Plutonium Casserole - Evil Old Phone

This is the saga of my cell phone bought way back in 2000 and how it fought being replaced to the last gasp!
The day I decided to go to the store and use my Christmas bonus gift card and buy a new one, I not only took the wrong gift card, but my radiator cracked! But, I replaced the radiator, missed that month's art guild meeting and finally purchased a new cell phone (after having to go back home for the right gift card). The day I tried to swap phones, their computer kept coming up with a non-specified error- call back in 3 hours. After calling them back 3 times, they put in a trouble ticket and said call back in 24 to 72 hours. I called them 2 days later and they said do this and I did that and it finally swapped just fine.
That old phone was a good friend, but the battery would no longer hold a charge for more than a 5 minute call, and then power down - even with the charger plugged in. It was useful to get me out of being stuck somewhere, calling work when I would once in a great while gonna be late, keeping in touch with friends.But it became so handicapped, it had to be retired. My new cell phone was only 25$ and even know it is a very basic phone, I can locate myself on Google maps and get directions. Which is good since I suck at navigation.

Dirty Socks # 4 My Illustrious Career

First Socks  Previous Socks Next Socks

This is about my jobs up to this point in the Dirty Socks timeline. I first tried selling encyclopedias with no success. But it was the first place that taught me if your poor, it's nobody's fault but yours. And they didn't feel I had big enough ambitions - all I could think of was a brand new AMC Eagle. Remember those? Then onto a local restaurant as a busboy.If you look in the drawing, you'll see brass railing. Yep, had to polish that! I also had to yell back to the cooks the orders. I talk very softly, so that was uncomfortable. Next a busboy at a hotel restaurant during the holiday season. When they fired me, they said it was only seasonal after all, while they kept an alcoholic guy who slept on a cot in the back and missed alot of work. The boss and him were "familiar" I think. Finally, stability at my job at B.K. A job they give rookies is to clean inside the big bad hot broiler hood. I graduated to fries and left that job to whoever was the newest hire.

I took more time to do this one since I drew each panel as a full page. And if you notice, I now put gutters between the panels. Something I learned in the book "how to make webcomics". So though this comic took more time, I like the end result. A feeling of satisfaction is worth it.

Getting Educated

 

I ordered this book off Amazon after reading about it in a webcomic and have been slowly reading it. I recommend it highly. It got me to thinking about my Smithee Zombie Hunter blog which up till now has served as a kinda diary with random sketches and thoughts. But I see now that the Smithee blog gets a fair amount of attention, but I don't put much up there about Smithee. I am now going to make the Smithee blog to become a webcomic since I think I have a great plot that other zombie enthusiasts will enjoy reading it. So I followed some of the guidelines in the book and revamped the Smithee blog to be alot cleaner and simpler and more like a webcomic. I'm going to start out with the first chapter of Guide #2 as a preview in order to introduce the characters and art style. I usually post events a week or more after they happen, but I'm posting this one today, which means you should probably go backwards from this point to catch any new posts since the last time you were here.

 

A den of artists

One thing I have really been looking for since I started cartooning in earnest is to connect with other artists. I have asked the comic store guys a couple times, and they didn't know of anything. But lo and behold, Saturday night, I was in a funk over an old friend and decided to go to the comic store to get my mind off it.
There they were, a gathering of comic artists! I didn't have the courage to talk to them, so I got the information from the comic store guy who then asked if I wanted to join them. OK, I said and he motioned for the group spokesman to come over and he introduced me. His only question was 'are you an artist'? So, inspite of having nothing to draw with, nothing to draw on, and no art to show off, they made room for me and a fellow pulled a piece of eraser of his kneadable blob and they gave me a backing board and I drew the mannequin. They asked if I had a character I was working on, I said 'yes, a zombie hunter'.
I am such a newbie, I felt like everyone else was way ahead of me. They could sit there and whip up a superhero without even trying. A couple were inking complex comic pages. There were laptops, and a intuo tablet. One new person already has an established character, wore a t-shirt with it on it and had zine size mini comics of it in full color. They were friendly people and did their best to make me feel at home. They just basically talked shop. It was a warmer than normal night and we wished we had a fan.
It was a wonderful way to get my mind off things.

Dirty Socks #3 School Failure

First Socks   Previous Socks   Next Socks

Right after I finished high school, I briefly tried a tech school for electronics. It was incredibly boring and way to mathematical and cerebral for me. I came to a decision to quit the program within the trial period. My mother was none too thrilled because going to school meant more Social Security money for her. We had a big fight, and she even wanted me to lie about my status as a full time student, but I said no way. I had my integrity and wouldn't be party to a deception. My mother was extremely insecure about money, so it was like asking her to cut off her arm to let that extra moola go. Needless to say, dad was real disappointed about the whole thing as well.And my best friend was unhappy too cause I had him register me at the school because I wouldn't be back from a summer vacation in time. So I inconvenienced people, disappointed people, and pissed people off, but I stuck to what was right for me. I know I couldn't have stood a career in electronics. It sounded so cool to think about, (and it majorly impressed my family) but in reality it was way too meaningless for me. So, the value of the school was to teach me something I didn't like!

The Brewster

This was another character sketch based on observation after the fact. He played at church that weekend. It was fun doing this kind of drawing.