Back in 2007, I wrote about a comic I’d discovered by Brooke McEldowney entitled Pibgorn. At the time, I thought it was so much fun (and I still do). After all, it was a comic about a fairy named Pibgorn, a church organist named Geoff and a succubus named Drusilla. Clearly, there aren’t a lot of comics around with a cast of characters like that.
I’m sad the strip Pibgorn, for the lack of a better term, “is breaking down.” There are some really fun stories in the strip and I wanted to share a couple, but first a caveat. Any description I give the stories are indeed my own description and not necessarily the official one provided by Mr. McEldowney. Please note that Pibgorn is an adult strip with occasional nudity and plenty of sexual innuendo. I mean we’re talking about a succubus here and we know what they do for a living. Finally, all of the links shown are the start of the various stories at the GoComics site.
We meet our trio of characters in the first story which I believe is entitled, The Girl in the Coffee Cup. That story starts March 11, 2002 and ends November 9, 2002. The basis for all of the strip’s relationships are established in this first story. Below are three additional tales of Pibgorn building on the relationships from the first story that I am really fond of.
| Lena the Terrible | March 21, 2007 – March 16, 2009 | Computer programs and Demons |
| Mozart and the Demon Lover | May 23, 2005 – February 8, 2006 | A Fairy Does a Quantum Leap |
| Pibgorn and the Djinn of It | September 17, 2012– July 28,2013 | The author takes aim at the trolls |
I’m not sure when (or if) the current Pibgorn story will ever resume, However, I have enjoyed the stories Mr. McEldowney has provided for this cast of characters so far and I thank him for keeping me entertained over the years.
I’ve followed “Pibgorn” from the beginning, I think, before I found “9 Chickweed Lane” because of the title. I’m a “Celtophile” and knew that “Pibgorn” refers to a Welsh instrument, and early on Maurice, the mouse, plays one when Pib has ostensibly been executed. The early villain of the strip was Prince Crwth, named after another Welsh and Irish instrument, (in Irish: “Cruit.”)
Anyway, I guess that Mr. McEldowney has dropped “Pibgorn” due to age and health issues. His art on “9 Chckweed Lane” has become increasingly cruder and shakier indicating these issues. I understand he is a pretty private person. His wit has not been hampered much, and I hope he willl continue as long as he can and has the will to. When he passes, we will have lost one of the greatest and highest genius of cartoonists, certainly the equal of George Herriman, Walt Kelly, Cliff Sterrett, and Frank King.
Thanks for your comment and thanks for reading. I agree, it will be a loss when Mr. McEldowney passes away. I get the sense he’s trying to close out “9 Chickweed Lane” the way he aged the twins, prepping them for marriage and families of their own. Again, thanks for reading.
It is a shame if we do not get to the conclusion of the Luda-into-Pibgorn saga, but I certainly understand the difficulties of age and infirmity, and with the more exacting detail that he has put into Pibgorn it makes sense that it would have to be set aside first.
First of all thank you for reading. I honestly don’t think he’ll ever finish this tale. He started it on Jan 14, 2019. Then posted on Oct 13, 2019 that he wasn’t happy with it and would restart it from text written 25 years earlier. He started the current edition of the story on Oct 16, 2019 and it sputtered to a stop on Aug 9, 2024. I think he has done all he intends to do with Pibgorn and I am sad for that.
One of the best strips, ever. It will be missed.