation was gone, so people could only see the 'reality' of it. A reality that bothers them, and many others, even if it wasn't a problem for some of us. If Rick had simply drawn the catnip like actual catnip, and had been a bit more foolish in the presentation, I don't think any one would have complained. The joke itself could have been practical the same even.

Personally, I would have gone for comparing it to booze over drugs, as it's much easier to cartoonize, and offends less people. Maybe our Cat with the crazy eye has some sort of moon-shined Nip-Nip racket up on the hill haha. Throw in some cartoony, stereotyped early 1900's gangster-Cats in there, and we're in business. Though... lets not go as far as Lackdaisy does. I think some of the smiles in that comic would give kids nightmares.

I think Brittles really hit the nail on the head with what he said. The other nip jokes were funny, but this one was just too real, and didn't have enough cartoony comedy in it that we've come to love from HPC.

Edit: (I'll leave the original post)

With the help of a friend I stand corrected. It came to my attention that there was a comic that went up and then back down again. Regardless, I think we should let this be and move on then.

Did you not see today's comic before it was pulled? The apology that is there now is in place of it, Rick took down the one originally posted.

Hi there,

can someone explain what happened in the comic that got pulled?

The comic took a turn that was a bit more serious than people would have wanted. <_<; funny how not reading the comic leads to much confusion.

Basically the comic consisted of Cat-Nip being drawn like a smoke to the point that if it wasn't for the words you really would never have thought it Cat-Nip in a million years. The two cats (Max, and Grape) hanging out in an ally like area, and sharing the a single draw, as they tend to be called around here. While doing so they discussed how Max had already gone through his 'Christmas Stash', and the only person in the neighbor hood he could get more from was very very creepy.

To many this made them look like pot users hanging out in an ally while talking about their dealer. Which was too far away from the cartoon silliness they prefer to see in "HP!". Some going as far as saying they 'lost all their respect for the characters' the instant they saw the Nip/Drugs metaphor presented in such a 'real like' fashion.

Anyway, a lot of people complained so Rick took out the strip, and canceled the Arc that was to follow. He more or less explains his reasoning in the post for todays message, and I'm fine with that. He decided it didn't match the standard that he set for the comic, and took a step back from it.

Thanks

It was annoying to know I'd just missed it

...
this post will probably get erased, but I have to say it.

{Scrubbed -- please do not insult other board members}

Rick... you know what you SHOULD do?!

KILL the boards. KILL the comment box.

To HECK with those psychotic readers who have nothing better to do than smear your work when it shatters their tiny little worlds. Their constant and obsessive praise isn't worth the albatross it ties around your neck. Bending to reader whims is the exact OPPOSITE of literary integrity!

Regardless of whether you kill the ARC, do yourself a favor and KILL the conversation. Don't be another 2kinds, you'll quickly find yourself no longer in control of the comic, as your more vocal fans will GUILT you into turning your fun project into THEIR fancruft. My advice to you? Don't let that happen. Make sure if you kill the arc that you are doing it for your OWN reasons, not THEIRS.

And with that, I'm never posting or commenting here again. I'll read the comic, and if I like it I'll keep doing so. But at least I won't be running to a board or comment box to moan and cry and waggle a finger whenever something in the comic doesn't fit my preconceived notions!

Thanks for the read, Rick. Bye.

Riiiiiiight....

Thanks for playing, please come again... Or don't!

That's what I'm doing. I could care less about what other people think about smoking in particular, or that it's bad or wrong and that I shouldn't even be portraying it. You know what I think is stupid? This movement to mark any movie with smoking in it an automatic R rating.

The problem I had was also mine. I wasn't enjoying this story arc I had planned all of the sudden because I was suddenly experiencing personal doubts--and this happened before the comic was even up.

When people commented on it, it was a litmus test to see how I really feel about it. Because when people said that the drug use was inappropriate, it allowed me to step back and think, "Yes, this was most certainly a bad direction to go." When other people complain that they really want this comic to be more mature and how dare you change your mind, it allowed me to step back and think, "You know, I really don't care about that."

It is, all in all, a huge blunder on my part. I figure though that this comic is still way young, and aborting the arc before it has the chance to seep in would be the best way to minimize whatever damage my decision would cause.

