Meet The Gang! (Comic Strip)

If you look at a lot of the early, early posts in my blog, you’ll see a lot of posts introducing a lot of different characters of mine.  Some still regularly show up here, some have never been heard from again, and some have emerged despite never getting an intro post of their own!  That’s because, as I had kind of hoped when I started my weekly comic strip, ES and the gang have taken on a separate life of their own over here away from the message board they were created on.  I wasn’t sure who would stick and who wouldn’t at the time….

A few months after beginning that strip, I added this Meet The Gang page to my blog to help newcomers tell who’s who, and updated it periodically as new characters emerged, but even with those revisions the page has become quite out of date both in terms of which characters have become the core part of my gang, and in their very “fursonalities” that have not always meshed with what I had traditionally assigned them to be.  Now that my comic has long since gotten its sea legs, it’s time to rewrite this reference so that it will likely only need occasional tweaking in the future rather than wholesale changes…

So, with that being said, let’s actually meet the gang!

Note: The Evil Squirrel’s Nest comic strip only ran until September of 2017, and new strips are not currently published anymore.

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As you might expect from the name of this blog, Evil Squirrel is my main character and unofficial leader of the gang.  Since ES has pretty much come to represent me, he obviously retains a number of my traits and characteristics… such as being sarcastic, coming up with curious observations, and despite being quite odd himself, generally being a straight man for all of the even weirder “normal” critters around him.  While he primarily works as a grunt at the big box store Mecca, I occasionally give him a number of other odd jobs as my comics dictate… including occasionally a nod to him presiding over this Nest of insanity.

 

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Miss Beautiful Red Squirrel, who usually just goes by her initials MBRS (Though I have no idea why I didn’t adopt the name Ember for her), is the primary female counterpart of Evil Squirrel, and is sometimes shown as having some sort of relationship with him.  True to her gingerness, she has a fiery personality and generally likes to flaunt her natural sexiness… even if many of my critters seem to have a hard time actually picking her up at the bar.  She’s very sociable and outgoing, in stark contrast to her friend Angel who she makes a perfect foil for.  She was inspired by this this revealing article that delved into the rather unabashed sex life of her red squirrel species.

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Buster is a troublemaking little possum who wormed his way into my little gang and has become one of the true stars of my comics.  Buster is often portrayed with a variety of negative personality traits from greedy to creepy to misogynist to just plain mischievous… and when he isn’t all that and more, is often my blog’s main ne’er do well.  He also has really pathetic luck, often getting seriously injured or even killed… enough so that he’s taken on a South Park Kenny-like role in my comics.  Buster always comes back for more the following week, though… you can’t keep a good, or bad possum down!

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Hooly the skunk (or skunkette as we like to refer to the female polecats around here) is The Nest’s resident Type-A personality.  She is overly outgoing and sociable, and never afraid to seize opportunities to do new things.  Her perky personality is a stark contrast to her roommate and natural foil Odyssey, and it is often a point of contention for the two.  While popular with all of The Nest’s males, she holds a special affection for Clem and there seems to be an unofficial relationship between the two.  Almost as omnipresent as her trademark “H” guitar pick pendant she wears is her purple smartphone which she is hopelessly addicted to… said addiction being frequently mined for humor in my comics.

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Odyssey is a black and white cat who always seems to have some kind of chip on her shoulder placed there by society at large.  She is my “protest kitty” who can frequently be seen carrying a sign proclaiming something she believes to be a terrible wrong that make the others shake their heads.  Awkward and completely uninterested in love and romance, she naturally shares a dwelling with her polar opposite Hooly, which makes for many Odd Couple like situations when they are teamed up together.  At some point in every comic where she appears with Hooly, Odyssey will refer to her with her trademark epithet “Skunkbitch.”  Also a dyed in the fur feminist, she frequently refers to men as “malecritters.”

 

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Sulphur (often referred to as just Sully) and Blaze are a twin brother and sister (respectively) pair of young squirrels who came to be adopted by their “Uncle Evil.”  The duo was actually inspired by a real life pair of baby squirrels who were rescued from a charred tree stump after an Oklahoma wildfire in 2011, which lends some background to their names and the black markings on their ears and tails.  They behave much like any other pair of close siblings would, and more than serve their purpose as the stereotypical brother and sister who can play together and fight with each other at the drop of a hat.  Sully likes to torment his sister, while Blaze fights back by ratting him out.  Like most children, they’re not as innocent and naive as you like to think they are and they’re constantly throwing back their “uncle’s” kiddie stuff back in his face.

