Badly Drawn Kitties

Badly Drawn Kitties, also known as BDK, is an online furry web comic created by Mat Sherer, which, as the title suggests, features cats and is, in theory, badly drawn; however, the artist himself admits it is not as badly drawn as it once was.

Originally the entire subject of the site, it has now become a monthly strip within its own subdirectory when BDK (the site) switched to a resource blog, created on October 2005.

Premise
The comic stars a couple of anthropomorphic cats named Lucy and Lydia, who share an apartment in the fictional country of New Talia, a small island nation off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. An adult-themed comic, sex plays a major role in many strips, whether it is actually occurring, implied, or the subject of a joke. There is nudity in the comic, but due to the simplistic art it is not very graphic. Recently, the comic has focused less on sex, but it is still an important part of the comic.

The comic has had various release schedules in its run, but is currently updated every Monday, Wednesday and Friday; Keenspace permitting.

The New Talian Idol Incident
New Talian Idol is a parody of American Idol and is the closest thing to an epic story to appear in BDK; of all plot lines and story arcs in BDK, this was the biggest and affected the most people.

New Talian Idol
In late 2002/early 2003, Sonica Magazine signed a deal with New Reality Studios to produce a home-grown version of American Idol. On January 21, 2003, Desi gives the assignment of hosting New Talian Idol to venom-tongued critic Lucy, who utterly despises American Idol, thinking she'd be the perfect Simon Cowell-esque host.

On March 17, 2003, Lucy arrives on the set of New Talian Idol, and meets the two people that she and Desi are working with. Buck is the producer and is so vain that he thinks every girl secretly wants to make out with him, constantly joking with lines like "Sorry, but I'm already married." Jack is Lucy's co-host, and is attracted to Lucy, but he has a nasty habit of saying things that he thinks are compliments, but are actually insulting.


 * At this point, the comic drones on about some other stuff, primarily flashbacks from Lucy to delay the continuation of New Talian Idol.

On May 19, 2003, Lucy returns to the set for taping of New Talian Idol, were she is confronted with Buck and Jack again; sadly her annoyance over the whole deal is quite pronounced, making her seem like the perfect "Simon Cowell". She goes to Lydia for help and gets a makeover, trying to act nicer. When it seems that Jack is coming on to her, she tells him she's a lesbian, but he seems unphased; worse, it draws even more unwanted attention from Buck. This leads to her changing her story and saying she has a boyfriend, and uses Dirk to try and throw Buck and Jack off; but Dirk acts a little too cozy with Lucy and Lydia accuses him of philandering. All this fails, and Buck simply uses it to promote Lucy as a lesbian caricature on the show.

During the show, Lucy realizes that the only way out of this is to simply daydream and ignore the show completely. Buck mentions to Desi that Lucy doesn't seem as volatile as she described, but Desi says that the next act will bring out the worst in her. The next song is the most horrible thing in the world, that dreaded Céline Dion song from Titanic.


 * After a brief repose to celebrate Canada Day and Independence Day, we return to New Talian Idol where...

Lucy goes totally off the deep end. She berates the whole show for taking people who may have real talent and squandering it on useless pop tunes; she blasts Jack for constantly eying her and Buck for his egotistical delusions, then storms off to her dressing room promising a hairspray enema to the first person she sees. That person happens to be Desi, who orders Lucy to go back out there, saying that it's just another assignment and is part of her job at Sonica, ignorant of the can of hairspray Lucy is now shaking. When Desi tells her to do the show or she's fired, Lucy leaves, giving Desi the payback she deserves.

As a result, Lucy loses her job, and reluctantly goes to Zig Zag looking for another job; thankfully getting one that doesn't involve what she is or isn't wearing. Dirk and Lydia break-up over the incident where he and Lucy pretended to be lovers. Meanwhile Sonica is left footing the bill over New Talian Idol, and is forced to pay damages to New Reality Studios for breaching their contract.

