The Stick Awards II: Second Edition (#0051 - #0060)

[Porthos]

Welcome to The Stick Awards II: Second Edition! :smallsmile:

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 51 through 60.

For full details about the Stick Awards, please check out the main thread here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=283609).

To read more about the original Stick Awards, created by Nazzo, the 102nd, please read his thread here. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=34791)

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 June 29th, 4pm EDT. Any votes made after that will NOT count toward the totals.

Last week, :elan: 50 - The Semi-Secret Origin of Elan & Nale (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0050.html) charged out to a quick lead and mananged to hold off a late charge by Comic #41 to win the prize. Who will it be this time? Only you can decide that. :smallsmile:

Ten strips have arived at the starter line. But only one can claim to win....

.THE STICK AWARDS II: 0051 - 0060

51 Stupid Isn't Always Cute (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0051.html)
52 Young Dwarves in Love (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0052.html)
53 See, They're Flying, Because It's an Air Sigil (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0053.html)
54 Touch My Sigil (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0054.html)
55 One for the Old-Schoolers (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0055.html)
56 An Alternate Hypothesis (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0056.html)
57 Inevitable Betrayal? Check. (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0057.html)
58 First Aid (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0058.html)
59 The Shot Heard Round the Dungeon (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0059.html)
60 Everything Comes Together (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0060.html)

[Bulldog Psion]

I'll go for 60, just for the lines "Here's the plan. Grab your Bizzarro Twin and beat the crap out of them." "Sweeeeeeeet." :smalltongue:

Edit: why aren't these gathered into one thread like the favorite character tournament, by the way?

[Wraithlord]

I cast my vote for #58, because of the hilarious Belkar comedy. #52 also gets an honorable mention.

[white lancer]

There's one standout for me here. I've always treasured #51: Stupid Isn't Always Cute. It featured non-traditional panel layout.

Also, it was our first real look at Thog and one of his more entertaining moments. :)

[Porthos]

Edit: why aren't these gathered into one thread like the favorite character tournament, by the way?

The original Stick Awards were by thread only, so it's partly tradition. And when I relaunched them, I was afraid that having them in one thread only could lead to problems where posters weren't sure what group was being voted on. A couple of other housekeeping fiddly things on my end as well, mostly.

No real reason beyond that, though. :smallsmile:

[Gift Jeraff]

#51, though I gotta give #56 props for being such a sudden shift to the dramatic side of OOTS without feeling too forced or too "now im serious comic you must take me seriously."

[Bird]

I'll take 52 thanks to the dwarf flirting. Something about how Durkon, Hilgya and Elan all seem to be 12 years old is endearing.

:elan: "And I mean LIKES likes you."

[apenpaap]

Difficult to choose this time around, but I pick 51 for Thog.

[mythmonster2]

Thog always remember his adventures with talky-man in 51. It feature non-traditional page layout.

[SaintRidley]

Thog always remember his adventures with talky-man in 51. It feature non-traditional page layout.

51 for exactly this reason.

[Hogwarts9876]

It's hard, but I'm going to say 54.

[Magnasword2]

56 gets my vote XD gotta love the predictable backstabbing.

[NobodyWasTaken]

Non-traditional panel layout... VOTE!

51

[pearl jam]

58 I guess. There were several others I liked just about as much.

[martianmister]

53hhfhfnfhhffj

[GuySmiley1970]

58. Probably my favorite strip out of the first book. Hilarious and oddly touching at the same time.

[David Argall]

Not my prime set, but 60 seems best, with 58 getting a boost for any tiebreak.

[nyjastul69]

55........

[137beth]

59, the fulfilling of Eugene's predictions...

[Kurald Galain]

My vote for 58.

[nogall]

52. Once again, I bow to off-panel violence / humor. Even though the true classic is 58, a very close second...

ETA: I must say though that historically, probably the most important one is 56. I remember Rich said in some book or interview that the feedback he got from the betrayal (and Elan's possible death), calling him "Rich, the bard-killer", made him realize that people cared about his characters. I don't know if anyone has this link, or if it is just in one of the books.

[ChristianSt]

58 First Aid - Let's kill those losers!

(Close second the (not so?) rumbleworthy 54)

[Mike Havran]

Thog always remember his adventures with talky-man in 51. It feature non-traditional page layout.

