My 15 Minutes Part Deux (30 Minutes?)

Hello everyone!

I realize it might appear as if I haven't been doing much writing lately considering the dearth of blog postings on Rob Dow's World lately, but in reality I've been writing like crazy. My latest attempt at writing a novel has been going much better than my last attempt, and I've been thoroughly immersed in the world of character developments, voice, setting, plot development, and so on. I've also been having fun with symbolism and metaphor. In a blog setting, I can just say what I want to say without any trouble. But in a novel, I have to make my characters say what I want to say while giving each character his or her own voice. After all, who wants to read a story with a bunch of characters that sound the same? Also, sometimes the point I want to make isn't particularly interesting to read, so I have to find a way to get my point across while (I hope) making the story fun and interesting to read. Anyway, this is my world these days.

In addition, I've also been enjoying reading comics. I'm not talking about comic books--what do you think I am, some kind of nerd?--but rather the newspaper funny pages kind. One of my favorites is The Doozies. The comics themselves are pretty funny, but the author also has a series of "instructional" YouTube videos in which he shows his viewers how to draw just like a big, rich, hot shot comic artist such as himself. Both the comics and the videos are worth a peek if you're interested in a chuckle.

Last Thursday's strip was fairly amusing. It used an example of the radio repair business to lament how the downfall of aging technologies in this modern era could make a man's life feel obsolete. It brilliantly discussed... well, here, see for yourself:

Clever, eh?

But what struck me as most amusing was a comment someone posted on the Gocomics site:

BonzoGal says:

I’m a little worried about Dean- his shirt seems to have been sewn shut in the front. Did he have to pawn his shirt buttons to get his radio repaired? Talk about an O. Henry story!

Suddenly, I had to take a second look at the comic. While I could see what BonzoGal was saying, I thought it didn't look so much like a sewed shirt, but rather a sewed abdomen. I started to notice other details that I hadn't previously noticed, so I made my own comment:

subtlefuge says:

He’s not wearing a shirt. That’s a scar from his appendectomy, which apparently had some complications. He also has a literal chip on his shoulder, as you can see in the second panel. And he combs his hair in the shape of a “W”.

Before too long, The Doozies author/artist himself, Tom Gammill, posted his own comment to clear up the confusion:

tgaml says:

People, people, that’s a zipper on his jacket, not a scar. And “Al’s Radio Repair” is down the street from me. Really. I don’t know how much longer it’ll be around.

I felt amused by this little exchange. The fact that a celebrity like Mr. Gammill took the time to respond to my comment, as silly as it was, made me think that he's either a pretty cool guy or someone with no life. Maybe both, who knows?

So you can imagine how I felt when I saw today's comic:

Unreal.

Rob