West Corner Of the Park (comic)
West Corner Of the Park (or WCOTP) is a comic based around the denizens of FurryMUCK, although it often comments on issues of interest to the wider furry community. It is drawn on a weekly basis by Jim Groat, and coloured (since July 2003) by Cuprohastes.
- Address: http://www.graphxpress.com/cgi-bin/wcotp.cgi
- Ran from/to: 1 July 1997 - present
The name of the strip is derived from FurryMUCK - the real West Corner of The Park is the centre of the FurryMUCK universe, being the place where new characters emerge from (under the bandstand), and is generally the focal point of much of the MUCK's activity.
Newcomers and critics have accused WCotP of simply not being funny. While it is true that many of the jokes require knowledge of the characters or locations that is not presented in the comic, the strip's fans counter with the statement that the gags and characters were always intended to be in-jokes meant to cater especially to the MUCK community (and that, as Jim Groat produces the strip for free, he has no obligation to meet the standards of an outside audience).[citation needed]
The strip occasionally airs the author's political views. It frequently depicts obituaries of both favored and disfavored persons, with favored ones such as Bob Hope and Ray Charles being escorted to heaven, while Yasser Arafat and Saddam Hussein are taken to hell.[citation needed]
The many running gags at WCotP include:
- Bunnies (particularly the Easter bunny) and their edibility
- Gin's love of guns, and other explosive substances
- The yiffiness of vixens, and the foxes (typically, new players) that desire them - and get smashed for it
- Flinthoof's addiction to Altoids (a type of mint), which frequently lead him to places where man (of any species) was not meant to go - see also Red Shetland
The strip usually takes a break the week during and sometimes before a convention attended by Groat, followed by the previous weekend's public art jam before new strips resume. The deaths of prominent artists and entertainers are also noted in strips.
If the strip is late being posted, Cuprohastes usually blames Space Weasels as the cause on the WCOTP Livejournal community.
As of May 2007, the comic (along with the rest of GraphXPress) is reportedly banned in Quatar.[1]