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Hottie is a skunkette with an old fashioned sense of innocence and values.  A typical appearance by Hottie in one of my comics will see her happily pontificating on the joys of one of life’s simpler pleasures or time honored traditions, only to have it all come crashing back down upon her in some hilarious way in the last panel.  Hottie’s also my go-to female odd-jobber, and she is very much involved with The Nest’s fictional charity Tufts of Love.  On rare occasions, I even let her play the role of surprise villain.

 

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Rainbow Donkey is perhaps my most popular character here at The Nest, and really, who doesn’t love a rainbow unicorn… or donkicorn.  Named so because of my horrific early attempts at drawing him, RD has nudged his way into the hearts of my readers and can always be found in my comics, symbolically if not in the flesh.  When RD does show up for reals, his role is usually that of straight man… often frustrated or confused by the crazy antics of the others around him.  He also has a distaste for performing his “duties” as a unicorn like entertaining little girls or puking rainbows.

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Robbie is a bespectacled raccoon originally created out of the necessity of my October 2012 squirrel boycott, but who hung on to gain a very regular role in my comics as Evil Squirrel’s sidekick and understudy.  Like ES, Robbie’s main employer is Mecca, but you can usually find him assisting Evil at whatever job he happens to be working on at the moment.  While Evil Squirrel represents a more outgoing version of myself, Robbie got infused with all of my natural shyness and awkward behavior.  Robbie was named after a stuffed raccoon I had as a kid, and his lightbulb tattoo was inspired by the chest design of Care Bear Cousin Brightheart Raccoon.

 

 

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Angel is a white squirrel who is the epitome of blissful innocence.  This also means she’s pretty naive about much of what’s going on around her.  She is always at her best when paired up with her friend MBRS, who is often embarrassed by how clueless she can be sometimes.  Originally one of my major characters, she hasn’t appeared as often as I’d have expected which is a shame.

 

 

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Sandy the blonde haired grey squirrel is actually the oldest existing character of mine, predating even Evil Squirrel by 6 weeks.  Originally banished to obscurity when I created MBRS a year later, I brought Sandy back when I started up my blog and she’s taken on a recurring role as kind of a middle ground between MBRS and Angel.  Wild and flirty, yet also sweet and lovable… she’s most commonly seen running The Nest’s local tattoo parlor.  She also gained a spot in my blog’s lore due to all of the searches she attracted for that other Sandy Squirrel from Spongebob’s universe which inspired an annual awards show I post every New Years Day.

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Erin is an 8 year old kitten who along with her mother Mini help create a lot of my comic’s parenting humor.  Erin is just as sweet and curious and rambunctious as you would expect an 8 year old girl to be, and Mini plays the overprotective and sometimes overbearing mother who tries to keep her out of trouble.  That includes those awkward “talks” when the not-so-innocent world of The Nest manages to corrupt her daughter.

 

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The Pigladillo is the world’s only arboreal armadillo, and came about via the perverse idea of little dillos swinging through the trees like nature’s acrobats.  He was introduced in 2013 as a sidekick for Buster, who he considers to be his comic strip mentor.  Normally a cheerful and utterly cute comic throw-in, he has a tendency to either be seen sleeping and/or passed out drunk in my strips… also sometimes appearing as Nabob’s pet.  Many of the characters joke about potentially contracting leprosy from him due to the scientific fact that armadillos are the only other species other than humans who can contract that disease.

 

 

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Clem is a kangaroo (No, I can’t draw roos very well, just go with it, OK!) whose main purpose in my gang is to serve as the resident studmuffin.  He’s often seen trying to pick up on the female members of my gang with his usual pickup line “Hey there, Furbaby.”  Clem is almost never seen without his trademark blue and orange sneakers, which he wears despite usually being as naked as the rest of my gang is.  Clem also serves as the staff’s lawyer, usually representing clients who don’t stand a ghost of a chance of winning their cases anyway.

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Wiki is a hyena pup from Dinkum Island who was first introduced in my comics as a throwaway gag and was later shipped to America as an exchange student to become a more regular character.  Like the natives of his South Pacific island Wiki has a mane of untamed orange hair, wears alternating yellow and purple arm and leg bands, a culinary craving for possum, as well as the magical power of his critters’ rain dance.  Wiki often hangs out with his best friend Sully, who each get to experience the culture shock of the differences in how their civilizations operate.

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Lil is a pink furred hedgehog who despite always being around, never really earned a spot in my comic’s universe until I installed her as a co-worker of Evil’s and Robbie’s at Mecca.  Lil’s flashy and spunky with a healthy dose of party attitude… as if you wouldn’t know from the spiky purple hairdo she sports.  She has also occasionally motored through my comics on a wide variety of hot pink colored vehicles to send some kind of a message while mowing down poor Buster in the process.

