Craving Control

Craving Control is/was a webcomic published on Drunk Duck.com in 2007. It followed a beautiful young freshman named Lalia, as she attempts to survive college with her roommate Jane.

Oh, and did I mention that Lalia has a massive appetite, often with a gut to show it, and it is actually the entire point of the series?

Yes, Craving Control was a series designed to cater to belly and stuffing fans. In this task it has clearly succeeded, as the series lead to at least two contests, and waves upon waves of fan art. Amazingly, this occured despite the series itself only lasting twenty eight pages and experiencing sufferingly long hiatuses. Eventually, the series just stopped being made. But of course, much of the community still craved more of the series.

And the Fandom Rejoiced, when the creator of the series (Only known as Arthur) uploaded the entire series onto Deviant ART and actually revived the series, albiet in a very, VERY sporadic fashion, usually with one update per month. Upon its revival, the series underwent a number of major changes. For one, Lalia's appetite took a few steps out of realism, allowing her binges to get extremely cartoony in proportion, as well as the elimination of an extennded cast, focussing almost exclusively on Lalia's binges.

On the 8th of April, 2011, Arthur announced that for personal reasons, he was taking down the series again and was deleting his account. Though pretty official sounding, this mark the second time the series has been pulled off the face of the Earth, so only time will tell if Lalia makes a return.

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Tropes used in Craving Control include:

• Aborted Arc: When the original series ended, Word of God states that Trevor would have started going out with Jane in order to get closer to Lalia, who continued to not notice him. Due to the new focus of the series, this hasn't been able to happen.
• Abusive Parents: Lalia's mom wasn't exactly abusive, but she was VERY strict about her daughters eating habits. Grounding her for every inch her belly had swollen after finding her eating cake too late at night. And it was her birthday cake!
• All Love Is Unrequited: Trevor is head over heels for Lalia, and not once in the entire series does she evn acknowledge his existance.
• Alpha Bitch: Kim was essentially set up to be Lalia's enemy before the cancellation of the original.
• Art Evolution: Between the old series and the revival, the improvement in the artwork is very noticeable.
• Art Shift: For a brief period, the series was illustrated by a completely different artist to get it out of a hiatus. It is VERY noticable.
• Artifact Title: After the Thanksgiving Special, Lalia has gives into her appetite, something which sticks throughout the rest of the series. In other words, there is no more focus on he attempting to Control her Cravings.
• Author Appeal: What do you think?
• Balloon Belly: The entire point of the series.
  • A non Lalia example is Jane in the last page of the Thanksgiving Special.
• Berserk Button: When Lalia shows up to Thanksgiving Dinner already stuffed to the brim, AND having eaten a pie baked specially for the day by Jane, the usually quiet roommate loses it and actually manages to get a worried look from Lalia.
• Big Eater: As put by Mr. E,Lalia is a thunderous glutton.
• Brilliant but Lazy: More like, Brilliant but Hungry. Lalia is a clever girl, but her appetite tends to get in her way.
• Captain Oblivious: While Lalia knows she's a Big Eater, she dosn't realise how insane her appetite is, or how much frustration it can cause to those around her.
• Characterization Marches On: More like, Characterization of Friendship Marches On. Lalia and Janes' interactions in the initial run were a little more indifferent, with both being polite to each other and Lalia frequently trying to force her presence on Jane. Come the Thanksgiving Special (And technically about a year later), the two are pretty much best friends, though still with the same gripes as before.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Happens to anyone who isn't Lalia or Jane after the original run on Drunk Duck.
• Clip Show: Done hilarious in a single strip when Lalia is completely dumbfounded by her slight weight gain.
• Determinator: Lalia needs to collect one hundred tickets from one hundred cereal boxes to win a free cruise an offer that expires the next day, and the sun has already gone down. She makes it happen.
• Fat and Proud: While not fat, Lalia eventually comes to take pride in her colossal gut.
• Food Porn: Though food is rarely on screen long before vanishing behind Lalia's face, on occassion we can see some food that has every right to make Lalia such a glutton.
• Forgotten Childhood Friend: Christina, Lalia's pal from the Prequel series hasn't come up at all outside of the single as of yet released strip.
• Freudian Excuse: Lalia's mother was very strict about diets, and would punish her daughter harshly for overeating. It has permenantly made her feel that she has no self control.
• Gag Boobs: Lalia's chest is so big, the CC entry on the Gag Boobs page actually mistook them for the focus of the series! *Interestingly, they have been drawn slightly smaller, mainly because the artist has been too focussed on her newfound wanton gluttony to remember their hugeness.
  • They're sometimes still drawn huge.
• Halloween Episode: Lalia goes out Trick Or Treating and ends up cleaning out the neighbourhood before the kids could get to it.
• Hypocritical Humour: An imaginary Lalia makes fun of Trevor's eating habits and how he has no self control.
• Improbable Food Budget: How the hell isn't she broke?
• Inappropriate Hunger: Lalia completely fails to recognise recieving pizza delivery through the window as disruptive to her class.
• Innocent Fanservice Girl: Though she does flaunt her curves, Lalia probably dosn't realise how attarctive some find her engorged stomach.
• I Thought It Meant: During a cram session, Jane asks Lalia if she could pick her up some fruit for her while she's out. She comes back with fruit pie. After Jane explains what she meant, Lalia happily treats herself to it.
• Love Triangle: In the initial plan of the original series, had it continued on.
• Meganekko: Jane.
• Nerd: Jane, again. One strip has her explain in great detail what she and her clan had been doing in World of Warcraft. Lalia understands none of it and merely says, "Sounds fun."
• Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds: On a much smaller scale, with no death involved. Lalia's obliviousness has at times caused considerable destruction around her. She actually caused a sorority to burn down at one stage!
• Morals Dissonance: Within the same story, Lalia both stole clothes from the Alpha Bitch and BURNT DOWN HER FRIGGIN' SORORITY!
• Ms.Fanservice: Lalia, both stuffed and unstuffed.
• Oblivious to Love: Lalia has no idea about Trevor's existance. Trevor is also completely unaware that the object of his desires is a glutton beyond comprehension.
• Odd Friendship: Lalia, a pretty, glamorous redhead with the appetite rivalling some species of whale, and Jane, a geeky, shy and very sensible worrywort.
• Off the Wagon: All it takes is one Thanksgiving to send Lalia off the deep end.
• Once an Episode: Many, many, MANY strips consist of Lalia doing something gluttonous, and Jane reacting negatively.
• Only Sane Man: As the series has gone on and on and Lalia's binges have gotten bigger and bigger, Jane seemes to be one of few people to react to Lalia's extreme eating. Even her own mother is barely fazed by her ten foot girth with proceeds to crush the damn table!
• Overly Long Tongue: It can scoop up entire slices of pie.
• Prequel: The Early Warnin Signs series is this, though due to such infrequent updates and a current focus on Lap of Luxury, it has only recieved a single strip.
• Serial Escalation: Thought Lalia's gut was big at the start of the Thankgiving Special? Just wait until page four.
• Sanity Slippage: Trevor appears to go through this towards the end of the original series. Namely, seeing an imagimary Lalia taunting him about his unrequitted crush and occasional poor eating habits, eventually culminating him imagining her dressed as Princess Peach.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Jane's mother is completely unfazed by Lalia's colossal, ten foot tall girth in the Thanksgiving Special.
• Vacation Episode: The series, 'Lap of Luxury' is based around this.