Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for November 26, 2011

Us too.

Would Jeff know what to do if a girl did show up at his hotel?

“The field”? “The field”! Makes me wonder how autobiographical this may be, whether G.B.T. himself didn’t have trouble talking with the opposite sex when he was young.

Becca looks hot in that outfit.

Not only that, but Red Rascal / Sorkh Razil has had no time to build a fan base. Nobody’s read the book yet. Why doesn’t Jeff understand that? (I’m not a Jeff hater; if Jeff’s a younger “version” of GBT, then obviously there’s room for redemption and improvement.)

Fictional Afghani ex-pats will be bringing their unmarried daughters to his hotels, trying to make a respectable man of him.

As the author of two books, I have only ever been accosted twice in my life by fans. One each time. Both male.Frrrrghh.

Bring on the groupies!

And the fantasy continues…

Jeff has been building a fan base for some time, through his blog. After his book was announced, the media would have read the blog and get familiar with the Red Rascal, if they weren’t already.

I met GT many, many years ago at Vanderbilt University where he and several other comic strip artists and comic book artists and writers (Jack Kirby and Stan Lee, etc., etc.) were attending a lecture followed with Q and A … later we broke up into small groups … I attended the GT group. He was a very nice guy, but he did have an eye for the co-eds.

Anybody notice that Jeff’s fantasies just destroyed any real-life chance he might have had with Becca?

If you think too much about the financial return from writing, you’ll drive yourself crazy..So far, I’ve made about fifteen times as much (in terms of dollars per thousand words) from a short “how I wrote my novel” piece that the publisher bought for a promotional book than I have from royalties on the actual novel, which took only nine years to write and revise..And I make about five times that amount (per thousand words) for the typical 3000-word essay that I contribute to an online project management magazine. Which, I strongly suspect, views this content as simply something to fill the space between the ads.

Becca’s hot, Jeff should want to get with her rather than some potential groupie.

I grok, friend. I also remember the rich adventure of a real bookstore. The closest thing to it that still exists is a regional chain, Half Price Books: it sells both new and used books (as well as music and other items), so it has a variety, and sheer pleasure of browsing in, that B&N can’t touch.

Think Charlie Brown’s unrequited love.

To Jeff, writing a book is like playing with the Dire Straits.

"That ain’t workin’ that’s the way you do itMoney for nothin’ and your chicks for freeMaybe get a blister on your little fingerMaybe get a blister on your thumb … "

The used book market for fiction is much weaker, as people are less likely to keep novels. Thus the new book market will get dragged down by the availability of used copies.

I’d be worried about dropping my e-book in the toilet :) Also, how long do the batteries last on those things? Might be a bit of a bugger if you took it when camping for a few days :)

(Sock it to me) I wrote a book about tropical fish and all I ever got were groupers.

I love Becca’s phrasing. Rather than “I have no idea” she says,“Jeff, try to imagine how little this would interest me.”Sort of a pluperfect subjunctive. It indicates how well she understands Jeff. Who is still clueless.

“[Jeff] wrote a book to get girls…” And he may well succeed. But that’s none of Becca’s business. She’s already made her decision about her personal relationship as distinguished from her professional relationship with Jeff. She’s not interested. She called him “a dim bulb”. Maybe she’s married. If not, then maybe she’s looking for a partner with whom she can enjoy a more mature intellectual relationship.

I have a feeling Jeff’s gonna be surprised all of his female fans are going to be 50-year-old former “Twilight” fanatics.