This comic idea had a round-about way of coming into existance. The revelation of new 5th generation Pokemon ‘Zoroark’ got me thinking of ‘Noah’s Ark’. That got the wheels turning on an idea where Noah had finished packing the animals into the ark when God reveals that he created another generation of animals Noah would have to cram in there. I really liked this, but then I realized that the idea that Noah was in essence the first Pokemon Trainer was really the core joke and could be done in one panel, something I knew Ray would appreciate. I think it turned out very nice and keeps our reputation of bringing new styles to the table alive and well!
Pretty good, but I had to read the explanation to really get the joke. Really enjoyed the art, but something tells me this joke will grow on me over time.
Heh heh, last time I read Genesis, it told me to do what Nitendon’t. Oh yeah, I just went for a cheap joke.
And off tangent, how exacty did this tie in with the comic preview? I’m missing something, I must be tired…
Compare Noah to the dude in the preview (here for people who read this comment in the future when it’s no longer easily accessible).
Ah, thank you! Absolutely makes sense now. I kept looking around the room for a certain object or some sort of game reference. Not the actual person and the lighting. Thanks for clearing that up!
@Highwater Trousers: I see what you did there.
i LOVED it, i just decided to check and as soon as i saw the words i laughed. I’m still smiling about it. great job you guys, you never cease to make me lol unless i havn’t played the game, then im confused but once i figure it out, then i lol. either way, i lol way to go again. im going to bed now before i say lol anymore.
I am disappoint. When I read “Pokémon” I thought we were finally getting a webcomic with Zoroark in it, but no, no Pokémon drawn at all. The joke was unfunny and rubbish. This is worse than “Cold, Cold Mountain”.
WORST 2P START! EVER!
This is exactly the response I expected from you. I am not disappoint.
It’s just another Pokémon added to the already fairly long list, Lupine.
I, for one, am glad it’s not considered newsworthy enough to be the direct focus of a 2P Start comic.
Same, Kvb. Assuming my real first post gets pulled out of the moderator queue (hopefully with the 15+ links intact), there will be a line that reads “Somehow I don’t think this is what Lupine expected from a Pokemon comic.”
But don’t listen to Lupine, Tim and Ray! While not your best comic, I still liked it, even if it could use more cowbell. =P
*Sigh*, The Lupine one, YOU are disappointing. Be glad you got a Pokemon related comic at ALL. They could have done a comic about that rumor about the DS2 or something. If you want one with the new Pokemon in it, Make it yourself
I like “I am disappoint”.
I’m going to use that in my everyday speech from now on.
You would probably love Fawful then. “I HAVE FURY!”
Talduras, you have correctness. That link… I am not disappoint.
So, FluffyPanda, that is to say that you are appoint?
N00B
Somehow I don’t think this is what Lupine expected from a Pokemon comic. Ha ha…
Anyway, great one-panel comic, guys! You made me do one of those spit-take sounding laughs. Sometimes the most ludicrous jokes get the best reaction from me, like this one, and this one, and this one, and this one, and this one, and this one, and this one, and this one, and this one, and this one,
and this one(opps), and this one, and this one, and this one, and this one…Man, lots of free-time and 20-minutes of laptop battery to kill are a dangerous combination in my hands. O_o
What the… did my first comment get struck by a moderator queue? Guess that’ll teach me to put roughly 15 different links to 15 different 2PStart comics in one post…
Excellent comic, guys. I loved it.
…That’s really all I can say about it. It was clever and I liked it.
I guess I might as well point out that the photoshopped background is a lot less jarring this time around. Maybe it’s because the photoshop filter Ray applied gives it a bit more of a cartoony contrast. Or maybe it’s because Noah, as a human, simply feel more at home on an Earthly backdrop, while the Lakitus in Go Fish absolutely didn’t. They’re from the Mushroom Kingdom.
I guess it’s the latter, because I also didn’t have that much of a problem with the photographic backgrounds in The Harvest of Time, where Jack and Link are either human or human-like.
