Dr. Muskiday tries to turn feelings into data. His emotion-reading technology translates emotions into glowing clouds. As the experiment spirals, it becomes clear that understanding emotions is much messier than measuring them.
Double-Dog Dare!
If you’re looking for something excellent to read, my friend Dave Kellett has a brand-new Kickstarter live right now. It’s packed with never-before-printed comics and is absolutely worth checking out! https://go.evil-inc.net/Double-D
Transcript
(Panel 1)
Holo-Clone Miss Match: Oh, Musky! I’m so PROUD of you!
Dr. Muskiday: You are?
(Panel 2)
Holo-Clone Miss Match: Sure! And I’ll prove it to you.
(She sprays Dr. Muskiday’s “Project: SMILE” mist onto her chest with a “Pft Pft Pft.”)
(Panel 3)
Holo-Clone Miss Match: That’s odd. I’m definitely experiencing a twenty-five percent increase in admiration.
(He looks at her as she stands confidently in front of him.)
(Panel 4)
Dr. Muskiday: (sighs) I know. I wrote your approval algorithm.
(He buries his head in his hands.)
(Panel 5)
Computer (stylized): Disappointment detected. Initiating emotional buoyancy protocols.
(She stands looking at the dejected Muskiday.)
(Panel 6)
Computer (stylized): Activating file: hold_and_squeeze_those_big_puppies.exe
(She touches her lips in contemplation.)
(Panel 7)
(Two holographic dogs appear — Oso the Pug and Digby the Dachshund from the ‘Sheldon’ comic strip— to a now overjoyed Muskiday, who grabs and cuddles them gleefully.)
Holo-Clone Miss Match: Well… I AM proud of you!
Alt Text
Comic strip featuring Holo-Clone Miss Match (a holographic clone of Miss Match) and Dr. Muskiday (a small, humanoid fly in a lab coat) having a humorous interaction. Miss Match tells Muskiday she’s proud of him. She sprays Dr. Muskiday’s “Project: SMILE” mist onto her chest with a “Pft Pft Pft.” It fails to trigger the expected results. She insists that her admiration has increased by 25% even though it’s not indicated by the mist. Muskiday sighs, saying he knows because he wrote her approval algorithm. Detecting his disappointment, Muskiday’s computer initiates an “emotional buoyancy protocol,” executing a file named “hold_and_squeeze_those_big_puppies.exe.” Two holographic dogs appear — Oso the Pug and Digby the Dachshund from the ‘Sheldon’ comic strip — to a now overjoyed Muskiday, who grabs and cuddles them gleefully. The dogs cameo from the "Sheldon" comic strip to promote Dave Kellett’s Kickstarter book, "Double Dog Dare," available at doubledogbook.com
Greystone Flashback: Trever
Today’s comic features a cameo appearance by Trever, who started as an
intern at
Greystone Inn and worked his way up to
assistant producer.
What you may not know is that I considered spinning Trever off into his own strip. I had been doing
Greystone Inn for a couple years (and was quite pleased with its progress), but I still harbored interest in becoming syndicated at that point. I knew the syndicates would never accept
GI, but after reading an article about a new demographic group — Boomerangers — I thought I had a good concept for a strip that a syndicate
might accept. Boomerangers, the story said, were kids who graduated college and then moved back in with their Baby Boomer parents. Seeing the number of comics that the syndicates launched that seemed to be based on nothing but demographics, I decided to pitch a strip based on Boomerangers.
So, I produced a
four-week storyline that featured Trever and his decision to move in with his parents after graduating college. I packed it up and shipped it off to all of the major syndicates, confident that I was finally ahead of the curve. I had my demographic, I had my characters, and I had my cartooning up to the level that I thought I could attract the attention of an editor.
Needless to say, I was rejected all around.
