Whistles: The Starlight Calliope

Whistles is a comic made by Andrew Hussie before MS Paint Adventures. It has three full chapters and one unfinished chapter.

## Summary

An epic about an innocent clown’s fall from stardom and his fellow performers’ fight to take down the evil ringmaster of their circus.

#### Chapter 1: Three-Ring Spartacus

The wandering Starlight Calliope Circus is a traveling circus that provides wondrous sights to onlookers for just three pennies.

Whistles the Clown is a simple, innocent, optimistic clown who performs as the star of the Starlight Calliope. He adores his master, Ringmaster Phinneas Pendlecoat.

Phinneas Pendlecoat is evil and puts on a front of benevolence. He is a cannibal who kills and eats clowns, as well as serves them as “Gristle-Loaves” at the Starlight Calliope circus.

Whistles is badly injured during a performance and “euthanized” by Pendlecoat. After dumping his body and presuming him dead, Whistles awakens, as the arm that was injected was a false arm meant to be used for gags.

Whistles lives outside of the circus for some time as a male prostitute before secretly returning to the circus to see the new star, Gumblin the Clown.

Gumblin is a stoic clown, highly intelligent, athletically built, spiritual, and philosophical. He is deeply passionate about clowning and reveres Whistles, his predecessor. He is warned by Flippy, another clown, about Pendlecoat’s evils.

During his premier performance, Gumblin sustains a very minor injury and Pendlecoat emerges with a shotgun to put him down. Jealous, Whistles jumps out from the crowd, wanting to be put down himself, and blocks the shotgun blast from hitting Gumblin. This gives Gumblin a chance to turn the crowd against Pendlecoat. The crowd mauls Pendlecoat, injuring him badly. This sends Whistles into a rage. He lights much of the crowd on fire using a fire-breathing elephant from the performance, then escapes the Circus with Pendlecoat.

#### Chapter 2: A Clown Fled With the Clown-Fed

While on the run, Whistles cuts off his arm to feed to Pendlecoat so he can regain his strength.

Gumblin appoints Doodlebean star of the circus temporarily so he can leave to find Whistles and Pendlecoat. Doodlebean is a humble and sensible girl who adores Whistles.

Gumblin finds Whistles and Pendlecoat at a small village. Pendlecoat tries to bludgeon Gumblin, but the bludgeon harmlessly sinks into his plush clown body. Gumblin throws Pendlecoat off a cliff, where spikes impale him.

Through the anguish he feels at seeing his master die, Whistles instantly grows a functioning balloon arm out of his stump, to Gumblin’s surprise.

Back at the Starlight Calliope, Doodlebean laments over the stress of running the circus and working under the evil Pendlecoat. She runs into Pendlecoat himself, alive and seemingly unharmed, who attacks her and tries to eat her.

Whistles and Gumblin, having returned to the local area by the Starlight Calliope, see that billboards are already advertising a new star.

#### Chapter 3: Rofflegangers

Doodlebean wanders through the labyrinthine tunnels beneath the circus trying to escape Pendlecoat and finds the industrial oven where the corpses of clowns are brought for cooking. She draws a pistol to defend herself. Pendlecoat startles her and she fires, accidentally killing the man who worked the conveyor belts.

The small flying tricycle Gumblin has been using for transport is running out of fuel. Whistles has him take him to the home of an old client who used to frequent him when he was a prostitute, and—in return for sexual favors—supplies the clowns with a new ship.

Meanwhile, Doodlebean is accosted by three Phinneas Pendlecoats. She shoots one and absconds, finding herself in a strange room of giant plants. One of the mysterious plants spits up a new fully grown Phinneas Pendlecoat.

Whistles and Gumblin, not knowing how to land the ship, crash through the side of the Starlight Calliope just in time to save Doodlebean from being attacked by a crowd of Pendlecoat clones. Gumblin takes a mini-gun from the ship’s collection of guns and shoots down all of the clones. The pair takes Doodlebean onto their ship.

Before they can leave, Whistles hears a voice in his head guiding him to one of the plants that was creating the Pendlecoat clones. The plant creates a BABY that strongly resembles Pendlecoat, which Whistles lovingly accepts. Gumblin and Doodlebean distrust the baby, but let Whistles keep it for the time being. They leave the Starlight Calliope, believing it to be over.

The tower destroyed by their crash begins to topple, but it regrows a new base before it falls. The old base grows a new top. Presumably, the clowns are unaware of this.

Somewhere, a horde of the mysterious plants mumbles about how the circus needs a new star. The largest of these plants spits out a new clown: Sugarshoe. Sugarshoe is eccentric and deranged, having no remorse for openly devouring the corpse of a clown that the plants provide him.

#### Chapter 4: A Hardly Quintessential Harlequin

Some time has passed. Whistles, Gumblin, Doodlebean, and the Pendlecoat baby live together in a cottage out in the country. Whistles refers to the baby as “Master” and feeds it candy. Gumblin has been tirelessly reading into news of the Starlight Calliope’s return with yet another new star. Gumblin decides to infiltrate the Starlight Calliope to investigate while Whistles and Doodlebean stay at the house. He leaves a teddy bear for the baby.

At the Starlight Calliope, Pendlecoat checks in on how Sugarshoe’s show is coming along. Pendlecoat critiques the show for looking expensive and suggests he use more time-tested methods. Then, after a coy allusion to cannibalism from Pendlecoat, Sugarshoe intuits that Pendlecoat wants to eat him, and slits his throat.

Later, at the former stars’ home, the Pendlecoat baby has grown to be malnourished and lanky. Whistles is sad that he hasn’t grown to be big and healthy like Pendlecoat, and Doodlebean tells him that he needs meat, which they don’t have.

Sugarshoe is frustrated over the tight budget and orders Flippy to have more clowns killed so they can sell more meat to fund the show.

Later, Gumblin has infiltrated the circus. Sugarshoe’s show begins with a music number retelling the story of Whistles. Partway through, Gumblin interrupts the show, saying he’s come to liberate the circus from corruption. Actors dressed as Gumblin similarly emerge from the crowd and surround him.

Gumblin contacts the teddy bear he left for the Pendlecoat baby. A small robot emerges and asks the baby to take him to Whistles and Doodlebean so he can call for backup. Whistles, Doodlebean, and the baby head off to help Gumblin.

Back at the circus, Sugarshoe’s show is becoming increasingly hectic and destructive. The show has been going on for hours and audience members are starting to get restless and upset, but Sugarshoe won’t let them leave.

This is where the comic ends and remains unfinished.

## Notes

* This story, like most of Hussie’s other works, prominently features clowns.
* Whistles the Clown raising the infant version of his evil master draws major parallels to Gamzee Makara raising the infant cherub Caliborn who would eventually become Lord English.
	+ Speaking of Caliborn, his sister, Calliope, brings to mind the title of this comic: *Whistles: The Starlight Calliope*.