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Skanki Skankova is a wild child borzoi who occasionally appears when I need someone edgy and/or slutty.  This freak on a leash is bedazzled with just about every piercing you can imagine, even on her tail… and is overly fond of both them and tattoos.  As her breed might suggest (Russian wolfhound), she comes from the former USSR and occasionally ironically laments about how much better life was over there than in America.

 

 

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Nabob is a prickly porcupine both figuratively and literally.  He’s an old curmudgeon who is bothered by anything and everything that gets in his way.  Nabob’s squinty eyes almost never open, perhaps because they’re as bothered as everyone else is by his ever-present, foul smelling cigar he smokes, which he unapologetically puffs at regardless of what the no-smoking rules may say.  Nabob is pretty much stacked with every negative trait that can be found in crusty old men, and was partially cobbled together from hilariously bad senior dating profiles the lady who inspired Devil Kitty used to share.

 

 

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Devil Kitty is…. well, a demon cat who is somewhat a female version of Nabob.  She can be irritable and cranky, and quite sensitive to the negative elements of growing older.  While she functions as a semi-love/hate interest for Nabob, she also occasionally appears in her true role as a guardian of Hell.

 

 

 

 

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Stinkerball, often just called Stinky, is a skunk boy and friend of Sully.  Stinky began as a gag concocted on my message board over a graphic the Richmond Flying Squirrels baseball team had on their video board.  Stinky pitches, and usually terribly, for the local ball team… and is almost always seen wearing his baseball cap.

 

 

 

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Kati is a purple colored skunkette girl originally created as a one-time gag, but she was too cute to not to give a somewhat recurring role to.  She is Hottie’s niece, and is rather smart and observant for her age.  Not that you would be able to tell since she typically talks in textspeak.  OMG, LOL!  She completes the trio of The Nest’s young female friends along with Erin and Blaze.

 

 

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Winnie is not just a flying squirrel, but a Sumatran flying squirrel who made a handful of appearances in the first year of my comic, but hasn’t been seen much since.  Outside of being the coach of Sully and Stinky’s baseball team, I do turn to him on occasion when I need an extra male background character.  He did gain a reputation for being a semi-villain early on, a trait which may accompany some future appearances.

 

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Ms. Hermie is a raccoon who serves as the teacher for my gang of little critters.  She’s not afraid to challenge her students on their preconceived notions… even if her lessons turn out to be ill-advised.  She’s also not afraid to stand up to the abuse she must put up with from overbearing parents, particularly Mini, with a healthy dose of snark and sarcasm.

 

 

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Dr. Weyoun the wolf serves as The Nest’s resident physician, treating my critters with the dignity and professionalism of a back alley quack.  He has the pill for what ails you, unless you have cut rate insurance and no money.

 

 

 

 

 

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Bernard serves up the cold ones for my gang as the bartender in my comics.  He’s a fox (Named in honor of the actor who played Col. Crittendon) who occasionally turned up in other service roles in my early comics before settling into his barkeep role.  His main roles are merely interacting with my critters in any bar scenes and making sure to enforce the rules of underaged drinking and drunk driving.

 

 

 

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The Boss is the evil supervisor of ES, Robbie and the gang at Mecca.  A rottweiler with a red tie, he’s good for not much more than barking orders, dispensing with misguided advice and blatantly horrible suggestions, and enforcing bizarre safety policies that unmotivate the workforce and grind productivity to a halt.  While The Boss was certainly inspired by one of my real-life Mecca managers, I’ve chosen to leave him nameless.

 

 

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With a frequently dying character like Buster, a guardian of the gates to the afterlife is often necessary, and this blue bunny is my version of St. Peter.  Before latching on as the keeper of Critter Heaven, he got an occasional cameo role as a background character in some of my early comics.  My St. Peter doesn’t have that infamous patience of saints, and seems more than a bit perturbed by Buster’s repeat visits to his podium, often referring him to the demoness downstairs or sending him back to Earth.

 

 

 

 

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Officer Thursday the blue hair police dog is always on the prowl for any suspicious activity going on around The Nest.  Badge #42 will run you in, even if she has to make a bunch of shit up.

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Fanny’s never had a single line of dialogue in a comic strip yet, but she’s my most frequently used background character.  She’s almost always shown as an annoyed bystander to the goings-on around her, especially if someone’s holding up the line at Mecca.