Webcomic / Cheap Thrills

Cheap Thrills was a furry slice-of-life/romance webcomic created and drawn by S. E. Case. Published between 2006 and 2012, it is still featured either here or here (the latter link includes sketches and preview art).

The story starts out with a teenage rabbit named Jeordie Maaltajik, living a high life of booze, drugs, and girls... until he finally settles down with a childhood friend of his, Bethany O'Hearn, a tabby cat who has her own problems with her broken and abusive family. On the sidelines with their own subplots are badger Erik Volta and fellow cat Anna Lee Jensen, Jeordie's other childhood friends; and Frank Solomon, Jeordie's and Anna's chihuahua drug dealer with a messed-up life of his own.

The comic was divided into chapters, where each chapter jumped forward several months later and changed the art style, always for the better.

After suffering a bit of a Schedule Slip into the fourth chapter due to Artist Disillusionment and increasingly unrealistic expectations by some of the readership (of which S. E.'s frustration came out in a Take That! blog post months beforehand), publication of the strip abruptly stalled in December of 2012. It was presumed to have been ended with an unresolved cliffhanger, and the artist withdrew from the furry fandom and public life altogether.

Following a prolonged five-year absence, a teaser graphic for "Rigsby, WI: 2019" was quietly uploaded onto the dormant website for ''Cheap Thrills'', featuring Bethany and Jerodie in human form. Since then, S. E. Case re-emerged with intentions to Continuity Reboot the comic under the Rigsby, WI title. This reboot officially launched on January 1, 2019 (published here and featured here and here), this time with the characters in human form.

Note that most of the tropes below pertain to Cheap Thrills proper, any comparisons and/or similarities to it and Rigsby, WI are noted.

---

Contains examples of:

• Ambiguously Brown: Jeordie is said to look like this In-Universe, due to having a Sudanese father and American Indian mother.
• Art Evolution: Best known for this, S. E.’s art style for Cheap Thrills would change significantly when proceeding from one chapter to the next.
  • Chapter 1 has a much more cartoonish look to it in spite of the tone and plot.
  • Chapter 2 is predominantly in a yellow-and-blue tint.
  • Chapter 3 has a somewhat more stylized look, but a wide range of colors... until Jeordie’s mother Elizabeth and younger brother Faris die in a car crash, then the color palette is more muted.
  • Chapter 4 is very stylized with a vibrant color scheme.
• Art Shift:
  • A flashback sequence in Chapter 2 is done in a much simpler style.
  • Jeordie’s meth-fueled nightmares towards the end of Chapter 4 almost qualify as paintings.
• Badass Boast:
  Bully: Outta my way, you freak! I'm not afraid of you!
  Frank: Oh really? *flicks out a knife and grins* Well you should be.
• Berserk Button:
  • The already-strained relationship between Bethany and Gladys deteriorated in Chapter 1 to the point they repeatedly set off each other’s buttons. It got to the point Alice Morgan (Gladys’ sister and Bethany’s aunt/court-appointed legal guardian) had to play peacemaker between them.
  • Bruce hits Jeordie's when he repeatedly insults Erik and Pam, in addition to the fact that Jeordie has not been having a good time lately.
• Blatant Lies: "I have told you a million times! That is a hand-rolled cigarette!"

