The Bare Pit, originally under the name Loxie and Zoot, by Grace Crowley (also the author of Magellan) is a comic about the Koala Bay Bares Naturist Resort in Australia, a resort full of nudists.
But wait, don't be squicked! The comic is actually fairly wholesome, with a wide variety of characters, body types and plots. The comic also consciously avoids soapboxing about the issue of nudism, instead usually treating it as part of the setting.
Oh yeah, the comic is very NSFW due to the nudity, but the story is worth sticking around for.
Provides examples of:
- Aborted Arc: The comic in general. After "Prudes and Prejudice" ended, Grace Crowley announced taking a break. That break has lasted a decade.
- Alpha Bitch: Mandy, who appears to be trying to break Darcy and Willow up before they even get together, who is harassing Willow for her choice of refusing to go nude at the campus, and who manages to sum up the difference between "girl who likes to be naked" and "nudist" (thus proving Willow's point) in one sentence:Mandy: (snort) Maybe she's worried about her small breasts.
- Art Evolution: Dynamic poses (walking, running, etc.) improved as the comic went on. After the switch from Loxie and Zoot to The Bare Pit, everyone had a redesign (some more noticable than others). "Prudes and Prejudice," the final story arc, had a major upgrade to shadows and highlights.
- Barbie Doll Anatomy: Completely and utterly averted, even with the child and male characters. Everyone is drawn fairly realistically, even chubby and older characters.
- Beta Couple: Tash and Herb. They'd be Happily Married if they ever bothered to officially tie the knot.
- Body Paint: In one storyline where Tex Tyler tries to infiltrate the resort during a festival as Funny Foreigner Sven, he attempts to supplement his disguise with random splashes of bodypaint when he wanders in on a contest. He wins an award for his creative work.
- Comic Within a Comic: One of the characters, Chook, produces a parody of sorts of the ultra-fundamentalist Chick Tracts comics. Titled A Chook Tract, and loosely adapted from John Milton's Paradise Lost, the comic
intentionally soapboxes Christian naturist interpretations of nudity in an effort to sway the opinion of a moral crusader within the main comic. Drawn and colored in a different style from the main comic, it also features Adam & Eve characters who look very similar to the lead characters from The Bare Pit's genesis series, Loxie & Zoot. - Comically Missing the Point: Darcy, Mandy and the other "Body Freedom Movement" members, who insist upon being nude even when it's considered unwise and unwelcome by some (if not most) on campus — but still permissible due to the dean's clothing optional policy. They take issue with Willow, a card-carrying nudist, who refuses to strip on campus where it's unwelcome. Willow makes it fairly clear that she's reluctant because she feels unsafe and like she's titillating the voyeurs at school, something that goes right over the heads of the Body Freedom group.
- D-Cup Distress: Belinda, an undercover federal agent with a fairly-endowed chest, has difficulty running down a perp at the resort while naked. She grumbles that this is the reason sports bras were invented.
- Distracted by the Sexy: In the "Prudes & Prejudice" story arc, Darcy acts like this when he and Willow discuss their differing ideas on social nudity.
- It's less "distracted by the sexy" and more "Distracted by Willow", as he's gained a crush on her just in time for her not to have a crush on him anymore.
- Drives Like Crazy:
- Zoot has a tendency to lose control of the golf carts, though he gets better.
- Mungo is even worse since he apparently doesn't know how to drive at all.Tex: Can you even drive this thing?Mungo: What ever gave you the fool idea that I could?
- Early-Installment Weirdness:
- Zoot initially had yellow skin the same tone as his hair. After some time he was given a more natural skin tone.
- The original Noodtunes published from 1997-1998. While many of the same characters are there, they look different (especially Zoot) and their personalities were at least slightly different. Crowley now refers to these comics as the Bizarro Bare Pit.
- Easy Evangelism: There's an obvious and admirable effort to minimize it, but it's still very noticeable. Most noticeable early in "Prudes & Prejudice", when after a single protest a naked man manages to persuade a college dean to... make the campus clothing optional.
- He was actually doing so because Mandy was blackmailing him.
- Ethnic Magician: Mungo is an Aborigine with some kind of extra awareness and a knack for having predictions that are "never wrong."
- Failed a Spot Check: The first major story arc begins when Zoot goes into town for supplies and forgets to put on clothes.
- Foreign Cuss Word: Zoot's mother swears in Dutch when really pissed off.
- Gag Penis: One storyline involves a co-worker of Tina coming to an event with her, and being nervous about the size of his equipment, so he buys a prosthetic. Naturally, Hilarity Ensues.
- Gold Digger: Implied with Sabrina, Zoot's father's fourth wife, though she insists she's not. She leaves him at the end when he decides to leave more money to his grandkids, proving that she is.
- Granola Guy: Darcy starts out as one, being a heavy pro-nude activist with labels for nearly every person ("Nudes," "Rudes," "Dudes," etc.), an attitude that nudist resorts are elitist, and even a nudist manifesto. He mellows out quite a bit after awhile, though.
- Halloween Episode: Tales to Scare Your Pants Off (Halloween 2008) featured three spooky stories told around a campfire, even though the cartoonist admits that Australians don't celebrate Halloween the way Americans do.
