"Pupkin" is a surreal adventure comic by Bobby Crosby about a polite and mostly cheerful round orange dog. Crosby launched the original daily comic on July 1 2002, and says that he "only did it out of boredom and because he wanted to finally have something available at his domain name" http://www.bobbycrosby.com.
After Crosby bought a cheap ad on SomethingAwful.com in mid-July just a few weeks into the strip's run, that site made "Pupkin" the "Awful Link of the Day", which boosted traffic to the site considerably. Bobby Crosby has made it known on many occasions that he dislikes the strip and would most likely have ended it very early in its run if fans hadn't asked for more.
The strip continued and introduced memorable characters such as Pumpkin Dog #1 (the monster dog), Heart (the alien cat), William (the giant lizard), and Snagglefood. A fan-favorite storyline would later be turned into a Macromedia Flash cartoon. Eventually, "Pupkin" reached number 1 on TopWebComics.com in November of 2002, and had the distinction of being the only comic ever to reach the top spot without using a voting incentive. The strip was kicked off the list, however, on December 14 2002, for using a voting incentive, which Crosby says he did partly in protest of the incentive policy, which he strongly opposed, and mostly because a fan asked him to keep doing the strip if it finished December at #1. Crosby, to the surprise of many who thought he was lying about always wanting to quit the strip, did quit the strip on December 22 2002.
In March 2004, Crosby returned with a comic called "The Non-Identical Triplet", but he ended it after just 11 strips. Pupkin appeared in a single panel (the very last one) of "The Non-Identical Triplet", under the name Tobie with brown fur instead of orange, which revealed that the strip was a prequel to the original "Pupkin" comic. Crosby says it took place about a year before the events of the original "Pupkin" strip, at a time when Pupkin had brown hair which had the power to cure cancer.
In October 2004, the Keenspot Comics Page, which appears in a few newspapers every Wednesday and Saturday, had an open slot it needed to fill and Crosby was asked to do a one-panel "Pupkin" comic for it. He agreed to do it. Starting on February 28 2005, these comics were showcased every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday on his site. Crosby announced that he was ending "Pupkin" again on April 20 2005, but the single-panel comics still showcased on the website until running out on June 22 of that year.
Crosby also wrote a children's novel about Pupkin called "Pupkin: Half Puppy, Half Pumpkin, All Love", which he finished writing in December of 2004 and which he had plans to print in the summer of 2005. It's about 100 pages long and follows most of the storyline of the original "Pupkin" comic. Sequels are planned, including the second book, called "Pupkin: The Biggest War in the History of the Universe", which is all about the giant war against the monster dog who ate half the universe, and the third book, called "Pupkin: King of the Universe", which is all about Pupkin's campaign for King of the Universe, which he wins after leading all the universe's armies to victory against the monster dog in the second book. A prequel is also planned, which is all about Pupkin's origin as a brown dog who cures cancer on Earth shortly before the Earth is eaten by the monster dog, and which will feature characters from "The Non-Identical Triplet". As of 2007, however, none of these books have seen print.
Currently Crosby writes the webcomic , which is illustrated by artist Tiger Claw. The comic is centered around online poker culture. He has been writing this strip since August 11, 2006.
Publications
*Bobby Crosy. Pupkin: Half Puppy, Half Pumpkin, All Love. Pupkin Series 1. Keenspot Entertainment: October 1, 2007.