It's not easy being green...and leafy, as Josh and Jon soon discover after a lab mishap turns them into a pair of human-vegetable hybrids. Will they find a way to nip the problem in the bud as well as stem the tide of Hiss Hole's latest plant plot? Will
the wily snake-in-the-grass leaf them bushed with his infatiguable stamen-a? Or will our herbivorous heroes quickly grass-p the solution to this thorny problem? Aye, there's the sh-rub!
Episode #: 205
Issue #: 17
Release Date: Sep 29, 2006
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Title: "Plant Feud"
Story (out of 24 pages): 17 p.
Writer: Writer: J. M. Sweet & Jack Staten Monahew
(billed as "The Boys at SCP")
Penciller: Kenton "J.C." Washam
Letterer: Noah Jewett
Colorist: Jack Staten Monahew
Summary:
Hiss Hole has broken into Jigaboo Junction County Community College's greenhouse in search of a rare plant extract. Before he grabs the sample, Josh and Jon barge in and sieze it first. Professor Fruitcake comes out of nowhere and shoves Jon, who tosses the vial to Josh. A scuffle ensues, and a long shot shows a frayed electrical cord lying on the floor. Fruitcake grabs the vial, but then drops it onto the bare wires. The goop begins to smoulder, then to catch fire, filling the room full of smoke. Hiss Hole and the professor escape, but Josh and Jon are left wandering blindly in a sinister green fog. The sparks from the cord ignite the fumes and cause an explosion--but our heroes survive. They return home, vowing to catch Hiss Hole next time.
The next morning Jon wakes to discover that his hair has turned into a purple flowering mass. Josh also has a head of flower petals. They try to hide their condition from their friends, but as they gradually grow worse they must finally confide in Angela, who agrees to help them find a cure. However, the search is halted when a new break-in is reported (through one of Josh's ingenious devices). Hiss Hole is up to no good again, but our boys are unable to show themselves--so they try to play it on the down-low. Hiss Hole, however, figures out what's going on, and he contacts the boys with a proposition: he will happily give them the cure in exchange for a "deal". Of course the boys don't trust the old snake, but they have no choice--Hiss Hole holds the trump card. So they prepare for the worst....
Notes
This is the second issue to use the word "feud" in the title (the first was "Soul Feud"). Interestingly, both issues mainly star Josh and Jon, and feature them in an altered state for most of the story.
The boys' plant mutant forms are modeled after Dr. Reginald Bushroot's from Darkwing Duck. Also, Josh wears a hat very similar to Darkwing's as a disguise when in public.
page 2. The security guard is modeled loosely after The Andy Griffith Show's Dep. Barney Fife (Don Knotts). We also see Hiss Hole's venom first used in an attack. In "A Girl and Her Chair" it was seen to be highly acidic; here, we learn it can cause paralysis and, if not promptly treated, death in victims.
"Stromthurmin-100" is named for the late Strom Thurmond (R-SC), who retired at the age of 100, the oldest (though not longest-serving) active member of the United States Congress. (See note about Thurmond in the notes from last issue.)
page 4. Boy, that is a tough neighborhood. Those little girls are playing hopscotch in a police chalk outline.
page 8. Dr. Frederick Wertham created the Comics Code Authority in the 1950s to regulate the content of many titles sold commercially to youth. Josh's friend must have done something pretty bad, as it cannot even be mentioned in an underground comic book that doesn't require a CCA stamp on its cover.
"JJCCC" is Belch Dimension's version of Mississippi County Community College (now Arkansas Northeastern College). "JJSU" is modeled after the artist's old alma mater, Arkansas State University. "Jiggsboro" is a reference to Jonesboro, Arkansas, where the university is located.
According to writer and editor Jonathan Sweet, the building in the background of this panel is modeled after the student activities center on campus, and the pair of girls in the foreground were modeled after two editors he worked with at The ASU Herald in 1996 and 1997.
Angela's driving abilities, first seen in "Driving Miss Crazy", seems to have moderately improved.
page 9. Arbocamai tyrannis is not an actual plant; the first half of the name is an anagram for "I am a cobra"; the second half is Latin for "tyrant"--an apropos pun.
page 12. The incoming e-mail announcement parodies AOL's famous "You've got mail!".
page 12. You would think a master supervillain would have a better-quality webcam.
page 14. Professor Fruitcake moves and ululates in a decidely bizarre imitation of Xena, Warrior Princess.
page 16. Jon poses and shoots vines from his arms just like Spiderman does his webbing.
page 16. It's revealed the professor is a fan of Fox News' Greta van Susteren, likely more because of their shared German heritage than her politics.
Goofs and Nitpicks The rear sliding door window is missing in several shots (4, 10). Also, the door itself is missing on pages 9 and 13.
