1 Stud: {after winning at baccarat} I admire your courage, Miss...?
1 Sylvia Ditch: Ditch. Sylvia Ditch. I admire your luck, Mr...?
2 Stud: Stud. James Stud.
3 Stud: Sorry, Miss Ditch, but our inevitable romantic liaison must wait. I have to go save the world.
4 Sylvia Ditch: Damn. I thought he was a spy, but it turns out he's only a conceited womaniser.

Yes folks, it's a brand new theme! The first one since Shakespeare debuted 122 strips ago. Wow, it doesn't seem that long since I introduced a new theme.

We'll be learning more about James in the near future.

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2012-12-25 Rerun commentary: And so enters one of the most polarising themes in Irregular Webcomic! Many people have written to me asking for more of James Stud, saying they love the James Bond spoof. Many others have declared it to be the worst theme in the entire comic.

I was inspired to begin this theme for two reasons. Firstly, I am a big James Bond fan, and am intimately familiar with all of the films (and the Fleming novels, plus a select few of the later novels by other authors).

Secondly, this was still the stage where I was drawing inspiration from roleplaying game scenarios. The roleplaying-inspired themes are named after the various GURPS genre sourcebooks: the fantasy sourcebook is "Fantasy", the science fiction sourcebook is "Space", the 1930s action adventure sourcebook is named "Cliffhangers". And the spy thriller sourcebook is named "Espionage", which is why this theme is called that, rather than "James Stud".

(Actually, the GURPS pirate sourcebook is named "Swashbucklers", so I didn't follow this principle exactly, even at this point. But hey.)