Putting year 1 to bed 12/21/18

Well it’s been close to a year now. We started thinking of the concept of a comic about what it’s like to be in your 60’s in this day and age, in December of 2016. In January we started compiling ideas. And by March, we were putting pen to paper. Actually it was fingers to keyboards and stylus to computer pad but pen to paper sounds so much better.

I love to go ahead and do it, but John, not so much. He takes the careful approach. Think before you do. Who are the characters? What are their stories? What are their back stories? And it’s a funny thing. Once you do that your characters start to become real. Who has the grandkid? How would she react to being a grandma? Or one of us thinks of a funny idea and then we say, ‘that’s more of an Al story than a Marv story,” or things like that. Slowly but surely, your characters take shape. Kind of like the way people take shape. We get molded and shifted by our circumstances. All the time. Only this time, we make up the circumstances. And the characters’ reactions to said circumstances.

It’s kind of fun. The characters become more and more real. And they become slightly different over time. John even began to draw them slightly differently. We have single situations we love, like the time yours truly got stuck for 20 minutes trying to figure out one of those new parking meters. Or the time I couldn't reach one of my kids and John said, just change the Netflix password. The Pizza franchisee convention? Well, John’s been to a few of those for Little Caesars. These are the real life situations we tweak for the comics. And then we develop storylines. Who, towards the end of their corporate careers, hasn't dreamed of starting their own business? It just so happens that Al and Joanne are looking into opening a Pizza on a Stick franchise. What could possibly go wrong? And then their are Craig’s exploits in the dating world. Will he finally meet “the one” next year? Will Marv finally take off those extra few, alright extra 20, pounds? Will Sam realize his dream of becoming a Major League Baseball radio announcer?

We are taking a few weeks off but when we come back in mid-January, we will attempt to answer these and other burning questions. Until then Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, Kwanzaa and whatever else you celebrate. Here’s hoping your romaine isn’t tainted and you don’t catch hell for playing Baby It’s Cold Outside. Have a great rest of the year and an even better 2019. And most of all, thanks for taking this ride with us.

Peace

The New 60