'' is a Humor ous Webcomic drawn and written by Thomas K. Dye. The comic updates every Weekday from Monday through Friday, and it is hosted on the Internet by the online comics syndicate Keenspot .
The comic follows a group of Anthropomorphic pet animals and their human owner, living in an unnamed America n city (though a mention of the Transamerica Pyramid in 2004 suggests it is based on San Francisco ) and together operating a small News Station , KPET. There are eight central characters and several minor characters with recurring roles.
- Male .
- Female Dog. News Anchor . Strong-willed, good at finding facts, and generally clear-headed when not in the grip of Journalist ic ambition or when her vicious jealousy towards Rochelle takes over. Often spars with KRVL head anchor Dirk Snoogems. She had her muzzle reduced in size in 2000 .
- Male Dog. KPET's news anchor. Very fond of his looks and Wardrobe ; vain nearly to a degree of obsession, though the trait was largely quelled due to an incident involving a banned fur conditioning drug in 2005 . Regarded as extremely mundane and boring. Rochelle's Husband .
- Female Dog. Field Reporter , suave and calm but troubled by a secret addiction to danger. Wolfram's Wife . Rochelle is the only central character introduced since the beginning of the strip; she first appeared as a minor character in summer 2000 , and returned to join KPET permanently in the autumn of 2001 .
- Male Cat . Occasional incompetent Weather cat; more often acts as outspoken Liberal Commentator . Also serves as KPET's Lawyer , to his disgust. In December 2003 , he Came Out Of The Closet . Very fond of Catnip , but can temporarily Lose His Sanity when he mixes it with Alcohol . Storylines around New Year usually focus on him, as since 2000 he has spend New Year's Eve alone on the beach every year (expect for 2005 , when he deemed it unsafe; he returned for 2006 ). Alistair long claimed to be little interested in any Romantic Matter , he still occasionally went out on Dates with Nigel. As of late summer 2005 , Alistair and Nigel have become romantically involved.
- Male Dog. Sports reporter. Macho and decidedly Right-wing . Disagrees loudly with Alistair over politics, but the pair have a vestige of mutual respect as well, having both rescued each other in the past. Sam was formerly in a dysfunctional relationship with Randy, Della's cousin.
- Male Rat . KPET's Janitor , though next to useless at the job. Irrepressible, obsessed with pop-culture, Infatuated with Tori Spelling , and given to launching business plans which take off just long enough to cause chaos.
- Female Human . Owner of KPET and its animal staff. According to the comic's back-story webpages she started the station to follow her passion for news, finding its staff in the animal shelter she'd been working at. She has kept KPET going ever since, gritting her teeth through its endless crises and absurdities.
Wolfram, Renata, Kevin, Sam and Alistair were all refugees from the same animal shelter Lorna worked at before starting KPET. She adopted them herself, and then hired them as her news team. Ferris was Squatting on the first house that held the KPET studio when Lorna bought it. Rochelle was originally a temporary replacement to Renata in 2000 (see "All's Fayre in Love and War" in the Stories section), and became a permanent team member in late 2001 (see "Army Dogs").
- Human. Her Dad is a somewhat financially irresponsible person with few scruples. Her Mom is allergic to pets.
- Male Human. Lorna's foolishly idealistic half-brother, owner of Virgiltech software.
- Female Human. Virgil's sister, a power-hungry porn star.
- Male Dog. CEO of Sunflower Chemicals, disastrously infatuated with Renata. He tricked her into Marry ing him once to go public with his control of the company per his owner's will. Initially Annul led, they remarried when someone tried to usurp control of Sunflower. They Divorce d after two weeks. His name is a pun on the chemical Haloperidol .
- Female Dog. Was once Kevin's lover for the space of a day, before dumping him to return to her steady boyfriend Connor, whom she later married.
- Male Dog. Neo- Elizabethan Poet and Starbucks worker. Stormy left Kevin to return to him. He and Stormy are currently married.
- Male . He was killed at his computer and turned into a Mink Stole in March 2001 because he knew too much about Virgil and Angie's diabolical plans. The KPET crew do not know his whereabouts. Manny and Angie are core characters in Thomas K Dye's other current feature, '''Manifestations''' (Manny's spirit was supposedly sucked into the Internet when he died, hence its premise).
- Male Human. Lead anchorman at news station KRVL. Has fun denigrating the KPET team, particularly Renata.
- Female Dog. Kevin's girlfriend. A Technophile and very playful. Was hired at KPET as Kevin's technical assistant; originally she worked at a Radio Shack , but was fired for trying to have a romantic interlude with Kevin on company time. As of December 2005 , she is AWOL , abandoned by her owners during a vacation.
- Female Dog. Della's cousin, and Sam's ex-girlfriend. She is a very manipulative Gold Digger and Nymphomaniac , and was found to be Cheating on Sam, while convincing him to shower her with money and gifts. Sam broke up with Randy after he discovered her relationship with Vladimir, her other boyfriend.
- Male Cat. Pet of a local Gay Rights advocate. He has long been highly infatuated with Alistair. After initially deciding to just be friends, they periodically subsequently went out on dates together. As of late summer 2005 , the two have become romantically involved.
