It just occurred to me that this statement might be misleading. While I do like DexX's characters, that's not the only reason I'm choosing them. There is an as-yet-undiscovered rule which can be satisfied by the use of certain DexX characters. No, it doesn't involve color. I left color out of the rules entirely.

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The what mentioned above is total fiction. Please don't take it seriously!

Aha! I think I know. Is it rule 10?

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100 pounds of shit in a 25 pound sack.

Yup.

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The what mentioned above is total fiction. Please don't take it seriously!

Bonus.

When I was looking up assassinations, I actually found an entire page with a calendar of famous world assassinations, chock full of people that bought it. But now I can't find it.

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100 pounds of shit in a 25 pound sack.

Rule #10 - At least one character must be holding something.

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100 pounds of shit in a 25 pound sack.

Almost. Not quite specific enough.

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The what mentioned above is total fiction. Please don't take it seriously!

A weapon?

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100 pounds of shit in a 25 pound sack.

Rule 10: At least one character wielding a weapon must appear.

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The what mentioned above is total fiction. Please don't take it seriously!

So. Should we bother continuing this? There's only one person guessing rules, it's taken a few days to get only four of them, and I think the rules that are left will be even harder than those that have already been guessed. I've been enjoying writing strips that supposedly give hints about the rules, but... I don't know. Seems kind of silly. Let me know if you just want me to post what the rules were and be done with it.

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The what mentioned above is total fiction. Please don't take it seriously!

I've probably spent more time than I ought have trying to work them out, and I'm not getting anywhere. You're too smart for me, you evil bastard.

You can try making some more obvious clues, give some big hints, etc. That might work. But if you want, you can post the rules and satisfy my curiosity.

G

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100 pounds of shit in a 25 pound sack.

Well, I decided that if I couldn't think of a good strip by the time I got home, I'd just post the rules. I couldn't, so here they are.

1: At least one prop must appear.
2: A character must talk to that prop. Talking to someone/something else via the prop is acceptable.
3: No panel in the strip may take place on our planet earth. The strip must make this reasonably unambiguous.
4: The initial letters of all text boxes, when combined in order (narration, left dialogue, right dialogue, panels from left to right), must spell a common English word. "Common" means I can find it in the dictionary.
5: The text must include the name of one of the seven deadly sins in some form.
6: The text must include the name of the victim or perpetrator of a famous successful assassination.
7: The text must include a formal title, such as Mr., Professor, or President.
8: Some text box must include three immediately consecutive punctuation marks.
9: The strip must incorporate a bizarre, inappropriate, awkward, or otherwise bad simile, metaphor, or analogy.
10: At least one character wielding a weapon must appear.

Rule 8 is the only one I really feel bad about. It was the last one I made, and I was just trying to get the contest started without waiting another day. Some of the others I was afraid would be too obvious. I guess I should have expected that what's obvious to me isn't to other people.

When I designed the rules, I tried to plan them so that one could follow them all and still craft a strip that would be funny and coherent in its own right. Perhaps I did too good a job of that.

Words which were used as one of the seven deadly sins were: anger, lust, avarice, pride, lazy (laziness = sloth), wrath. I guess my Catholic upbringing may have made these words more significant to me than to other people. But then, there was that movie a few years back. I was trying to think of a way to use "gluttony" or "covetousness"; I figured those would suggest themselves.

When I saw that "Uber Squirrel" contained the phrase "Mr. Doctor, sir", I was sure rule 7 had been guessed. Either of those three would have satisfied it.

This was fun, even if it didn't ultimately amount to anything. If someone else wants to start another one, I'll play. But take a lesson from me and don't make the rules too hard.

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The what mentioned above is total fiction. Please don't take it seriously!

Hey Mr. evil_d,

I just wanted to call in from my home planet and say to you through my computer ...

Sorry I couldn't get myself up to participate, but I looked over your rules, and that was a fine set. I did enjoy poring over your compliant strips in retrospect.

So don't think your work was in vain. I'm putting down my knife and thinking peaceful thoughts -- I'm right now like John Lennon lying naked next to Yoko.

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ken.kaufman@gmail.com

They were good rules. Had I been given several more weeks and a slightly larger brain I might have come up with more.

Seriously, writing these rules is a bitch. No matter what you think is gonna work out great ends up being too easy or too hard.

But at least it's fun.

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100 pounds of shit in a 25 pound sack.