Bittersweet Candy Bowl

Information

So.. what on earth is this “Bittersweet Candy Bowl”?

Better yet, why should you care! It’s not really that brilliant a series.. but I guess if you clicked on “information,” you wanted to find out more about this, huh? I’m really flattered that the series has interested you enough to check this! So yeah.. I’ll try to make this worth the curiosity.. and maybe answer some unexplained things if I see common questions rise up (Expect this to get a FAQ at the end as the webpage grows if that’s needed).. this will also be updated on occasion to explain about recent happenings in the story.. since some things are changing.. the story is definitely a lot more different than it was in the beginning.

First off, this series was created wayyyy before the first comic that is archived here. Hell, this series has gone through some revivals.. about three to be exact (Or not). It all started when I developed an adoration for comics such as Garfield, Condorito, and Mafalda. Comics and cartoons were always so fascinating to me and I loved the way we could be told a story in sequences.. we could be put in the scene with the character and just watch the character react to situations, whether it be everyday or pretty damn extraordinary. I loved that.. and I loved seeing reactions happen, especially when it came to funny situations.. it wasn’t like I read serious business comic books back then like Batman or something XD I grew up on silly slapstick junk that had the characters getting violently hurt.

So I thought “Hey.. I wanna do that!”.. but the question was.. how? So I just made little boxes.. and at first just drew sequences.. like a character walking.. they trip.. and fall. Oh snap. It was originally just random little characters.. like a little human girl.. or a dog. It was only after I became obsessed with reading cat-related comics (Garfield, Heathcliff) that I wanted to make my main characters cats. I just thought cats were so cute.. and they could do so many little things.. like roll on the floor.. tilt their ears back.. the motion of cats always fascinated me! Sounds silly.. but yeah. I liked drawing little cutesy things at first.. like a cat curled up, its head facing us.. I thought I was pretty amazing to do that. Nyarhar.. I was easily entertained back then.

Mike was the first real character I created.. he was originally a yellow and dimwitted cat, who always got hurt at the end. Surprisingly enough, Sue was the first protagonist rather than Lucy. They looked pretty much the exact same, nyarhar.. black nose and everything. Sue was bossy and rude.. and yeah. Just that typical comic idea with an idiot and a smartass. I later wanted to draw a pretty cat.. and what is prettier than a pure white, blue-eyed, red nosed kitten? Yeah.. I made Lucy then.. and I really loved her.. way more than Sue. Sue then became a secondary character.. but soon faded off into the background.. funny how that happens in this Bittersweet Candy Bowl series!

So yeah.. regular comics started when I was about seven or so. I used to make little tiny books called “Cat ___”.. comics about cats, obviously.. it got up to like chapter 50, I swear. Unfortunately, I threw the majority of my old comics away because I was so ashamed of them.. I regret it to this very day. Don’t ever throw your old work away, guys. It really hurts when you one day feel “Hey.. I wanna look at my old crap” and you realize you don’t have them.. and they were one of a kind. Never to be retrieved again.. no matter how hard you try. I really wish there was a way to reverse time.. seriously, I had SO MANY COMICS.. hundreds.. in little booklets.. just put them in a bag and threw them away. Horrid.

By “old comics”, though.. I mean the ones I did when I was about seven-nine or so. Those comics were originally done on white computer paper that were bended and stapled to make into a mini-booklet. Those were thrown away.. but all the ones I drew in an actual notebook are still with me.. and some are as old as.. nine, ten or so. So at least I have that.

So to get to the ACTUAL comics rather than their tragic destruction.. I ended up putting in a setting for the comic by the time I was about.. nine or so. Before, they were just stupid comics with random animals doing things.. but I finally decided to focus on the characters Lucy and Mike.. so I developed them up. I gave them a family, siblings, friends, a school to attend, teachers to harass them.. the works. In a way, the series used to chronicle what I was going through in school. If something funny happened in school, I always drew it up except made Lucy and Mike experience it. Lucy soon became what I woulda been if I wasn’t so shy.. so she was used for me to vent. I was a pretty bratty and horrid child back then.. so Lucy was very cynical and very cruel to others. I sometimes shudder when I look back at the old comics and see how.. angry I was back then. Seriously, some stuff was really bad.

