A friend of mine never had anything in the house but water or tea. I’ve become that way myself over the years, but at the time I enjoyed having milk, juice, or occasionally soft drinks around.
Christine is grinning, showing teeth, btw. Since I didn’t draw in individual teeth, or a line separating her rows of teeth, it might appear she has her warped mouth open like some great white cavern.
It’s also one of the first strips I wrote where I found the dialogue patter to be entertaining and funny in the way that it would be if you were there, but where if you look hard — you can’t actually find anything really funny about it.
This reminds me of the first comic convention I ever went to, the San Diego Comic Con (which is coming up in the next weekend or so, although I won’t be there), tabling with funny-man Stan.
I was a totally independent, no idea what I was doing, and barked all weekend to the attendees streaming by “A comic, like watching a french movie, nothing happens, and sometimes it’s funny!”
Man I love those foreign films.
Remember, this first ran in 1996, when lots of people still smoked in restaurants and offices.
Smoking, of course, is unhealthy. And I like that food and drink establishments have largely gone smoke-free, mostly because I don’t like my clothes smelling awful (AND I don’t smoke).
But this strip was inspired I think by the question of whether self-protection laws are good. These laws preventing us from being stupid. I don’t smoke, but I do plenty of stupid things consciously, and would hate them to be curtailed.
I have no answers. Only commentary. :)
My friend Natasha Hunter translated the English I wrote into French for me. What i gave her was:
“Mary, I love you more than the apples and the trees. But my love suffers so very much. If only you were not dead.”
and,
“Ah, yes. That is tragic.”
I so much love playing with words. I’ve tried to get away from that in my humor, to try new things (although I still use generous amounts of wordplay), but when writing this it was so new and fresh and fun to simply play.
I find that cats seem to see things a bit more black-and-white than people, and that perhaps people are a little better than cats at justifying their own behavior.
Ah, the spiraling of self-doubt. Always a theme to entertain.
This strip was drawn in an indoor garden attached to the skyways. I’m not sure the name and couldn’t find it with a quick search. But I remember it being very pleasant.
I had lots of fun during the run of Bruno, writing in this kind of philoso-babble speak (not that I think it’s without meaning), and I’d say this strip is one of the more successful attempts.