Sorry for being so late, Kupo! I had a miserable weekend. I may withhold specifics and elaborate on Friday, but it was definitely filled with needless drama from people who can't control their instigation. Bad time to have a comic with lots of detail I was already running late on. Second to last panel took an entire day to make.
Cats in the Kitchen with the Silver Spoons
103 thoughts on “Cats in the Kitchen with the Silver Spoons”
The lettering, though. We have to talk about it, Chris. This is unacceptable. Also, cool! The Hobbit! :D
MOOGLE CAT?! Get the scientists on this NOW!
She only adopts cats helping in some form of quest.
I have a friend who lives in Florida who takes in cats. Could this be her?!?!?
Does your friend meet the physical appearance of the in-comic character??
She’s close, but I don’t know if she is quite that psychotic.
Hopefully your friend doesn’t let her cats play with the cleavers.
Wally and The Beave are nice kids…
Yeah, just have to watch out for Eddie.
I never trusted that Haskell boy, June. Someone’s gonna find him face down in a ditch someday. You just watch.
Oh, I don’t know Ward. He just has this way to make you special. Hot dogs for dinner are defrosting in the sink. Make sure you take the Beaver to that woman doctor.
BEAVER, IT’S TIME TO GO SEE DR. RATCHETTE.
I need to teach my cats to do that..
Awesome use of The Hobbit. I approve.
I wish my cats would do the dishes….but they can’t, they’re all dead now.
That would make it difficult, yes.
Sorry to hear you had a bad weekend, Chris. Instigators need warning labels. I seriously lucked out in my in-laws. My sister’s in-laws are more like yours. Condolences. The second to last panel looks great, though!
As a paranoid practicioner, I’d suggest leaving things as vague as possible. You never know who has a Tor capable browser to search the net.
Tor isn’t required to search public postings, and if his ex and her family aren’t aware of this site, then they’d have to be trying not to know.
Agreed that anything you post shouldn’t be something that you don’t want to show up in family court. Ideally you should try to keep that the case for Facebook or email or other recorded electronic media as well. Extremely legitimate frustration at one time can be presented in a bad light several months later. So not saying anything specific about it while it’s still heavily on your mind is an excellent call.
A word of advice – NEVER put ANYTHING on the internet you would mind everyone in the world seeing – because you have no guarantee they won’t and it will never, ever be totally gone. Even when you delete it from its original location, it’s still archived somewhere and can resurface at the worst possible moment. Far too many folks have found that out the hard, painful, humiliating, way.
I approve of the snoo kitten in the first panel.
ahahaha
Those eyeballs makes me think that she’s channeling Hemingway or that house in Key West.
Ok yeah, whoever said the thing about the crazy eyes of James’ mom was right on. That first panel…
Ellie will solve this, by “adopting” him. And, by “adopting”, I mean…
Is she going to turn James spherical like the squirrels?
I think she could scare away James’ mother just by showing her what her cat and the squirrels look like.
It’s like she has either two dots painted on her eyelids, or she can’t blink.
Kumite!
Crazy cat lady on steroids?
On something.
I think she’s competing to be a crazy cat lady archetype. A lady so crazy and with so many cats, that her existence subconsciously reshapes the very notion the entire world holds of what a crazy cat lady truly is.
Lol Ellie is starting to have this “now I understand” look about James. Hope everything is okay on your end, btw. Sounds like you had a messy weekend.
And poor James has that distinct look of FML
Just waiting for Michael McKean to introduce the dining room. “So, this is the DINING ROOM!” For whatever reason his delivery of that line was one of the funniest parts of the film for me. But I digress.
Epic three tier page is epic and it’s easy to see why these couldn’t be split into smaller tiers (the dishes gag playing throughout all three parts.) Bravo.
where’s RumTum Tugger, Old Deuteronomy, Skimbleshanks, and the rest of the cast?
They need to live somewhere since their show closed on Broadway!! :)
They’re with Colonel Mustard, in the library, with a candlestick.
Didn’t they scatter after Peter Griffin parked the car that one night?
James’ mom is not right in the head.
James’ mom is not right in the head AT ALL…
Now I think I understand why his dad is CAT-atonic.
…
Ba Dum Tiss
In his head, James re-sorts his life’s regrets in order by severeness. That one time when he said “I seem to have left the tickets at home” climbs higher in rank with each passing second in his mother’s company.
He knuckled under to the hot girl. Should have just bought new tickets and spared her … this.
