Pete's tardiness to the D&D game creates a big stink...
Nerd By Northwest #6 - "House Rules"
(Click on the image to see the full-size version)
Jen's reaction is based on an old girlfriend of mine; in her mind people farts were usually "gross", but a dog's fart was somehow cute and adorable... :P
This strip is the first appearance of Cam's dog, Heinlein, and yes the name is meant to be a reference to the sci-fi author Robert Heinlein. To someone like Cam who is a believer in voluntarism and anarchism (the latter being defined as a society with rules but without rulers), he would find a lot of appeal in Heinlein's common themes of individualism, liberty, and self-reliance.
Now while I grew up with Basset Hounds and have more practice at drawing them than most other dogs, certain other cartoonists already feature Bassets prominently (a pox on you Berke Breathed, Scott Kurtz, and Alex Graham! :). So I felt I should represent a different breed for the webcomic's canine mascot. And since one of my friends has a Welsh Corgi and that breed is almost as silly-looking as Basset hounds, it seemed the next obvious choice for Cam's dog.
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