Monday, July 20th 2009Everyone gets a Retard Day
After nearly a month, there is a new comic up:
Super Fan II. Keep expectations low.
HERE IS A STORY: I was putting the finishing touches on this strip in the university library last week. I avoid drawing in public usually, because I'm too old to still be drawing doodles on everything. It was okay in middle school and awkward in high school and now I'm old enough that I really should be better than I am. And most of my drawing is done on the Wacom tablet now, which I forget to bring with me (actually I remember the tablet all the time, I just almost always forget the tablet pen RRRRRGH). Now, I am a retard when it comes to library etiquette, and when I was trying to get someone's attention I just yelled out their name. It was loud enough that a girl at an adjacent table turned around like she was a-scared of my booming violent tone, which speaks to her survival instincts. Just at that exact moment she spied my comic and then this exchange happened:
"Oh wow did you make that?"
"Um. Um. Yes I -- I made this."
"ALL of it??" (what a stupid question)
"Yeah, uh. This is what I... do." (such a stupid response I actually became exasperated by speaking it)
At this point she maxed out on my ABSOLUTE RUDENESS and went back to her studies, and I spent the next half hour mulling over how to apologize to her without it looking like I was using webcomic prowess to hit on her. That would be unfortunate. Obviously I made a non-decision and she left quite awhile later.
Now, I'm not without ego. There have been many times, back when I first started this comic, when I thought someone might spot me drawing and think it was cool, and I could be all, "Yeah this is cool. I'm cool." Maybe they'd be an art student and we could talk about art? Or some shit? Anyway by now I've become more appropriately ashamed of my shitty comic and I honestly couldn't think of a single thing to say to this person who was completely willing to stroke my ego over my ability to put garish color into aesthetically displeasing outlines. I can't get over how stupid I am. I could have told her the website and I'd have started a local fanbase! THE SHAME. THE IGNOMINY.
The best part is that when I left the library, it was raining like a fucking hellstorm outside, worse than any non-hurricane storm I've seen in years. The girl and her boyfriend (actually probably more of a "safe" guy friend) were still there under the awning at the entrance. And despite my creepy hostility earlier, they handed me a trash bag to use as a makeshift raincoat. Which in a twist of fate was the only thing that kept my backpack's contents from being soaked on my way to the bus, which would obviously have destroyed my laptop and the very comic I practically forbade her from looking at.
THE END
The moral is I'm a cock in real life, but only to people who are nice to me. I was actually really nice just a few hours earlier to someone who was being a dick, yelling at me from their car, "What are you looking at, bitch?!"
"You look like someone I know," I smiled. "I thought maybe you were my friend! :)"
I am usually a pretty capable conversationalist in reality, so I'm calling that my Retard Day. So, so retarded that day.
