Chapter 17 | Page 13b: Hard bargaining

Posted on April 2, 2026 by Brad Guigar

At Evil Inc, even labor negotiations can spiral out of control — especially when “hard bargaining” takes on a whole new meaning. Cassie Cruz just realized that the conference room she prepped for Dr. Muskiday’s… unconventional solution… is already booked for a high-stakes union negotiation. Unfortunately, it looks like Doctor Threat and the henchpersons may have already reached an agreement.

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Transcript

Panel 1
Cassie Cruz (angry):
“We are NOT having an orgy at our desks!”

Dr. Muskiday (calmly defensive):
“Of course not! I stocked the conference room with mattresses and lube.”

Panel 2
Cassie Cruz (panicking):
“The conference room?! Doctor Threat is scheduled to negotiate a new contract with the henchpersons’ union in there!”

Panel 3
Cassie Cruz (looking toward a slightly open door):
“Where’s Doctor Threat?”

Dr. Muskiday (matter-of-fact):
“I believe that’s him in the middle of — erm — ‘collective bargaining.’”

(Sound effects from behind the closed conference room door:)
“Hhh hhh”
“Plap Ngh Plap Plap”
“Hngh hhh”
“mmf mmf mmf”

Detailed Alt Text

A three-panel comic set inside an office at Evil Inc.

Panel 1: Cassie Cruz, a professional woman with short brown hair, red glasses, a white blazer, and a low-cut yellow top, stands beside her desk looking furious. A small pink “emotion cloud” with a skull icon floats near her head, indicating anger. She shouts that they are not having an orgy at their desks. Standing nearby is Dr. Muskiday, a short humanoid with a fly’s head—large red compound eyes, small body, and lab coat—who calmly explains that he already prepared the conference room with mattresses and lube.

Panel 2: Close-up on Cassie clutching her head in alarm. Her expression is wide-eyed and panicked. She exclaims that the conference room is supposed to be used for an important union negotiation between Doctor Threat and the henchpersons’ union.

Panel 3: Cassie and Dr. Muskiday stand in a hallway facing a slightly open conference room door. Cassie asks where Doctor Threat is. Muskiday gestures toward the door and awkwardly suggests that Doctor Threat is inside, in the middle of “collective bargaining,” implying something sexual. From inside the room comes exaggerated, comic-style sound effects indicating vigorous activity: heavy breathing (“hhh hhh,” “hngh”), rhythmic “plap” noises, and muffled sounds (“mmf mmf”). The implication is that the union negotiation has devolved into an orgy inside the conference room.

Emerald City Con Report – Sunday

Posted on April 5, 2007 by Brad Guigar

Con Report: Emerald City Comic Con — Sunday

Sunday started with breakfast — this time with Howard Tayler and one of his children. The kid could put away waffles like a champ. I was envious of his metabolism. The Kurtzes — Scott and Angela — were down shortly and joined us. We four talked about the “Old Days” of webcomics. It’s truly amazing how much things have changed.

At the convention, the traffic was slightly more sparse than the day before, but that just meant more time to spend with individual fans. I always love a comic-con Sunday. Everything goes a little slower and a little less frantic. It’s one of the best things about a convention. Dave Kellett had to travel back home for another engagement, and we were the poorer for his absence. Photo (Click to enlagarge): Harley Quinn stops by, doubtlessly attracted by my aura of Evil.

Another highlight of Sunday was getting to preview the latest installment of PVP: The Series. Scott and Kris have nailed their comedic timing — which. let’s face it, was always sharp. Episode Three is paced masterfully, and it has a really engaging energy. They just keep getting better and better. LE-MOE-NAAAAAAAADDDDDEEEEE!

Scott saw a couple of minor fixes to be made and decided to delay uploading the episode for a day. You can realy tell that it bugs him to present anything but the very best to his readers. Nevermind that the fixes were minor and he could have easily uploaded the episode and snuck in a fix later. He was simply not going to present something that he didn’t believe in.

Laudible, right?

Well, true to form, it kicked off a torrent of posts — many of which chided Scott for his decision. Sheesh.

Photo (Click to enlagarge): Kurtz stops by Phil Foglio’s Girl Genius booth to try on some Girl Genius goggles.

At the end of the day, there was the “Business of Webcomics” panel discussion with Robert Khoo of Penny Arcade, Unshelved’s Bill Barnes, Kris Straub, Scott Kurtz, and me. Khoo kicked off the panel by declaring print dead and we were off to the races from there. Many of the questions from the audience were very insightful, however, and it was a pretty nice way to wrap up the con.

After the convention floor closed, the Demonokos brothers threw a party at the Pyramid Brewery, buying dinner and drinks for about a hundred of their closest friends. I sat at a table with Farscape’s Wayne Pygram and Gigi Edgley. Gigi was downright bubbly, making the introductions the moment Kris and I sat down. Soon the Kurtzes arrived and we all had an amazing dinner.

Scott and Angela are very excited about Kris moving to Texas to launch HalfPixel. I’m excited, too. I think these two guys have a real chemistry together, and it’s going to be fun watching what they come up with. Gail Simone came up to talk to Scott while we were eating. I was too star-struck to stutter to her how much I loved Villains United — and the cretanous Kurtz didn’t make the introduction 😉 so I was just left to bask in her presence.

We went back to the hotel and hung out for a little while. I was really sad to see the night end.

Monday morning brought one last shuttle ride — this time with Adam Hughes. The flight home was uneventful — so much so that I wrote about a month ahead in the Evil Inc script.

And, as much fun as the weekend was, nothing compared to walking into my house and seeing my wife and two kids at the end of it all. I didn’t even hardly miss the Springhill breakfast the next morning.

To sum up: Emerald City is a phenomenal convention and if the timing works as well as it did this year, I’m going to definitely be back next year. Thanks to everyone who showed up to say hi and thanks to all the newcomers who bought a book and started visiting the Web site regularly. And thanks to all my comic-creating friends who made the weekend such a blast. It was a stellar weekend, folks, and I was sure glad to be there to share it.

And now… if you don’t mind… I need to see a dog about a bath.