____________________________________________________ Title: "A Walk on the Wildlife Side"
Story (out of 24 pages): 5 p.
Director: Matthew A. Jencks
Producer: Jonathan M. Sweet
Sound Editor: J. Antwon Shea
Color Commentator: Jack Staten Monahew
Summary:
A nature documentary.
Notes Steve "Dusty" Rhodes--once described by creator J.M. Sweet as "Marlon Perkins on crank"--originally appeared a decade ago in a serial drawn for The Herald. The cartoons, which were never published, are thought to still be in the paper's archives.
The character was named for the Bundys' uptight newlywed neighbor, Steve Rhoades, from Married With Children, on whom Rhodes was loosely modeled, and wrestler Steve "Dusty" Rhoades (note the alteration in spelling). Originally he was intended to be a park ranger--a reference to Steve quitting his job as a banker, leaving his wife, and becoming a forest ranger in later episodes--but was changed to a nature-show host after Sweet noted the popularity of Saturday morning programs like Bill Nye the Science Guy, Beakman's World, and Jack Hanna's Animal Adventures.
The facts given about animals here are, for the most part, correct.
page 19. Look hard: A camera accidentally captures a teamster peeing in the background.
page 19. The bald eagle is modeled after Telly Savalas, down to the tradmark lollipop.
page 19. The "weeping willow" gag refers to Alyson Hannigan (perhaps best known as the libidinous band camp geek in the three American Pie movies), and her role on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
page 20 Yogi Bear appears as one of the bears represented (which are all actual bear species.) The spectacled bear is modeled after artist Jonathan Sweet (another Sweet caricature apears on the fried chicken restaurant logo, spoofing Col. Sanders and KFC, on page 23). The Kodiak bear has a camera, which puns on "Kodak", a maker of fine photography equipment and film for generations.
page 20. The image in the Chicago Bears gag is a still from a promotional music video released for Super Bowl XX, featuring then-members of the team. The following panel refers to a recurring nineties-era Saturday Night Live sketch called "Bob Swerski's Superfans", starring George Wendt, Chris Farley, Mike Meyers, and Robert Smeigel as devoted Bears fans. The Trio of Trouble even echoes their heavily-accented catchphrase. (A note: SCP editor J.M. Sweet is a Chicago native.)
page 20. The beaver gag, as well as the joke with the whale on the following page, were lifted directly from old Warners Bros. cartoons (if anyone knows the titles and years of release, please contact us with the information). The whole story, in fact, has a decided Tex Avery feel to it, peppered with puns and visual humor.
page 21. A boom mike repeatedly gets into the frame, but Rhodes tries valiantly to ignore it, even after--at the top of page 22--it knocks his hat off.
page 21. Yet another reference to M.C. Hammer.
page 21. That catfish looks a lot like Punkin.
page 23. The reference to Dolly the sheep's "birth" is the first mention of an actual year in the series, thus establishing a definitive time frame. Jonathan Sweet has often said of Belch Dimension that "the clock is always stopped about a year or eighteen months before [my 1993] high school graduation".
page 23. The chalk drawing-like "we crossed a..." gags refer to a picture Avery directed at MGM, one of his "...of Tomorrow" series.
This story is dedicated to Steve "The Crocodile Hunter" Irwin, who died on September 4, 2006 of an injury inflicted by a poisonous stingray while filming footage for his TV show.
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There are three pages of filler in this issue:
"Brake-ing Point." Tony Moneran and Benjamin fall off a cliff during a wild chase...but Ben thinks ahead.
Lifted directly from a gag in "The Big Snooze" (Clampett, 1946), in which Elmer Fudd chases Bugs Bunny and both fall off a cliff. Bugs drinks a bottle labeled "Hare Tonic--Stops Falling Hare" and ceases plummeting. Elmer does not. "Scent-imental Fool". Help Ben find the way to Libido's Pizza Parlor and avoid such obstacles as a gang of blacks, Monty armed with a bomb, and a barking Doberman. "Haiku...Do You?" A clipart rebus (picture puzzle) that must be solved to read a madman's manifesto.
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It's not easy being green...and leafy, as Josh and Jon soon discover after a lab mishap turns them into a pair of human-vegetable hybrids. Will they find a way to nip the problem in the bud as well as stem the tide of Hiss Hole's latest plant plot? Will
the wily snake-in-the-grass leaf them bushed with his infatiguable stamen-a? Or will our herbivorous heroes quickly grass-p the solution to this thorny problem? Aye, there's the sh-rub!
This is the second issue to use the word "feud" in the title (the first was 
The rear sliding door window is missing in several shots (4, 10). Also, the door itself is missing on pages 9 and 13.
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