Webcomic / Gene Catlow

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Gene Catlow is a Webcomic about a world of Funny Animals and humans (among other forms of life) doing their best to just get along (...or not). The comic starts with technical office banter and friendly moments but quickly progresses into an in-depth adventure as the Status Quo starts to unravel... and boy does it unravel...

Gene Catlow, the titular character, not only is the Author Avatar for Albert Temple but is partnered with CatsWhisker, the Author Avatar for Temple's sweetheart Tawana Gilroy. Temple and Gilroy collaborated on Gene Catlow since its inception.^*Although "collaboration" may be the wrong word, since it was eventually discovered that Gilroy was one of many fictional personas Temple made up.

Not to be confused with a Western movie starring Yul Brynner.

Sadly, Temple was found dead on March 9th, 2017.

Gene Catlow provides examples of:

• Aerith and Bob: Gene and CatsWhisker, for one...
• All There in the Manual: Subverted in that much of the manual is a fanfic (The Basalt City Chronicles).
• Applied Phlebotinum: What is the Sight of the Soul, exactly?
• Are You Sure You Want to Do That?: Implied by CatsWhisker, and later invoked.
  CatsWhisker: Cross that line and you can NEVER come back!
• Art Evolution: It's very subtle, but it's there. Compare the 2004 version of Matt with the 2015 version, for example.
• Art Shift: When Michelle uses the Sight of the Soul, in particular. Whether this changes when she's finally born... who knows...
• Aside Glance: At the end of this strip, after having spent the entire thing making crazy faces at each other, to be interrupted by someone they'd previously chastised for arguing over whether 50's TV Superman or 70's TV Wonder Woman (1975) twirly-sparkly transformations were better.
• Beary Friendly: Bev, the owner and main waitress of the restaurant where Gene, CatsWhisker and their buddies often have lunch. She's a motherly fellow who calls everyone sugar. On the other hand, she's still a bear, and can be quite aggressive towards those who are jerks toward her of her friends.
• Bears Are Bad News: Eubie, a grizzly citizen who is a rather nasty xenophobe toward humans and was briefly part of a furry supremacy group. However, after said group wanted him to hold a group of children hostage, he was utterly appalled by the idea, even though one of those kids was a human. He instead tells the kids to escape and is punished for his failure by being hanged by his former companions. He survived the ordeal, but ended with his vocal cords damaged beyond use and unable to speak, making him turn over to a new leaf.
• Benevolent Alien Invasion: The amphibious aliens.
• Benevolent Boss: Roger Tuska. Then again, he used to be a guy with a tool box, too.
• But I Can't Be Pregnant!: Tavatania and Cotton's reaction to her pregnancy, since they've never had physical sex. This last for about five seconds before they decide Sight Of The Soul is responsible.
• Character Title: Sure is.
• Carnivore Confusion: According to the Word of God, yes, sentients eat other sentients. Specifically, sentients who donate their mortal remains to be processed into food, so there's no problem at all.
• Cosmic Plaything: Despite being the villain, Matt tends to be this given that Big Mama and Papa and the rest of the cast know exactly what he’s up to and are always one step ahead of him.
• Crossover: Gene and CatsWhisker have both ... er... "appeared" together in Kit 'N' Kay Boodle. For a long time it wasn't considered canon that they partook in a backyard orgy so powerful that they were given blessing by the gods themselves for obvious reasons, then it was revealed after Albert Temple's death that he was responsible for both comics, making it an "official" guest appearance. Given an ironic nod in this comic.
• Deus est Machina: Oh, at first he thought so, eh?
• Distracted by the Sexy: I have a feeling the boys don't hate furries anymore.
• Energy Being: The Friendship Island, for one. They don't require form, but they may take form to meet certain goals.
• Fanservice: Lots of characters appear naked, frequently, for almost any reason. We rarely get to see private parts, though.
  • Fan Disservice: Naked Matt was not designed to be hot. Even if you think he looks hot, he's too mean for a healthy sexual relationship.
