I'm a big fan of the webcomic Puppetry, but even so I have to admit that flipping through her archive is mostly a hit-and-miss proposition. And whenever I think of a random strip, I can't do much better than a linear search of the whole archive. So here's an index of what I feel are the remarkable strips, intended to help me find the ones I'm looking for next time without paging through all the boring ones.
If you haven't read Puppetry before, go to the link above and give it a shot. This is like my personal "greatest hits" list, and should be considered spoilers.
2003:
- Apr 18: You touch me and my insides sting.
- Apr 19: Television made me the woman I am today.
- Apr 29: College has made me clever, conservative, independent, insane.
- May 15: It gets confusing after about two whether it's late at night or early in the morning.
- May 22: If you swallow all the things you'd like to say eventually they'll choke you.
- Jun 07: When I'm alone with someone I can be pleasant even intelligent but when I get in a large group I get sort of spastic. If I were a dog I'd be peeing on the carpet.
- Jul 02: I'm too busy pretending not to care that he hasn't called to remember I'm not supposed to care that he hasn't called.
- Jul 05: The sky is always more beautiful late at night through a backseat window.
- Jul 16: Gluing googley eyes to something makes it an instant piece of art. One Halloween my housemate Trevor dressed up as "creepy". He found a black turtleneck and glued a bunch of googly eyes to it.
- Aug 03: I still think about you... This afternoon I was tearing wallpaper down and suddenly it felt like you tearing me in two.
- Aug 04-Sep 02: An Alphabatized [sic] Guide to Animals -- I generally skip this
- Sep 05: I found some poetry I wrote years ago and realized if I had a time machine... I'd never hang out with myself.
- Sep 23: FEED ME MEAT! demanded the squid. My heart said no. But my hands said yes. So meat it was.
- Oct 11: I am so tired my eyelids keep sticking to each other.
- Oct 16: I would never pay for a movie if I knew I wouldn't be watching it.
- Oct 17: The cashier at the liquor store always looks me up and down to see if I'm sixteen and hiding it somehow.
- Oct 31: The clock ticks. Is this the truth? or another lie? Our conversation continues.
- Nov 01: Sometimes friendships take a backseat to the possibility of poonani.
- Nov 03: I wonder if it's normal to freak out occasionally.
- Dec 20: I graduated from college... Now what?
- Dec 28: I don't like knowing there can be electricity between certain people. It only makes my expectations higher whenever I meet a new person.
2004:
- Jan 09: Handy VENN DIAGRAM!
- Jan 15: First Kiss. I leaned forward and suddenly we were kissing. He asked, "What just happened?" I shrugged. "We kissed!"
- Jan 17: The cheaper the Chinese, the better the beef with broccoli. I have no idea if this is true or not, but I think scientific experiments are called for.
- Jan 25: Whenever anyone asks what I want for my birthday, I freeze up and can't think of anything until after they're long gone.
- Jan 28: The silver in my hair doesn't coincide with the candles on my cake.
- Feb 07: When you turn 21 obviously you get a transvestite in a birthday cake. But what are you supposed to get when you turn 22? Alcohol? Dirty magazines and cigarettes? A boyfriend? Comic books?
- Feb 13-16: Animal Valentine's day cards.
- Feb 20: I know I've stayed up too late when the light leaves the lamp and comes in the window.
- Feb 23: When he left he took the city with him in his head.
- Feb 27: When we talk tiny butterflies flutter against my insides.
- Mar 02: Could you at least say goodbye before you wander off and stop talking to me?
- Mar 05: The afternoon stretched INTO THE EVENING
- Mar 06: We sank in the sea.
- Mar 10: When I grow up I'm going to marry a pirate and live on the high seas and get green with sickness. I love the curve of the vomit and how it looks like an ocean wave.
- Mar 22: I am more elequont [sic] in writing than I am in person.
- Mar 23: I'm secretly awesome on the phone. I don't want the secret to get out though... or everyone'll call at once.
- Mar 29: Confession only makes the confessor feel better.
- Apr 14: Pretend boyfriends are low-maintenance but not very lively.
- Apr 16: There's something about wearing WHITE that just feels cooler. I know she didn't mean this the way I am likely to take it, but still.
- Apr 26: Nothing like a little HTML to make your brain dribble out.
- Apr 29: I'm a little tired of all this rejection, so could somebody just pretend like they want me?
