Japanese Beetle

Release Date: November 2000
Source: Dave “The Knave” White and Chris White; www.wfcomics.com/beetle^[1]
Designer: James Ernest
Artist: Dave “The Knave” White
New Rules: None
Tournament Legal? Yes

The Japanese Beetle set was created by the publisher of the webcomic Japanese Beetle. (You can read the continuing adventures of the Japanese Beetle every day at www.wfcomics.com/beetle according to cheapass.com^[2].) Originally an unofficial set was produced, but from that came these two buttons with unique abilities. The Japanese Beetle cannot have Skill Attacks used on him, and the Flying Squirrel cannot make Skill Attacks. Artistically, the buttons are designed to be mirrors of each other: The characters face opposite directions, use opposed background colors and button colors (not to mention the direction of the background swirls are also reversed).^[3]

The button special ability of The Japanese Beetle is very similar to the effects of Insult Dice.

Dave White summed both Japanese Beetle sets up thusly:

My friend, Ligaya Caes, is the one who actually designed and playtested the unofficial set.
For the official set, the process was essentially "send money to James Ernest and take whatever he gives you back."
Our only input was providing a brief description of the characters and their (in-comic) powers. We said that the Japanese Beetle had very little going for him other than maneuverability and tremendous luck, and that the Flying Squirrel had tremendous power and speed (but very little control). I think he managed to capture that pretty well.