Vacation week

I took vacation this week because my son was off from school, and it was actually a perfect blend of activity and relaxation.  Wednesday, we took a day trip down to NYC, where my son got to enjoy his first visit to the Met.  He'd learned about it in school and was excited about seeing it for himself.  He especially enjoyed the knights in armor.  We saw a kid's magic show at a local theater on Friday, and Saturday, I did a half marathon.  In the rain.  That's a different story (I guess it fits in with CG's theory about running and comedy!).  The other days, we maxed and relaxed.  :)

ComicCon

There was another Albany ComicCon back in October.  My guys and I went to it, and my son was absolutely delighted at the sight of people in costume, dressed as characters from Star Wars and various comic books.  After shaking hands with one of them, he exclaimed with glee, "I shook hands with a FANBOY!"

Now that I've put up today's strip, my husband thinks we should actually show up at the con dressed as "Crazy Guy" characters.  :)

Sense of Entitlement Girl

What can I tell you about Sense of Entitlement Girl that you don't already know by interacting with people just like her?  Hmm.  Well, she was inspired by an actual person.  In our apartment-dwelling days, we'd come up with descriptive names for the various people in our building.  Like there was WAS, aka "Walk Around Smoke" and "Smoky McFarty."  SOEG was a college student whose sense of entitlement was palpable.  I came up with "Sense of Entitlement Girl" off the cuff, and from then on, she was SOEG to us.

In the same building, there was another "Crazy Guy," but he was really just a bit eccentric.  The poor guy had a run-in with SOEG that ended with his family taking him in because she was threatening to sue him.  Something about him banging on a shared wall.

SOEG once insisted that we move our car to make room for hers.  The parking area in question belonged to a nearby college where I was employed.  So I had an actual parking permit that allowed me to park there.  She only had her sense of entitlement.  We didn't move our car.

I did a one-off comic on SOEG long before we ever encountered the guy who inspired Crazy Guy.  You'll recognize it as the inspiration for the standard "SOEG entrance" I use whenever she appears in the strip:

Click to enlarge.

  

Outsourcing tweets

I know that Charlie Sheen advertising for a Twitter intern isn't new news anymore, but I've been meaning to do something about that in the strip.  Sheen now has more than 3 MILLION followers.  More than 100,000 times as many as CG has.  You know CG can't stand that!  :)

Madoff

Another idea from my husband.  He came across the article I link under the strip--a New York Magazine interview with Madoff--shortly after passing the strip idea along to me.  Life imitates crazy!  Original idea had CG making signs, but I liked the visual of him making a t-shirt with Madoff's face and the "Freebird"-inspired slogan.  One hazard is that while I was working on this strip, I kept getting "Freebird" stuck in my head.  Darn Skynyrd!

Bubbles

My husband has two MBAs and a law degree.  He reads financial and economic blogs and makes predictions about the impending economic doom.  Today's strip was born in his brain, as are many of the economic/financial-themed strips.  Ha, it's all his fault I had to [try to] draw Cuomo for four panels!

The Doodle

Crazy Morbidly Obese Guy came about unexpectedly from a doodle on a legal pad.  Once I'd drawn him, the idea for the script followed and I scribbled it out on the same piece of paper.  Here's the doodle:

  

Chartock and Egg Yolks

In no way, shape, or form is my husband Crazy Guy.  HOWEVER.  The story about the UAlbany graduate journalism class, Chartock, and the egg yolks is his.  It seems that, out of health consciousness, Chartock would eat just the eggs whites and feed the yolks to his dog.  And, as CG recounts in the strip, a student impressed him by suggesting that something bad for Chartock would also be bad for the dog.

CG's "Chartock" Obsession

As you can see from the collection of strips featuring or mentioning Alan Chartock, Crazy Guy is a little bit fixated on him.  In CG's Albanycentric view, Chartock has a MEDIA EMPIRE.  He might be the only one in the world to think so (no offense intended to Mr. Chartock).  :)

New Administration, Fresh Crazy

Crazy Guy just can't let go of the notion that he's going to be a playa in state politics!  By the way, the "yard sale" strip came from a couple of suggestions my son made.  He wanted a yard sale strip, he wanted both David Paterson (then-Governor of NYS) and Elly Patterson to be in the strip, and also some of his favorite characters.  Those of you who read "For Better or For Worse" might be able to recognize the "Elly Patterson" bobblehead next to the David Paterson one.  Other favorite characters appear on the table.  :)