- May 07: It's strange... that when certain people disappoint you it's sort of charming.
- May 10: I know it's summer (no matter what month it is) when it feels like I'm sweating out of my skin.
- May 13: You can't wear white without spilling something on it.
- May 24: Kissing in public's gross... unless I'm the one being kissed. The expression on the face in the last panel sells me on this one.
- May 26: There's a point between waking and sleeping that sometimes feels like falling.
- May 30: The first time you fall in love you really do believe... At this age we can still change.
- Jun 11: I haven't dated anyone in three years (and feel like a complete loser when I sit down and think about it), but most of the time it never comes up.
- Jun 30: I never know which words you want to hear.
- Jul 26: Sometimes they leave me bruised. Some days I'm black and blue.
- Jul 27: Jealousy is
- Jul 28: Staying up past six (What a pleasant sensation it is to roll these pennies across my nose.) changes the texture of your skin.
- Aug 02: This humidity makes me want to move to Canada and marry a Mountie.
- Aug 03: Picture of two people connected by threads to a broken heart.
- Aug 10: I don't know what I want. ...so stop asking.
- Aug 11: If I had a relationship with anyone else I'd feel like I was cheating on myself.
- Aug 27: Organization begins with a box. And ends with DISTRACTION.
- Sep 02: This is us trying not to get attached.
- Sep 21: Pretending not to care is hard work.
- Sep 30: Worms and fish are not the first animals I would think of if I were gummifying things.
- Oct 05: Romance. That's what that is. I really like the picture of two people sharing one heart.
- Oct 06: You can't have my heart because an alligator ate it.
- Oct 20: Sometimes there's a fine line between being open and whining.
- Nov 01: I'm a devilskeletonfairy princessbutterfly.
- Nov 05: I can't help how frizzy my hair gets. Lying girls like you make me sick.
- Nov 17: If I help you get excited will you help me keep my feet firmly planted?
- Nov 18: There's a certain sort of person who stays for the credits after a movie's over. (I'm not one of them.) I am.
- Nov 20: You want to be noticed. I want to blend into the wallpaper. But maybe I'm only observing people long enough to make fun of them later.
- Nov 21: 2 - 1 = me
- Nov 24: Bad little alligators get turned into purses.
- Dec 19: Secrets eat away your insides
2005:
- Feb 26: The internet's true purpose is to make your private life public.
- Mar 29: If I can't stand myself how are you supposed to? I love the minimalism of this picture. Her whole body is just one swoopy curve, and it captures fear so well.
- Apr 10: Speculating about someone's preferences isn't polite. But it sure is fun.
- Apr 12: Picture of a sculpted man with a heart on his chest thinking of a girl.
- Apr 17: If it weren't for this fire... I'd be fine.
- May 01: As a man, when you dance, step from side to side. Use your shoulders and arms and leave the hip swinging to the ladies.
- May 16: Can't we just skip the dating bit and get straight to the relationship?
- Jun 02: Saying "There's a whale in the room" won't make it go away any faster.
- Jun 09: I fall in love with you five times a day.
- Jun 10: Sometimes I turn lies into the TRUTH.
- Jun 11: Late night car rides leave me feeling confessional.
- Jun 15: I always stay a little too long at a boring party hoping something will happen.
- Jun 17: After six months of eating bagels for breakfast (and lunch) I'm starting to become shaped like one.
- Jun 18: This is just an act. Under the crazy I've got a solid core of sanity. But underneath your mask... you're all stocked up.
- Jul 30: Being bothered but not talking about it only bothers me more.
- Jul 31: When I grow up I just want to be happy.
- Aug 22: I want to stop stalling and go ahead and grow up. (I want to be sophisticated and jaded.) But I don't know if I ever will.
- Sep 07: I need plenty of space. (But not too much.)
- Sep 08: I could never be on television. I'd miss my internet connection.
- Oct 03: I feel myself falling and know, there's no one to catch me.
- Oct 30: He warned me that I talk to total strangers like I've known them all my life.
- Nov 13: I've looked for change but always made the mistake of trying to find it in other people.
- Dec 25: I'm hiding.
2006:
- Jan 17: I'm frightened this will end if I tell you too much about who I am.
- Jan 27: I'm not naked. (I'm wearing shampoo.)
- Jan 29: It's much harder to talk while I'm bothered. I'd rather wait until afterwards when I can say for sure what went wrong.
- Feb 08: I hate that you can hurt me without even noticing.
