Gene Catlow

"Just keep doing what you're doing, Gene."

—Roger Tuska

Gene Catlow is a semi-weekly Web Comic 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 but quickly progresses into an in-depth adventure as the Status Quo (band) starts to unravel... and boy does it unravel...

Gene Catlow, the titular character, is not only the Author Avatar for Albert Temple but is partnered with CatsWhisker, the Author Avatar for Temple's sweetheart Tawana Gilroy. Temple and Gilroy have collaborated on Gene Catlow since its inception.

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Tropes used in Gene Catlow include:

• 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?
• Art Shift: When Michelle uses the Sight of the Soul, in particular. Whether this changes when she's finally born... who knows...
• Benevolent Alien Invasion: The amphibious aliens.
• Big Beautiful Woman: Hannah the beaver.
• 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.
• 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.
• Fake Crossover: Gene and CatsWhisker have both ... er... "appeared" together in Kit N Kay Boodle. For very obvious reasons it shouldn't be considered canon that they partook in a backyard orgy so powerful that they were given blessing by the gods themselves.
  • Given an ironic nod in this comic.
• 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.
• Gratuitous Foreign Language: Ancient Canovian uses a hamburger for "yes"?
• High Heel Face Turn: Dusk and Dawn.
• High on Catnip: Gene avoids catnip for this reason.
• Humans Are the Real Monsters: 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.
• Klatchian Coffee: Coffee Squared, Used near the start of the comic to unlock Cotton's Sight of the Soul ability.
• Longest Pregnancy Ever: Tavatania, who carried Michelle for about five years, real time.
• 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.
• Meaningful Name: Michael Alan Avariss, though a bit less so for his son.
• Mechanical Lifeform: Not at the beginning, but...
• 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.
• Rule 34: Besides Gene and Catswhisker showing up now and then in Kit N Kay Boodle of all places, 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.
• The Medic: You have Animen and Michelle. Take your pick!
• 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 yet ten years into the story.
• You Didn't Ask: Used by the island later on.