Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Spoiler alert


I had a funny thing happen with my comic strip "Nothing is not Something" today. I usually post new strips every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The fine people at Go Comics are the ones who do the actual posting to their website and this happens sometime during the wee hours of the morning. Normally I'll wake up on those mornings and check to make sure that the new strips have been uploaded properly.

At that time, I'll check to see if any comments have been made in an effort to try and figure out what my fan base likes. Over the two to three day spread that the comic runs on the website, I will usually only get 5 or 6 comments. Mostly it's people putting their own little spin on that particular strip. It's kind of fun.

Today when I woke up, I noticed that there were already seven comments made about the "Larry Likes Coal" strip that you see above. Since the strip had only been "live" for a couple of hours, this seemed like an astonishing number of comments.

When I started to read the comments, I couldn't help but chuckle. A couple of people got out their dictionaries to look up the word "bituminous" to find out what the secret joke was. Others were crafting the word into some kind of hidden, double entendre, semi-dirty joke. I could sense their disappointment when they couldn't quite figure out my grand scheme. I think that they wanted an explanation.

Well, here it is: I like the word bituminous. It doesn't make any sense on any level within the confines of the comic strip. I was just having fun with a word that is descriptive of a certain kind of coal. The word bituminous does not translate to a description of a woman, however Larry is woefully ignorant of that fact. (He's also apparently not aware that his coal miner's hat is still on.) There is no hidden meaning. The thought of a guy named Larry, sitting in a bar, with a coal miner's hat on, looking for a "bituminous" woman to hit on, Makes me giggle. Nothing more, nothing less. That's the joke.

As a spoiler alert for future strips, I like to have fun with words. I like to use them in inappropriate settings. On many occasions, I also spell them wrong, which many people have liked to point out.

Like I said before, this kind of stuff makes me smile. For those people who go the extra mile in figuring out the deeper meaning in everything, I respect you for you convictions, but anyone who knows me realizes I'm about as shallow as you can get.

P.S.- For future reference, I also like the words "hibiscus" and spelunker."

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If you get a chance, please check out some of the other stuff I've got going:

"Nothing is not Something" on GO Comics.
"Nothing is not Something" on Facebook.
"Nothing is not Something" on Twitter.

Greg Wallace Ink on Facebook
Greg Wallace Ink on Twitter.

Sawdust & Paint on Facebook.

3 comments:

  1. Greg, I first met up with "bituminous" in 3rd grade Social Studies class. I'd never seen it before. As the class "star reader", Mrs Beaman asked me to pronounce it. I came out with something like "bitchuminchuminchumus." She had a fit of "coughing", clapped her hanky over her mouth and left the room. We could hear her giggling her way down the hall to the water fountain.

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  2. Don't forget dystopian, Wallace!

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  3. Word play I agree can be fun, yet I more often than not find it mostly humors me. My wife just looks cocked headed at me most of the time. But I know she is giggling inside also. I post this word play cartoon I drew a while back.

    http://boondawgoggle.blogspot.com/2013/01/google-search-provides-gag-idea.html

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