Probably a bit more to it than that. The sun rays overlapping the person seem to have the interesting effect of bringing him into the overall picture, making him stand out less compared to the realistic backdrop. Not to mention this is one of Ray’s more detailed shading jobs, which certainly helps for this picture.
Yeah. Those are definitely also factors that played into why the background worked better this time than it did other times.
But, for the most part, I think all the different factors kind of amount to the same conclusion: The background’s style needs to match that of the foreground.
Okay, I really do love this one. I intend to get this one printed out and start sharing it with some of my friends.
The artwork is great and epic looking, the joke made me laugh, and the additional mention of Genesis makes me chuckle a little more when it brings to mind images of Ray playing Sonic. Good job Tim and Ray. :3
What I like about it is that it’s a very christian joke, but there’s nothing that would offend Charistians. Very cute and well done.
Good work to Tim for the script, I like it.
The only complaint I’d have is that I think the comic is a little too… dark? Shady? Maybe my eyes are just going bad but while I understand the light from the sky needs to be accented, at least turn the brightness up a notch or two ^_^.
I guess that depends heavily on the monitor you’re viewing it on. This comic looks quite a bit darker on my iPhone than it does on my PC.
I do agree that the brighter version on my PC looks better than the sort of dreary iPhone one.
I never knew you could read 2P START! on your iPhone!
I knew you could view it on the iPod (which I am right now), but I seem to not be on the mobile site… Hey, guys! What happened to the mobile site??
Oh yeah, and the comic is funny – never thought of Noah like that. 😀
“Noah…”
“What??”
“I want you to build an ark.”
“Riiiiiiiight… What’s an arc?”
“Its a big boat, and I want you to build it 300 cubits, by 100 cubits, by 50 cubits”
“Riiiiiiiiiight… What’s a cubit?”
“Hmm… I used to know what a cubit was, don’t worry about that now. When you’re done, I want you to collect two of each pokemon and store them on the ark.”
“Riiiiiiiight… What about the legendaries? There’s only one of each of them.”
“Thats what trading centers are for!”
“Riiiiiiiiiiiiight…”
For those confused by my last post, see here: YouTube video
Someone was bound to reference a Bill Cosby sketch after this comic came out. Thanks for taking the first step, Tustin. =P
I lol’d the second I remembered Noah’s ark, good job guys!
ok people dont go hating on 2p start i admit it wasnt what i expected but oh well 1 bad comic dosnt mean you can just say WORST 2P Start ever but im not gonna mention any names thelupinone you might of been the only one that commented bad about this so any one who reads this in the future know that the randomperson says do not hate on something you dont understand OKAY
thelupineone is just a hater, but in a good way.
sometimes
,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.
It seems like you could use a little extra punctuation. Have some of mine.
okay.
I’m impressed how a pun could make me laugh, even if it wasn’t direct!
Great again guys!
Ha!
NCG,
Harley
Everyone is syaing SUCCESS!
But I say FAILURE.
You could have at least given it a more decent punchline by revealing it is Arceus who is teling Noah “thous shalt catch them all”.
Hang on… I think this comic may be growing on me!
But anyway, if you can’t make a Pokémon comic that makes me laugh, you should probably
go hometry a comic with Digimon in instead.Now THERE’S an idea for Tim’s girlfriend.
Geez, Lupine. Chill out. Tim and Ray apparently don’t have the same fanboyish views that you do when it comes to Pokemon. Simple as that. They’ve never made a big deal about Pokemon in the past (2 or 3 generations have probably come out since the comic started), so why would they start with the latest ones?
Oh my gosh did you read my comment lupinone? im thinking that your trying to get attention by recommenting so stop if your gonna make a comment cut out what you said before
Uh… You do realize that Tim has a wife right? And a daughter? He doesn’t exactly need a Pokémon for a girlfriend…
Never knew about Tim’s wife.
And IT’S A DIGIMON.
Maybe it’ll make a good mail-order girlfriend for Ray.
ummm we dont care
Oh my this is gold. Gotta admit that I’ve thought on many weird stuff when I saw the preview earlier.
So clever. Good job!
hey have you ever noticed all the new people that have invaided the site
What if they were only lurking, and this comic motivated them somehow to comment?