“‘How far away do you live?’ ‘One hundred miles, too far to drive.’ Yup, pretty sure I should have just said that” is exactly the thought going through his brain at this moment.
I suspect he’s thinking of more excuses he could’ve used with each passing moment.
“Actually the house is being fumigated, so I can’t go back in for several more hours anyway.”
“Uhhhh…I never would’ve presumed there was a possibility that you might’ve come back to my place after the first date, and you know how we bachelors can be. I really need to clean up a bit first before you see it.”
“…I’ve got a friend who likes to give me crap and also lives close enough to notice my comings and goings. If I bring you back to my place within a few minutes of the start of this date I’m going to be looking forward to at least two months of unappreciated innuendo. The cost of two more tickets isn’t worth that.”
“45 minutes confined to the lobby and movie seats before the movie starts seems like less and less of a good idea the more I think about it, anyway. Halflingsplosion in Space on Ice in 3D starts in 15 minutes if you’re down with that?”
“You know, it was poor taste of me to pick the movie without asking your favorite genres and what you’ve already seen lately. Let’s take the missing tickets as a sign from the universe that I should’ve done better with my communication. Anything you’ve been wanting to see playing soon?”
… that assumes he has some element of “smooth” – which he is clearly totally devoid of.
I don’t know about that. I think there’s the potential for the “things I should say but never think of at the time” to contain all sorts of things too smooth for a person. And shame is probably really motivating him to avoid noticing too much of what’s going on in front of him right now, too.
“Totally should have asked her to wait while I used the bathroom, then snuck out when she wasn’t looking and ran home to grab the tickets, shortcutting through all the neighbors yards Ferris Bueller style” is what he is wishing he did instead.
Not considering the mess of sweat and panting he’d be, of course.
[James walks back from the direction of the bathroom red-faced, panting, with a rip in his pants and his shirt tugged diagonally]
Ellie: “Are you ok!?”
James: “Yeah. It was a bad one, but all is better now.”
“The Hendersons’ dog is a tad more vicious than I remember,” would be one of his mental notes for next time.
If he actually rocked a Ferris-style sprint home it would have taken a full three hours to run a quarter of a mile because of slow-motion landings.
Someone clearly didn’t listend to Bob Barker recommandation about controlling the pet’s population. Eh!
Dan Jim your kittie s
Makes my population seem small. ?
I just now got the visual joke in panel 6.
Ah! So did I!
The three b’s, c’s and such?
No. It’s Jurrassic Park, isn’t it?
More like the double D’s.
Look carefully at the object Ellie is dodging, and where she’s dodging…
Looks to be a knife, maybe a cleaver. Where she is dodging is in the kitchen.
Is that the visual joke you mean?
You almost had it!
I feel like I’m over-explaining what is probably a minor gag at best.
OK, try this… what part of Ellie almost got hit? (Not her arm.)
…Think about what you wrote. It’s not a titknife or a boob-cutter…
Cleaver-age.
And here I thought it was a bizarre homage to High School of the Dead.
A very minor gag.
And of course in panel 8 she’s hugging her cleavage to her, relieved. “I almost lost you! I’ll never put you so close to danger again.”
Cleave-age, the final sequel to Ice Age. While it started as a kids’ cartoon, eventually it is adapted to its aging fanbase….
Nobody wants Skrat porn – OH BLOODY HELL. Rule 34! I did NOT need that mental image and there I went and did it to myself!
Scrat is always looking for nuts.
That was one of the most bizarre and yet awesome scenes I think anime has ever produced. Wish they’d get going on further episodes already.
Oh my. There’s going to be a backyard mausoleum, isn’t there?
I’m seeing more of a taxidermy museum where the cats are all placed to act out scenes from Shakespeare, Civil War battle reenactments, and the occasional Martha Stewart episode.
Something in the eyes… is she related to Toaster, or are they merely sisters in madness?
http://shotgunshuffle.com/comic/the-chain-part-ii/
Amazing! Mrs. Blackford is capable of mass feline mind control! I see no other possible explanation for cats doing something helpful.
Do what you need to in order to de-stress. We all want to see you stay healthy and whole, both mind and body.
Oh the Cats in the Kitchen with the Silver Spoons
Little James swoons as he holds balloons.
“Will you bring a date home?”
“I don’t know when,
But you’ll scare them all to hell, Mom,
I’ll be a perma-bachelor then…”
NO! Bad kitties! You know that’s what Bilbo Baggins hates!
Nasty tricksy Hobbitses!
