Week of 5/14/07: John the Bartender?

[diddledop]

So swill John tend or not tend bar? That is the question.

The suspense builds. I can hear the ominous music in the background.

It's still not a certainty that Mir & Sher will road trip 2gether. Out There tends to surprise sometimes. It is a place where the unexpected is normal and the expected is but a foolish bet. (At least it's that way for me anyway.)

[diddledop]

I don't know why but I'm starting to think John would make an excellent bartender. I can see him as St. John of the Pub with a drink to pour and a message to give and perhaps a soul to heal.

[bloodeye]

Good bartender, yes. Excellant, no. Part of bartending is knowing the drinks and how to make them, and which would most appeal to your customers. As a non-drinker, not sure John can pull that off.

[diddledop]

Good point. Maybe Sherry out to reconsider. And does John have a license? Is a license necessarily required?

Kind of like a cook who never eats what he cooks - how can he know if it tastes good or not or if it's strong enough?

Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever met a dry barkeep, have you?

[bloodeye]

Only at family events.

As for licences.... think is just the bar that needs a licence, not the bartender.

[diddledop]

Thanks for the info BE. I just assumed the bartender needed licensing.

All John needs then is to draw a draft and listen!

When Sher returns, business will be the best it's ever been, I bet!

[biev]

I'm surprised that they all went for it. Oh well it will be funnier this way : )

[biev]

Can Sherry afford to keep him as an employee when they get back? That'd be pretty mean, letting him go after he gave up a stable job to help them out.

[bloodeye]

Stable, easily replaced job. And not certain it was stable, if the warehouse needs to cut back, no real job security.
But suppose will partly depend on how well he does.

[biev]

But this way, Sherry ends up paying her own rent, so they really better be hoping the bar will do well.

[rcmonroe]

Sherry doesn't have to pay any rent, she owns the building. I never explained this in the strip, but I did mention that she inherited the bar from a relative, and since she lives upstairs, I figured it was somewhat apparent.

Also, when she speaks of charging John rent, she technically would not be able to do that if she weren't the landlord. If she were a renter, she'd be "subletting" space to John rather than "renting" it. Basically the same thing in practice but legally very different, and in my experience most rental contracts don't allow renters to sublet space without the owner's permission.

Now, how many strips would it have taken to explain all that?

And would they not have been the most boring strips in the archive?

Of course, Sherry could have a mortgage to deal with

[diddledop]

Maybe John will enforce the legal limit.

[bloodeye]

Was clear to me she owned the building, but not sure where I got that information....

[Debt On]

I have met a few dry bartenders, they never make drinks all that well, and they certainly can't make recommendations. He'd be good at the listening aspect, though.

Seems he won't be good at the money aspect however, as he'll be cutting off the guy that appears to be the bar's only customer.

It is a common myth that bartenders need a license, but none of that schooling or anything is necessary. I've been a bartender for quite a while and never went to school for it, just trained as a busboy.

I had assumed that Sherry was just renting her room out to John, as is common practice with renters needing a roommate. This new information helps me understand how she's getting by and paying Miriam by selling shots to Clayton.

[rcmonroe]

I know it looks like Clayton is the bar's only customer, since he's the only one I've ever drawn (aside fr0m Chuck and James). He is the bar's best customer.

The bar has other customers, who are occasionally referred to but not seen. I'm sure at some point I'll draw other customers, I just haven't done so yet. One of the reasons I've avoided it is whenever I draw someone I tend to want to give them a whole personality and once I've done that, I've added another character to the cast. And I don't want this to be a strip overflowing with characters demanding screentime, nor do I want it to be a strip about a bar. I just want it to be about a kooky girl and a small handful of her acquaintances, who are sometimes seen in a bar.

Of course, things change. Clayton was originally going to be a one-shot, throwaway character but I liked him so much I had to keep writing material for him.

[bloodeye]

Shadow figures in the backgorund would work..... of course, that requires a background, which is it's own set of problems.

[rcmonroe]

Backgrounds?! In my comic strip?!

Blasphemy!

Actually, there are two reasons I tend to eschew backgrounds in my strip, and only one of them has to do with laziness.

I like the focus to be on the characters, and backgrounds can sometimes blur that focus. That's why when I do draw backgrounds, it's with a really thin line that half disappears when I shrink the comic. It keeps the background where it belongs

[biev]

I have a friend who draws that spaghetti wonderfully... and I only actually managed to make sense out of half of the panels when I physically held the book in my hands : ) It works well in print somehow, but it's unbelievable how lazy our eyes get when we point them towards a computer screen.

Right now, I'm seeing the white reply box, and the typing in it. Everything around it is a blur, including the Submit button, which is currently just a gray blob with a hint of black scribbling on it : )

[bloodeye]

At least you manage to get charecters drawn. And plot, and stuff. I'm too lazy even for that, let alone a background.