How to Combat the Silent Treatment

in

The word balloon in panel four is way down low to signify that there is a long silence before I say it. A lot of comedy is in the timing, and it’s hard to communicate timing in a written medium.

About The Prisoner. I owned the whole series as a DVD box set, then when it came out on Blu-ray I got that too. The changes were interesting, not just in that the Blu-ray version took up way fewer disks and was much sharper. The most interesting thing was that the documentaries and commentaries on the DVD were made while the show’s star and creator, Patrick McGoohan, was still alive. The ones on the Blu-ray were made after he died.

The tone was dramatically different.

One paints him as an uncompromising visionary who was just too far ahead of his time to be understood. The other describes a tyrannical jerk who bullied a beloved character actor to the point that the poor man had a nervous breakdown. It also says that he was making things up as he went, wrote himself into a corner, and had to just spew out some nonsense to wrap it all up.

Not surprising really, that a person who created a show about a man constantly fighting against everybody and everything was, in his real life, a bit prickly. Watch the show’s opening credits (if you have THREE MINUTES to kill. TV used to be very different.) and try to tell me that’s the work of a mellow guy. It was, essentially, a show about belligerently refusing to answer questions.

Also, who packs for a trip to a tropical island, and brings along a big picture of a tropical island? It’s like he intends to raise hell if the beach doesn’t match the picture.

 

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How to Combat the Silent Treatment

in

The word balloon in panel four is way down low to signify that there is a long silence before I say it. A lot of comedy is in the timing, and it’s hard to communicate timing in a written medium.

About The Prisoner. I owned the whole series as a DVD box set, then when it came out on Blu-ray I got that too. The changes were interesting, not just in that the Blu-ray version took up way fewer disks and was much sharper. The most interesting thing was that the documentaries and commentaries on the DVD were made while the show’s star and creator, Patrick McGoohan, was still alive. The ones on the Blu-ray were made after he died.

The tone was dramatically different.

One paints him as an uncompromising visionary who was just too far ahead of his time to be understood. The other describes a tyrannical jerk who bullied a beloved character actor to the point that the poor man had a nervous breakdown. It also says that he was making things up as he went, wrote himself into a corner, and had to just spew out some nonsense to wrap it all up.

Not surprising really, that a person who created a show about a man constantly fighting against everybody and everything was, in his real life, a bit prickly. Watch the show’s opening credits (if you have THREE MINUTES to kill. TV used to be very different.) and try to tell me that’s the work of a mellow guy. It was, essentially, a show about belligerently refusing to answer questions.

Also, who packs for a trip to a tropical island, and brings along a big picture of a tropical island? It’s like he intends to raise hell if the beach doesn’t match the picture.

 

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As always, thanks for using my Amazon Affiliate links (US, UK, Canada).

How to Tell if You're Getting Sick

in

Yeah, in retrospect I see Rick’s point. It does ring false when he wins. Of course, I can’t be sure if it rings false for thematic reasons or just because I know the real Rick and know how rare a victory is for him.

For the record, the last time I was in Seattle I hung around with Rick, and he got a belly ache by eating too much candy, which is quite a coincidence.

 

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How to Tell if You're Getting Sick

in

Yeah, in retrospect I see Rick’s point. It does ring false when he wins. Of course, I can’t be sure if it rings false for thematic reasons or just because I know the real Rick and know how rare a victory is for him.

For the record, the last time I was in Seattle I hung around with Rick, and he got a belly ache by eating too much candy, which is quite a coincidence.

 

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As always, thanks for using my Amazon Affiliate links (US, UK, Canada).

How to Describe a TV Show

in

Shortly after this comic ran, I got a nice e-mail from Mary Alice, the receptionist for Charm City Cakes on the show Ace of Cakes. Later, when they did an Ace of Cakes book (http://amzn.to/1T4b6fC ) they asked if they could put the comic in the foreword.

I also noticed a copy of the comic hanging in the bakery on the show.

I’d like to be able to say that I eventually stopped becoming giddy whenever I’d see my comic on TV, but that would be a lie.

Note from Missy: I miss Ace of Cakes. We need more kind, gentle shows on TV. And on that note, I wonder when the next series of The Great British Baking Show is going to air.