• Citizenship Marriage: Gladys comes to the conclusion that Jeordie's parents did this, and she may be right.
• Cliffhanger: The final published installment of ''Cheap Thrills'' had Bethany waking up to see a severely withdrawn Jeordie in their living room. After hugging him, Bethany discovered his meth pipe and asked "Where’d you get this?"
  • It was eventually followed by a blog post from the author six months later explaining that the comic just couldn't continue, rendering it unfinished.
• Crapsack World:
  • The second half of Chapter 3 and much (if not all) of Chapter 4 are pretty much this. Even bright moments don’t last long (Bethany gets an out-of-state university scholarship but turns it down to be closer to Jerodie; Pam and Erik become unexpected parents out of wedlock and Erik’s father kicks him out of the family home).
  • S. E. modeled Frank’s nihilistic character almost entirely from the characters depicted in Gummo.
• Deadpan Snarker: Anna and Bethany.
• Domestic Abuse: Bethany's mother, implied with Frank's mother, and a few of Jeordie's ex-girlfriends' boyfriends.
• Dramatic Irony: Bethany's mother believes divorces are for people who don't make the effort to save their marriage; meanwhile her husband has clearly lost all interest in his family (assuming he had any to begin with).
• Drugs Are Bad:
  • Zig-Zagged. Jeordie avoids drugs for the most part, but he still acts as drug dealer for a couple neighborhood scum.
  • In the third character, when his parents discover a stash, they merely give him a lecture on personal responsibility and then smoke it themselves. Of course, Jerodie happens to be wearing a D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) t-shirt at the time.
  • Played straight in the Wham Episode later in said chapter, and for much of the fourth chapter.

• Early-Bird Cameo: Frank shows up at a party in chapter 1, way before he becomes an important character in chapter 3.

