Fanning the Comic Flames

Sort of a double entendre there in that title. Actually, not really, well sort of ... in this comic strip Eddie is wearing an Atlanta Flames shirt (coincidently, I have one just like it) and he's wasted and singing the Doors (which, also coincidently, I used to do ... never got beat up for it though, but I bet I almost did).

Atlanta Flames? The Doors? Eddie? What the hell are you talking about? If you have no idea what the heck I'm talking about, go to this link and everything will be as clear as an unmuddied lake www.room19comics.com. BTW, a million bonus points if you can guess where that line about the unmuddied lake came from. Give up? Good old Alexander DeLarge said it in "A Clockwork Orange" ... both in the book and the movie.

We have a subtle change in the format this week, if you notice there are now gutters between panels. This was suggested by a SoSH member, Shoeless Joe. I doubt it was the real Shoeless Joe as he was completely illiterate and dead before the first computer came out, but this Joe knows his stuff. He's an illustrator who is working on his first graphic novel. Check it out here: http://www.donmacdonald.com/

Back to my stuff, I think that the first panel turned out pretty well. It's very plain, sets up the rest of the strip. The thing that makes me laugh about it is the look of naive joy on Eddie's face as he's telling Kurt his idea. With the way Kurt's eyes are being rolled to the back of his head, you can tell that he isn't buying the whole life of the party line.

We've all been there before, haven't we? We're telling a friend or family member our idea of grandeur and they're just looking at you like, "You've got to be kidding me" , but they're too polite to say anything. I think it happens more when you're in high school and college and you're still trying to figure out what makes you tick, but every now and again, it occurs.

In the second panel, Eddie is obviously hammered. You can tell this by the cliched lampshade and the fact that he has two beers in his hand. Originally, I wanted to draw Eddie standing on a couch and have the big burly bouncer guy, just be a pissed off party-goer, but that didn't have the same oomph behind it. Plus, Eddie getting his ass kicked is another example of how reality is far different from preconceptions.

I wrote/drew about this in the second strip found here: http://www.room19comics.com/comic_strip2.htm. BTW, how meta is that?

In the final panel, Eddie is given a sobering (no pun) slap of reality. He's hung over and beaten up. And since Kurt is his best buddy, he's got to twist the knife a little bit. The one thing that I like is that they're back to where they started, Kurt is the same, while Eddie is a bit worse for the wear, but learned a valuable lesson.

So, here's the thing, I've been told that some people don't like the explanation of each strip. I do like it, but if enough people complain, I guess that I'll stop. And it's been a long time since I've written about anything besides the strip. Thursday, that's all going to change. I have a ton of stuff to write: two book reviews, a Sox game review, and just a bunch of other crap. Also, I am going to be on a new Blog service, which I will explain a bit more about on Thursday.

The only thing that I really know about it is that it's Canadian. Expect a lot of "aboots", hockey talk and more manners.