#1136; The Earthworm Bucket, Part 1 (of 4)

Comic Transcripts

[[A concerned citizen talks to the debater from the previous comic.]]
Citizen: SO, I hear you like to argue against what you perceive as weak positions, REGARDLESS of your true opinions on the matter at hand!
Debater: ABSOLUTELY. Our opinions are ever-changing, anyway. What DOESN’T change is LOGIC.

Debater: I think everyone should have to defend any statement they make, against ANY criticism, ON DEMAND, to the ARBITRARY satisfaction of WHOEVER’S challenging them.
Debater: In fact, I MAINLY strike up arguments with people I AGREE with! Like a trainer, or a coach! I want to strengthen our side!

Citizen: So, like… a VOLUNTEER coach who SHOUTS at people on the sidewalk to run faster.
Debater: MOST coaches are volunteers. Ever hear of REC LEAGUES?

Citizen: I bet YOU’RE real fun at parties.
Debater: I take ISSUE with the assumption that being “fun” in some facile social context is prima facie a worthwhile or desirable goal!
Citizen: GUUUHHHH

{{header: prove your worth at WONDERMARK.COM}}
{{alt-text: Life coach on the streets, Craig T. Nelson in the sheets}}

#1136; The Earthworm Bucket, Part 1 (of 4) transcribed by in

Citizen: So, like… a VOLUNTEER coach who SHOUTS at people on the sidewalk to run faster.
Debater: MOST coaches are volunteers. Ever hear of REC LEAGUES?

{{header: prove your worth at WONDERMARK.COM}}
{{alt-text: Life coach on the streets, Craig T. Nelson in the sheets}}

#1136; The Earthworm Bucket, Part 1 (of 4) transcribed by in

The past few weeks have been a frenzy of assembling the very laborious, very bespoke first print run of NOODLE BATTLE, the puzzle game I am releasing this weekend at PAX West in Seattle!

PAX has an event called the PNW Tabletop Game Market (Saturday night ONLY), which is a curated selection of short-run games from local designers. As I’ve mentioned in this space before, I applied for a space in this fall’s event mainly as a way to force myself to finish a new game. And here it is!

The drawings are all by Jason Poland, good pal and cartoonist of My Dad Is Dracula. Jason played an early version of this game at Alaska Robotics Comics Camp this spring, and really liked it!

So I said, “Do you want to help me make it?” And so he has! It was his idea to make all the characters fun little animals, and I think it adds a ton of charm.

Because this edition is limited-run, it has been incredibly labor-intensive to make! The boxes and cards were made by a game factory in the usual fashion, but separately. The blank tiles were made by a woodworker dude out of Connecticut. For each game, we have had to:

Cut a piece of plastic and install the box window
Paint all the tiles, hundreds at a time
Apply a sticker to both sides of every tile
Apply stickers to the box (we couldn’t get the box back printed in time, so the whole back side of the box is a sticker too)
Apply the “Nutrition Facts” sticker, which was a late suggestion by my kid that I just had to run with
Fold up the rule sheet (they come from the printer as big strips of paper)
Put all the components into the box and seal it all up

I knew it would be a lot of work and would require some inefficient, expensive compromises AND I WAS RIGHT. But the final product is turning out great, which is the important thing!!

I will have 50 copies with me (if all goes well) at PAX, and then between now and the holidays we will be putting together additional copies to round out this first edition.

I will announce additional copies on Patreon first, once they are available online!! And here too, naturally, before long.

You can also sign up here if you’d like me to email you once the game is available online!