Not Big and Not Clever

Not Big and Not Clever was a primarily macrofur-oriented webcomic drawn by Tirrel, that was hosted on Macrophile.com and nbanc.co.uk.

After four years of run time and a season of slow updates NotBigAndNotClever received its final update on 20th December 2006. The comic was abruptly ended and the majority of the older images removed. Its author explained on the main site page that his interest in maintaining the comic had diminished and that he wanted to refocus his energies on other projects.

The cast and their basic characteristics will remain for future images but their background details will no longer be referred to. This in effect is a return to the origins of the comic where the author relied on one-off gags and single, standalone images.

Premise
The comic follows the events surrounding a group of teenage furs who, through varying circumstances, all end up living together under the foster care of Snow Rendal. The comic tends to be rather graphic in overall content, usually with frequent depictions of dismemberment, gore, and other violent injuries and death as well as profanities (either spoken and/or displayed on signs visible in the comic), most often inflicted upon the artist's namesake character in a manner reminiscent of the Happy Tree Friends cartoon series. The comic very rarely mentions sex, with most instances of it being for character development purposes instead of outright pornography (no genitalia is ever visible, save for two instances; where Snow's breasts are exposed for satirical effect, and Rachel's nipple is partly exposed as she uses Cerberus as a makeshift bar of soap). Several earlier images, however, do show some instances of sex and nudity, a trait that was dropped in the comic's later stages.

Characters

 * Cerberus - An 18 year-old male wolf, Cerberus is the primary character of series. He has an athletic but relatively thin build, mostly-typical wolf coloring of varying shades of grey accented by chestnut hair and tail. He usually wears a baggy pair of blue jeans and some form of leather band around some part of himself.


 * Cerberus has led an extraordinary life: He never knew his birth family. His first memories include various agencies and the occasional temporary trial home. The problem always seemed to be his extraordinary streak of bad luck and his disturbing ability to survive it. Unexplained and distinctly dangerous, this proved too much for most people to stomach and it became increasingly difficult for the placement center to offload the problematic cub.


 * Then one day, in a stroke of luck, a hopeful young parent arrived with the simple aim of getting a quick credit to boost her maturity level. Normally such applicants would quickly be shown the door amidst much pointing and laughing, but it occurred to the staff that this might be what they were hoping for: someone to take advantage of. So it was that Cerb came to live with Snow Rendal.


 * Cerb is bold, brash and determined to be the man of the house. He likes to think he’s in charge of things, although in reality he is probably the least likely to have an impact due to his overwhelming housemates. The only thing that stops his ego from swelling to planetary proportions are the crushing blows dealt by his bizarre family. Despite this, however, it is arguable that Cerb is the sanest individual in the house, often left glaring at the stupidity of the others but dragged along for the ride all the same.


 * Snow Rendal - A female housecat in her mid to late-20's who appears in the webcomic Not Big and Not Clever. She is black and white with blue eyes and a black nose, with her hair dyed with streaks of pink and purple. She usually wears a brightly-coloured (and somewhat revealing) business suit, likely the last final act of the inner youth she so hastily forgot.


 * Snow is a peculiar case of coming to terms with the real world. As a student she was rebellious and carefree, ignoring the future as if it were never meant to be. Reality hit hard when at last the university bell rang for the final time and she was thrown out to face society alone. Knowing that if she could not mature soon she would be facing immediate failure, Snow grabbed life by the reins and did the three dullest, tedious (and therefore most adult things she could think of): sign up as a subject in a paid medical research study, adopt a problem child, and become a lawyer.


 * The research, although well paid, left her with the awkward side effect of growth hormone issues. The problem child turned out to be even more of a problem than the documents explained and the busy life of a lawyer quickly drained her of remaining adolescent energy from her youth. But somehow, it just worked. Although tiring, her job paid her enough to maintain a comfortable life style. The lost energy prevented her inner child from wreaking havoc. And the sizing issues were swiftly noted by the authorities who offered various benefits and financial favours for her service in keeping a parents eye on other problem kids who had been giving them a gargantuan headache.


 * Snow tries so hard to be an adult, yet falls far short of the line. She possesses all the qualities a good parent should not have: a short fuse, laziness, mean streaks, irresponsibility and the inability to rectify problems in a mature way. It should be noted however that what works for most families will often not work for hers.


 * Rachel Lucas - A female raccoon, 18 years of age. Rachel has a rather tomboyish look about her, usually wearing a pair of loose canvas trousers and canvas top. She's a greyish-brown color with the typical raccoon mask and markings.


 * Rachel was born of a famous explorer and part-time bandit. Her father’s hectic lifestyle gave her very little time to enjoy the freedom of youth and as such the only schooling she received was simply the information and life skills the erudite man passed down to her while in action. The two were closer than just the obvious father-daughter relationship, basically existing as partners in crime and the mastermind duo behind some of the more intrepid searches ever conducted.


 * Sadly, this figure in her life departed mysteriously with little more than a hurried note and the promise of returning when "things are clear." Confused and distressed, the young girl fell into a miserable street life and an existence as little more than a petty thief. Her desperation quickly got her caught and imprisoned.