As I grew up, there were changes to the story.. Lucy softened up more (She was still immensely cruel, but she had more control now).. and Mike became less of a bumbling idiot. I thought yellow was too girly a color for him so his color was changed to silver.. he also originally had brown-gray eyes.. those were changed to green. Along with his new look, his personality began to form.. and in the old series, he started showing signs of actually being in love with Lucy. Before, he would hit on her.. or make little jokes that would get a slap in the face as a response.. but I made him start genuinely feeling strongly for her.. that was around eleven or so.

Twelve came.. and I brought them closer.. the comic began getting less slapstick and began focusing on the characters more, sometimes having little arcs happen. It was still meant to be funny, but they were showing more emotions. I then became a teenager.. and veered the comic to something a lot more serious (I also got into anime some more.. so I wanted to make stupid touching “animu” scenes). Lucy began getting more sentimental and soft, Mike more strongminded.. Paulo and Daisy were also introduced (Yeah, they were not exactly characters that existed this WHOLE time) I soon made a side-story from that influence.. which was my first attempt at a full-on serious story.. once it ended, though, the comic did.

The series laid dormant for a while.. and was revived for a short gaiden side-story that was so animay, it makes me keel over at the thought. The personality of the characters were IMMENSELY different, Lucy a sobby crybaby and Mike a tough and heartless douchebag who is really A GOOD GUY INSIDE REALLY :((((. Definitely the stereotypical animay pair. It was only another experiment.. and when the story ended, I didn’t draw them again. God what was I thinking.

That was when I was.. about fifteen or so. So insane. I thought the characters were finally dead, too.. so I began focusing on other comics.. I drew little comics with my “self-character” and comics with the character Carol.. those can be seen in my DeviantArt page. Notice I was sixteen when I started my account in DeviantArt..so it shows that the cat series was dead for quite a while. Anime influence was supreme by that time.

Years passed.. and I turned eighteen. I’ve been drawing and trying to get my style away from anime.. but that’s really hard, obviously. I sat around one day, though.. and noticed my drawer with all my old comics.. and I flipped through them and really did stop and appreciate my cat characters.. the characters that pretty much lended me a helping hand in my whole life of trying to become a cartoonist.. obviously they gave me A LOT OF PRACTICE in terms of sequences and expressions. I have to thank them.. those nonexistent characters. This was coming from a person who abandoned that dream of being a cartoonist to instead follow the footsteps of becoming a teacher, though.. so it was pretty sad to see them.. posing and interacting.. knowing that back then, I wanted to make SOMETHING of them.

Keep smiling, little Lucy~

I was sitting in university one day, bored out of my mind and waiting for class to start up.. so I started doodling. I drew up two little cats.. and thought “.. Haha Mike and Lucy” so I made the cats look like them.. except I gave them accessories. I gave the boy a scarf.. and the girl a bow. I thought that was pretty cute.. so I doodled them up more.. playing about. I soon drew Daisy and Paulo, giving Daisy that pearl necklace but not giving Paulo anything. I was really happy doodling them up.. and it became a bit of a focus for a while.. to the point that when I was studying for my Psychology Final, I drew little comics with the newly revived characters to try and stay awake for the night. Whenever I was getting sleepy, I pulled my notebook out, sketched out little lines.. and drew the cats.

Needless to say, the first few comics you see in the archives are scans of comics done on those nights.. hence the terrible quality. I wasn’t trying.. but after a while of posting them on DeviantArt, I noticed a bit of a positive feedback. People.. liked them! I guess. It made me wanna draw them up more.. to the point that I was constantly drawing them.. constantly working on their personalities and trying to develop them. Soon enough, it became a story.. and I feel the series truly starts with the “Prom Preparation” comic.. that was the first comic I drew in a separate notebook.. a notebook I bought specifically for the cat comic.

And I guess that brings us to today. So why is this called “Bittersweet Candy Bowl”? In the words of my lovely friend Lily who was the creator of the name: “i made it up XD i was trying to decide whether or not to name it after a song, but suddenly i thought of how their relationship is bittersweet, and yet they can’t get enough. so i figured it fit. if you like it, use it! i’d be honoured :3”

She wins an internet for that. Forever.

So yeah.. this story just chronicles the life of Lucy and Mike.. as did the old series. They retain the same birthdays given to them in the old series.. and they’re growing up as time passes like any normal person.. going through High School now, in fact! So yeah. I hope this was informative enough! And if you wanna know what’s REALLY going on in the story.. well.. umm.. read the comic!

Bittersweet Trivia

Well.. this is meant to be the information page rather than the “WATCH LILLINGS BABBLE ABOUT HER HISTORY” page.. so to help you guys with some of the jokes or some key traits of the characters (Since I won’t be mentioning it every second), here’s some trivia! Some are also just fun facts that have nothing valid to add to the story.. those are the ones from the old series.

Because Lucy is a blue-eyed white cat, she isn’t exactly the best hearer. In fact, she’s deaf on her left ear.. so if you ever wanna get away with insulting her, just mumble on her left side.. she wouldn’t even know you’re speaking! Her right ear is average, but she can still miss what you’re saying.
Mike actually has painfully good hearing, a total opposite compared to Lucy. His hearing is so good that loud sounds can render him helpless.. so if you wanna weaken him, just shriek and Mike will plop to the ground, trembling. He can easily flinch by loud sounds.. hence why he’s always trembling when the bell rings in High School.
Lucy cannot swim. In fact, Lucy has a phobia of large quantities of water, especially ponds and lakes.. so whenever she’s forced to be near them, she “puts herself to sleep”.. pretty much makes herself faint from the fear. She can still take showers, though.. baths are completely avoided.. as well as hot tubs, even. Anything that you can dunk yourself into Lucy will avoid like the plague. The origin of her phobia hasn’t been revealed yet, but it will be covered in the future.. she obviously cannot swim if she’s afraid of water, after all.
Speaking of phobias, Paulo has an insane phobia of barking. When he was a child in the city, he was ganged up by a bunch of thugs who barked and beat him up, so that incident stuck to Paulo so much that he became afraid of barking. Then, he was taunted once again in Middle School by a senior, whose groupies ganged up on him in a park, further enhancing his phobia. That’s why Paulo starts trembling at even a “woof”.. which David tends to do at times to tease him.
Chirpy constantly wonders about the whereabouts of her mother, but she doesn’t stop calling Yashy “mommy” or anything.. she has pet names for all the characters. It seems like calling someone by their proper name isn’t something Chirpy can do. She calls Lucy “Girl-kitty” exclusively.. “Boy-kitty” for Mike.. after that, it’s more observations.. like calling Daisy “Curly-Kitty” and Paulo “Meanie-kitty”
Speaking of nicknames, Daisy is called a whore by Yashy merely because Yashy views Mike as a parental figure.. and since Lucy is considered to be Yashy’s mother, Yashy becomes really jealous when she sees a girl trying to take her “father” away.. hence why she despises Daisy and calls her a whore. She calls anyone that hits on Mike a whore, though.. so it isn’t like there’s some exclusive hatred for Daisy. And Yashy calls Mike “Flea” because “Flea” is a slang-term for “Michael”.. so it kinda makes sense in the end.
Blur has no birthdate nor is his name known. As said in the character page, Yashy gave Blur his name because Blur is not only really quick in terms of flying, his memory is all a “blur.” His birthdate was also given by Yashy, but it was random. It isn’t meant to be the anniversary of when he was found, although that would be really logical. Blur was just moping on that particular day about wanting a birthday and Yashy just jumped up with “.. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BLUR! There! This is your official birthday!”.. it has stuck ever since.
