It’s time for another invasive, unauthorized biography of one of your favorite Friday fuck ups in The Nest’s Meet the Shelf Critters series! This week, we’re going to exhume the lives and times of one of the few characters to cross over from that other gang of critters this blog used to be about… Buster! You may want to don your bloodborne pathogen protection suits for the secrets Buster’s just dying to let you in on…
It’s always a pleasure to burn for Buster…
NAME: Buster
SPECIES: Possum. Actually, opossum, I guess, though nobody actually uses the extra letter. And a common American Virginia opossum at that…
SHELF PERSONALITY: Buster’s personality in SCT is almost a 180 of the behavior he was known for in my comic series. While the original Buster came off as creepy, ill mannered, and often seemed to get just what was coming to him… the Shelf’s Buster tends to have a very affable and likeable nature. For the very few moments he may actually have any lines, that is…. because the one thing both Busters do well is die. Early and often…
You won’t ever see a bigger smile on a dead possum.
RUNNING GAGS: What do you think?
And Buster’s just getting warmed up. If there’s a stupid and gratuitous way to die, it will probably happen to Buster in Shelf Critter Theatre.
ESN PREMIERE: Buster had a brief, ill fated appearance in Who Needs An Elf… giving an early foreshadowing to the kinder, gentler possum his real life likeness would become. He next made a cameo in my Christmas Carol parody as the dinner Scrooge brings to the Cratchits in the finale…
Tender, juicy possum meat!
WHAT’S IN A NAME?: Buster was inspired by a real life possum in California who tormented one of my internet friends ten years ago this summer… and I would always draw this possum character to tweak her. When it finally became obvious that the butthead possum was going to be a main character in my Evil Squirrel series, I asked her to name him. She gave me two options. One was Lil Shithead. The other was Buster…
You might not want to look at that warm California sun, Buster…
ICONIC SCT ROLE: Buster rarely lasts longer than a single SCT scene for obvious reasons… but the did finally get a gig as the main character in last month’s Groundhog Day roasting Dark Shadows. Buster endures far more uncalled for violence than is really necessary, but we find out that all is not bad in the very short life of the world’s most disposable possum. My favorite SCT image of Buster, though, has to come from the episode Rain In Vain, where Fleabag and Rainy discover Buster cooking himself in the microwave… and Buster is happier than a camel on Wednesday. Of course he is. Even in my nasty microwave, it’s good to be Buster…
Don’t forget to poke some holes in me before you close the door!
WHAT IS HE?: You can probably tell that Buster is an amigurumi… a crocheted critter!
WHERE DID HE COME FROM?: Buster was created by the blogger Young At Fifty four years ago, and he has the distinction of being part of the very first winning entry in my Contest of Whatever! And Buster isn’t just Buster…. his insides are stuffed with another crossover character in SCT, Evil Squirrel! The two are part of what Y50 called a “topsy turvy” doll. where both critters are hollow and sewn together at the feet, and one body is crammed inside the other to give the appearance of being stuffed…
The only time you’ll ever see ES and Buster in the same scene.
CAN I GET ONE TOO?: Obviously not, since Buster really is one of a kind… and Young At Fifty hasn’t posted on her blog in two years. Keep looking along the side of the road, though, and you just might find your own real life Buster to scrape up and take home…
Found mine!!!
We’ll unearth a slightly more alive critter next Thursday….
Evil Squirrel's Nest 
maybe buster is the reincarnation from south park kenny?… I wonder what kenny did to come back as a possum… ummm…. maybe you can use a slogan like they have for kenny every time buster bites the dust?
Maybe Buster comes back as Kenny and vice versa…. just trading each other’s lives each time. I don’t think my critters would scream “Oh my God, you killed Buster!” They usually don’t even notice when he dies…
Poor Buster! Ps.. I accidently deleted your comment on my alien ships, sorry! Yes I agree “why do they keep them behind barbed wire”?? Are they dangerous?? Probably remnants of little green men still splattered in the inside! lol..
Ha! Now I’ll probably be flagged as spam every time I try to comment on your blog now! I guess I’ll have to post the links to my cheap Viagra and Cialis….
LOL!! I hope not!
Dying a gazillion unfortunate and bizarre deaths… What a fine thing to be known for. 😝
My boys enjoy playing a game called Dumb Ways to Die. Perhaps if Buster is ever in need of inspirational ways to meet his untimely end, he ought to check it out. 😁
Buster could probably give the game some suggestions! He’s been mistaken for a pinata, been incinerated by a robotic fox, impaled on a lawn dart, and he even ran over his younger self in the past. And there’s still many more silly ways to die on Buster’s ironically named bucket list!
I reckon Buster has a deal going with Death. Namely that Death isn’t ready for Buster yet, so refuses to collect!!
I covered that in one of my better comics a few years ago, in that neither heaven nor hell want him… so he keeps getting sent back to earth to die more gruesome deaths. I guess that’s one secret to immortality…
I think Buster deserves special extra credit for being the most regenerative creature in all cartoon history. You can knock him down, squash him, shoot him, carve him into little piece. Boil him in whatever, but no matter what — he will be back!
He may have a ways to go before he catches Wile E. Coyote in that regard, but he’s getting there one gruesome death at a time…
The crocheted Buster is amazing but I miss all the facial expressions you drew him with. Buster with tears in his big, blue eyes always tugged at my heartstrings!
I really miss drawing my critters, but it’s been so long now… and the new art programs I have just don’t recapture that look I got with the old ones. Not many possums are capable of tugging at heartstrings (at least, other than those on roadkill)….
Poor Buster. I hope at some point his cuteness get acknowledged for something other than a regular demise.
Poor Buster is the ultimate victim of my habitual nature…
Somebody’s got to do it, right? 😉
Buster’s one of my faves, of course. Maybe one day you’ll spring a surprise on us and he won’t die… no, wait, what am I saying?
Hey, it happened once! When I introduced him, intended to give him a gruesome, grisly death later in the show….. and wound up completely forgetting about it until the end. So I rewarded him with Mitzi….
https://evilsquirrelsnest.com/2017/01/06/whos-your-daddy/