- Feb 17: He lied and tried to convince himself it was the truth.
- Feb 18: If I keep going out with people who aren't right for me nothing (unexpectedly) bad can happen.
- Feb 21: The closest my heart's been to warm lately was a case of heartburn earlier this morning.
- Feb 23: "People always talk about my butt when I wear these pants," I said. "Then don't wear them," she said. (But they say such nice things.)
- Feb 25: At dinner my dad asked why neither my sister or I seem to be able to keep a boyfriend. I looked at him and thought, "We've just got good sense I guess."
- Mar 30: It's easy to keep going, hard to stop, and impossible to go back.
- Apr 05: If you've just said too much here are some ideas for throwing off friends and coworkers: Offer to bake them a cake, be sarcastic, bring up something embarassing, deny everything. Pretend you were lying when you told the truth.
- Apr 10: Who needs sleep when you've got a cold can of Root Beer, a comfortable pair of pajama pants and an internet connection?
- May 11: I could fill an elephant sized hole with all the mean things you've said to me under the guise of "just kidding".
- May 12: In the pictures I paint, you're always the devil and I'm always the saint.
- May 16: Oh radio! You're so good at simplifying my complex emotions!
- May 26: You always claim you stopped just in time. "It wasn't fun any more," you say as a way of explaining how it happened. Glossing over what it had done to everyone around you.
- May 29: The mess in my room is designed to distract you from what a mess I've let my head get.
- Jun 04: Sometimes I listen to other people more than I listen to myself because other people are much more reliable than I am.
- Jun 05: What do you mean a quarter of my life's over? I haven't even DONE anything yet. No one warns you about the possibility of a quarter life crisis.
- Jun 07: If it really is over and done with why does it feel like you're still trying to tear me apart?
- Jun 16: When you spend most of your time alone, it's hard not to become a little self absorbed.
- Jun 20: The days fluctuate between blue and yellow.
- Jul 07: I've thought about calling, but keep putting it off because a call is concrete, a call means something more than an email or hoping for a chance meeting on the street.
- Jul 11: If all I talked about was myself, nonstop, with out a pause you'd give up on me (like I've given up on you).
- Jul 21: I could be perfectly happy never getting married. I like penguins.
- Aug 15: This is the bottle where I keep all the emotions that are too hard to swallow.
- Aug 18: I'm headed in the wrong direction, but I know where I'm going.
- Aug 28: I'd like to be open without showing you all of my insides.
- Aug 31: I know I could be wonderful and perfect for the right person, but I'm not sure if I'll ever meet him.
- Sep 11: I didn't call after asking for his number because I didn't think I could handle the rejection that was sure to follow.
- Sep 26: There are whole parts of my life I leave out when we talk. This is a line you probably didn't even know existed.
- Sep 29: I've been rejected often enough to know when it's coming. It's like watching a bus (Here comes the FUN BUS) approach the stop you're sitting at.
- Sep 30: I've given up on finding a boyfriend (ssh! we're hiding) and instead have started looking for the perfect pair of cowboy boots.
- Oct 05: My life would be simpler without you.
- Oct 06: I'm starting to figure out what it feels like to really not care ninstead of just telling myself I don't.
- Oct 19: I am horrible at leaving phone messages. I freeze and end up saying stupid things.
- Nov 06: Just because being extremely rude is easier for you doesn't mean you should be. (This is the line. This is you, mom. This is me waving good bye to the prospect of ever bringing a boyfriend home again.) Whatever happened to southern hospitality?
- Nov 07: If you're feeling short on friends DRAW SOME!
- Nov 10: "You can't keep touching me," usually translates to "I don't like you," except every once in a while it means "I like you a lot and if you keep touching me I'll touch you and who knows where we'll end up?"
- Nov 22: All it takes to make me happy is to give me root beer to drink and let me sleep in.
- Nov 27: My philosophy is, if I can't make myself happy I might as well make other people happy.
- Dec 08: The space between us is too wide to step across
- Dec 29: I am too tired to keep trying. Why don't you just leave me behind?
2007:
- Jan 01: I quit my job. I'm gonna try my hand at freelance fairy princessing.
- Jan 14: I wish I could take vacations from myself.
- Jan 19: You are crazy (It's in the eyes) but I'm afraid to tell you.
- Jan 23: I make New Year's Resolutions throughout the month of January. My newest is to never see the crack of dawn from the wake up end again.