Like me, I’ve been here every Wednesday/Thursday since Comic #059, but this is my first comment.
yes you are one of them
I’m betting it’s an influx of people from when we had the Brawlinthefamily.com crossover (say, didn’t Ray make a comic for BitF also?). In fact, one of them is actually the BitF guy himself. Look at the link his name goes to (not confirmation itself, but Tim and Ray made it clear that it’s BitF guy).
…Man, can’t believe I forgot his name already. O_o
i know about him but like dontkillchic and 64cheese never seen em before
His screen name is TriforceBun, but his real name is Matthew Taranto.
i know
Ray has not made a crossover comic for BitF, just to clear that up. And yes, the BitF crossover is probably what brought the influx of new people, that’s at least what brought me here.
…….. Meh.
Oh, I see what you did there!
HEY! Is 623 your estimate of the final tally of Pokémon on this new generation? OH! Maybe that glowing cloud is alluding to the shape of what you guys think is the new legendary Pokémon. I think I’m going to name my next trainer, “Noah” in honor of this very comic.
NCG!
Actually, he chose 6:23 because Genesis 6 ends on verse 22.
Either that, or he just happened to pick that as some arbitrary number that means nothing and would happen to be the next verse.
Heh, pretty funny. I think I like the original idea better but I can understand the single panel approach.
Not the best but certainly not the worst.
Good comic guys.
Im sorry to say that this comic isnt very good, i had to read your explanation to get the joke. Also there are no video game characters in your comic, so…, this does suit your site well. If you dould see shodows of ancient pokemon in the backround it would have been cooler.
that is a great idea
Well… Just because you didn’t get the joke doesn’t mean that the comic is bad. You didn’t even really whether you found humor in the comic after you “got” it. Although there are no video game “characters” specifically in the comic, it is video-game related. And adding ancient Pokemon to the comic would have drifted focus away from the subject of the comic, which is Noah and the light shining down upon him. Sure, adding them would have made it a big clearer for some, but it would add clutter where the ominous scenery is currently.
Correction: “…didn’t even really *say* whether…”
My Grammar = FAIL
Nice comic, guys, very clever. What I find interesting is that the way the site is set up enhances the joke: readers will see “The First Pokemon Trainer” with a picture of Ash and wonder who the first Pokemon trainer is while clicking to the next page. If they weren’t aware of the title beforehand, it’s possible they’d just see the comic itself without the title giving it context.
Yeah, I was going to mention that as well. The title sort of acts as a first panel to this comic.
I really hope the lack of that set up won’t hurt the joke too much for future visitors who simply stumble across the comic by clicking “Next” or “Random”.
Heh, have to admit that’s true. By the way, it’s almost impossible not to see the title, as the two links on 2PStart.com, as well as the one link that will eventually show up on Joystiq.com’s web-comic poll, will contain the title, so only the people that get dropped the link in some weird location will miss that.
I’ll admit, I didn’t get it when I first read the comic, but after reading Tim’s comments and rereading the comic, I lol’d. Simple, yet one of the most creative Pokemon-based comics I’ve seen. Also a nice job of incorporating a Christian reference without it being remotely offensive.
I’m actually a bit indifferent about this one. Wasn’t bad by any means, but I didn’t feel it was particularly funny either. Clever though.
Contrary to what seems to be popular belief (or at least more people than usual), I actually liked this comic. Maybe it’s because I’m a christian and myself like to make these kinds of jokes…
It’s good to see that people can still make jokes related to the bible without really being offensive.
I think it’s time to … Rise from my grave. I’ve been reading the comic since the landmaster comic and I’ve read through the archives atleast 3 times, no matter how many times I read your comics they are still hilarious. Just wan’t to say “Keep up the great work, guys.”
Nice comic this week guys! This put a big smile on my face this morning, and the final product of Ray’s “teaser” picture on Twitter is much different than what I had imagined.
After seeing the comic, the idea of Mew & Mewtwo (or whatever Good/Evil super powerful Pokemon exist now) in a raging battle relating to Revelations (or even the war in Heaven) popped in my head. Sadly I have no artistic ability when it comes to drawing, so maybe someone will use that idea for a picture/comic someday.
lol u give me the power to actually bear thursdays.