Paulo tends to flirt with any kind of girl, although he avoids flirting with Daisy and tends to act more “moral” around her.. this can be because Daisy has a general tendency to make guys behave around her.. but it’s also because Daisy is Paulo’s first friend so it feels almost “wrong” for him to treat her like a piece of meat. That’s why he at times gets blank when he’s being cruel after he realizes that Daisy is listening.. and he quickly turns into a softie to the person he was previously insulting.
“Abbey” isn’t his full name.. rather it’s Abraham. He claims that although “Abe” woulda been more proper as a name, Abbey chooses not to use it because “his father answers to Abe” and Abbey seems to be disgusted at the thought of his father. Although it hasn’t been dwelled on enough (It will in future) there is actually an underlying hatred of his father, which could be the reason why Abbey is so protective towards girls, and despises people like Paulo. lol possible parental abuse
Lucy’s ribbon was given to her by her mother, as an attempt to make Lucy look girly and therefore make other girls wanna play with her. When Lucy was a child, she only wanted to play boy games.. and enjoyed things like cars and trucks and planes.. so she didn’t really get along with any of the girls who only had dolls in mind. The girls avoided Lucy for a time.. so when Lucy finally got sent to preschool, her mother placed a little pink ribbon around Lucy’s neck, saying that no matter what, Lucy will always be her little girl.. and that she hopes Lucy treasures and keeps the bow. Needless to say, she is still wearing it.
Lily has revealed her birthday, but not her age.. so her age is completely unknown. In the first comic, Lucy said that Lily was seven, though.. and seven used to be Lily’s official age, but that has become a bit false now.. the first comic has many false traits in it! In the “canon” storyline, Lily hasn’t revealed her official age.. maybe Lucy just said that Lily was seven due to how childish Lily looks. Seven seems fine enough.. then again, Lily tends to act like an adult way too much.
Characters like Kizuna and Tess are fan characters. They were created by other people, hence why the characters look considerably different compared to the “real” cast. I just really loved them enough to put them in the comic.. they fit properly. So if you wanna make a fan character, it won’t be too surprising if I end up using him/her.. with your permission, of course! Just don’t expect me to use any character.. some just cannot fit.
Mike was originally meant to be yellow and brown-eyed in the old series.. at least that was the color scheme of his earliest prototype.. but I soon changed it so that he was yellow and green-eyed.. until I finally morphed him to a silver cat.
Daisy was actually meant to be an obsessive friend of Mike’s sister in the old series! There was an arc where the sister invited several girls to a sleepover.. and they all wanted to have Mike for themselves (They found him really attractive).. Daisy was one of the girls. After a bunch of comics later, Daisy reappeared again.. with the same design, but a totally different personality. She soon became a regular.. and was brought back for this series.
Paulo debuted in a dream of Lucy where he was a terrorist in the old series! It was merely a dream, though.. but he was ironically a new student so Lucy thought the dream was telling her that Paulo was evil at first glance. He gained her trust after a while, though.. and Lucy actually develops feelings for him in the old series. Funny enough, Paulo (Or at least the Paulo at that time.. ohoho) DID become evil. Oh snap that was the beginning of the side story.
Yashy needs to stop being such a Yoshi. She was created when I was nine after I thought a baby yoshi would be an absolutely adorable pet. Yashy faded from the scene, though.. but my brother thought she was an awesome character and urged me to bring her back.. so Yashy’s existence is at the fault of my brother!

Links

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Temporary! But yeah, you can visit this: OnlineComics.net!

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Page last updated 26th of November, 2006.

Bittersweet Candy Bowl is the responsibility of TaeshiLH (Email link) with the help of SuitCase (Email link) the mastermind behind the whole setup of the page.. so props to him! LOL DO NOT COPY OR REDISTRIBUTE, okay I’m kidding. If you wanna take anything, feel free to do so. I’ll be flattered. So yeah.. the characters, story, and art are done by me, although Tess belongs to Lily (Email link) (She’s also the one that made up the title, WIN FOR HER) and Kizuna belongs to Shinoka (Email link). A valid RSS 2.0 feed of the comic is available, too. Go back to work and stop procrastinating, scum.