Haha! Funny how that works out, as the forums here are actually pretty chill. When the comic came out, we really had just some discussion about it here, with only a couple rants (my misplaced one included). So funny how Q.E.D. - The people whom operate the forum (as far as I've seen) support rick still regardless of his choice in comic material.

Good day to you sir, as I hope I never see you again.

------

<_<; I should stop being mean guys. What do you think?

POW! Right in the kisser! You basically said it better than I could, have a cookie.



This doesn't mean that the fans can't give off atleast some constructive critisism. There's a difference between saying "OMG!#%! THIS IS TERRIBLE! HOW COULD YOU DO THIS!@?!!%?" and saying "This was a little too far".

Rick can do whatever the heck he wants to do with his comic, and (hopefully) we all respect that. But that doesn't mean we can't explain why this or that isn't too good, it's part of being an artist and having fans.

Hopefully Rick will learn from this whole nip arc "fiasco" and either not do it again or even try to mold it into something better and learn from it, but he could have easily chosen to say "Screw you guys, I'm doing this my way!".



Nah, it's okay to be mean to people every now and again. Frankly I thought you were pretty tame

On that note, when I was doing the Calvin and Hobbes tribute week several months back, a whole LOT of people complained at the last strip in that arc. If that wasn't the last comic planned for that arc I would have kept going with it because I did like it.

As I said, I wholely respect that "THIS IS YOUR COMIC, DO WHATEVER YOU WANT WITH IT", but that doesn't mean you can't learn and be constructively critisized by your work to help make it better any way you can.

And which comic was it? I remember 2 or 3 Calvin and Hobbes-like comics, though I don't remember which one.

http://www.housepetscomic.com/2008/10/1 ... goes-zonk/

Check out the comments

Quite frankly, I think these comments were stupid to be blunt. If it's funny (or more importantly what you want to do) then I have no problem if it's a tribute to Calvin and Hobbes (unless you were doing like, I dunno, 100 "tribute comics" then it would be to far!).

Compared to this one right now, telleporting through time isn't as much of a touchy subject as doing joints. If you had continued with this arc, I'd have no problem with it, it would just seem a bit weird to me that all of a sudden Grape and Max look like druggies. This is where the critisizm comes in.

though I guess this guy explains the other half. Drama is key to more views! I just wanted to drop this video off since it's about [gameing] webcomics (he's bashing Ctrl-Alt-Del if you don't know)

*Audible sigh*

Guys, lets just end this little disbute and wait until monday.

I dont see why we need to linger on an issue that has already been resolved.

Obviously, cause now you all have nothing to do until Monday.

It is true!

But yeah that calvin and hobbes one was hillarious... Perhaps just because I don't follow calvin and hobbes...

It's almost as awesome as FireFox!

Sorry, just wanted to get that out, I finally downloaded what I should have downloaded a long time ago.

Now try Google Chrome XD I switch between FF and GC on a near daily basis, GC has a much cleaner interface but not as feature-rich as FF.

I wanna see the comic he took down T_T

Well, the thing is, marijuana is not bad (except on personal grounds), no matter what any ignorant fool thinks.

I dunno where you're from but where I am illegal == bad, Argue all you want, I don't give a muffins and cookies, until they legalize it, it's bad... And even then it probably still will be.. IMHO Alcohol == bad , cigarettes == bad...

Bad as in immoral? Illegal =/= immoral.

Don't tell me that my opinion is wrong because it's just, that, an opinion.

I have my morals and you have yours, obviously they're different, let's leave it at that.

But the freedoms to do what you want with your body = Good!

Right?

I edited it, but not before you responded.

Basically, I think it was stupid of Rick to put down the comic just because it referenced marijuana. People need to stop perfectly wonderful person about how evil and 'low' drug usage is.

I could go on and on about how evil and immoral drugs are but this is not the place for that This is happy place! Let's all be happy withoutdrugs>.>

I think Brittles explained it the best a few posts below the OP. Rick explains it well when he replied to your own post.

A change from a crazy children-like cartoon to a sortof real situation with drugs (well, kitty version of drugs) is kindof an awkward change isn't it?

It would fall to Cerberus Syndrome (like it says in the front page). It's not entirely about the fans complaining about druggies, it's just a really weird change of pace from the usual stuff Rick does.

And people don't like change.

Please end the madness!!

I agree