Tim, Ray, Everyone… Sorry.
Sorry for calling this comic the worst one ever. Because it’s not. Sure it was underwhelming; I was expecting to actually have a comic with Zoroark in it. I guess I made those comments because I was so dejected, but this isn’t the worst. We all know which one that is.
I have to agree with gatorsteph202. It isn’t the best.
I still think my Arceus telling Noah idea would have been great.
And as for Renamon (not a Pokémon, but a Digimon) being Tim’s girlfriend, sorry for being forgetful. Maybe Ray would have better luck with it.
I thought Tim needed a girlfirend because he was going on a date with Hikari.
“Hikari” as in “Japanese name for Dawn?” …I don’t get it.
And yeah, you went a little overboard, but that’s water under the bridge now.
…What amazes me is that this comic hasn’t been up for very long but there’s already 52 comments on it. Oops… 53 now, lol.
Also, “Undisputed Champion” was intentionally bad. But I see your point.
it said tim was married
I’m very hesitant about mentioning my own webcomic at someone else’s webcomic site, but since it’s 2P START related, I just wanted to clarify that the whole date thing was basically a “what if” situation (as set up by panel 4, which also mentions the fact that Tim does have a wife and kid). The date never actually happened.
Wow guys, that was pretty darn good. And you even managed to pull off a Christian joke without offending Christians! Pretty good too, most would think that a Pokemon comic would involve… Pokemon.
I’d say this would be a success.
Yes, it’s times like this I wish I were good enough with image editing programs to be able to take a Phoenix Write sprite (image), splice in that text bubble used for “objection,” and change it to read “APPROVAL!” perhaps even giving Phoenix Wright a cheesy smile and thumbs-up sign.
But I fail at image editing, and GIMP kicks my butt. I tried something similar with a Mightyena sprite I had edited in the past, but failed miserably. So, I suppose this laughing Mightyena will have to do.
As for my editing skills, I declare: FAILURE! :*(
He will travel across the land, searching far and wide.
NCG
Actually, Noah had it easy. The
Pokemonanimals came to him.Also, think you know all of the lyrics?
Got it with 2.29 remaining. Trust me, when I say I love Pokemon, I go all the way with it. I actually remember the second verse that’s in the full version played during the movie
Every challenge along the way
With courage I will face
I will battle everyday to claim my rightful place
Come with me, the time is right
Theres no better team
On and on, we’ll win the fight
It’s always been our dream
Chorus
Yea, I’m such a late 90s/early 00s kid
I’ve always thought your comics are best when kept to a few panels. This weeks is really good, and I think the fast delivery is part of it.
It’s okay. I get the joke, but it’s just not that great.
It was a great first panel, but I feel like it could’ve been an amazing comic, were it longer. You could’ve included a joke about trying to figure out if Missingno is a male or female, or not being able to find a second one of one of the Pokemon, then just replacing it with a Ditto with the creepy Ditto eyes.
Man, I could make a whole comic about Noah putting a Ditto copy with a Pokemon in a room and just closing the door with the Pokemon showing a frightened look.
Okay, since I’ve heard this from you before, I must ask this. Are there any 2PStart! one-panel comics that you liked?
I am sorry to say that I am not a lover of the one-panel style. The only way it works for me is the SMBC style in which it cheats, because it’s really a set-up and punchline text. With strict one-panels, I feel like there’s a punchline without any set-up.
While they are certainly fun thoughts, the core joke of the comic would’ve seriously overstayed its welcome if Tim and Ray had gone any deeper into it.
I say this comic should be a desktop wallpaper.
That’s a great idea, actually!
It doesn’t need a resolution boost or a shape change to be a desktop, it fits surprisingly well as-is, at least on non-widescreen monitors.
This is a great idea! I think it was good that there was only one panel though, anymore wouldn’t have made any sense or taken the impact of the punchline away. Indeed, it isn’t your best, though not your worst either. One of the best single panel comics though.
“On second thought, you really only need one of each Pokemon. Except Ditto. Make sure you catch quite a few Ditto.”
