Election Day Distraction

Forgotten Comics

It’s finally Election Day in America and we’re exhausted, so of course I’m trying to distract myself. I’m an expert at distracting myself, too. Sadly, it’s an expertise that completely falls flat on a resume.

Distracting myself while anxious remains difficult.

So let me post retail comics before the focus was on retail, Hey, at least I’m distracted, right?

This was an odd one that I forgot about. Years and years ago, I was an independent contractor for Target. Normally I don’t mention companies by name, but wow, the supervisors there were absolute jerks. My fellow independent contractors and I traded war stories and it was a common theme throughout the city. This has nothing to do with the comic above. I just wanted to call the supervisors jerks.

During breaks, I sketched the above comic. It was never meant for anything other than my sketchbook, but I liked it enough to color. The character in Adult Children was called Sally back then, not Penny. This was a Customer Penny. Customer Penny made a couple of more appearances in my sketchbook.

This is the first comic that showed Penny working in a store, I believe. She was in the bakery simply because I like cookies.

I vaguely remember this series. I think Berle greeted customers with a bow in one of the comics.

I never get to an ECR, or Exciting Clearance Rack, in time. By the time I discover the talking Darth Vader action figures are on clearance for five dollars, they’re all gone.

OK, I lied, the talking Darth Vader is actually one of the few things I found the second it went on clearance for five bucks. It was amazing. Somebody obviously made a mistake. It took a whole thirty minutes for all of them to be gone and I’m pretty sure sales of talking Darth Vader action figures went up on eBay that day.

May your ECR appear before you frequently.

A little over the top, even for Berle. I think I was sick of seeing that sign.

Customer Penny! This always happens to me. Whoever I’m with has a serious problem with a retail establishment and I’m expected not to give them my business as a symbol of solidarity.

When I worked at a library, the gas station next door dropped prices unbelievably low, with a price lower than everyone else and lower than we had seen in years. Every employee was going to stop by there and get gas on their way home, but the manager made an impassioned plea to never go there because they were rude to her daughter.

We all developed stern frowny faces and agreed that this was, indeed, an egregious offense and that they did not deserve our business.

Then we waved at each other across gas pumps as we were filling up anyway.

This was a series years ago. I just liked the converted ice cream truck.

The final days of movie rental stores were sad in a very apocalyptic way. They were still open for business, but there was a hopeless, chaotic feel to everything. It was like The Walking Dead, but without zombies.

A friend of mine from college zoomed into the lady behind Berle and posted it on Facebook. She is a despondent looking soul.

Bank account gambling is a real thing.

If the disposition of employees ever match the disposition of the people on the posters, you just might be at a modeling agency.