Hell yes. 51 gets it

[sam79]

Some good strips here, and definately moving from gag-a-day to plot-driven comedy. The sudden but inevitable betrayal in strip 57 is well done, the fulfilling of the prophesy (and the lampshading of the transition in the strip) in 60 is good too. I really love the pacing of Haley's hail Mary shot in strip 59, and Belkar and V are comedy gold in 58.

But I'm choosing 51. Not a huge Thog fan, but this is probably his best moment.

[oppyu]

58

Tragically funny. Belkar is a man capable of great kindness and empathy, but can never achieve his potential due to his low ability scores.

[Killer Angel]

Nothing exceptional. THe backstabbing Nale is worthy, but I'll go for
51 Thog would be a good puppy-daddy.

[Saharo]

Easily 56. This was the first genuinely dramatic cliffhanger comic, and not a bad one to start on, at that. Despite knowing before this that Nale was evil, this comic still stands up as a great and unexpected reveal of just HOW evil.

[Vargtass]

51, for the funny insights in Thog's character.

[Torrasque]

51
I like the fact that the title strip foreshadows Rich's later "problems" with people liking Thog and finding him cute, nomatter how much wanton slaughter he did.

[Bakkan]

58 I love wise Belkar.

[Ninja Dragon]

51. 56, 57 and 58 are also strong runner ups. That's a very good set.

[Old RuneQuester]

I would say 58.

[thatSeniorGuy]

thog enjoyed non-traditional panel layout with talky-man.

51.

[Werbaer]

thog enjoyed non-traditional panel layout with talky-man.

Me too. Another vote for 51

[hajo]

THE STICK AWARDS II: 0051 - 0060

51 Stupid Isn't Always Cute (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0051.html)
52 Young Dwarves in Love (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0052.html)
53 See, They're Flying, Because It's an Air Sigil (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0053.html)
54 Touch My Sigil (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0054.html)
55 One for the Old-Schoolers (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0055.html)
56 An Alternate Hypothesis (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0056.html)
57 Inevitable Betrayal? Check. (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0057.html)
58 First Aid (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0058.html)
59 The Shot Heard Round the Dungeon (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0059.html)
60 Everything Comes Together (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0060.html)

I vote 57 "Attack, my outdated legions !" :smallbiggrin:

[Ellye]

I had not noticed before that Sabine eyes turn red in #53. Nice detail.

I always enjoyed the end of #54. It's also interesting seeing how relatively naive Haley was - she would have seem through such a bluff nowadays, easily.


But my vote goes for #51.

[quasit]

60 Because roy's last panel "plan" sounds really badass

[Sir_Leorik]

59

That is truly the moment when this comic went from being a bunch of random gags about the bugs in the D&D 3.5 rules to an epic adventure story with emotional stakes, long running plot-threads and an intricately planned storyline that was hiding in plain sight. This should win, hands down!

[Belkar<3]

I favor #58, but #60 is a great comic as well.

[Porthos]

I like the Talky Man strip quite a bit. But I actually like 'Evil Mastermind' speech even more. There's just something charmingly silly about the whole thing. However, both of those still compare to Belkar suddenly finding peace, tranquility, and...

LET'S KILL THOSE LOSERS! :smallbiggrin:

So 58 it is. :smallsmile:

With that....

VOTING IS NOW CLOSED!

:thog: 51 Stupid Isn't Always Cute (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0051.html) 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: 0051 - 0060
{table]|Comic Number | Votes Received | Vote Percentage |
|
51 |
15 |
39.47|
|
52 |
2 |
5.26|
|
53 |
1 |
2.63|
|
54 |
1 |
2.63|
|
55 |
1 |
2.63|
|
56 |
2 |
5.62|
|
57 |
1 |
2.63|
|
58 |
10 |
26.32|
|
59 |
2 |
5.56|
|
60 |
3 |
7.89|[/table]

Please join us for the next round of voting for Strips #61-70 here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=290222)

=====

A minor piece of post-vote triva. Even though this week was dominated by two strong contenders, for the first time during the voting of the Stick Awards II, each strip managed to recieve a vote. Not sure what that says, it it's at least worth mentioning. :smallsmile: