College

Thanks. It's been fun.

Ghosts

The final appearance of the nightshirt, already a bit threadbare four years on. In this case, however, it does not say ohio university but rather, college.

It occurred to me to put a poster on the wall in the second panel. It could have been the album cover of Oranges and Lemons, that would have been accurate, we had that on the wall in the bedroom. But at the time I had it in mind to put a peace sign there. I remember struggling with that, why? Maybe because the air was so toxic with jingoistic fervor I was afraid of repercussions - I was almost done, I didn't want to go out with any more unintended controversy.

What a coward.

The dialogue, of course, is from the second strip of this series. Located as we were on the ground level in an alley, there were an awful lot of private conversations I had the chance to eavesdrop on. I did stand in the kitchen one night, in my pajamas, in the darkness and watch a couple have an argument, right outside my window.

How in the hell did we live for a year sleeping in the same twin bed?

Confirming the Inevitable

There's Mark. Not a very good likeness, but there he is.

I never really made this joke, out loud. By the time I was in my fifth year, I was really treading water ... nothing happened this quarter. I did a show, attended classes ... my girlfriend spent an abortive semester at Wooster. I have absolutely no idea what I did for ten weeks except watch Twin Peaks and drink Southern Comfort.

Philosophy

No, sorry, I have no idea who this guy is, nor why he is in my high school gym shorts. And yet ... there he is.

My girlfriend's birthday was the day before mine, so we had a big, two-day birthday, hot tub party - in our backyard!

Man. I walked by that place during the holidays. I could not fathom the concept. I mean, it's a paved deck off the basement of a house on South Congress. On an alley, shared with bars and restaurants. The cement was cracked then, virtually destroyed now. Broken glass, garbage ... disgusting, and dangerous. And yet we cleaned it up, and encouraged people to be barefoot on it.

And we grilled!

Really, I do not know who this guy is. But we had a late-night discussion on the meaning of life. In a rented hot tub.

You can see balloons hanging from the low ceiling inside in the second panel. And the garbage in the third.

I like the vapors in the second panle. I just like the atmosphere of the whole thing. I wonder if everyone else got that we're outside.

Duplexes

Not for publication.



This was the other strip that I created that was not published so as to fit the entire series into one quarter.

Again, my reasoning was that a strip like this one did not show the subject growing much. This is a shame, if only because of the callback to the freshman winter quarter strip.

Our man is beginning to develop a paunch.

I think I simply spun around in my drawing chair to create this scarily accurate picture of that wall of our apartment. Uneven plastic shade, the Robert Smith poster, and the Bloody Poetry poster (an OUSoT play, another giveaway.)

And the couch, which also had a featured role in Turtleneck.

We lived in the basement. The guys upstairs did live like pigs.

Living Together

Yet another verbatim conversation.

The shacking-up interview. "May I have your daughter's hand in co-habitation, sir?" What a nice boy, he even put on a sweater.

I don't think I would be as cool with it as her parents were.

We establish that at least one of her parents works for the college.

Our protagonist is suffering from what I called "The George H.W. Bush Decade" - that period, not quite 80s, not quite 90s, when fashion was truly awful. Sideburns, yes? And clunky glasses that never quite fit - people with bent noses should never get molded frames.

The College Relationship

As opposed to the high school relationship.

Nice vanishing point work. We really did almost (yes, literally) run into each other, turning the corner of Ellis Hall near the library.

This conversation is pretty-near verbatim.

And here's your Loma Prieta wake-up call ...



UPDATE: Forgot to mention ... the ballcap was a salute to Turtleneck. Maybe you caught that.