Comic with No Pictures (Tree with No Leaves)

 

I stopped in at the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art (MOCCA) festival last weekend. Megan B was there, so were the creators of a few web other comics I read. I saw Jeph Jacques (Questionable Content), Dorothy Gambrell (Cat and Girl), Yuko and Ananth (Johnny Wander), and Klio (SPQR Blues). I got books from three of them and a CMY Cat tote from Yuko and Ananth. That's a web design joke: they had a black cat with yellow eyes and a magenta mouth, so they added a cyan collar and that made the cat CMYK. Never mind.

I purchased the three available Cat and Girl books, and Dorothy painstakingly drew a character on each title page for me. Here's the Cat she drew on volume 1. I thought she was going to stop after completing Cat, but she kept going, adding the big ice cream cone and the mice, and the wording.

The mice look like descendants of Ignatz, a bonus for this Krazy Kat fan.

I've just completed reading the Questionable Content book, and I am inspired to create a Slice of Life comic with many characters. My disadvantage is that I can't draw even as well as Jeph Jacques did seven years ago (he mocks his early art himself in the comments). If you've seen Invasion from Beyond!!, which I created when I was twelve, well, that was probably my peak.

So I will just present the script, and you can draw it yourself.

JOE B
a comic

[1]

Street corner. Joe B, Gianni, Bill, Isaac, Lesley, Mindy have gathered.

Gianni: Lunch! Where do we go today?
Bill: Let's go to that Irish pub I mentioned to you.
others: Yes! Let's go!

[2]

Gianni: We can take two taxis.
Lesley: OK, but I think I'll take the subway back.

[3]

Isaac: I'm thinking about shepherd's pie.
Joe B: That's just what I was thinking of.

[4]

Joe B to Isaac: Wait, do you mean it? I really am thinking of shepherd's pie.

[5]

Joe B, Lesley, Mindy riding in the back seat of a taxi.

Joe B: Look, there's a little map on the screen showing where we are.
Mindy: Yeah, and they have a credit card swipe on the side too.
Joe B: I don't take a taxi very often. I never saw this before.
Lesley: I want Irish coffee.
Joe B: Is it the conversation?

[6]

Sidewalk outside the pub.

Joe B to Karen: Oh, hi!
Karen: I almost missed the second taxi but I made it.
Joe B: I forgot about you.
Karen: That's nice.

[7]

Inside the pub. The seven, a barmaid behind the bar, and empty tables.

Isaac: Seven for lunch?
Barmaid: We open at 4.
Gianni: Oh, we thought you served lunch.
Barmaid: Not on weekdays. Well, we do when there's a game.

[8]

Sidewalk outside the pub.

Bill: Sorry everybody.
Joe B: But now this is an adventure!
Gianni: There's an Italian place I've been to, a block from here.
others: Yes! Let's go!

[9]

Walking.

Joe B: I haven't walked around here in a long time.
Mindy: We come down here sometimes after school. There's that big bookstore.

[10]

Gianni: I wonder if the Italian place serves lunch.

[11]

Inside the Italian place. Show that they are in a big room with a high ceiling and nicely decorated walls. Joe B is between Mindy and Karen, not with his back to the door. Lesley across next to Karen, Bill and Isaac and Gianni down the other side.

Gianni: Doesn't this look great? I wonder what this big room used to be.
Isaac: It looks so elaborate, I can't believe they did all this just for a restaurant.

Karen to Joe B: I said to Gianni, Bill has been talking about an Irish pub, but I don't know whether it's open for lunch, so you should check. He said it doesn't matter.

[12]

Gianni to waitress: Do you know the history of this place? What this room was?
Waitress: It was a hotel ballroom.

[13]

Gianni, pointing at menu: What's the difference between the Old School Round pizza and the Old Fashioned Square pizza?
Waitress: The first one is round...

[14]

Leslie to Bill: ... so anyway I told them to forget it.
Joe B: Absolutely.

[15]

Lesley: Right. Joe.

[16]

Joe B to Karen: I think she just told me to shut up.
Karen: I think so too.

[17]

Food has been served and they are all eating.

Gianni: The square pizza is actually rectangular.
Isaac: We shouldn't have to pay.

Mindy: The salad was so big we hardly have room for the pizza. That is a strategy for not eating too much.

Lesley: I like crumbled sausage on pizza better than sliced.
Joe B: They're both good.

[18]

Lesley, gesturing at remaining pizza: Would someone take half of this slice?
Isaac: I will.
Joe B: I will too.

[19]

Outside on the sidewalk.

Isaac: I should walk back to work this off.
Joe B: Me too.

[20]

They are all riding in a subway car.