- Female Human. One of Lorna's friends, if not the only one. She hasn't been seen much lately, but she used to try to play matchmaker for Lorna, setting her up with incredible s.
- Male Coyote. Head of the Los Muertos Canyon coyote tribe. Enlisted KPET's help to save his tribesmen from persecution from local humans, but almost got Wolfram killed in the process.
- Male Coyote. Former head of the Los Muertos Canyon coyote tribe, but was jailed by the tribe when he went insane and started terrorizing humans. Has also been romantically linked to Randy. Was moved to a distant wildlife preserve when he picked a fight with Kevin and lost.
- Male Human. A former military general, he was the leader of the corporate Conglomerate Swallowemup Industries. In various plots, he attempted to engage in a violent military takeover of Starbucks and also attempted to use Hal O'Peridol's experimental mind control chemical (created so Hal could try to get Renata) to control the world. He is serving a long prison sentence.
- Male Dog. Was sent to the brig and discharged for trying to fly a plane into Afghanistan's Embassy in Germany during the post- 9/11 furor. He is currently a conservative Talk Radio host in KPET's area, and Alistair frequently calls his show to match wits with him.
KPET's animal staff have an uneasy Status somewhere between that of human Citizen s and real-life Pet s; humans they meet generally treat them as People , but they are subject to animal Hygiene Regulation s and despite Alistair's and Sam's political passions, none of them ever gets to Vote .
The comic is humorous, combining social and political Satire with character-based Comedy . There are also forays into fields such as sports. Storylines range in length from a few days to several months and have covered fractured love-affairs, mysteries and Conspiracies , the legally-enforced Brainwashing of the city's animals into cheerful hygienic Zombie s, and a Paramilitary invasion of Starbucks by the armed forces of AOL Time Warner . Some stories involve all the major characters, but often they focus on a few of them. No major character is more central than any other, and all get their turn in the spotlight.
Some of the more important storylines:
- The first long-term storyline, from May 1998. When Renata fell off a building pursuing George Michael for an interview, she was temporarily replaced by an attractive female dog, Pomme de Terre, who had a complete lack of experience, intelligence or sense of professionalism. Despite this, Lorna considered her as a permanent replacement until she suddenly left to be a " Trophy Girlfriend ".
- From June/July 1999. When Wolfram and Renata investigate the spraying of chemicals on the KPET lawn, it leads them to Sunflower Chemicals and its CEO, Hal O'Peridol, a dog with a serious infatuation for Renata. He kidnaps Wolfram in an attempt to get Renata to marry him.
- From September/October 1999. Sam is arrested and put on trial for inciting someone to kill a Baseball Umpire . Alistair, who is Sam's political opposite and rival, is forced to act as his counsel in the trial.
- from December 1999 and '''Stormy Weather II''' from January/February 2000. These two storylines represent the main storyline behind the relationship between Kevin and Stormy. During Stormy Weather II, Swallowemup Enterprises declares military war on Starbucks, redefining Hostile Takeover . Kevin and Stormy end up held hostage in the Starbucks where Stormy's actual boyfriend, Connor, works.
- and '''All's Fayre in Love and War''' April-August 2000. After Renata gets her muzzle reduced, Hal is inspired to make a new effort to win her affections. He uses a mind-control chemical of his own design to give her stomach pains if she is not within 30 feet of him. It causes her to run away from KPET, unable to expose her condition before she knows the cause. Rochelle is brought in as her temp replacement, and immediately inspires romantic rivalry between Wolfram and Sam. General Swallowemup tries to use the technology to turn Americans into mindless right-wing consumerists, but is caught and sent to prison with the help of the KPET news team. The effects in Renata wear off and she returns, with Rochelle leaving for the Witness Protection Program as she was actually an agent of Swallowemup.
- From December 2000-January 2001. After an overdose on bad catnip nearly kills Alistair, Lorna goes into debt to pay his medical bills. Her father saves KPET by entrusting Lorna with money given to him by her hidden half-brother, the CEO of tech company VirgilTech, and adding a webstream of KPET.
- From June-August 2001. Dr. Alfred Qua used a fake Vaccine to brainwash the KPET into becoming right-wing religious idealogues in his first test of the drug. For a couple months, they actually beat KRVL in the ratings war. Surprisingly, it was KRVL head anchorman Dirk Snoogems that helped them expose the plot.
- From September-December 2001. After 9/11 , Sam drags Wolfram into an army recruitment center, and they become bomb-sniffing dogs. They end up under the direct command of Rochelle, reigniting the relationship between her and Wolfram. The three end up caught in a CIA setup to justify American action in the Middle East, and are discharged after stopping Sgt. Bully Runyon, one of their bomb dog associates, from flying a plane into the Afghanistan Embassy in Germany. Rochelle and Wolfram fully fall in love, and Rochelle returns to KPET for good.
- From September-December 2002. Kevin discovers a subliminal message urging all dogs to go to Steckman, Montana, to be fulfilled. He discovers a cult that has ensnared Stormy (and her boyfriend Connor, who went looking for her). During the attempt to crack the cult behind the messages, Stormy spurns Kevin for the last time.