- Happily Married: Zoot and Loxie, Fred and Janet, Herb and Val, Harry and Kim, Peter and Geena, Eric and Lorraine, Bob and Janelle, Craig and Jen, and Tex and Alice (arguably).
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Chook and Jasmine
- Incompatible Orientation: Willow is immediately smitten with Zoot's brother, Felix. Then Felix introduces his boyfriend. Willow still tries flirting with Felix (albeit somewhat unconsciously) until Famke (Zoot's and Felix's sister) says many women have tried and it always fails.
- Inexplicably Identical Individuals: During the "The Koala Bares" story arc Tex Tyler disguises himself as a man named Sven to infiltrate the resort. Years later in the "Enchanted" arc a man named Sven Allestädes arrives who happens to look and sound exactly like Tex in disguise. It takes a conveniently-timed phone call threat from Tex to convince the others that this Sven is a separate person.
- Insistent Terminology: Any time Koala Bay Bares is referred to as a nudist colony, someone (usually Loxie or Willow) will counter that it is a nudist resort.
- It's a Small World, After All: A one page strip involves a woman and her husband who've traveled from out of town to avoid running into anyone they know at their local nudist resort. They wind up running into her parents at Koala Bares.
- In "Birthday Suits" Zoot's brother Felix brings his boyfriend Maurice to Koala Bares. Through an unfortunate coincidence Loxie's brother-in-law Bob (aka Maurice's boss) comes to the resort as well.
- Jerkass:
- Tex Tyler, who refuses to budge on his hatred of the resort and constantly calls the residents perverts.
- Frank and his plan to convince girls to skinny dip in his pool, have a partner film her in secret, then post the video on a pay site. Thankfully said partner has a Heel–Face Turn and exposes Frank's plans.
- The radio DJs Jay and Jo-Jo, who upset Willow by making fun of the nudist resort. When Willow meets them, they explain it's nothing personal and the radio station pays them to be jerks about everything.
- Man Behind the Man: Mandy blackmailed the college dean over his embezzlement and has been aiming to expel Willow from the school. That led to the dean's resignation and arrest. His successor promptly banned all nudity on campus.
- Maiden Name Debate: Though married to Zoot Jansen, Loxie still goes by the surname Smith
- Mistaken for Cheating: Loxie's mother tries to convince her that Zoot is cheating on her with Willow, but Loxie doesn't believe it for a second. In an aborted part of the story arc involved, Loxie does start to worry about how much time Zoot is hanging out with their female friend.
- Naked Apron: Done in an extremely rare nonsexual nonfanservice scene here, as befitting a comic about nudists.
- Naked People Are Funny: Mostly averted; the main humor about the nudity comes when people who aren't usually nudists, such as Kylie the newscaster, end up sans clothes.
- New-Age Retro Hippie: Tash and Herb are a hippie couple. They even arrived at Koala Bay Bares in a VW van.
- One-Steve Limit: Subverted, as there are at least three characters named Herb, which causes some confusion.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Tash is called that name by everyone. The character bios page reveals it's short for Natasha.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Mungo, someone who is hinted to see what happens in the near future and usual acts indifferent with what happens around him, is completely surprised when Tash when with Abúi and Sven and even said Didn't See That Coming.
- Out of Focus: Probably the reason for the name change. Loxie and Zoot had most of its focus on, well, Loxie and Zoot. Changing to The Bare Pit allowed the main character to change depending on the story, though Willow seemed to take over as the primary protagonist more often than not.
- Pass the Popcorn: Mungo does it in this comic.
- Punny Name:
- The resort name: Koala Bay Bares (as in "koala bears," even though they aren't bears).
- Tex Tyler (as in "textiler," since he's a man obsessed with making the nudists wear clothes).
- Relationship Upgrade: Darcy and Willow become a couple at the end of "Prudes and Prejudice." Sadly, the comic ends so we have no idea where it goes from there.
- Shower Scene: Subverted; since the characters are already nude, being nude and taking a shower doesn't make it anything more than a mundane everyday event within the narrative. There is also a degree of Truth in Television as characters are occasionally shown having a quick outdoor shower before swimming in the pool, a practice required for hygiene reasons at real life nudist camps (and really, any pool in general). Examples - Tash; Daria; Willow
- Skinny Dipping: It's a nudist resort with a pool, so swimming is automatically this. In fact, it's enforced as clothing isn't allowed in the pool.
- Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Tex Tyler, a "neighbor" (his house is across an entire valley from the resort) that is constantly trying to get the Koala Bay Bares shut down. His attempts generally blow up in his face and manage to garner more support for the resort.
- Spear Counterpart: Sven Allestädes is a male, Swedish version of Jenny Everywhere.
- Statuesque Stunner: Willow is 6'1", making her taller than even most of the men.
- Villain Ball: Mandy, who has gripped it so hard it's cracking. Just because Willow is a nudist and not a "Body Freedom Movement" member, Mandy is doing her best to assault Willow in every way she can. Mandy may be based on the real life Terri Sue Webb, whose "Freedom to Be Yourself" movement was similar to nudism but more militant, with the theory that if they could force people to see that nudity wasn't lewd, they would naturally come around. Didn't work out so well.
