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Webcomic / Puck

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Puck is a weekly webcomic that started as a comic strip of the McMaster University newspaper starring Robin "Puck" Goodfellow, an ancient fairy of lore whose life changes when someone leaves a dog-girl named Daphne on her doorstep and starts attending the university to "increase her earning power." There she meets Phoebe, a hot she-devil and daughter of the university president, who just so happens to be Satan, and Colin, her boyfriend.

The series is divided in two; the first part happens during Puck and company's university years (the original run of the strip in black and white); the second part occurs after a time skip of 10 years (the real time between the last strip and the restart).

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Puck provides examples of:

  • Anti Anti Christ: Of a sort. Phoebe is the daughter of the actual devil, yet is the kindest, sweetest, nicest character of the entire series.
  • Art Evolution: Considering that there was a real time Time Skip of 10 years is expected to see the art become more sharp.
  • Batman Gambit: The reason for the baby shower. It has mixed results.
  • Be Careful What You Wish For: When Puck needs a job Phoebe tries to get her one in Howlers as a waitress but she couldn't get herself to do it and says that if there was a position where she didn't need to wear those outfits or being inside the bar she would take it, there is one, as the mascot Howlie:
    Puck: I asked for this torture, didn't I?
    Phoebe: Almost by name!
    • Puck goes on to have an Open Mouth, Insert Foot moment by describing the mascot outfit as “looking like a dog-eared freak” to Daphne, who IS a dog-headed humanoid quite unlike any of the other characters...
  • Berserk Button: Puck is VERY sensitive when it comes to her un-feminine appearance.
  • Big "NO!": From, of all people, Miranda, after first seeing Colin, freshly-shaved in his Fred cosplay.
    Miranda: NO! NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!
    Colin: I was unaware she even knew that word.
    Puck: She was apparently saving it just for this.
  • Bland-Name Product: Papa Shnorf.
  • Brainy Brunette: Tracee's hair slowly went from blonde to brunette over the course of babysitting Miranda during the Junior Prom arc. In the end, after Miranda opens an ash bag, Tracee switched out her usual lavish dress for a lazy mom outfit and GOT PRACTICAL.
  • Cat Girl: Daphne.
  • Colour-Coded Emotions: Coloured halos often appear around characters' heads, indicating various emotions. The most common one is the 'red halo of rage' which encircles Puck on a regular basis. When she's feeling warm or maternal, the halo is pink. Shock is shown through a yellow halo, and sickness or uneasiness is often green.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle: Miranda stood no chance against Tracee when she got practical.
  • Dumb Blonde: Tracee Topaz. The girl is usually portrayed as vacuous or manipulative. Usually. See Genius Ditz.
  • Only Sane Man: Daphne is often in this position.
  • Easy Amnesia: Puck loses her memory of what happened between the end of the original run and the start of the webcomic proper after she faints and hits her head on the bathroom floor after a positive pregnancy test.
  • Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Hot Dog Guy, even after his upgrade to shrink. note 
  • Expressive Ears: Puck, Phoebe and Daphne all have ears that emote something fierce.
  • Fiery Redhead: Puck has quite the temper.
  • G-Rated Drug: Phoebe in the Junior Prom arc in general. Strip 493 tells us she doesn’t smoke weed or drink. Her piece of choice, as Papa Shnorf finds out, is... sugar. Phoebe is fairly loopy afterward, dosing on sugar and sugary things like crazy.
    Papa Shnorf: Candy cigarettes?
    Phoebe: Trust me, you have no idea how high this plane can fly.
    • When Puck points out a white spot on Phoebe’s nose, Phoebe explains that it’s icing sugar.
  • Gender Flip: Puck, as compared to the original mythology.
  • Genius Ditz: When Miranda pushes her too far while Puck and friends are at junior prom, Tracee, the Howlers waitress turned Devil's paramour, gets PRACTICAL. As the oldest of seven, with a drunkard father and a gambling addict mother, she's had experience with kids.
  • Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Averted with Hannah Vanbeek. Hard. She sneaks out of the house with the help of a biker, is an expert manipulator (getting her parents to drop her off near Puck's, then convincing Daphne to play chess with her by framing it as a "con job on a board,") and on the topic of Tyler:
    Hannah: Tyler is like a soft, fluffy, little lamb. He would never survive a ride on this rollercoaster.
    Daphne: Why do I find that strangely believable?
  • Innocent Fanservice Girl: Although never naked, Phoebe does wear a variety of Stripperiffic outfits. She's also extremely naive, especially considering her parentage.
    • Puck wears a short skirt a lot of the time (the banner ad described her as “the redhead whose temper is as short as her skirt”), so there’s that... although Colin is well known to find this attractive, so she’s probably Ms. Fanservice.
  • I Take Offense to That Last One In this comic during the baby shower arc:
    Tracee: Wait, did you just call me cheap?!
  • Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
    • Daphne, from time to time.
    • The nurse/receptionist at the cancer hospital here.
      Nurse: Hey! No dark humor in here, pal!
  • Literal Metaphor:
    • When Phoebe breaks the news to Puck about the pregnancy, she says "You have a bun in the oven". Puck opens the oven and finds a cheese-onion bun. note 
      Phoebe: I was simply not expecting that.
    • After Daphne scares the freckles off Puck, she leans on the fourth wall.
  • Longest Pregnancy Ever: Due to the weekly updates of the strip, Puck's pregnancy actually spanned over two and a half years in real time, testing the patience of all but the most diehard readers.
  • Morning Sickness: Puck suffers from morning sickness in the early stages of her pregnancy.
  • Mundane Fantastic: Whilst there are definitely fantastical elements to the world in which Puck lives — the titular character is explicitly a 600+ year old Irish sidhe, her college roommate is Satan's Half-Human Hybrid daughter, and her own adopted daughter is a humanoid dog — the focus is entirely on their mundane, day-to-day lives, which center around things like college life, work, family dramas, parenthood, etc. Though magic is inferred to exist — Phoebe's mom got eternal youth as part of her prenuptial contract with Satan — don't expect it to ever show up or be used to make life easier for our heroes.
  • Must Have Caffeine: Puck. So much so that it apparently takes her three pots a day to function, she stole from a short-lived barista job, and she shuts down completely while denying her addiction.
  • Nude Nature Dance: Puck does a nude nature dance in the middle of her university campus after going crazy and attempting to return to a natural, unburdened state.
  • Our Fairies Are Different: The mythological Puck is a mischievous trickster; our Puck is more of a naive young woman with anger issues. Also note the gender shift from male to female.
  • Public Domain Character: Puck is the same Puck from A Midsummer Night's Dream. She's still not happy that Shakespeare thought she was male.
  • Really 700 Years Old: Puck appears in her twenties, both psychically and mentally, but is 621 years old at the start of the webcomic.
  • Selective Obliviousness: After the Easy Amnesia incident, Puck continuously misinterprets the physical signs of her own pregnancy.
  • Shout-Out:
  • Simple-Minded Wisdom from Colin, resulting in a Dumbass Has a Point moment for Daphne.
  • Spirit Advisor: Mr. T makes a surprisingly good one when Colin is afraid for his manhood during an operation for testicular cancer.
  • Villain Protagonist: At the very least extremely amoral. Puck openly admits to this to Daphne and casually admits it takes every ounce of her self-control to keep herself from just throttling crying kids at the mall.
  • Wacky Cravings: Puck develops cravings for French fries in the middle of the night. And blood.

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