• Fake Crossover:
  • Jack has made multiple cameos, and similarly Gene and CatsWhisker have appeared in his comic, but for a variety of reasons they can't be the same 'verse.
• Fantastic Racism: The Furry, Human, and Animen relationship seems to be a bit of this.
• Four-Fingered Hands: Played with. Humans have five fingers, Furries don't.
• Funny Animal: To varying degrees. There are the major Funny Animals as well as the Kotreeka Birds, amphibious aliens, Animen, the race from which human and furry branched off, and even—if you want to be absolutely thorough about the variety of life—living energy and technology!
• Furries Are Easier to Draw: One look at his human characters and you can quickly tell why the majority of the comic only contains furries.
• Furry Reminder: When Gene dreams of fighting, he makes angry cat noises.
• Gratuitous Foreign Language: Ancient Canovian uses a hamburger for "yes"?
• Heel–Face Turn: Quite a few villains in the course of the series.
  • High-Heel–Face Turn: Dusk and Dawn.
• High on Catnip: Gene avoids catnip for this reason.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: The hulking Crendall has become almost a father figure to Diane.
• Humans Are Bastards: Accused of this at the first instance of a human, Michael Alan Avariss, but eventually disproved—at least for the majority.
• Immodest Orgasm: When the Kotreeka Birds mime Gene and CatsWhisker having sex on the beach.
• Instant A.I.: Just Add Water!: Any electronic device can develop self-awareness over time, but Gene gains the ability to make machines self-aware instantly.
• Jerkass Gods: Big Momma and Big Poppa show no issue taking away free will from everyone if they felt like it, which is rather indicative of their true nature.
• Klatchian Coffee: Coffee Squared, used near the start of the comic to unlock Cotton's Sight of the Soul ability.
• Longest Pregnancy Ever: Tavatania, Eighteen (real world) years and counting.
• Long Runner: It's been on the internet for a good eleven years now. And yet it's still only in the middle of its story.
• Manipulative Bastard: Matt.
• Meaningful Name: Michael Alan Avariss, though a bit less so for his son.
• Mechanical Lifeform: Not at the beginning, but...
• The Medic: You have Animen and Michelle, plus Dusk and Dawn have shown healing powers. Take your pick!
• No Name Given / The Nameless: Surprisingly common among important characters.
• Non-Mammal Mammaries: All female characters, except for The Amphibious Aliens.
• Opposites Theme Naming: Dawn and Dusk.
• Out of Focus: Gene himself for the longest time. And these days Cotton has taken a back seat.
• Power Glows: Literally.
• Punny Name: Cottontail-or, anyone?
• Puppy-Dog Eyes: When one of the puppets wants just one more marshmellow.
• Restricted Expanded Universe: The Basalt City Chronicles is not only an example of this trope regarding its source material, Gene Catlow, seeing that the author goes to the universe's creators for permission for virtually everything he adds, but is also that Verse's Manual.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Do NOT attack CatsWhisker in front of Gene! He may be a nice fellow but he will nearly KILL THAT PERSON for doing so.
• Rule 34: Besides Gene and CatsWhisker showing up now and then in Kit 'N' Kay Boodle, the artist also draws a lot of porn of his characters, but posts them on other websites.
• Shout-Out: Lots. Batman, Star Wars, and Doctor Who, to name a few. Usually done by the Kotreeka Birds, oddly enough. In this strip, the equine mayor is annoyed that people keep expecting him to be a super fan of "some television show about horses" that's become incredibly popular, people keep asking him about "Shutter-fly" or "Butter-shy".
• Talk to the Fist: When Crendall shows the leader of the Ancient Animen that one doesn't need special powers when a good, old-fashioned right hook to the chops will suffice.
• The Speechless: Eubie/"UB" ("Unimportant Bear"), whose vocal cords are damaged beyond use after his erstwhile allies tried to hang him.
• Webcomic Time: How long is Michelle going to be a fetus? Gene and CW's canon son also has yet to enter the comic more than ten years into the comic. (9 months or so in the story, if furry rabbit gestation is the same length as human.)
• You Didn't Ask: Used by the island later on.