BF-Ginnings – Sucks To Be You

Thursdays are BF-Ginnings on licd.com, where we look back on Blind Ferret’s long history and share interesting trivia and commentary.

Early in LICD’s run, we met a character who immediately left an impression that would endure for over a decade. We did not know her name, but we all knew what to call her: Suck For A Buck Girl.

She made periodic appearances for years, most notoriously as the prostitute Rayne bought a horse.

(If you’re new to SFaBG and wondering why she looks so much healthier there, that’s a difference in art direction under Chad Porter vs Lar DeSouza. Lar could not reason why such an attractive woman couldn’t charge more than a buck for her services and did what he could to make her seem off without impacting her silhouette).

Eventually, the Suck For A Buck joke well had run dry and she went years without being used. Even still, when I was developing the Sloppy Seconds expansion for Least I Could Do: The Card Game, she was an obvious candidate for one of the new playable characters. She was still a memorable character and she could not be more in line with the set’s theme, I argued. Sohmer not only agreed, he doubled down, asking me to include her as a hook-up card.

But there was an issue: The format called for a quick blurb about the character. Now I would need to include two blurbs about a character who says and does nothing (at least on panel). If it was just one I could say “she’s bad with budgets but pretty good at other things” but stretching that over two cards was a challenge… and an opportunity.

“Can I go a little weird with this?” I questioned.

“Sure!” Sohmer exclaimed.

“Cool. But I only want to do this if it’s official LICD canon…” I ellipsesed.

“Sure‽” Sohmer interobanged.   

And so:

Meet Janet Pickering, government agent on the run! I had a lot of fun giving her an over-the-top bizarre and tragic backstory, peppered with some inuendo.

This was my first creative contribution to Least I Could Do, a comic Sohmer is rightfully protective of. I thought I did a good job and it was a rare notch on my belt. A few months later, Suck For A Buck Girl returned. Not only that, but her name and backstory were revealed through her first on-panel dialogue!

Olivia.

Who specializes in sex workers and sex trafficking victims. A PHD going after her second masters.

I… What?

I reminded Sohmer that just months ago we talked about Suck For A Buck Girl’s backstory, that we have a fresh new product that’s contradicted by the new comic.

“…” Sohmer stared blankly. Then added, gleefully. “Oh yeah!”

“So, I guess it’s not canon,” I say, swallowing hard in the hope that the gob I gulped down made its way to my chest to hold together my broken heart.

“Well hold on,” Sohmer said. “What if Olivia is her alias.”

“So, she’s not a PHD, she’s just pretending she is?”

“No, she changed her name and went back to school to help her start a new life. But she really got into it, and went undercover as a sex worker. And she really got into that,”  he says.

“Oh…” I start. Then add, “…kay.”

So it’s up to you. Is Suck For A Buck Girl the least complicated character in LICD or the most? Is she a sex worker to escape government assassins, a professional student with a sex work side hustle, or, is she both?

Speaking of Hook-Ups

If you haven’t picked up Least I Could Do: The Card Game or its expansions, now’s a great time. During the Blind Ferret Shop Black Friday Blowout, you can get all three products for less than the regular cost of the base game. It’s a great party game for a large group, and a fun set of cards for LICD fans to flip through.