Carefully! Carefully with the plates!
So Jamesmom is a young Crazy Cat Lady.
Also those cats have some juggling skills.
Uhm. No. Just.. No. The only cat you need is the super awesome shoulder cat that Ellie’s sporting. Kupocat. That is all.
I’m not a fan of cats, but I have to admit I might make an exception for a kupocat. Though not one that likes to ride on a person’s shoulder.
My parents have a cat that likes to ride on your shoulder and I can say from experience that having a cat trying to ride on my shoulder is something I find irritating.
hahahahahahah Mittens son of Thrain son of Thror. Love it.
Mittens = Thorin Oakenshield.
Somehow, I just don’t see the resemblance….
The only way that would be better is if Mittens actually were Thrain’s son. Who was Thror’s son. And this is the third generation of cats.
I do love all the Hobbit references, both in names and kittydish action. This certainly was an unexpected journey for Ellie.
Little Boy Blue and Man on the Moon were passed in the hallway.
When can we leave mom?
I don’t know when…but we’ll be together then.
XD
SPOILER: Thorin fifi and kiki die at the end but they manage to take all the orcs with them….oh wait…….
At least all the cats seem to be in good condition. No neglect…. … still sort of expect James’ Mom to be on an episode o Animal Hoarders or something.
Actually they just showed up a few at a time till you suddenly have over a dozen of the things.
Poor kid, not sure what’s worse..
The fact his mom’s a crazy cat lady
or the fact that the cats are juggling knives with zero f’s given..
All I know is, if she falls for him, FatFat will OWN this house and be a god.
He’s already eaten Kimberly, The Harbinger of Death, I think he reached god tier a long time ago. Haha
Clean the cups and wash the mugs!
Impress the guest with feline grace!
That’s what Mrs. Blackford loves!
Whip a cleaver by her face!
Drool over the catnip green!
Juggle fork and spoon and knife!
Copy famous movie scenes!
Maybe James will get a wife!
That’s what Mrs. Blackford loves!
So carefully! carefully with the jugs!
I never thought it possible to be a mom while also being a cat lady, i truly feel sorry for the guy. :(
I there also a reason the cats are behaving like ninja’s and are throwing around rather dangerous stuff?(like that cleaver)
It’s not Ninja behavior, it’s Dwarven behavior from the Hobbit. I guess you had to be there…
I saw that scene, but its not the same in comic form done by cats…
Can we get some kind of a status update, Rusche? Do you need bail money or are you OK?
Yeah, it’s been a week. Was starting to wonder…
Yep, getting worried too.
He *might* have meant this coming up Friday, since the comic was awesomely huge (more cats than you can shake a stick at!). He didn’t specifically say it, of course. It would be nice for a heads up so we don’t worry, of course, but he might be at the “if I only get this one spot right, I can put it up” stage. I was like that the week before Halloween (“Is the paint dry yet? Nope. Darn it! Now I’ve smudged it. I wonder if anyone will notice. It’s only a fake belt buckle. Probably no one will even look at it, right? Eh. (sigh) I should probably fix it.”). I just hope he hasn’t had a laptop meltdown again (or more serious problems). Starting from scratch stinks.
Guys. I’m no expert, but we should give Chris the space he needs. He’s balancing working artist, loving dad, and parent against the evils of the world in general if not local. Then there are those crazy drivers banging upcars turning left near his place.
It might not be a good idea to ask and such.
I think that’s why Tesla said “status update” rather than “update.” We’re all familiar with the kind of bad luck that can walk up and punch a person in the face, and we also know Rusche’s perfectionist tendencies have caused more than a couple of re-draws when things were nearly finished.
I was really just hoping for an update to the author post with something along the lines of, “Sorry all, life’s being a pain, but I’m ok and no serious injuries to my family or anything, just headaches taking time and energy.”
Gee, you say it like I’m not some jackass that doesn’t respect Rusche’s privacy. It’s almost like I was asking if there was a technical problem like the one you, Larathiel and I tried to help with a while ago.
But nah. It must just be me. I DEMAND a comic. I don’t care in the slightest about the creator or his children or their living situation.
Chris, you have my email. Since I DO actually respect your privacy I didn’t send you a personal email and tried to reach out through the comments, because – you know – I’m concerned. If you need something – let me know. Within reason I can move mountains. If you need to vent, lemme know. I can be a pretty good sounding board.
Cats…….sooo……many…..cats….. :3
Of course the dwarf named cats are throwing dishes around :D