- From July-August 2003 and '''Exposé''' from October-November 2003. In an attempt to quell their rivalry, Rochelle offers to take Renata on a weekend retreat, but a rainstorm forces their car to crash in Los Muertos Canyon. There, they become embroiled in the war between the humans and the coyotes of the canyon. During their misadventures, Rochelle reveals her danger addiction to Renata. The humans try to get their help to get the coyotes moved out, but the coyotes intercept them and show them the real coyote "problem": their former leader, the insane Zodiac. Later, Wolfram ends up getting shot by a human when he was confused for a coyote in the canyon while KPET was trying to film a profile piece for the coyotes. As a result, the two sides finally hammered out a cease-fire.
- From December 2003-January 2004. Alistair is inspired to come out of the closet, and ends up invited to a benefit event for gay rights. There he meets Nigel, a young cat who was always infatuated with Alistair. Alistair got drunk on alcohol and catnip and woke up back at KPET with Nigel in bed with him (nothing happened between them). Several right-wing dogs track Alistair down to his New Year's Eve beach ritual, but Nigel tries to save him, and the two cats have to deal with Nigel's obsession. Ultimately Sam, who at first expressed Homophobia toward Alistair at his decision to come out, save the cats from the attacking dogs, who had revealed their plan to him earlier.
- From January-June 2004. Hal reveals a fuel additive that NASA wants, and Renata exposes it, convincing NASA to pull her into the space program. During the training, however, she is kidnapped by Sunflower. They were supposed to get Rochelle, who has a chip implanted on her neck from her mother, who was spying on Iraq before Operation Desert Storm . As it turns out, Hal's master, the previous CEO of Sunflower, was a turncoat for Iraq, and Hal hoped to make sure it never came out. Instead, Hal drugged Renata and married her so he could fulfill his will and come out as the real CEO. They annul the marriage at Renata's behest, but when a human attempts to usurp control of Sunflower, Renata remarries Hal for two weeks so that he can keep control of the company. The chip Rochelle had was removed, then later analyzed by Kevin's girlfriend Della, who found the data on the chip corrupted and useless.
- From December 2004-January 2005. Lorna's dad lures Lorna to dress like Hillary Rodham Clinton on New Year's Eve in an attempt to discredit the real one. In the meantime, Renata, Rochelle and Della go to an all-animals strip club for a girls' night out. There, they catch Alistair and Nigel on a date.
- Storyline Name TBA, From October-December 2005. Lorna is Anesthetized during a Root Canal , and awakens delusional, thinking she is a dog and the news team are all humans. She starts to think she is merely a mascot and goes insane. In the meantime, VirgilTech tries to foreclose on KPET, and Lorna's dad tries to sell KPET to KRVL to pay off the debt. Fortunately, after coming to terms with her mother, Lorna returns to normal before she can lose control of KPET. In penance, Lorna's mom braves her dog allergy to help with Wolfram and Rochelle's wedding.
Currently, Newshounds is in a flashback of how KPET got started. Lorna, after graduating college, had difficulty getting a broadcasting internship, and ultimately ended up working as a guide at Animal Control. She got to know five animals--Wolfram, Renata, Sam, Kevin and Alistair--who were on their do-not-show list for various reasons. One day, it was revealed that her great-aunt (whom she did not know; evidence suggests her dad hated said great-aunt) died and left her over $400,000. With that money, she decided to form her own news station, rescuing her five friends from Animal Control right before they were scheduled to be Gassed .
Thomas K. Dye plans on spending February 2006 going through the First seven years of the comic, from November 1997 to November 2004 , and recap the events, redrawing the Mark III-era events in Mark IV style. Storylines resumed on February 27 .
Thomas K. Dye's first precursor to Newshounds was , a strip featuring Kevin and Alistair, which he drew in 1991 and 1992 and ran in the Montclarion newspaper. He also drew three episodes of a Comic Book , the '''Boy Shop Pets''', including the earliest versions of Ferris and Renata. He began working on the first version of Newshounds in 1992 while living in Las Vegas . The pre-Newshounds designs of Kevin and Alistair are termed "Mark I." The original pilots of Newshounds are termed "Mark II".
The comic began running regularly on the Internet on November 1 , 1997 , and its character designs are termed "Mark III." The most recent major change to Newshounds was on March 3 , 2003 when Thomas Dye launched the present "Mark IV" version of the strip. The art style and character designs were changed from the previous version, though their personalities were not changed, and Rochelle first became officially a major character.
Dye's other current feature, , started on February 28 , 2003 . This is an online Graphic Novel , with a new page every Saturday, and is due to be completed in late 2005. It continues and develops a Newshounds story from spring 2001, but is otherwise disconnected from the present and future stories of ''Newshounds''. It is much darker in tone than ''Newshounds'', and less overtly humorous.
Humans based on Renata, Kevin and Ferris appeared in the '' General Protection Fault '' storyline '' Surreptitious Machinations '', but as part of the news team for fictional channel "WPET" (since GPF is on the east coast, and Newshounds is set on the west coast).
Material from ''Newshounds'' will be included in ''''.
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