 * As an alternative to her prison time she was offered the opportunity to take part in experimental medical research. Rachel next saw daylight as the runaway remnants of an experiment gone wrong. Her growth hormones had been disturbed in a way that allowed her to manipulate her scale drastically.


 * A vast mission was launched to capture her once again, negotiations took place and terms were agreed to. Eventually, in return for agreeing to be sent to live with an effective parent, Snow Rendal, who would do their best to contain Rachel’s mischief, she was granted her freedom.


 * Rachel is bold, bright, obsessive and energetic. She is a leader and will immediately step up to the role and take charge to reach her goals. Her goals however, are often absurd ideas that she has only read about in books or are just plain illegal. It takes a patient person to tolerate this raccoon, but they will be rewarded by loyalty and a slightly unnerving, but altogether cute grin.


 * Rachel Lucas plays on the typical theme of raccoons as nature’s mischievous bandits and blows it out of proportion in her own special way. She’s got a strong personality- and unfortunately for people in her way- the strength of a thousand bulldozers to back it up. Rachel isn’t afraid to use her strengths against people to get what she wants and crushes cars, people and complet houses underneath her broad long paws.


 * Tetchie Razzel - A petite (relatively speaking, considering her height of roughly 95 feet) red squirrel of Eastern European origin, twenty-four years of age, Tetchie is a dark character with deep fiery red fur, dark hair and sharp brown eyes. She usually wears a sandy coloured top supported by tank tracks, sandy coloured shorts and a pair of bulky hiking boots. Her paws are mostly bare, displaying her tan toned skin.


 * Tetchie was born and raised somewhere in Eastern Europe. She was expelled from schools for failing to control her temper and eventually forced to join the army in a bid to teach her some discipline.  Meanwhile, the armed forces around the world had taken a keen interest in a new wave of giant citizens created by the unfortunate events of a medical research laboratory in England.  Keen to take advantage of these powerful biological weapons they soon started trying to replicate these colossal mistakes in their own labs.


 * The Turkish government were the only ones ever successful, disrupting the hormonal patterns of a cadet until she started showing the same growth traits as the victims of the medical research the year prior. However, shortly after the experiment had been perfected, a law was passed that outlawed all such activity for the safety of society and put all the projects into the care of the newly formed A.R.S. (Association for the Relocation of the Supersized) company.  Tetchie was the experiment in question.


 * She was quickly locked up and relocated to a containment centre in Egypt where she spent many depressing years under the watchful eye of A.R.S. officials. Her strict containment orders were finally relaxed to allow her to roam nearby, but still being forced to remain in the same small town steadily added to her inner frustration as she waited to be relocated to a real home.


 * Tetchie’s personality is a fiery as the colour of her fur. It’s a wonder there’s enough room for blood in her heart for the abundance of hate stored there. She’s a smoker, a drinker and generally a social nightmare. She won’t join in, she won’t be polite and she certainly won’t respect people smaller than herself.


 * In the last of the comics, it was shown that she could change sizes at will like Snow and Rachel, but she seems to only be able to change between her 95' size and 4' tall, something Cerberus was quick to take advantage of when she was forced to take this form in order to enter the family's house, teasing her remorselessly, to which Tetchie vowed revenge.


 * Nikita Hussey - A perpetually scruffy and deceptively cute husky girl of 18 who appears in the webcomic Not Big and Not Clever. She has the typical grey on white snow dog markings covering her body with blue highlights on her extremities and hair. She usually wears a pair of baggy blue jeans, and a red top.


 * Nikita's history is somewhat unknown, a result of her incapability to recall the majority of it. Her early life was comfortable and unremarkable, an average quaint mountain village, a background of farming, and a lack of education due to the remoteness of the area. Unfortunately, the farming proved to be an inconsistent and unreliable form of income and the younger generations were sent forth to the big cities to stabilise the family accounts. Nikita though, lacked the capacity to make the most of this opportunity and simply couldn’t get anywhere up the business ladder.


 * Her new life was in danger of leaving her homeless, penniless and lost. In a state of desperation Nikita is thought to have committed herself to a medical research course, through which she’d get the funds to remain in the city and hopefully be able to turn around her fortunes. The study was never completed, though. Nikita was dramatically changed by the disastrous research, boosted in size and strength enough to warrant her immediate capture as a hazard to the public.


 * Almost as if the authorities were trying to hide their mistakes, Nikita was sent away to live with a family well out of reach of the town, a family that would be able to cater for her colossal needs. Nikita’s cuteness is overshadowed only by her ignorance. Somewhere along the line this husky missed the learning about life details and simply cannot fit in with the demands of society. She’s friendly enough, but hasn’t had the best of luck finding someone who’ll put up with her long enough to show it. However hard she tries her inability to be helpful often gets her frustrated.

Guest appearances
There have been several other characters who have made appearances in the comic, most notably Kitana and Doral. The former even plays a role in the storyline of the comic, using her powers to grant Nikita's request to be shrunk to 'normal' size in an attempt to make new friends, something her giant size of 115 feet made all but impossible. She then reverted Nikita back to her previous stature at the behest of Cerberus. There have been a few guest strips as well.

External link

 * Room To Spare episode (retrieved via the Internet Wayback Machine)

Not Big and Not Clever