2009.10.04
My previous experience, plus my quick sketch doodle style, let me get done in about 18 hours even after following a false start for the first half hour and then losing another 30-40 minutes of captioning due to laptop failure, so I got a bit of sleep in.
Six Toed One Eyed Battery Operated Laser Sloths is my work for 24 Hour Comics Day 2009.
It is a story I originally came up with in the seventh grade, redone and deconstructed.
You can see the original here - I'd recommend reading it first, it's short, and kind of gives a context to this.
 by Kirk Israel |  Call me JinJin. |
 I am a Six Toed One Eyed Battery Operated Laser Sloth. |  You could not easily pronounce the name of my home, but it translates as "The Place Where It All Is" |
 I have six toes, 3 per foot. |  And of course, my one eye. |
 The eye is the source of our laser. We take pride in the strength and accuracy of our lasers. |  When I was young, I could drop a Dokdok Tree nut from its Dokdok from a distance of 80 meters! |
 Batteries are the source of our energy and much of our culture. |  We harvest them from our Alkaline Forests. |
 The battery replacement ritual is very important to us! You can't let just anyone replace your batteries! (We have a name for sloths like that!) |  I wish to tell you a story from my past. I was very young, I had just received my first tie from the Tie Store. |
 (and what a day THAT had been - the ties of that age, so colorful, so much life!) |  It was the time our Electronic Parchisi Tournament - |
 Sloths from across the land gather and through this system our leader is determined. |  But as we parchised, a menace was creeping across the land. |
 They were the Zappers - creatures of electricity wrapped in a skin of malice - moving onto our precious Alkaline Forest like a hoard of locusts. |  Long after, we could see that they had stripped the Alkaline trees of their homeland - all that was left was scrubbrush and waste branches. |
 Old ParNok had just proven his worth to be our leader when word of the Zapper invasion came |  We tried to mount a defense. We used our lasers - at first warning shots, and then we used our beams directly. |
 But it was no use. Laser against Electricity - nothing. Electricity against sloth flesh, however... |  ...we lost many fine sloths that day. |
 The Zappers occupied our precious Alkaline Forest, leaving huge swaths of wasteland behind. I weep a single tear when I recall the beauty of that old growth. |  Those were dark days. Many sloths went dark for want of batteries. |
 ParNok called a general meeting. Although I was all but a youngling, still sporting my first tie, I was allowed to speak. I had an idea. |  "Lets get Puddo!" |
 I had met Puddo months before through a strange set of circumstances I will not relate here. But we had traveled together to the land of the Uniccordions, and I saw the respectful distance the Zappers kept from him. |  The relationship between Puddo and the Sloths was even then the stuff of legend; something about the lending of a cup of milk during a hard time. |
 The messenger Mamabird was sent to Puddo's hi-rise condo... |  (And that condo was something, hundreds of meters above the ground. He took me up there after our journey, I could see from What's-His-Name Island to Big Lake in the West!) |
 Puddo was almost arrogant in his confidence. The other sloths took heart in his stance, but even then I saw something else. |  Anger? Hunger? Hubris? to this day I'm not certain. |
 We formed a small party and journeyed to the Alkaline Forrest. |  Those first Zappers didn't stand a chance. |
 I feel honored to have been there to see the great warrior Puddo in his prime! |  The Zapper's bolts ricocheted off his soft flesh, leaving just the tiniest scorch marks and the smell of burnt sugar |
 We hid behind a Flob Rock and hoped it didn't choose that moment to Flob. |  |
 |  |
 The enemy had been beaten. Full of cheer, we went back to the gathering area to report of the glorious victory. |  We started preparing small groups of foresters to inspect the forests, and to resume the harvest. |
 We were ready to resume life, but Puddo warned ParNok against complacency. |  He encouraged us to form a war party and follow him. Because of the special relationship I had with Puddo, I was selected to carry the quart bottles of milk that was part of our tribute to the mighty Puddo, as well as some of his sustenance. |
 "Puddo", I asked, "How will we find them?" |  Puddo confided in me that he had had a special device, a relic that could catch voices from the air, that was also excellent at locating Zappers. |
 For days we followed Puddo as he bounced along. I think I had my batteries changed twice, and could barely keep up. |  Finally we spotted the Zappers in the distance. |
 There were hundreds of them! They had set up some kind of camp in the shadow of a big rock. |  I hadn't realized Zappers could breed, but there were small Zappers running around, looking like snogworms after a heavy rain. |
 Puddo bounced forward. And just stood there. |  |
 You could hear a DokDok Tree nut fall. |  Dozens and dozens of the Zappers gathered around him. |
 My fellow sloths and I retreated to the branches of a nearby tree. (We don't look like it, but Six Toed One Eyed Battery Operated Laser Sloths are terrific climbers.) |  Some kind of signal was given. Energy started jumping between the Zapper Warriors |
 Sparks arced every which way, connecting them in a crazy lacework of electricity. |  Puddo just stood, and grinned. |
 Then - the biggest ZAP I've seen and a second later, the loudest CRACK I have ever heard! |  I turned my head, my eye blinded by the afterimage. |
 The air was bitter with ozone. |  Puddo was gone. |
 I nearly cried out, but was sushed by one of my companions. |  The Zappers were celebrating. |
 I couldn't understand their foul tongue, but their tone was clear. I shivered, thinking of what they might try now that they had vanquished our champion. |  And then... and then...they looked up. |
 I could hardly believe it - it was Puddo. |  Flocks of disturbed Mamabirds circled him. |
 But he was.... bigger than before? It was hard to tell, he was so far away |  ...But somehow his bulk continued to grow, and spread |
 He landed across the entire encampment |  And that was that. The mighty Puddo took a few hours to shrink and regain his shape, made good use of the milk I had carried for all the miles. |
 For a month after, we roamed across "The Place Where It All Is" |  Puddo used his Zappo-Detectomaticmeter and found the last groups of Zappers. |
 They weren't happy to see him, I'll tell you that at no cost! |  At long last it was time to go back. |
 On our arrival, the Six Toed One Eyed Battery Operated Laser Sloths threw another Electronic Parcheesi Tournament. |  (It was mostly our way of celebration, but I think too sloths were happy to see ParNok give up the tie of leadership.) |
 Puddo bounced back to his condo. |  I accompanied him one last time. |
 He hummed his war song all the way home. |  |
 |  Graffitos |
 Paint Pond |  Tuba Ceral Killer |
 Cereals |  Hop Rock |
 Flob Rock |  Bop Fish |
 The Tie Store |  Popper Piranha |
 Zapper Youngling |  Thingos |
 Water Thingo |  The Big Tree |
 DokDok Tree |  Alkaline Tree |
 Mama Mamabird and baby mamabirds |  Uniccordian |
 | |