• Flat "What": Bethany's reaction to Erik's talk about marrying Pam.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Jeordie gets a lecture on being careful with drugs. A few pages later, he finds out why.
  • In addition, the author made a cryptic blog post apologizing months in advance to readers for “...this other thing thats gonna happen...”
  “...also writers, do you ever get attached to some of your characters, and then feel bad when something bad has to happen to them?”
  • A conversation between Jeordie and his father and certain visual evidence seems to foreshadow that Jeordie has become a meth addict due to stress.
• Functional Addict: Several characters have addictions to various substances, but most seem to function for the most part.
• Furry Confusion: Both anthropomorphic animals and regular animals exist in this world. For example, Marty (An anthropomorphic possum) performing taxidermy on a regular possum. Posted with that page to the artist's Fur Affinity page was this:
  "at one point I tried to explain the humanimals vs animals thing in my comic but honestly I think I’m just trying to fuck with people at this point"
• Gang of Bullies: Faris gets picked on by them. So does Jeordie, to a lesser extent.
• Gym Bunny: Erik is actually straight, but otherwise fits the stereotype, since he's convinced that if he doesn't keep up his workout and watch his diet he'll "hop on the lard train back to fat-town" and Anna likes to use this to insinuate that Erik is actually gay.
• Hands-Off Parenting verging on Parental Abandonment: Bethany's dad spends as little time at home as possible and when he is there he ignores his wife and half-dozen kids to the point that he doesn't know how long Bethany's been back (a few days) or why she's even there (it's Christmas). He's also a serial cheater who was only nice/acknowledged his kids when his current girlfriend gave him an advantage (IE discounted tickets) or he felt guilty. The only reason he hasn't left (and possibly why he got married in the first place) is because his wealthy, ultra-religious mother would disinherit him.
• Heteronormative Crusader: Gladys. She also refers to Jeordie as a "sand rat" (even labeling his dad the N-word in a public outburst) and makes ham when he comes over for dinner since she's under the (incorrect) impression that he's a Muslim.
• Hippie Parents:
  • Jeordie’s mother Elizabeth spent her late teenage years in San Francisco... even frequenting Haight-Ashbury in 1968, at age 18, after leaving foster care.
  • Bethany’s aunt/legal guardian Alice attended the original Woodstock festival in 1969 (but doesn’t remember any of it). She later gives Bethany her old Volkswagen Micro-bus when Bethany gets her drivers license.
• Hypocritical Humor: Frank at one point advises Jeordie to never trust a crackhead... while lighting what looks like a crack pipe. (He's actually smoking meth.)
• Hypocritical Heartwarming: Jeordie gets pissed off that Bruce's little brother was throwing rocks at Faris, and says that if anyone's gonna throw rocks at Faris, it'll be him.
• Incompatible Orientation: Frank is in love with Anna who likes the ladies. Erik is extremely wary of anything Frank does around her and is convinced that he's going to try and rape her, something Frank vehemently denies.
• Jerkass:
  • Jeordie (particularly in Chapter 1). He gets (slowly) better.
  • Gladys, Bethany's mother. She starts getting a bit better when she notices Jeordie pays more attention to her kids than her own husband does.
  • Bethany's younger sister, the only sibling who's mean to her. Beth's older siblings explain that unlike them or her younger brothers she was both old enough to know what was going on (Beth's actions could have put them put in foster care) and young enough to think it could actually happen.
• Jerk Jock: Bruce and his gang.
• Killed Off for Real: The permanent deaths of Elizabeth and Faris in a vehicular collision were gradually confirmed over the course of three pages.
• Massive Numbered Siblings: Bethany's family◊, for several generations. She alone is one of eight children.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Jeordie gets subjected to one, and while he technically started the fight he's too drunk to continue it after the first punch or fight back.
• No Periods, Period: Averted, Anna suffers from one during a party and needs a place to rest.
• Oblivious to Love: Chapter 1: Jeordie confesses to Bethany about his crush on a friend named "Delilah.". Bethany later tells Anna that she thinks that Jeordie is in love with her (Anna). Bethany also obliges with the "He can't be talking about me" part of the trope when Anna suggests it's her (Bethany) Jeordie has the crush on.
• Period Piece: Cheap Thrills takes place during the '90s, between 1994 and 1997. The Continuity Reboot as Rigsby, WI moved the timeline several years ahead out to September 2002 and proceeding onwards.
• Persona Non Grata: Frank is not allowed on school property anymore thanks to getting caught selling drugs. Several times.
• Shotgun Wedding: Bethany believes that her parents only got married because her dad got her mom pregnant, and one of Bethany's greatest fears is getting pregnant herself and winding up in a loveless marriage like theirs. This also applies to Erik and Pam though they haven't yet gotten married.
• Shoot the Shaggy Dog: S. E. Case had planned early in the comics' run to kill off Elizabeth and Faris but put it off until the third chapter. But by then, they had become established as both fan favorites and favorites of S. E., so much so that she posted a cryptic foreshadowing apology on her FurAffinity page and openly expressed regret for their deaths.
• Sickeningly Sweethearts: Jeordie's parents, at least as far as Faris is concerned.
• Spock Speak: Mirza doesn't use contractions because English is his second language and he finds it easier.
• Stepford Smiler: Bethany's mother, Gladys, to the general effect of Type A. She's not particularly cheerful and upbeat, but she pretends she's happy with the way her life turned out while actually not being so.
• The Stoner: Jeordie and Bethany smoke weed together in one of the early pages of chapter one in a forest. Jeordie's parents were also hippies in the late '60s and upon finding his weed stash, his father says he'll flush it down the toilet. He and Jeordie's mother proceeded to smoke it themselves.
• Squee: When Bethany learns that Pam, Eric's girlfriend, is pregnant. She immediately imagines (stated, not shown) a 'little Eric running around', and proceeds to visibly and audibly squee. She then performs an excellent Mood Whiplash when asked by Jeordie if SHE wants to have a kid, responding with "HELL no!"
• Title Drop: Here.
• Too Dumb to Live: Jeordie. His heart is usually in the right place (from Chapter 2 onwards, at least).
• True Companions: Most of the main cast, especially evident here between Erik and Jeordie.
• Wham Episode: Jeordie and Anna find some shrooms and decide to take them. It... goes badly. First Jeordie rips out a chunk of Anna's hair. Then because Jeordie's in no condition to get his brother from soccer practice, his mom goes, and they both die in a car crash . Jeordie still blames himself for it.
• Where the Hell Is Springfield?: S. E. originally had given Rigsby a somewhat ambiguous location based on cities in Wisconsin and Minnesota, with early refs to places in Oregon. The Rigsby, WI reboot obviously subverts this; Rigsby is now firmly placed in Wisconsin, of course fortified by the Title Drop.

---