The Malevolent Bath Duck
It’s good to see the malevolent bath duck finally get the blame for all his mischief in today's reprint of For Better or For Worse. Through the glories of AMU reprints I am proud to present to you the bath duck’s history, at least as far back as 1996, the limit of the AMU reprint archive:
6/8/1999 – April discovers that bath oil in a bath makes you extra slippery and she makes a mess, while the malevolent bath duck looks on in approval.
7/2/2000 – John Patterson’s bath is interrupted by a continuous series of wrong numbers via FAX. The malevolent bath duck appears just before John makes the ridiculous choice to sit dripping wet by the phone to wait for the FAX machine’s 3rd call.
1/27/2002 - Elly gets a “me” day which starts with her in the bath tub. The malevolent bath duck sits in the bath staring at what it, no doubt, hopes are Elly’s knees sticking out of the water.
4/12/2002 – Elly sits in a bath discharging as the bath duck makes its only appearance as a duck with darkened skin. If I were in a tub with Elly discharging, I would probably look the same way. I think this must have killed the bath duck, because it does not appear again until we get to reprints.
Reprints:
11/23/2008 – Michael can’t turn off the water and the malevolent bath duck does not lend a hand, or even a beak or a wing to help him.
4/12/2009 – Farley eats an Easter Egg in the drain of the bathtub, while the malevolent bath duck sits back and points the way to the egg.
6/8/1999 – April discovers that bath oil in a bath makes you extra slippery and she makes a mess, while the malevolent bath duck looks on in approval.
7/2/2000 – John Patterson’s bath is interrupted by a continuous series of wrong numbers via FAX. The malevolent bath duck appears just before John makes the ridiculous choice to sit dripping wet by the phone to wait for the FAX machine’s 3rd call.
1/27/2002 - Elly gets a “me” day which starts with her in the bath tub. The malevolent bath duck sits in the bath staring at what it, no doubt, hopes are Elly’s knees sticking out of the water.
4/12/2002 – Elly sits in a bath discharging as the bath duck makes its only appearance as a duck with darkened skin. If I were in a tub with Elly discharging, I would probably look the same way. I think this must have killed the bath duck, because it does not appear again until we get to reprints.
Reprints:
11/23/2008 – Michael can’t turn off the water and the malevolent bath duck does not lend a hand, or even a beak or a wing to help him.
4/12/2009 – Farley eats an Easter Egg in the drain of the bathtub, while the malevolent bath duck sits back and points the way to the egg.
posted by howard at 9:32 PM
8 Comments:
Maybe kersiddo is right and we can blame all the Patterson's problems on the Malevolent Bath Duck; it's certainly what they'd do given half a chance. The only thing they wouldn't blame on the duck was Farley's death.
The only thing they wouldn't blame on the duck was Farley's death.
Time to start scanning old strips for the Malevolent Toy Boat.
LOL--howtheduck, my first reaction on reading your title for today's entry was to imagine what your ARB Michael would have done with the retelling of today's reprint. His overwrought prose about how the evil thing brought torment to his young life would have been hilarious. :)
Eww, you had to link to a comic with John in the bath, with stink lines!
DreadedCandiru2,
The only thing they wouldn't blame on the duck was Farley's death.-
Yes, that was the Malevolent Toy Boat’s fault. Or April, for taking the boat out of the bath.
forworse,
Time to start scanning old strips for the Malevolent Toy Boat.-
Here’s one from March 1. This boat is so malevolent, it will even drive Elly Patterson from a bath. This is probably the reason why it did not make as many bath appearances as the Malevolent Bath Duck, who was not quite as malevolent.
aprilp_katje,
LOL--howtheduck, my first reaction on reading your title for today's entry was to imagine what your ARB Michael would have done with the retelling of today's reprint. -
There are some possibilities there. With just the 3 appearances in the reprints / new-runs of the ducks, there would enough material there to weave a story of gloom and horror, Michael-style. Of course FOOBar would give you more material, because you could take the entire canon of Malevolent Bath Duck appearances including the knowledge of how it perished. Likewise the Malevolent Bath Duck could have been thrust back in time with knowledge of its demise with a plan not to perish in the same horrible fashion.
Muzition,
Eww, you had to link to a comic with John in the bath, with stink lines!-
One thing I realized, going through all the bath strips, is that John rarely takes a bath. He is more of a shower man. In fact, the story of his complete lack of technical understanding of how a FAX machine works and how easily you can delete long phone messages and ultimately missing his bath because of his ignorance, is more of an Elly strip than a John strip. There are many more strips of Elly’s baths being interrupted and Elly's technical incompetence. For some reason, Lynn decided to put John in the role instead of Elly for this strip. Apparently other people must have had the same reaction you did to John in the bath, because it didn’t happen again.
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