- Jan 25: The days are melting into each other again.
- Feb 05: Come back, motivation! I want to catch you!
- Feb 13: Yum. It's a picture of a monster looking at heart.
- Feb 15: I can't help feeling like whatever goes wrong will be my fault.
- Feb 23: I'll keep asking as long as you agree (Wanna go out? Wanna go out? How 'bout now?) one time out of three.
- Feb 27: I am living in the past, telling stories about things that happened in high school and remembering them as clearly as if they happened yesterday.
- Mar 09: I get so caught up in the future and the past I forget to live in the present.
- Mar 14: Writing lets me skip around in time. Seperate events become one whole story (This here's 5 years) (without all the bits in between, gumming up the beauty of it). I always mispell "separate" as "seperate", but apparently so does Skyler Breeden.
- Mar 20: Tomorrow, the next day, too many choices. The future hangs like clouds over our heads.
- Mar 26: I feel like if I just make the right move... everything will fall into place. This is exactly how I feel all the time.
- Mar 28: I know I should just let it go. Forget how you used to treat me. But my memory is like an elephant's.
- Apr 03: I need a little more time. I haven't made up my mind about you yet.
- Apr 11: I've put my heart on a nice, high shelf and left my brain closer to the ground.
- Apr 25: I need a haircut.
- May 16: It all ends the same.
- May 18: Whenever I start crying I just tell myself (rather firmly) to stop it.
- Jul 02: I'm sorry I'm always apologizing.
- Aug 14: I was holding my breath, waiting for the part where we became you and me, but it hasn't come yet (so I guess I should stop holding my breath).
- Oct 29: None of you are the right fit.
- Nov 11: Dreams, sometimes, seep through the walls.
2008:
- Feb 23: In the middle of the night I wake up and am just as alone as I've ever been.
- Feb 26: I feel like I'm stuck under a snow drift waiting for you to come dig me out.
- Feb 29: If I cover the ocean in ink, no one will see me swimming.
- Mar 10: I spend so much time with my computer, if it were a person, we'd be dating.
- Mar 14: The perfect t-shirt is tight enough to accentuate your curves without cutting off your circulation.
- Mar 21: I've always liked the potential of men better than the reality of them.
- Apr 06: "How do you keep it all in your head?" she said. "I don't," I told her. "Some of it dribbles out." // FIXME: did she alter this one?
- Apr 16: I don't mean to be mean.
- May 12: I keep my potential safely boxed away.
- Jun 03: I say too many stupid things in a row and start to suspect my brain left this conversation twenty minutes ago.
- Jun 20: My fortune cookie said I'd have a romantic evening. I went home and went to bed instead.
- Jun 24: When someone notices me I never think "Wow, I must look good." I think, how'd I get food on my forehead?
- Jun 29: I fall somewhere between pretty and ugly.
- Jun 30: Apparently I'll say "yes" to anything you ask. So maybe we'd both be better off if you didn't ask me anything.
- Sep 04: I could cuddle you to death and you'd never wake up.
- Sep 25: I took the pictures off the walls so we could start over.
- Oct 21: The hour I drive to see you is fifty minutes further than I'd drive to see anyone else.
- Dec 13: They say opposites attract, but we've got an awful lot in common.
- Dec 22: I haven't felt like myself lately.
- Dec 23: I was trying to tell you how much I love you. (But I don't think I did a very good job of it.)
2009:
- Jan 24: I woke up this morning thinking about you.
- Jan 28: It's all going to collide.
- Jan 29: My friends are mostly men. Stick them in a room together and they could play, "Who dated her longer?"
- Feb 04: I am full of... It shows a chest with a big heart.
- Feb 08: Sometimes I'm confused by specific members of your gender, but I have a pretty firm grasp of what motivates the mass.
- Feb 13: She wondered if the chase was more exciting than actually catching anyone.
- Feb 14: If you make a big production out of holidays you no longer qualify for (in love?) they're a little less depressing. CUPCAKES FOR EVERYONE!!!
- Feb 24: I got so used to spending all my time with you. I didn't know what to do this afternoon.
- Aug 13: Make a to do list. Find paper to make a list. Get distracted.
- Aug 14: The days slip away and before you know it it's next month.
- Aug 21: I meant to get more done.
- Aug 22: Once a day is over, it's gone forever.
- Dec 6: What's the point of going to bed if it's empty?
2010: