Terrible Lizard

by Fox

This comic is part of a story arc about our invitation to Katsucon 2016!
Click here to go to the start of this story arc!
You can see all of the Katsucon comics here!

Fox\'s avatar

No, I only thought about doing this. But I decided I’d probably have a better chance of ever being invited back (as a guest OR an attendee) if I didn’t. 🙂

Mandy\'s avatar

 A dinosaur isn’t quite a dragon, but 21st century knights can’t afford to be too picky!

64 comments on “Terrible Lizard”

  1. Ha! Probably the most awesome comic I’ve seen ya draw! Was that the dinosaur cosplayer who was wearing the Luffy hat?

    1. I’m not sure I saw that one, but no. This was the standard inflatable one that kept hovering around the exit door to the merchant hall.

      1. Yep, there were probably three: Standard, Luffy, and Deadpool. Congrats on your student news.

  2. Why do i get the feeling that the security started searching for a giant magnet in hopes of stopping fox?

  3. Dragons are awesome. Dinosaurs, not as much. Were I actually good at costume making, I might wear a dragon costume at some point. In fiction, I imagine dragons can transform – that is, they would actually exist in the present day without making too much difference. Often, they take a human form. (See the Gold Digger comic.)

    I suspect wearing real armor makes you a little harder for security to stop. As for hurting, the armor is likely much better than the stuff they wear for football.

  4. Well, you know knights and dragons, er, dinosaurs. They just can’t resist the opportunity to slay one to prove to their lady love that they can perform any task.

    1. BTW, this kind of reminds me of the strip of Fox and the kid in the werewolf costume after your wedding.

      1. I’m starting to think Fox can trip into “attack” mode when something catches his eye; Bunnies, werewolves, floppy dinosaurs …

        1. In other words, you think he just looks for an excuse? You may be right. LOL.

        1. BTW, I loved the line in that strip where Quincy says, “Hurry, we have to save the dragon from the princess.” I laugh every time I see it.

      2. I wish I could find those strips. I’m currently reading “Precocious” and ChrisP makes mention of “Copper Road” but I don’t know how to access that strip. I’d love to see if it’s as off the wall as “Precocious” is.

        1. Well, I guess I should have read all the comments before I replied. I’m going to check it out right now.

          1. Did you find ‘Copper Road’ okay??
            IF not; goto ‘Precocious’ and click on “archive”. The ‘Copper Road’ stuff is listed on the right-hand side of the page. (Yes; it’s just as good as ‘Precocious’! It just centers more on Kaitlyn’s crew.)

          2. Yes, I did. I see that Copper Road centers around Kaitlyn and the other side of the class room from Bud, Tiffany, Autumn and Jacob. The only thing I’ve seen about it that I don’t particularly care for is the fact that it updates about every two weeks. But, that’s to be expected. You really can’t update TWO comics every day unless it’s your profession and you’re getting paid pretty good to do that. I’m reading the archives until I get caught up. Thanks.

  5. Heh, i imagine metallic clangs as the first few security people bounce off the shield before they stop trying to stop him that way

    1. Sweep the leg. If a heavily armored man is my enemy, then gravity is my ally!

      1. That requires getting past the sword and shield, and they were told not to hurt him. The crash from that would be really impressive though

        1. Remember Iron Knuckles from Link? Ya had to jump and swipe the head.

          1. I’ve only played the Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask, haven’t played any of the others :/

  8. I’ll be honest; given last Sunday’s comic I was hoping for a pin-up Mandy today, but it’s probably best not. I think I would find myself and that “Dragon” would have much in common I.E. at the tip of Fox’s sword.

      1. An older drawing, eh? Much like wine it has aged very well 🙂
        Oh, it will do!

      2. You’re one of the few people I know that can make a pin-up have me torn between *Wolf-Whistle* and *SQUEEEEE!!!*

      3. Hmm…
        Sexy + cute + interesting scene/situation.
        If “half-naked catgirl drawings” were ranked, I’d score this one quite highly!

  9. I just witnessed this at Marble City Comicon in Knoxville. Instead of a knight, it was the psycho from Borderlands. I pulled out my phone and showed my friend this comic ten seconds after it happened. 😀

    1. That’s what I ponder when I see RPG games where characters are half-human half-mythical-creature. I think the first enemy from Popful Mail was a raccoon dressed in overalls. That raccoon was probably just going to the market.

  11. You ever come across a blue dragon named Nogard in your wanderings I’ll be happy to fight you. But be forewarned I don’t slay easily. 🙂

  12. …. How did he draw his sword like that? Same side draw is difficult for something that long.

    1. Your being logical in reference to a comic. That NEVER works. LOL. (You are right, though. With the scabbard on his right hip, the sword should be in his left hand. But, then, he wouldn’t be able to hold his shield. LOL.) I’m sure Mandy has her reasons for things as they are shown. Right, Mandy? Right?

      1. Draw it in a reverse grip, then flip it around. The extra style points will further intimidate your enemies. #ruleofcool

        1. Okay. That works for me. It’s kind of like the gunfighters that would draw a pistol whose grip was facing the opponent and he would flip the pistol, a la Outlaw Josey Wales.

          1. The flip-draw is a Hollywood construct loosely based on trick shooters of the time, as is “dual wielding” of pistols. Showmanship is slow and flashy and gets you shot by someone faster and meaner if you do it in anything other than tightly controlled circumstances like a performance. Gunslingers carried multiple pistols because it was faster than reloading. Back in the days before detachable box magazines, “any gun fight you can’t finish without reloading is a gun fight -you- probably won’t finish.”

            I realize it’s a small artistic oversight, unless Fox is one of those crazy fools who likes to carry a long sword or broad sword for same side draw. “Otter” of A Girl and her Fed once made a similar gaff, accidentally drawing a character’s hand in the wrong orientation while said character was having their thumbs broken. And innumerable other occasions for other artists and comic-ers around the world. I just like to see what weird fancy explanations people come up with. :3

          2. Taolan, you realize this is a comic right? About a convention?
            Where no one was actually trying to kill anyone else?

            I realize it’s a small oversight, unless you’re one of those crazy fools who likes to find an insignificant aspect of a work of art, point it out and then pontificate upon it at length in an attempt to impress a bunch of people online who couldn’t care less. 🙂

            Mandy drew it on that side so it was more visible to the audience. Remember, the tag is ‘reality inspired’.
            I wasn’t even wearing a scabbard at Katsucon. I wasn’t carrying a steel sword. I’d a rather well crafted foam one simply tucked in my sword frog to comply with convention regulations.
            I wear swords on my left hip, and pistols on my right. But my steel sword’s blade length is 32 inches and my same-side draw reach is 36, so I can wear it on either side. I actually own three of them now so I could wear one on each hip.
            Frankly actual weapon draw time would be faster if it was hung on my right side. Crossdrawing always spends an extra second getting your hand from your strong side to the weak one, which is why I rarely use a shoulder holster for my pistol. With a sword that extra second is just spent bringing the point to bear on the enemy, so it’d be a wash until you factor in weakness of the wrist in that motion.

            But let’s be serious: if I needed to draw my sword so quickly due to a threat so close, I’d just fucking shield bash him. 🙂

            How’s that for a weird, fancy explanation? :3

          4. Actually, in a book I’ve written, wearing a long sword on the back is standard operational procedure for warriors of one species. They wear short swords on the hip and a dagger on the waist in the back.

          6. I have a pair of pistols like Josey Wales’. Was standing right in front of Dad and practicing that move while he explained how it was some kind of trick photography and doesn’t work like that in real life.
            “You mean like I’ve been doing over and over for the last three minutes?”
            “Uuhh…”
            🙂 🙂 🙂

          7. Of course, I should have qualified my original statement by pointing out that Josey Wales had already removed the pistols from his holsters when he did the flip/fire bit. Now, I’m not saying it would be easy, or even possible, but if anyone has ever read “Gone to Texas” the book the movie was based on, they would know that Josey Wales was a gunfighter after the War Between the States AND a bank robber. Knowing how to do that kind of stuff would be VERY helpful in his line of work. Don’t ya think?

          8. Don’t be intolerant of same side draw orientation. War is war. :3

  14. I’m pretty sure security wasn’t thinking in gaming terms, but indeed Fox was appropriately tank-geared with his board-and-sword. 🙂

  15. Doing this at any conference I’ve been to would get the weapon confiscated and the wielder banned.

  16. It was a long time ago, so I don’t remember WHERE exactly I read it….
    But I remember reading a story that had the ghost of an adventuring knight. He was a professional dragon slayer, with quite a number of kills to his name. Which is why the small village called upon him for help in ridding them of the overly large, reptilian beast that was terrorizing their neighboring jungle, making off with livestock, etc. etc.
    Turns out, it was a dinosaur, not a dragon. And they move completely differently, so none of his years of training could apply. You can’t really blame the poor villagers for not being able to tell the difference, but he’s still dead at the end of the day.

    2. Actually, I ran something similar. Basically folks were getting upset about a ‘river dragon’. Big scaly beast, already eaten two goats, etc.

      Yeah. Big crocodile. Still scary, mind you.

  17. That was in the book Bearing an Hourglass by Piers Anthony. It is the second book in the series called Incarnations of Immortality.

    The ghost of the dragon slayer Gawain enlists the help of a man named Norton to help him by fathering a child with the woman Gawains parents arranged a ghost marriage. The ghost offers to teach Norton how to kill dragons as payment for services rendered. Gawain ends up telling Norton about the differences between dragons and dinosaurs, and how that got him killed.

    “So there I was, afoot and armed with sword and shield, as is proper for such encounters, and I boldly braved the lair of the monster. And monster it was! I could see claw marks on the big trees some ten feet up. A real challenge! I marched up to its cave and bellowed out my challenge, and the monster came charging out, no fire, just growling-and then I realized my mistake. That was no dragon-it was a dinosaur! A largely bipedal carnivorous reptile-allosaurus, to be specific; I looked it up after it was too late. It was supposed to be extinct; I think Satan revived it, just to take me down a peg.”

    1. Ah, many thanks. As I said above, it was a long time ago when I read that book. Not even my own copy, borrowed it from my older brother.

    2. My Favorite was “With A Tangled Skein” personally. I really have to see if I can grab the whole series, all mo copies burned in a house fire many years ago.

  18. Can we get a sound bite of you two Hooahing? I did 10 years in the Cavalry Scouts myself, so I do appreciate a good Hooah now and again. BTW, were one of ya’ll Military? Which branch and MOS?

  19. OT: I have noticed that the “Reply” ‘button’ disappears in certain comment threads. Is that an automatic thing after a thread gets to a certain length? Or do you do it manually when we get too far off-topic?
    NO complaint! Just wondering. 🙂 If it’s because we’re too far off-topic…I’ll try to watch myself closer from now on.

  20. Security leader: DEPLOY THE TANK
    Asistant:we don’t have a tank
    Security leader: Fine The net guns then
    Assistant:don’t have
    Security leader:what do we have?
    Assistant:whistles, a walkie talkie, zip ties, strong words, and some brought mace from home.
    Security leader: *Cries*

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