Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

Now The Song Can Be Stuck In Your Head

Crazy year, huh? Crazy year, crazy weather, and crazy people. I used to delight in being the “crazy one”, now everyone’s in on it. In order to be crazy these days, I act normal. Crazy, right?

That’s my deep, societal insight.

I’m diving right into the archive today. In a lot of my older comics, people are wearing masks. At first masks were weird. Then they became normal, Then we thought, “Boy, we’re going to look back on these times and marvel at how crazy they were!”

Nope. That was just a crazy prelude.

I liked the bakery setting because I got to draw different cakes. There’s always a huge, elaborate cake that you feel guilty about eating. Somebody created a little work of art. Now you have to cut it up and put it in your stomach. I don’t know about you, but every time I’ve had a piece of an gorgeous looking cake it doesn’t taste as good as the smaller, more simple ones. There’s probably a life lesson in there.

This was me. You’d be tucked into bed and ready to clear the muck from your brain, when suddenly you’d remember something stupid that you forgot. This is the price you pay for clearing the muck from your brain.

This is my coffee cup character back when he would talk. I’m never thinking of an exciting night out when I get off of work, I’m thinking of whatever I’m reading, watching, and drinking. Their voices need to be heard. Right now I have too many books waiting for me. It’s getting to be quite a crowd. If I don’t start getting through them there will be an angry mob waiting for me at home.

This occurred to me while I was at the dentist. I would write “while I was at the dentist getting my teeth worked on”, but I hate it when people write that. What do they think we’ll ask if they don’t add that last bit on there? “Dentist? You were at the dentist? Why on earth for?” Well, the dentist is contributing to the local food drive, which I’m collecting for and….NO! I’m getting my teeth worked on, obviously!

I’ve never used laughing gas. I’m too afraid I’d either turn into the Joker or fall victim to one of his mad schemes. I didn’t watch all of those Batman cartoons and not learn anything. Anyway, this may be a desperate attempt at developing a happy customer base, but we’ll never know until we try it.

Ah, early Tabby. I loved writing her with Penny as a fellow cashier. I dropped Tabby going to veterinary school in favor of her helping at an animal shelter. The thought of her working on a biological sample peaked with this comic.

This is a very real problem now. It was bad when I made this comic, now reality is more cartoonish than the cartoon.

This is still a personal favorite. I love making fun of an employee discount, which is usually only substantial if you spend thousands of dollars. You don’t have thousands of dollars because you work there, so it’s not really a discount worth using.

This one may seem a bit grim, but I believe it’s a verbatim exchange between me and a boss. “Ok, you take care of that” is a common directive. That means their brain has stopped thinking about it and your brain has sole possession.

Penny has gone into management. I eventually got out, she stayed in for the good of the comic. Wasn’t that very sacrificial of her?

I love the dog Claremont’s comforting stance, there. I’ve made about a million comics with Claremont, which is only a slight exaggeration, and only a handful of them have become popular enough to stay alive on the internet. He’s very fun to draw, but maybe a bit too innocent for an online life. I should’ve created him in the 1950s when I wasn’t alive.

Penny is now an Assistant Manager, which means she can no longer leave when she’s scheduled to leave. This is the sacrifice you make for a title and three bucks more an hour.

Maybe this is funny only to me and maybe this comic belongs in the time I made it, but I don’t think so. Many places have a revolving door that revolves so fast you’ll get dizzy. During the pandemic, that door was a blur.