I just wanted to give you guys a heads-up that I'll be taking the strip on a small detour for the next couple of weeks starting this Friday. I've been threatening to do this for years, and it's about time I just went ahead and did it.

Welcome to Crab City.

My original vision for this story was to do it as a a separate limited series, possibly using illustrator or some other vector art method, but finding the time to do something like that... well, it's not likely to happen. So I'm pre-empting Goats for a bit while I get Crab City out of my system.

I think you may enjoy it; it's got a little bit of everything, and if nothing else, it should be novel. If not, I thank you in advance for your patience, and I promise to get right back to the fart jokes just as soon as the story is told.

Awww, come on.

With a name like 'Crab City', you can do a lot better than FART jokes.

Is this the super-secret project?

and (for once) Zamphir is right about the fart jokes

In Response to Dynedain (#5306):

it's not super-secret if I tell you about it, is it?

In Response to jon (#5307):

So, are we to assume that this is completely outside the Goats "continuum"? Or should we pretend that Diablo is writing this, since we saw him writing it such a long time ago? And can we look forward to a crossover? How about crossovers between Patent Pending and Crab City? Or between PP and Goats? What year (approximately) does Crab City take place in?

In Response to FeldmanSkitzoid (#5310):

It takes place either 50 years ago or 4,000,000 years in the future -- we've gotten some conflicting reports.

Diablo is a fictional character, and cannot write comics.

In Response to Lonely Goatherd (#5317):

That post was from me, by the way.

In Response to jon (#5318):

Now I think we can do better than fart jokes.

>:-)

In Response to Lonely Goatherd (#5317):

Diablo's been writing an advice column and his being fictional doesn't seem to be a hindrance. Is it that he physically cannot write comics (the whole lack of fingers might be a problem), or is it that you won't let him?

In Response to misere (#5320):

I leave that as an exercise for the reader.

In Response to jon (#5323):

What a great idea. A whole forum full of geeks and artists, and you ask them to get SWEATY.

As if the puns didn't raise enough of a stink around here.

I think the artwork in the first two panels is my favorite work of yours ever.

Just amazing.

In Response to BoxJam (#5325):

It looks fantastically to me!! KEWLIEZ!!

I think it is kind of awesome whenever Goats goes off and does something crazy!!!

In Response to jon (#5307):

it's not super-secret if I tell you about it, is it?

It's still a secret if you only tell one person...so tell us all one person at a time and it'll be super-secret but without all that icky suspense!

You are a very odd young man, Mr. Rosenberg. Have you considered therapy? Or the way that magic marker ink bleeds all over when you try to draw on facial tissue?

-m

In Response to Lonely Goatherd (#5332):

I think that with crab city therapy might be too little too late.

I would just like to know where and under what circumstances a twisted premise such as a city populated by crabs would be born?

Could it be the pub by any chance? Many odd things can happen when you're sitting on a bar stool with a marmot named Gustav, drinking shots of Goldschlager and reminiscing about one's days of performing in the freakshow.

In Response to Yoshi (#5400):

you're sitting on a bar stool with a marmot named Gustav, drinking shots of Goldschlager and reminiscing about one's days of performing in the freakshow

Ehh?

If you're drinking shots of Goldschlager, you're doing it all wrong. You've obviously left out the balloons, and the chanting. And the extra pair of socks.

In Response to zamphir (#5303):

Yes, he can. Apparently, he can do ball jokes.

In Response to Yoshi (#5400):

Your deduction is wrong, but not entirely off-base. It was on the way to the pub.

If you want to see the earliest incarnation of Crab City, look here [goats.com]. As loathe as I am to point to that particularly dark chapter of our history, the original idea came about during photo manipulation of the children's story. The restaurant's name is actually "City Crab", it being an establishment that sells crab here in the city.

I love your balls, Miss Wattles. I play with them all the time.

See, I knew you could do better than fart jokes.

In Response to Lonely Goatherd (#5332):

Gates, you big doofus, register for the forums already. No one can show you their karma appreciation if you're a Lonely Goatherd.

In Response to zamphir (#5418):

I had put the odds of you posting this exact comment at about 94:1.

In Response to jon (#5422):

So, what did I win?

hey, i swear by goats, and taking them away is like taking beer away from phillip. you never know what might happen. the whole world might explode. or emus will take over antarctica. or worse... i'm thinking that that one guy's idea is pretty awesome, tying crab city into goats. only, the crabs would have to be really really small. i can see it now, jon takes everyone on vacation to the beach. diablo finds the city.... god, i would love seeing a gigantic Diablo stoping all over a city of crab. it'll be like godzilla, only better and with the vocals going with the movement of the mouths. *sigh*
oh, and by the way, i jujst saw Blue Crush, yea, that surfer girl movie, and all i wanna say is DAMN!

In Response to zamphir (#5418):

"For crabs, by crabs, from crabs"

How much you wanna bet the punchline for the series will be "...and all she gave me was crabs"

In Response to Dynedain (#5427):

At least there haven't been too many Kip Adotta-esque puns yet... e.g.:

"I said, 'what's your sign?'
She said, 'aquarium'.
So I said, 'great! let's get tanked!'"

It could be much, much worse.