Noah could technically make do with only one Ditto, as long as the Ditto has no qualms about polygamy.
Hey Tim and Ray, I too am indifferent about the comic. It took me a few seconds to get the comic. I fell like if I was a bit smarter, and understood it the first time I read it, it would have been hillarious, but alas I did not. I don’t know, it’s a cool concept, maybe something with the execution was off.
NCG! I’m glad I saw the comic title in my RSS feed before clicking on it. Sometimes, I just ignore the title in my excitement to see the new comic, but this time the title was absolutely necessary to sell the joke. In fact, I’m kinda surprised you didn’t have an introductory panel with the title phrase since there’s no overt mention of Pokemon in the actual comic. Still, the delivery worked for me! Thanks for the laugh!
This is one of my all time favorite 2P Start comics. Certainly in the top 5. I am going to send this to everyone I know who knows about pokemon.
NCG, although I would not have ever thought of a joke in this context.
Wellll guess it’s time to finally WWWIIISE FWUM MY GWAAAVE.
First let me take a moment to thank you guys for putting together comics that make my day a little more awesome. Your comic is one of the few comics I don’t have to have a dirty mind to get the punchline.
I’ll be honest, this wasn’t an absolutely hilarious comic, but it was very clever. I never really thought about this myself! I can visualize a Pokemon Trainer Noah sprite appearing in one of the games now… which brings me to my next thought: there probably already has been a trainer named “Noah” in at least ONE Pokemon game. Seriously… how many different trainer names have they put in Pokemon games… and why would anybody care? It’s hard enough to keep track of all 15 million new Pokemon.
…
Well that was a strange tangent.
Have a great week, and keep on doing what you guys do best!
~Zax
Finally, someone gets the phrase completely correct for once! Good job, Zax.
Just pure awesome. I absolutely love it, and wouldn’t mind it as a backround either. Definetly the best I’ve seen in a while.
It doesn’t even need a resolution boost or a shape change to make a good desktop, it fits right out of the box.
hey guys been a fan since waaaaaaaay back five comics ago with sorry to burst your bubble. pretty dang awesome comic. guess thats how pokeballs were invented….
The 11th commandment: “Thou shalt catch them all.”
This is absolutely amazing. XDD I don’t think there could be a better way to make your first Pokemon comic (I think it’s your first?). My mom and sister also think it’s totally amazing. Best one-panel comic EVER.
I think there was one a long way back where a Koopa and a Goomba found out that they were actually pokemon.
yes they did.
I’d think the joke would be a bit more recognizable if he had Red’s hat on or something. Or Arceus poking through the clouds…
I think that would kinda ruin it. It’s supposed to be a subtle-ish joke.
That’s like saying that being tickled is more fun if you do it with a sledgehammer.
Subtlety. Something that most webcomics don’t get right (or even try to do)
Wallpaper FTW.
This is the best religious webcomic ever koollizard gives this two thumbs up.
Darn, I’m too late to yell “DON’T FEED THE TROLL!” in regards to Lupine. Oh well.
Any, NCG. Not many web comics can pull off an original pokemon joke while being a christian joke while being in a family atmosphere while not actually including a pokemon.
Maybe you are trying to be different Im not really sure, but you should be making “blog posts” next to your comic. Not writing out explanations to your jokes. If you have to explain a joke, the joke wasn’t that great. So even if you have a good joke, explaining it shows a lack of faith in yourself. Other comics they have blog posts which kind of set up the joke. But generally they do not directly address the content of the comic. Indirectly sure. They may discuss the subject of the comic ad nauseum even, but they never explain the comic.
So saying hey this comic was inspired by the new pokemon. A ok! Going on further to explain the alliteration to the story of Noahs ark you are referencing in the comic. Not ok!
Have some faith in yourself you guys do good work.
P.S. Also, move the comments to a seperate page or something. People want to see your comic but dont necessarily give a crap about the comments. Also your increasing load times on the comic itself by attaching the ever growing list of comments to its page. Seperate those for better flow.
I have a feeling that much of the fan-base actually wants to see the comments. The reaction of the community has become almost as important as the content, due to the community-driven nature of the podcasts.
