The Stick Awards II: Second Edition (#0831 - #0840)

[Porthos]

Welcome to The Stick Awards II: Second Edition!

The Stick Awards are handed out to the best strips of all time as chosen by our fellow Playgrounders.

This week we are covering the comic strips 831 through 840.

For full details about the Stick Awards, please check out the main thread here.

To read more about the original Stick Awards, created by Nazzo, the 102nd, please read his thread here.

To vote in this thread, simply state which comic of the ten listed is your favorite. Bolding the number of the comic (Like this) helps it stand out.

Voting for this week will close on May 27th, 4pm EDT. Any votes made after that will NOT count toward the totals.

Last time, 830 Tidying Up ordered all of the other strips to eat themselves in the order they were uploaded with the last one deleting its entry in the cache. Being the only entrant left, it now moves on to the Best of the Hundred tournament.

Turns out that's a pretty effective way to win a competitions. Not that I'd recommend trying that at home, kids.

While one problem seems to have solved itself in a fairly dramatic way, it seems as if the new challenges never stop to arise. Will they met with guile? Brute force? Or sheer outright badassery? Beats me. I personally prefer to figure out who is best by voting in....

.THE STICK AWARDS II: 0831 - 0840

831 Two of a Kind Beats King High
832 Loose Ends
833 Villainy Afoot
834 A Seasoned Woodsman
835 A Dish Best Served Warm, After All
836 Best Laid Plans
837 The Name of the Windy
838 Either Way, Really
839 Finding Something
840 Thief's Tool

[Jaxzan Proditor]

The laste few panels in #838 always got a laugh out of me.

[Gift Jeraff]

833 for theurge for a snack, MitD demonstrating that he is a good man, and the neat looking panel with Xykon's fortress-tomb-thingie.

[Xihirli]

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0833.html

833.
Redcloak was on a roll with not-technically-lying there.

[unbeliever536]

832 for "What? Does that count? I guess that counts."

[AvatarVecna]

833, in several ways, serves as satisfactory follow-up to 830. The way Redcloak verbally deflects all the blame onto Tsukiko is masterful to watch.

[littlebum2002]

835 because I didn't think Rich had it in him to go THAT far.

[thatSeniorGuy]

Hmm, I think the punchline in 837 wins it for me.

[Mordae]

839. I guess I'm a sucker for reveals.

[Emanick]

837: The Name of the Windy has great joke after great joke. It's an easy decision to vote for it, but I won't be upset if one of the fantastic Redcloak strips wins, either.

[Bird]

833 is nice, but it has to be 832--a page I love even more than the winner of the previous round. It may just be me, but 832 has the tensest ending of any OotS page--period. Xykon is a complete loose cannon, and there was no way of telling how he'd react to the news of Tsukiko's murder. Redcloak certainly played it off confidently, but Jirix and the MitD were sure unnerved. (I read their expressions not as 'oh-my-god-you-killed-her' but 'oh-my-god-what-will-Xykon-do'.) Meanwhile, Xykon's skull head is, of course, inscrutable.

The whole delicate cat-and-mouse (well, cat-and-cat) game that Red and Xykon have could have unraveled right there. It didn't, of course, but in some ways that makes the strip even more memorable--Xykon played it cool, but we're still waiting for the big blow-up.

[Emperordaniel]

833. I guess we just had theurge for a strip!

[Killer Angel]

833 for me

[declinator]

833 for me. Evil is not one happy family that cares for each other...

[kivzirrum]

This bunch is a really strong set of strips without a clear stand out for me. A lot of interesting exposition and low-key character building. The first couple strips with Redcloak and Xykon are excellent, of course. 836 is probably the funniest for me. But I will choose 839 for the slow, foreboding reveal. Very classy strip. For such a dialogue heavy comic, OotS sure does have a lot of fantastic visual storytelling.

[martianmister]

832 Loose Ends

[ChristianSt]

"Anyone seen her since?"
"Not since I brutally murdered her ten minutes ago, no"
"What? Does that count?"
"I guess that counts."

Yes, that counts as a vote for 832 - Loose Ends

[kivzirrum]

"Anyone seen her since?"
"Not since I brutally murdered her ten minutes ago, no"
"What? Does that count?"
"I guess that counts."

Yes, that counts as a vote for 832 - Loose Ends

That IS, definitely, the best dialogue of the ten strips.

[ti'esar]

This is a really tough call, but ultimately I'm going to go with 832. The ending is simultaneously hilarious and extremely tense, which is a hard balance to achieve. Plus, while it's dumb, I've always gotten a big kick out of the "Legend of Arrrrghcloak" exchange.

[nogall]

vote, vote, vote, vote for comic
number 837.

hurrah for the not-yet so competent teamwork.

[Sylian]

833 - The tension between Xykon and Redcloak is building. Xykon is suspecting something, that I'm pretty sure of. He's not buying Redcloak's story. Does Redcloak realise that Xykon isn't buying his story, or is Redcloak underestimating Xykon's intelligence? That might prove to be Redcloak's downfall.

[Elenna]

Hmmm. I guess I'll vote for 833, with Redcloak managing to tell the complete truth in a way that sounds entirely innocent, MiTD's lovely moment of reflection, and a hint of what MiTD is. A lot of the OOtS strips in this bunch are great (I love Haley and V's lampshading in 837, and the ending of 839), but 833 wins for me.

[Vargtass]

This reminds me how much I miss the Team Evil storyline. Vote goes to 832.

[Mike Havran]

#833 for theurge pun, Redcloak's handling of Xykon, and some roach-squishing.

[Foxyfelix9]

No votes for 840?

That's an interesting technique. It's almost like he's

ZAP

-just walking up-

BOOM

-the stairs.

Wow, he's really good at this.

[137beth]

833 for me.

[Meph]

Many are fun. But I'm taking 832.

[LadyEowyn]

Very close between 832 and 833. 832 has Redcloak completely manipulating Xykon, but 832 has that great closing line. I'm going with 832.

[Porthos]

Running late again, so quick post. I'd prefer to vote for one of the Canyon Strips, but the punchline in 832 is simply too great. Though the one in 838 comes close.

And with that....

VOTING IS NOW CLOSED!

833 Villainy Afoot is the winner this week. It now moves on to the Best of the Hundred tournament.

Full Results are as follows

........THE STICK AWARDS II: 0831 - 0840

	Comic Number	Votes Received	Vote Percentage
	831	0	0.00
	832	9	33.33
	833	10	37.04
	834	0	0.00
	835	1	3.70
	836	0	0.00
	837	3	11.11
	838	1	3.70
	839	2	7.41
	840	1	3.70

Please join us for the next round of voting for Strips #841 - #850 which can be found here.