Today’s strip is a bit of a departure for Room 19 Comics. Normally, I try to keep it somewhat grounded in “real life”, but I decided to see how the absurd would work. About the only thing that has any basis in reality is that I remember that this skit killed my friend Ryan and me when we were younger. I think we must’ve quoted this skit for an entire summer. And the funny thing was, it wasn’t a front of the show skit. If I remember correctly, this was one of the latter skits. And if you know your Saturday Night Live history, that’s the graveyard shift where they put the crap.
However, it was during the Hartman-Carvey run of the late 80s, early 90s when SNL was appointment TV again, so maybe being at the end of those shows isn’t as bad as being at the end of this cast’s shows.
Saturday Night Live? Bears? Absurdist comedy? You had me at the title, check it out here: www.room19comics.com
The main point of this strip is that Eddie gets attacked by a bear. I think that’s pretty damn funny. There are a couple of little things to look for in this strip: Eddie is wearing a Chicago Cubs shirt, check out the bear’s nose in the first panel and the look of confusion in his eyes in the second panel. Also, check out the Jimmy Fallon slam. That guy just sucks, BTW.
In the second panel, I originally had Kurt agreeing with Eddie that it sounded like a funny concept for a skit, but right before I scanned the drawing, I decided to change it to him thinking that it sucked. After he sees his buddy get mauled, he thought it was funny. I think that this is a universal reaction that we’d all have to seeing our friend fight a bear.
Other than that, that’s pretty much it. There isn’t a lot of complicated layers in this week’s strip (not that there usually is) but this week’s is pretty regular. I will say this, I enjoyed drawing the bear … aside from dogs, bears are my favorite animal and I’ve wanted to do a bear strip since I saw “Grizzly Man” a few weeks ago. Matching this desire with the SNL skit, I think that it worked out pretty well.
I sold my car yesterday. I’m torn about it because on the one hand, I got a pretty good deal and we need the cash, but on the other hand it was the first car that I bought myself and I’ve done my best to take care of it properly. A lot of blood, sweat and money has gone into my ride and now I’m selling it. I think that I felt this way after I sold the Prelude, and I know that I’ll get over it.
My car had been languishing on Craig’s List for about three months before I got a great idea last Wednesday. I decided to scrap the first paragraph and talk like a pirate. Here’s what I wrote:
“Avast ye, mateys. This vessel be originally priced at $7,500, it is now slashed by $1,000! Ye landlubbers will love the terrific condition of the automobile, the reason why I be selling is that me wench can't drive stick and we can only afford the pieces of eight for one automobile in Brookline. Please take this off my hooks ... I'm practically begging you.
Ok. I needed to get a little creative as this has been sitting on Craig's List for a few weeks and it's time to shove off. In all seriousness, this is a terrific car and has had zero problems. It'd be perfect for the first time driver, a college student or practically anyone. And if you buy it, I promise not to use my pirate voice.”
Within 24 hours, I got five serious offers. Incredible. If I had known about this earlier, I would’ve done everything in a pirate voice: looked for a job, tried to get a better loan for the house, dated. I think that I could’ve really made quite a healthy living off this.
Anyway, the guy who bought the car is going to turn around and sell it to a kid for a couple hundred dollars more that what I sold to him for. I guess his job is to troll Craig’s List and find cars for people. I can’t tell whether that’s a good gig or not. Seems like a lot of work for not a lot of money, but if you’re motivated and good at keep your own schedule, then I bet you could do real well.
Class is almost over. I have two weeks and then I’m done. I can’t even begin to tell you how glad I am about this. I have zero motivation and I just want to get this project done. After I come from Chicago, I’m going to start advertising my services again for a freelance web designer. Maybe I’ll use the old pirate voice.
Two cool things happened this weekend, one we went up to Archie and Jenn’s place this weekend with Reddish. Just a real good time, as we got to hang out with the Kane family. They live in a pretty nice place 20 miles north west of Concord, so it’s definitely in the sticks. But they seem to have a real happy life without the trappings of living in the big city. There are times when I think that would be an awesome way to go, but there is a part of me that might miss being able to walk out the door, walk three blocks and buy a book. It’s all a trade-off, I guess.
Their kids are really cool too. Travis and Kelsey are three and a year, respectively, and are probably some of the most well-behaved kids I’ve ever seen. Knowing Archie, he’s probably scared them into being good. Actually, Arch seems like a pretty good dad quite a long way from the days in our dorm room where him and I would play drinking solitaire with a half a bottle of Wild Turkey while listening to Jane’s Addiction.
I can’t remember what the second cool thing was, but if I remember, I’ll tell you about it on Friday.
