Comic #920: Pumpers (Patreon)

Right off the bat I knew I wanted to make a joke about all these "pumper" dungeon listings. I always found the idea of these listings pretty funny. Do non-pumpers, whatever the hell that means, look at such a listing and think, "oh wait, I'm not a pumper, I better not apply"? Do people search specifically for "pumper" listings, thinking they will be more successful? I find it fascinating.

Anyway, I came up with the first four panels pretty quickly.  I liked the idea that the listers would immediately suss out Narya as non-pumper material. I figured "drainer" would be a good term for a non-pumper. After that, I struggled with a punchline. I had a few lackluster ideas, like Narya saying 'What the hell is a pumper'? Or Narya joining a "drainers ONLY" group.

I decided to open up the listings panel and read some other titles to see if that would trigger any ideas, and I saw a "Chill Group" listing. I then thought of the idea of Narya joining a chill group and them not thinking he was chill enough. It also had the added benefit of fulfilling my love for cyclical comics (panel 3 and 7 are very similar).

Also, that 4th listing on the dungeon window is another joke I considered for an entire comic. I keep seeing people listing their group and mentioning the rating of their mains. I wanted to communicate through the title that they were lying, and the best way I could do that was use the whole "you wouldn't know them, they live in canada" trope.