[Larom Lancaster] …You’re quoting something again, aren’t you?

It’s true; this, the two-year anniversary of Shark’s arrival, is the final regularly-scheduled update of Poor Shark. Without even mentioning all of the different trips I have planned this summer, I’m heading off to college in a couple of months to get a Master’s degree, and I likely won’t have my scanner, the right software, or the time to reliably keep producing comics. For the past two years, I’ve been making this comic once a week without ever skipping an update, or without ever being even a second late. I’m really proud of that–even some of the webcomic artists that I most respect can’t claim they’ve never had a delayed update.

Anyway, I say “regularly-scheduled” because there’s still a chance I’ll have more content up here at a later date. There are a few scripts I’ve had planned since Shark’s early days that I just didn’t feel I could do justice with my drawing abilities, or that they would have taken too long to do. If I ever drop my standards a little, it’s possible I can still post some pencil sketches of Shark’s escapades in the future. In addition to all of that, I plan to use what little extra time I have while at graduate school to work on a game I’ve codenamed Project Crissaegrim. (Given that my previous project was named Solais, I guess I’m codenaming my projects after Castlevania weapons now. This is a thing. I’m running with it.) Once Crissaegrim takes off, I’ll be sure to post updates here or on a sister site regarding its progress and how to join in and play it.

Anyway, it’s been a blast to bring Shark’s antics to you over the past two years, and I want to extend a big “thank you” to everyone who has been a reader of my comic, past, present, or future. I appreciate all the support, and I hope you’ve enjoyed Poor Shark as much as I have!

[Scoot] Oh, flood the ship more, why don’t you?  That’s a great idea, easy to fix!

I came very close to redrawing this comic with Memefish instead of Criticfish, solely so I could make him shout “OH YEAH” in panel 3.

[Behind door] Knock knock! [Guy] Who’s there? [Door] *slams open* [Door] THE DOOR

Another Soul Blazer comic, because we beat World 2 on Saturday.  Soul Blazer’s storyline explains that the so-called King of Evil (apparently named Deathtoll, not Ganon) struck a deal with a corrupt government official and basically abducted all living creatures in exchange for gold.  I can’t wait until we get to World 5, because then I get to start saving doors and dressers and staircases and models of town and all other sorts of inanimate objects.  Why they were missing is anyone’s guess, but since you can also talk to them, it sounds like maybe this is something out of Toy Story instead.

WHOOPS I AM LOCKED BRING ME MY KEY, WOULD YOU?

[The user] By Cron, I want the tooth! [Backup] You can’t handle the tooth!

It wasn’t actually that bad, especially compared to the like six other teeth I had removed when I was younger.  I’m glad I waited to do it, too, because the situation went from my orthodontist saying “We should probably take all your wisdom teeth out” to my dentist years later saying “You use this one to chew, you use this one to chew, this one doesn’t even exist, and the fourth one actually needs to go because it’s coming in sideways.”  I didn’t even know you could be missing wisdom teeth.  One of my co-workers only actually had one of four.  So apparently that’s a thing.

[Ashirogi Muto] Thanks for answering our final challenge.

(The video this is parodying can be found here on YouTube.)

I may not be on par with the musical comics of Matthew Taranto, but I wanted my 100th comic to be something special and this seemed like a good idea.  I spent a lot of time on it, and I hope you enjoyed the references to all of Shark’s previous adventures as much as I did!  (I totally blew past Flash’s 2880-pixel limit, too, so I even manually stitched two comic files together.)  Thank you, Scarecrow, for making “frikin poptart cat” canon.

Thanks for reading!

[Turtle abuser] It’s your fault [Turtle abuser] Your fauuuult

A Link to the Past was such a great game.  So was Sonic Adventure 2.  And Perfect Dark.  Neither of those last two have any bearing on anything, I’m just saying.

Drop by next week for a comic done in Flash!  APRIL FOOLS.  It’s just a normal comic.  APRIL FOOLS AGAIN.  It’ll actually probably be a pretty big comic because it’ll be #100.

[Lon'qu] He gives orders.  I stab people.  I think our roles are clear.

Getting critical hits in Fire Emblem is incredibly satisfying.  So when Fire Emblem: Awakening let me create my own main character and choose a strength and weakness, I put bonus points in Luck.  (I later learned it’s actually the Skill stat that boosts critical hit rate.  Oh well, I’ll pick that one on my second playthrough.)

[GLaDOS] I suffered for this art.  I don’t see why I should be the only one.

In the days before I had Flash or played The Way of the Ninja incessantly, I spent a large portion of my time making elaborate animated PowerPoint slideshows, including such classics as “The Adventures of Jimmy the Computer-Engineered Bitmap Image” and “Poor Shark”. The former eventually turned into The Adventures of Jimmy (and also explains his last name in that series), while the latter was lost because back then our school’s administrators deleted everything off your network drive during the summer, the file itself was too big for a floppy disk, and jump drives were too expensive to own. Then around three years ago I stumbled across a very short, saved copy of “Poor Shark II”, which would now be roughly 12 years old. It starts off with the words on the title card collapsing on top of Shark. Then he gets hit by a baseball and explodes. Then he eats a time bomb shaped like a hamburger and explodes. Then he gets hit by a football and explodes. Then he gets eaten by Bullyfish. It’s pretty clear I was at the mercy of the selection of the Microsoft Clip Art Gallery here.

Anyway, it was so lame that I actually chuckled a little, and this webcomic was born. And now you know…the rest of the story.

[Captain Falcon] So you wanna play…

He didn’t really need to win that Grand Prix anyway.

In case you’re wondering, Shark is singing the background song of F-Zero GX’s best cutscene (which is saying something).  The cutscene songs were never released on any soundtrack and that, my friends, is an INCREDIBLE TRAVESTY.

[Bridge guard] I guess it is not really necessary to guard such a small bridge, please pass.

Annnnnd we’re back to jokes that only people who have played the target game (Soul Blazer) will understand.  Wait that’s most every comic.

I’m really happy with the pun in the title, which is totally a nod to Wonderella‘s comic naming scheme.  Apologies to Justin Pierce.  Maybe.  Yeah probably not I’m sure he doesn’t care.

I started playing Fire Emblem: Awakening today!  I’m only about an hour into the game but it’s already awesome and it has everything that Sacred Stones was missing and more.