Thursday, February 17, 2005
The Day Job
People are constantly asking me where do I find time outside of my regular comics to do other things like bar work and driving taxi cabs.
I tell you my friends its not easy but I try to keep the dull and repetitive work going when I can even when I'm cabbing till the early hours. Some people call it an obsession but really there doesn't seem to be anything else at all that I'm good at. I occasionally get comics posts to pay my way and keep the social off my back.
I like taxiing at night because if I get caught doing it in the daytime people might gossip and I don't want the family to find out! The streets are so quiet what with everybody drawing comics on their own in their rooms these days; it's easy to get found out. Only just the other day a man was in court being charged for not carrying a comic characterisation of himself inside his wallet. That was in the Planet funny papers I read that.
I tell you, I was having a chat with my friend Jimmy the other day and we were both criticising this country for its lack of interest in public transport. Nobody bothers to go out anymore! Who needs a taxi? They're all too busy drawing and reading comics and graphic novels. I mean the taxi trade and other old occupations such as bus drivers, street cleaners (who needs to clean a clean street, nobody goes out!). I sometimes wish everybody was a whole lot more outgoing like in America, they got a whole transport industry over there. If things persist as they are I think I'm going to emigrate, go where my taxiing skills are more appreciated. OK, there are some small self employed (unlicensed) taxi cabers floating around out there - er, me being one of them, but will the transport system ever take off in this country, who knows. You do see some taxi's riding around with what look like passengers in the back but it's always foreign owned firms!
Oh I dream of one day getting a passenger, maybe a chatty sociable person who simply has to get out of those extreme, creativity inducing, conditions. Get away from the monotonous job of developing panel after panel and drawing the same characters again and again. He or she could maybe risk a breath of fresh air and act as if they're briefly sauntering into the back streets and hey presto, into the back of my cab! I have one of those new silent electric running engines. So lights off and round the corner we go. Even If the client stops there and gets off to rush back to the building it would be something, a bit of taxiing, I gotta keep it up. Anyway, back to my room to carry on with the comic. They are supposed to come out quarterly. Drawing materials are handed out now on social benefit. Prime Minister Groening is now on a record third term in office. The way things are going I’m thinking of taking up pizza delivery!
