Freelance Blues November 2008 Archives

Thursday, November 27th, 2008

Trust your instincts.

Getting that next gig means you gotta follow your nose.

See where it takes Lance, in this week's update!

Welcome back to FLB! This week we introduce Lance's support team, his twin sisters Nicki and Vicki. Technically they debuted last week, snoozing on the couch. But make no mistake, that's the last moment of inaction you'll see. Watching out for Lance can be a full time-job!

And speaking of, when you're the Hardest Working Character in comics, you don't just teach lessons in the workplace. Sometimes you need to focus your attention on characters whose powers and abilities define their existence. The forces of nature, if you will.

Take Galactus. When you are a being of awesome cosmic power, your "job," basically, is to be yourself. Which in and of itself shouldn't be that hard. Roll out of bed, eat a planet, and boom, you're Galactus. Good work. Nicely done. How is it that Galactus has gotten so lazy and or bored that even this is too much effort?

Galactus has "cosmic awareness"; which can actually perceive the state of the universe. Yet somehow It still relies on a "herald" to find tasty planets. Galactus can create, control and convert matter at will, so why does It rely on an "Elemental Converter" to juice and spoon feed it the planets It needs to eat?

All this makes Galactus more of a "Natural Slacker" then a "Force of Nature." And we thought those butlers were lightweights. For shame.

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FLB is going to be at the Paradise Toronto Comicon at the Metro Convention Centre, This Sunday November 30th. You can find it on the Facebook, and while you're there, why not sign up for the FLB group!? Should be great show, and word is there might be a special preview of the upcoming issue 1! But you didn't hear that from me...

Thursday, November 20th, 2008

Hey Lance, Where You Goin'!

The party's right here, man!

What you don't like a party? Check out the update!

It's ok. We understand that you're beat. When you're the Hardest-Working Character in Comics, that'll happen. Some days you work a jackhammer, other times you're strapped to the side of a building washing windows. Whatever you're doing, there's no room in your uniform for a pocket square.

You don't have to wear coveralls to put in a hard day's work, but the gentlemen's gentlemen in today's comics aren't exactly working up a sweat. Take Edwin Jarvis. He heads the most automated staff this side of Latveria. He's got robots to polish his cleaning robots. He makes a couple of pots of tea and calls it a night. Take it easy there, you've gotta pace yourself. It's a marathon, not a sprint.

Then there is Alfred Pennyworth, perhaps the luckiest working schlub in comics today. He's the valet of the most driven character in comics today, which could make for some busy days. Fortunately for the slacker Alfred, he doesn't valet Batman, he valets for Batman's neglected secret identity.

"Master Bruce, we've got to get you dressed up for tonight's gala ball."

"Sorry Al, I gotta go stare at Arkham Asylum for 13 hours tonight, the Joker might think about escaping."

"Very well sir, I'll just see who Conan has on this evening."

Anyhow, enough manservants! Next week come see who takes care of things on Lance's home front. I'll bet you dollars to donuts they won't be cleaning up his party!

Thursday, November 13th, 2008

Yes We Can Can

Even the toughest workplaces can be taken on together.

See how things turned out in this week's update!

Thanks to everyone who came out to the Speakeasy show in Toronto. Great artists, friends, drinks, hey that's Toronto comics. One comic of note was Chris Henderson and Matt Burke's "How Mary Met Joseph" retelling of the new-testament bible story through the plot of Back to the Future, drawn in the style of Archie Comics. And this comes after we take our jab at Principal Weatherbee-- is that a sign?

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Maybe you heard about things in Chicago last week. Well that's not the only news to come out of the Windy City recently. Sad to say, author, broadcaster, and all-around chronicler of the working man, Studs Terkel died in his home at the age of 96. This is a guy who, for his whole life, documented what the daily struggle was all about. This quote (lifted from Quill and Quire who lifted it from USA Today) says it all: "I took a vacation once — it involved a beach — and to tell you the truth, I had no idea what to do with myself. It was torture. Work is life. Without it, there is no life."

Well said.

Stick around next week for Mike's next jab at the super-slackers.

Thursday, November 6th, 2008

Fight! Fight! Fight!

This ain't no sissy call center manager.

Lance goes mano-a-roacho in this week's update!

Tonight! Thursday November 6th, Freelance Blues is LIVE! At the Gladstone Hotel's Speakeasy Comic Book Show in Toronto. It's a relaxing way to get to know local creators in a definitely unConventional locale. Stick around long enough and there's Karaoke too! Show goes from 8PM until Midnight.

Even if you can't make it down, consider this: When you're on a quest to show the world that you're the "Hardest Working Character in Comics" you've got to take on all comers. Some weeks you knock a workplace goliath down a peg or two, and other times you just clobber the pants off a first-rate, slack-off jobber.

Mr. Waldo Weatherby has been the principal at Riverdale High since 1942. That's over six decades of bumbling nincompoopery, with a 0% graduation rate. Think about it. Not only is Riverdale High a timeless scholastic limbo, but "The Bee" is such an incompetent, that he can't even foil the slacker machinations of a mastermind cleverly named "Jughead".

Saying that Mr. Weatherby is pooching it is an insult to loafers and slackers around the world. A little more time principaling and a little less time poking about the halls would go a long way. And seriously? A pince-nez? Where did you even find a pair in this day and age?

Monday, November 3rd, 2008

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