Aftermath
April 27, 2004, Lucy receives a notice in the mail that she is being sued 1.5 million New Talian Dollars—roughly 900,000 USD according to Lola—because she walked out on New Talian Idol, and Sonica was left to foot the damages. It turns out Sonica was bought by a company called Ranntech, and its owner, Vincent Rann is looking to make as much money off it as possible. When Lucy mentions it to Zig Zag, she gets her lawyer to look into it; apparently Zig Zag had a run in with Rann and would love to tie his legal knickers in a knot. The meeting with the lawyer goes well, and Lucy counter sues Sonica on grounds of wrongful dismissal.

Knowing that Lucy is in the right and would likely win the suit, Mr. Rann's lawyer comes up with a solution: if they both drop their lawsuits, Sonica hires Lucy back as an editor; that way she's working for Rann and making him money, or if she steps out of line he can fire her legitimately. Meanwhile, Desi gets punished for causing the whole fiasco.

In the end, Lucy gets the job she wanted, but she is now in the sights of Vincent Rann, who is waiting for a chance to trip her up. Desi despises working under Lucy, but eventually gets a new job, hosting the new New Talian Idol; Lucy thinks this is fitting punishment, not realizing there are people who like the Idol concept. Also, Lucy finds out that Jezzebel works in Sonica's mail room; soon after, they start dating.

Recent changes

 * Lucy and Lydia became—or filed to become—New Talian citizens on November 3, 2004, in response to the reelection of George W. Bush as president of the United States; up to that point they were still American citizens. It's an obvious spoof of liberals and Democrats who threatened to move to Canada if Bush was reelected.


 * Fisk was killed in Iraq. Sheila received a $3 million insurance payoff; she gave half to Lucy and is planning to move to New Talia.


 * Lucy tries her hand in the professional wrestling circuit as a wrestler's girlfriend, whose bit is to kick guys in the crotch; her wrestling name is Monica Sweet. The promoter fires her when he feels there's no place for her, prompting Lucy to kick one last guy in the crotch.


 * A teaser image suggests Lola will soon return to BDK after Amber turned her into a succubus; but a cryptic message doesn't tell us if she's returning to normal, or if she's returning to the badly drawn style.


 * Lydia and Dirk are married.


 * BDK goes Blog (October 2005.) It becomes a site for articles, rants, and game reviews, and switches "BDK, the comic" to a monthly format.


 * Since late 2006, a new series of comics, The Party Times, has begun. It is based on games such as Dungeons and Dragons.


 * The comic has since rebooted to its old format.


 * As of May 2008, Kat Smith took over as illustrator of BDK. She abandoned the strip in spring of 2010.

Dan & Mab's Furry Adventures cameos:
DMFA, as it's also called, is a webcomic by Amber Williams. There's a slight reference to Lucy & Lydia in the 2nd panel. As part of a story's flashback, Mat himself, appears as an in-story character. Lola the Comedy Kitten appears as part of one of Amber's non-canon strips, which also mocks Mat Sherer's non-canon strips. And finally, Lola in her Succubus Form, when Amber "kidnapped" Lola for a Jelly Bean ransom (as mentioned above). Mat's BDK reference to the event can be seen here.

Better Days cameos:
Better Days is a webcomic by Jay Naylor. Better Days had Lucy as a shared character when Jay Naylor and Mat Sherer were friends. There has since been a falling out, sometime around chapter 13 and 14 of Better Days, and Mat and Jay's Lucy characters became two different ones in two different worlds. Fisk Black, a character of Jay's, had appeared in Badly Drawn Kitties several times, but was killed off in the original series and was totally removed from the BDK cast and comic with the 2009 reboot.

P.S.I. cameos:
Lucy was a guest on P.S.I.: A Pessimistic Sense of Inadequacy, a webcomic by Fesworks. Stemming from BDK continuity of Lucy owning her own recording studio, Lucy is talent scouting. She was on a road trip that has lead her from her home in New Talia, through Eastern Canada, to Minnesota, USA. From here, Lucy comes into PSI for several strips. She meets up with characters Fes & Ernst while they are going camping.