Codex Gamicus
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File:Vg021206.gif

The VG Cats strip "Link Finally Snaps" parodies the video game The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

VG Cats (short for Video Game Cats[1]) is a webcomic written and drawn by Canadian Scott Ramsoomair. Published on its own website, it features the adventures of a pair of anthropomorphic cats, who often play the roles of characters in popular video games that are parodied in the strip.[2] Strips are usually presented in a large format and in full color. The author generally sets Mondays as days for updating the comic; the author mocks his tardiness in updating in one strip [3].

The VG Cats website also hosts Adventure Log, the official Final Fantasy XI webcomic, also written and drawn by Ramsoomair.

History[ | ]

The first VG Cats strip was released on September 4, 2001 [4]. Prior to taking the VGCats.com domain, the comic was hosted at vgcats.cjb.net on Cjb.net [5].

For a period, VG Cats was affiliated with BuzzComix [6].

During April 1 (April Fools' Day), 2003, Ramsoomair posted a "Krug" page in place of the regular home page [7] [8].

Some guest strips are no longer available on VGCats. They include:

Characters[ | ]

VG Cats is not a storyline-based comic. There are several characters that are staples of the comic. Recurring characters in VG Cats include:

File:Leo vgcats.jpg

Leo Leonardo, The Third

Leo Leonardo, The Third[ | ]

Leo Leonardo, The Third [9] is a green-eyed male cat with grey fur. Leo, enthusiastic but credulous, is typically the more foolhardy of the two cats. While he usually projects a general air of idiocy, he has shown signs of a deeper intelligence, or at least marginal quantities of common sense. In some strips, including strips involving Leo starring in the roles of other video game characters [10] [11], he reveals a passion for killing other living creatures. [12] [13] Leo suffers from parasite worms in "Worms" [14]. In "The Dynamic Duo" he has an alter ego named "Brief Boy" and is Pantsman's sidekick [15]. Leo was named after one of Ramsoomair's real cats; Ramsoomair describes the association as "in name only." [1]. Leo was introduced on September 4, 2001 in Strip 1, "Feelin' Gassy" [4]

File:Aeris.gif

Aeris

Aeris[ | ]

A blue-eyed female cat with pink fur, Aeris is friends with Leo, though she hardly ever tolerates his stupidity. Though easily the most sensible character, she has a look of cuteness about her but a quick temper and little patience for the foolishness that surrounds her, and is almost always upset with the other characters. She is typically depicted as a sardonic voice of reason, or a sadist when encountering people who she feels are annoying. She is a fan and writer of slash fan fiction [16], and yaoi [17]. Aeris is also named after one of Ramsoomair's real cats; Ramsoomair describes the association as "in name only." [1] Aeris was introduced on September 4, 2001 in Strip 2, "Pika?" [18].

File:Krug.gif

Krug

Krug, Lord of the Unpleasant[ | ]

A horned red demon of limited intelligence, a childlike demeanor, and a voracious appetite (occasionally eating companions), Krug can act in a violent manner at times and tends to talk in the third person. His alter ego is Dr. Van Kruglor, and is the arch-nemesis of Pantsman [19]. Krug was introduced in Strip 26, "The Incredible Krug" [20].

File:Pantsman.gif

Pantsman

Pantsman[ | ]

The alter ego of Scott Ramsoomair, Pantsman is an incompetent superhero who conceals his identity by wearing trousers and sometimes underpants on his head. His greatest weakness is vodka cooler, which causes him to drop his trousers and transform into "Peter Pantsless" [19]. He also wears a pair of jeans around his neck, to provide a two tailed cape. He was introduced in Strip 37, "I Like Bunnies." [21] to help explain the inconsistent updating of the comic.

File:Johnny Evilguy.gif

Johnny Evilguy

Johnny Evilguy[ | ]

Johnny Evilguy is a greedy and unscrupulous antagonist named after an example character in the Neverwinter Nights scenario creation guide [22]. He usually appears as a shop owner, in various circumstances, often trying to rid himself of a surplus of testicle-based produce [22]. He was introduced in Strip 52, "Nutsack" [22].

File:Dr. Hobo.gif

Dr. Hobo

Dr. F.G. Hobo[ | ]

In strips 64 through 183, Dr. F.G. Hobo[23] is an alley-dwelling lunatic given to telling absurd, rambling stories. He tends to speak with a drunken slur. Dr. Hobo was introduced in Strip 64, "Oh Canadia!" [24]. In Strip 183, "Gin City," some men find Dr. Hobo during a snowy night. One man touches Dr. Hobo's hand. The next several panels portray Dr. Hobo's body being placed in a body bag and taken into an ambulance [25].

File:Ternaldo.gif

Ternaldo

Ternaldo[ | ]

Ternaldo is a collectible card game fan oblivious to the finer points of social interaction. He is a Galka, a playable character race in Final Fantasy XI. Ternaldo enjoys Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game, Beyblade, [26] and other collectible trading card games [27]. Ternaldo is often used to represent the ubiquitous newbie or neophyte in gaming circles - someone who is overenthusiastic and completely clueless. Ternaldo was introduced in Strip 90, "Card Sharks" [28].

