The Quickie

Usually Better Than The Longie

Last night I was helping someone who had a serious medical situation. I drove a car and waited in a waiting room until five in the morning. Hey, that can be a lot of help.

Unfortunately, I tried to be funny in that situation. No, not in real life. All was very serious and grim in real life. While waiting, however, I tried to be funny and write a comic.

The mental shifting from serious hospital situation to light comic strip is not a recommended exercise.

It doesn’t work. Most people would say “I can’t be funny right now” and give it up, but, oh, not me! I don’t give up! Never say die! Especially in a hospital.

The comic was about someone trying to return an item. Common situation. Lots of people return items. Some just say “I have a return”, shove the item and receipt at you and say no more. Others give you their life story. I was making a joke about the people who give you your life story.

The comic was unnecessarily wordy, they pacing was off, and the point was lost. It read like I wrote it at four in the morning in a hospital waiting room, which I did, and it was dreary. So I deleted it and rewrote it today when I was all fresh and ready to conquer the world. Ta-da! I did what I should’ve done in the first place.

But it occurred to me that I’ve made a lot of quickies in tight situations that are some personal favorites. Some were created while sitting in a car, or at someone else’s house, or, yes, even in a hospital waiting room.

The suddenness from thought to page can be like lightening. Most of these comics took some element of my life at the time I wrote them and put them on the page quickly.

Time is always the judge. If I still like them a year later, they wind up as “good comics” in my mind.

I found these comics quickly, because I’m in a hurry and have to move quickly, because there are people waiting on me and I’m leaving quickly.

Yes, this post is a quickie.

I believe I had just come back from a late dinner. This is something my girlfriend did back then.

Nice sheets equal a nice life, I always say.

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This was a weird one where I was just enjoying Claremont traveling down the page. I don’t think I’ve made a comic since that has this type of structure, with panels made over an existing background. I should do that again.

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This resulted because of an afternoon spent with a special customer who had come in that day. He was very notorious and all rules regarding customer interaction were thrown out the window, by management, when it came to dealing with him.

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The customer who’s looking at the wrong store app is usually nice because they know they’re confused. However, there are exceptions.

And the customer who is taking their sweet time knowing full well that you are trying to close the store will one day acknowledge it quickly when they go to hell.

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Yeah, sure, this scenario neve played out, but I always seem to be the one who missed the most spectacular events on my day off.

Ah, the grumpy looking customer who turns out to be nice. It’s like getting a present.