Geek Speaking of Farewells to Mold Crabs
This is definitely the weirdest title for a comic I’ve come up with in a while.
In Which I Bid a Fond Farewell to Fallen Follicles
This comic has more than the usual element of truth to it. Sometime last year, I suppose it would have to have been in the May to June time frame, I started noticing more hair than I was used to seeing on my hands and on the floor of the tub after a shower. After that, I started paying attention to every time I ran my hand through my hair, or when I fixed my hair before going to work in the morning, or what the broom was picking up when I swept the bathroom floor. In every case I noticed the same thing. My hair was, not exactly piling up, but loose hairs that matched mine were showing up in alarming quantities everywhere. Around this time I was dealing with a bout of anxiety that was causing me to run to the doctor’s office every couple of weeks, which was not a fun process. It’s not hard to see how the two could be linked. While I genuinely don’t feel like my hair is in any way an integral part of my identity, it would be dishonest of me to say that I’m not bummed about the prospect of losing it. More so than I would have thought at any rate. Once I had kind of wrestled with that, and started to come to grips with the idea, and accepting that about fifty percent of all men eventually do go bald, it became possible for me to start to see the humor in the situation. Which is where this little gem came from.
Breaking the Mold
I usually try to avoid going to four panels. It is difficult enough to write a joke and pace it effectively across three panels. The difficulty increases considerably with the addition of a fourth. I’ve seen some comic strip creators do it very effectively, and others…ah…less so. In this case, I feel like it could end effectively on either panel three, or panel four. In the end I decided that I like having a beat between panel two and panel four where the audience can process what has just happened at the same time as Normal Guy. I’m pleased with the result, overall, but I’d be interested in hearing from any of you who are reading this. It’s most likely not going to become a regular thing, but how did it work in this case?
The Hermit Crab Needs a New Shell
My household has enough occupants now that we are in real danger of stepping on toes, getting up noses, and generally getting on nerves. If nothing else one of my kids is eventually going to start a campaign to get their own room, and I’m not sure how long I can endure the barrage of attack ads and negative press that come with such a thing. Just on the chance that I come across something that is just too good to pass up I’ve been casually browsing Zillow and Padmapper for my area, just to see what’s out there.
SWEET FANCY MOSES!
The cost of housing is expensive. If we were to try and get a three bedroom place in the area where we’re living today it would cost us easily $3,000 a month. One of my kids will be starting in the local public school in a year, so we’ll no longer be paying for preschool, which is a big help, Even with that we don’t have enough to even think about dropping that kind of money every month on an apartment. Which means we’ll have to move further than just a couple of streets over. It means we’ll have to move out of this community, that I have really come to enjoy.
In any event. Just for poops and smiles, I started to look at what it would cost to buy instead of renting. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not in a position to just say “Tra-la-la, it looks like I’m buying a house today. Emma, dear, fetch me my slippers and pour me a cognac from a shamefully expensive bottle.” No. I don’t remotely even have money for a down payment. Even so, I explored it a little bit and was stunned to find that with a (for the area) minimal amount of money down, we could buy a place and our mortgage would be the same as or less than what we’d be paying in rent on a bigger apartment. For the first time I can remember we’re looking at the decision to continue renting vs. taking the plunge and buying something and thinking, maybe, it makes sense to buy.
It’s a weird position to be in, and something that bears mulling over. Maybe there’s a comic in it somewhere. I’ll be thinking about that, too.
That’s it for now. If you’d like to see some of my artwork that’s not related to Geek Speak, you can check it out on my art blog at www.workadoodleart.com. I just posted some of my recent sketches, and there’s some fun stuff in there.
To comment on your “breaking the mold,” I think three panels works better. That extra beat with the fourth panel seems forced. Basically, if it works with three, why have a fourth?
In regards to your potential house hunting… let me know if you want to pick our brains. That whole experience is still fresh in our minds, and there are some big differences between purchasing a home in Southern California versus purchasing anywhere else in the country.
In most cases I’d agree with you, a fourth panel isn’t needed. In this case I felt better about four panels than three. The fourth panel DOES feel a little forced, but three panels felt too rushed. The flow just feels like it works better when Panel 2 has this huge burst of hair as Normal Guy sneezes, panel 3 has him processing things as the hair slowly drifts out of frame, and panel 4 is the pay off and his reaction. That’s the way I see it anyway. Four panels is always dicey. The only person I’ve seen able to use four panels really effectively is Jolly Jack, the creator behind Sequential Art. http://www.collectedcurios.com.
I’ll definitely pick your brain about house hunting. I’ll send you an email directly about it.