Minor characters[ | ]

  • GameCube, usually very cheery but extremely anti-online [29], but regardless good friends with PS2. He dies "due to a lack of original and exclusive releases" in Strip #221, "Operating Buddy" [30].
  • PlayStation 2, GameCube's more popular but somewhat simple friend; equally cheery.
  • PC and Xbox seen once in the comic appearing to be good friends, manage to trigger GameCube's anti-online attitude [29]. An Xbox is featured speaking in "Box only want friend!" without any anthropomorphic traits [31]. In "Open Cheese Night" Xbox and Xbox 360 appear in a comedy routine [32]
  • Nokia N-Gage not often noticed [29] [33], and later becomes a rather successful poet [34].
  • Mrs. SNES is the mother of GameCube, Dreamcast and Wii [35] [30].
  • Sega Genesis, married to Mrs. SNES and the father of GameCube and Dreamcast. He is extremely disappointed at Dreamcast for 'dropping out' [35].
  • Game Boy Advance & GBA SP are depicted as stereotypical hip-hop street punks [36].
  • Nintendo DS shown as a pervert with an obsession of having people touch him/her "down there" [36] [37].
  • R.O.B. the doctor who fails to save GameCube's life due to his lack of mobility [30]. The R.O.B. is one of the NES robots originally released with the NES.
  • Wii is the little brother of the GameCube. He has not appeared in the comic yet; in "Operating Buddy" GameCube refers to the Wii as his "new baby broth-" [30].
  • Dreamcast son of Mrs. SNES and Genesis. He is very angry at his father for always criticizing him. He is said to have "dropped out" because the real Dreamcast was taken off the market after only two years. [35].
  • Major Payne. Pantsman states that he was expelled out of the army for being a masochist [38] Payne was introduced in Strip 69, "Boundaries of Good Taste" [38].
  • Mr. Potatomoto. A joke on Shigeru Miyamoto's name and a parody of Nintendo. [39] [40] [41] He is also Ramsoomair's favorite character [42].
  • Mr. Kutarchini. A joke on Ken Kutaragi's name and a parody of Sony. [41]
  • PSP - PSP is unwanted and unused by his owner, Pantsman [43].

==ronin== (unused/FAN) the unused kitten, this note is found in deviantart "info: ronin is a stray kitten whews found by arise and Leo, she remembers her mom and dad in a island before a fire. and she will find out who is her mom and dad, with her help of arise and Leo... and now she got a powerful golden DSi that can do like a real dsi but also got magic powers like FIR, ICE, ELE, WIN, AND AID. and she can plug a VGZ in a yellow penal for going into cyberspace of the game... (like TRON, lol)"


Print version[ | ]

Ramsoomair has stated that the print book, scheduled to come out in early 2007, will instead be postponed to the holiday season, due to work on a new project. The same comixpedia.com interview indicates that the project in question is something that fans have often tried to do [42].

VG Cats: The Animated Series[ | ]

File:VGCatsAnimatedLogo.jpg

The logo for VG Cats: The Animated Series

Chris Boe, a friend and associate of Ramsoomair, created an animated version of VG Cats [44] [45]. Boe writes and animates the episodes. The series, VG Cats: The Animated Series, is produced by Boe and VGCats.com.

As of 2008, the first half of one episode, Episode 1: A Tale of Two Kitties, has been produced. The first episode was released on January 21, 2006. [46]

On November 16, 2006, Boe said that he halted production so he could focus on his other works. [47]

Voice actors include:

  • Chris Boe as Krug and Major Payne [48]
  • Cris Mertens as the Police Officer [48]
  • Nicholas
  • Marie
  • Eddy
  • Kevin
  • Scott Ramsoomair as Scott Ramsoomair/Pantsman [48]

VG Kitties[ | ]

VG Kitties, a 2003 spinoff, consists of three comics and a wallpaper portraying Leo and Aeris as talking domestic cats [49] [50] [51] [52]. As of 2007 CafePress sells VG Kitties merchandise [53]. Ramsoomair posted VG Kitties as a reward [54] for voting for the strip in BuzzComix [55].

Bad Mushrooms[ | ]

Bad Mushrooms, a sprite comic created by Ramsoomair prior to the creation of VG Cats, is hosted on VGCats.com [5].

Awards[ | ]

VG Cats has been nominated for several Web Cartoonist's Choice Awards, winning 2 awards in 2005 and 1 in 2006.

  • 2003: Outstanding Anthropomorphic Comic
  • 2004: Outstanding Character (Visual), Outstanding Use of Color, Outstanding Anthropomorphic Comic, Outstanding Gaming Comic.
  • 2005: Winner: Outstanding Use of Color, Outstanding Comedic Comic, Outstanding Short Form Comic, Winner: Outstanding Gaming Comic. Honorable mention: Character Art & Artist.
  • 2006: Outstanding Anthropomorphic Comic, Winner: Outstanding Gaming Comic.
  • 2007: Outstanding Use of Color, Outstanding Anthropomorphic Comic, Outstanding Gaming Comic.