 

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How to Describe a TV Show

in

Shortly after this comic ran, I got a nice e-mail from Mary Alice, the receptionist for Charm City Cakes on the show Ace of Cakes. Later, when they did an Ace of Cakes book (http://amzn.to/1T4b6fC ) they asked if they could put the comic in the foreword.

I also noticed a copy of the comic hanging in the bakery on the show.

I’d like to be able to say that I eventually stopped becoming giddy whenever I’d see my comic on TV, but that would be a lie.

Note from Missy: I miss Ace of Cakes. We need more kind, gentle shows on TV. And on that note, I wonder when the next series of The Great British Baking Show is going to air.

 

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As always, thanks for using my Amazon Affiliate links (US, UK, Canada).

How to Apply the Laws of Physics to Personal Relationships: Vol. 2

in

This is the first time I did a comic openly revisiting the subject of a previous comic. Notice the word “openly.” I had revisited subjects before, but this time I couldn’t think of a way to disguise it as a new idea.

Also, looking at this, I’m amused by the fact that I took the picture of the friend I used as the model for the woman in the first and last panels on an evening in late October in Seattle, and I took the pictures of Rick mid-day in the middle of July. As a result, the comic features a woman bundled up in fuzzy clothes and a big scarf being hit on by a guy in a t-shirt and jogging shorts.

 

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As always, thanks for using my Amazon Affiliate links (US, UK, Canada).

How to Apply the Laws of Physics to Personal Relationships: Vol. 2

in

This is the first time I did a comic openly revisiting the subject of a previous comic. Notice the word “openly.” I had revisited subjects before, but this time I couldn’t think of a way to disguise it as a new idea.

Also, looking at this, I’m amused by the fact that I took the picture of the friend I used as the model for the woman in the first and last panels on an evening in late October in Seattle, and I took the pictures of Rick mid-day in the middle of July. As a result, the comic features a woman bundled up in fuzzy clothes and a big scarf being hit on by a guy in a t-shirt and jogging shorts.

 

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As always, thanks for using my Amazon Affiliate links (US, UK, Canada).

How to Pick a Restaurant

in

I would totally eat at Colonel Kraut’s Bratwurst Bunker. I picture the logo being a sausage impaled on one of those old German spiked helmets*.

There is a very good German buffet at EPCOT. We ate there a couple of times when one of my brothers was in town. It has been said that the difference between many Mexican dishes is all in how the chef folds the tortilla. By the same token, the difference between many German dishes is the circumference of the wienie, and how thin they slice it.

*Those helmets were called “Pickelhaube,” and the Wikipedia page about them just cost me ten minutes of my life. In WWI they discovered that the traditional pickelhaube was ill-suited to trench warfare, partly because the spike would stick up over the top of the trench and make the wearer a target. The solution: a new helmet design with a spike that was detachable!

Note from Missy: [1] I love how sour I am through this whole thing. [2] I went to Wikipedia to find out if “pickelhaube” had any root in “pickle.” (Turns out no: “pickel” is German for point or pickaxe.) I ended up falling down a rabbit hole for 15 minutes. Thanks a lot, Scott. No Rib Round-Up for you!

 

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As always, thanks for using my Amazon Affiliate links (US, UK, Canada).

How to Pick a Restaurant

in

I would totally eat at Colonel Kraut’s Bratwurst Bunker. I picture the logo being a sausage impaled on one of those old German spiked helmets*.

There is a very good German buffet at EPCOT. We ate there a couple of times when one of my brothers was in town. It has been said that the difference between many Mexican dishes is all in how the chef folds the tortilla. By the same token, the difference between many German dishes is the circumference of the wienie, and how thin they slice it.

*Those helmets were called “Pickelhaube,” and the Wikipedia page about them just cost me ten minutes of my life. In WWI they discovered that the traditional pickelhaube was ill-suited to trench warfare, partly because the spike would stick up over the top of the trench and make the wearer a target. The solution: a new helmet design with a spike that was detachable!

Note from Missy: [1] I love how sour I am through this whole thing. [2] I went to Wikipedia to find out if “pickelhaube” had any root in “pickle.” (Turns out no: “pickel” is German for point or pickaxe.) I ended up falling down a rabbit hole for 15 minutes. Thanks a lot, Scott. No Rib Round-Up for you!

 

You can comment on this comic on Facebook.

As always, thanks for using my Amazon Affiliate links (US, UK, Canada).