Thanks for the feedback Twyst3d. I really wasn’t explaining the comic we did, I was explaining a comic we DIDN’T do which led to the idea we ended up using. I like explaining the creative process that results in our comic each week, but usually leave more detail for the podcast. I do see how that might help ‘explain’ the comic anyway since the two ideas are related.
Also, I don’t think the comments are going anywhere. We want to make them as accessible as possible to encourage comments, since hearing from our readers is important to us. It’s like getting paid in the currency of opinion! Honestly, without comments we probably wouldn’t be doing this anymore.
Also, repetition is kind of annoying, like when you repeat things and then say them again. Repeating things unnecessarily can be annoying, which is to say annoying. So maybe you should try to be a little more compact in your comments Twyt3d and not repeat yourself so much which can be annoying. Saying something can be good, but if you say it again and again in slightly different ways (also known as repeating it) then it can get annoying.
Other comments say stuff, but generally they don’t repeat it a lot. So saying something is fine, but saying it more than a couple of times is patronising. And annoying.
(Only messing – don’t hate me!)
My head has the spinning…
I just like the idea that Noah, because he had to collect all of the animals together by two for the Ark, was the first ever Pokemon trainer. Very neat concept, and something I will now presumably share with friends. Nice Comic Guys, but even more than that, Nice Concept, Guys!
Good thing Noah wasn’t actually collecting Pokemon… I’m imagining him having some serious problems with the electric types during the flood. Bulbasaur, however, would grow and grow with all of that rain.
Nice comic this week guys! Just another newbie here is me. Been around for a few comics and I gotta say, splendid web comic all around.
Enough about that though…
I thought the comics joke was great. I got it right away. It would be quite funny if he had to get two of every pokemon. As I’v stated, nicely done!
As a new reader, I suggest you sift the archives when you get the time. That’s what I did when I got here, I’ve actually only been here since #153 or #154 but I’ve read them all, just the same as the fans-from-the-start have. Also, if you like ‘clean’ videogame webcomics, I suggest you also try Brawl in the Family, if you haven’t already.
I have read through all the comics here and have checked Brawl in the Family every now and then, but thanks for the suggestion.
Well, looks like another runaway SUCCESS! on the Weekly Webcomic Wrapup, even though I voted for Brawl in the Family. This could well be a Knubby Knominee.
Seriously, are you trying to get a black doom award or something? It doesn’t have the new pokemon in it because there is nothing funny to say about it. This is an excellent example of humour that doesn’t need the latest popular culture reference to be seen as funny. And it doesn’t contain Arceus because the joke isn’t that Noah is literally a trainer who is trying to fill his pokedex.
Also, wth is this about you trying to set Tim and Ray up in some kind of Bestiality/cybering relationship? I just don’t get it… BTW, An epic comic of biblical proportions guys! My favourite of this year so far.
Eh, think they’ve stopped giving away commenter Black Dooms after podcast #36. Otherwise they would’ve Black Doomed me for unloading 2+ pages of rant. …wait, did I just turn Black Doom into a verb?
By the way, I can’t believe you used such a bad pun as “an epic comic of biblical proportions.” I also can’t believe you’re the first person to use it in this comments section. I don’t know whether to roll my eyes or congratulate you. 😉
You should congratulate him, because that would just be heavenly.
I’m sorry. That was indeed a god awful pun.
We should probably stop before we flood the comments section.
Ug, had to scroll forever to get down here.
Anyways, LOVED IT!!!!!!!!!
Pokemon is probably my Favorite game ever, cant wait for HG and SS! 😀
This is honestly one of my fav comics now.
Keep it up!
Gay
My bad dude. I forgot you were forced to click on this comic and view it.
Woo! #1 again!
Joystiq Webcomic Weekly Wrapup Results
So good. Brought tears to my eyes.
Zoroark: The first Pokemon to have a Gym Leader’s name in it’s name!
Also, great!
POKEMON GENESIS!
Amazing, I’ll remember this one forever.
:3
My bad dude. I forgot we forced you to click on this comic and view it.