Merchandise[ | ]

In 2003, Ramsoomair designated CafePress as the provider of the VG Cats store. Ramsoomair ended the relationship with CafePress. On June 16, 2004 Ramsoomair announced that he established his store on Hyperion Press [56] [57].

As of 2008 ZeStuff hosts the VG Cats Store [58].

As of 2008 CafePress sells VG Cats merchandise even though Ramsoomair is no longer affiliated with CafePress. [59] [60] [61] [62] [63]

Trivia[ | ]

  • When employees at Maxis saw the VG Cats comic that parodied Spore [64] they responded by remaking the comic using the in game models for all of the aliens [65]. The Maxis version can be found here. Maxis also created models of each of the creatures featured in the strip (save for the green one) and sent them to Ramsoomair [66], as seen here

References[ | ]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 "All About the Site," VG Cats
  2. Maragos, Nich (2005-11-07). "Will Strip For Games: Gaming Comics Online" 3. 1UP.com. Retrieved on 2006-12-06
  3. "Humiliation Tube," VG Cats
  4. 4.0 4.1 "Feelin' Gassy," VG Cats
  5. 5.0 5.1 "#01 Bad Bushrooms," VG Cats
  6. "archive of the home page of BuzzComix
  7. "welcome to kgug!," VG Cats
  8. "Main.htm," VG Cats
  9. "Behind the Scenes, Part 1," VG Cats
  10. "A Night On the Town," VG Cats
  11. "Ozzy," VG Cats
  12. "Blow it Out Your ass," VG Cats
  13. "Fire Bad, Fire Bad!," VG Cats
  14. "Worms," VG Cats
  15. "The Dynamic Duo," VG Cats
  16. "Stranger than Truth," VG Cats
  17. "NSFH, Not Safe For HUMANITY," VG Cats
  18. "Pika?," VG Cats
  19. 19.0 19.1 "It's Lightish Red",' VG Cats
  20. "The Incredible Krug," VG Cats
  21. "I Like Bunnies," VG Cats
  22. 22.0 22.1 22.2 "Nutsack," VG Cats
  23. "Behind the Scenes, Part 2," VG Cats
  24. "Oh Canadia!," VG Cats
  25. "Gin City," VG Cats
  26. "Ode to a Python," VG Cats
  27. "Skittles," VG Cats
  28. "Card Sharks," VG Cats
  29. 29.0 29.1 29.2 "Hypothetical Situation," VG Cats
  30. 30.0 30.1 30.2 30.3 "Operating Buddy," VG Cats
  31. "Box only want friend!," VG Cats
  32. "Open Cheese Night," VG Cats
  33. "Just a Flesh Wound," VG Cats
  34. "Next Week on VH1," VG Cats
  35. 35.0 35.1 35.2 "Dinner with the Folks," VG Cats
  36. 36.0 36.1 "You Got Theeerved," VG Cats
  37. "Touch It," VG Cats
  38. 38.0 38.1 "Boundaries of Good Taste," VG Cats
  39. "Veggie Tales (Crystal Chronicles)," VG Cats
  40. "Hold the Future," VG Cats
  41. 41.0 41.1 "Vegonomics," VG Cats
  42. 42.0 42.1 "Gonzo Gaming: An Interview with Scott Ramsoomair of VG Cats," ComixTalk
  43. "Extra Baggage," VG Cats
  44. "Reeeeeeally Old Entries," VG Cats
  45. "VGCats.htm," Chris Boe
  46. "VG Cats: The Animated Series Episode 1 part 1 & 2, " SheezyArt
  47. "Chris Boe's Art Thread," VG Cats Forum
  48. 48.0 48.1 48.2 "VG Cats Voice Audition Extravaganza!!!," VG Cats Forum
  49. "Kitties1.gif," VG Cats
  50. "Kitties2.gif," VG Cats
  51. "Kitties3.gif," VG Cats
  52. "Yawn_wallpaper.jpg," VG Cats
  53. "VG Cats Online Store: VG Kitties," CafePress
  54. "Old News," VG Cats
  55. "Vote for VG Cats," VG Cats
  56. Main Page, VG Cats
  57. "VG Cats Items," Hyperion Press
  58. "VG Cats," ZeStuff
  59. "VG Cats Online Store: Krug Keel," CafePress
  60. "VG Cats Online Store: Pac Cat," CafePress
  61. "VG Cats Online Store: Pantsman," CafePress
  62. "VG Cats Online Store: Snowy Day," CafePress
  63. "VG Cats Online Store: Grr Baby/Kitty Thong," CafePress
  64. "Wright to Life," VG Cats
  65. "Wright to Life" (Maxis version), VG Cats
  66. "all.jpg," VG Cats

External links[ | ]

Wikipedia-logo This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at VG Cats. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Codex Gamicus, the text of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (unported) license. The content might also be available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.

FAN COMIC[ | ]

one unused cat is something, like ronin. in vgcats fan comics (VGZ) "video, game, zodiac," example: "http://finlopow.deviantart.com/gallery/32543922"

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