The final chapter is starting! This splash page was a lot of fun to do, going back through the archives of the past five years. There is one comic from each story arc in here, as well as a couple bonus things like SR: Scouting. Can you name them all? (I decided not to include reference links on this one a) so that you could try to find them all, and b) ’cause I didn’t want to link to each one.)
Character: Chad
The “do-it-all” of Edona College. Canadian with an affinity for pirates. Fun Fact: Based somewhat off of the author’s own college experience, including the appearance and disappearance of the goatee.
-

Percy: 2, Chris: 0
Ref: The last time we saw PB&J’s | Chad and Sally | Matt
This one is for the 2005 LSE Marching Knights; we did Pachabel’s Canon as our marching band show that year. While I’m referencing Pachabel’s Canon, I also want to throw out a link to Rob Paravonian, a comedian that we brought to Doane (mild language warning).
You’ll also notice that this is the first time I’ve used the generic background circle faces. Not usually my style, but I felt it would make my actual characters stick out better instead of blending in. Also, as I was trying to come up with lines for the fourth panel, I realized I HAD to make Matt say “Yowza”. It also gave me a chance to show Sally’s crush on Chad a bit; this was supposed to appear in On A Side Note, but it got dropped.
Have fun!
~Stretch Longfellow~
-

Alien Interests
Ref: Matt Smith
Poor Matt… He has no idea what he’s dealing with. The spaceship that he is attempting to replicate is, of course, the TARDIS. Obviously, his is not a working model. This is also comical in that it’s an alien who Matt thinks is human talking to Matt, who wishes he was an alien Time Lord.
I like this comic for the little details, such as the glimpse of Matt’s suspenders, the lights, and Chad walking past wondering about Ichabod’s clothes. Ichabod clearly doesn’t understand everything about which clothes are appropriate for what; it’s a good thing Nikki always wears similar things or he’d really be mismatched.
Have fun!
~Stretch Longfellow~
-

Controversial Topics
All right, brace yourselves. This is gonna be a long one. Like Dan Shive long (not that it’s a bad thing).
Peanut Butter and Jelly
I feel guilty that we haven’t seen these two in almost a year. PB&J’s Ice Cream was one of the first aspects of Spoofy Randomness (appearing in the first storyline), and was intended to be a local off-campus place for students to hang out. Nikki and Chris are good friends of the comedically named Peanut Butter and Jelly, and as a result the rest of the main cast has been seen there, but other students, such as Sally, have been known to frequent the place as well. They began their business last fall, and last winter added a video game section. Judging by this comic, it has been successful.
In addition, the ice cream shop was my first Google SketchUp. I finished the exterior way ack then, but the interior was left blank until now. I FINALLY finished! It is happy dance time.
Timothy and SR: Scouting
That’s right, for On a Side Note, we REALLY went on the side, bringing in a character that has never appeared in Spoofy Randomness before, but has often frequented Spoofy Randomness: Scouting. SR: Scouting actually takes place a few years before the main comic. In that comic, Timothy is a Lodge Chief in the Order of the Arrow; by this time he has worked his way all the way up to Section Chief. Interesting note: Sally is a Venture Scout (as has been shown), and both Chris and Chad have earned their Eagle Scout (although Chris has not earned it yet in SR: Scouting). Timothy also has his Eagle Scout.
Demons & Dwellings
And Spoofy Randomness just went political again! Well, as political as D&D can get. I originally was having trouble scripting this; the original draft involved Sally having a crush on them both, but I couldn’t figure out who she’d be talking to aside from Nikki, and I couldn’t work PB&J in there too well. The answer came to me as a result of my Wendesday D&D: Encounters session. I recently wrote a review of the new Fortune cards (which can also be found on my blog) that I had the opportunity to test run at my local Encounters gathering (they’ll be officially out in February). The two views here are two of the common views I’ve heard vocalized (although, as my review shows, neither is what I personally consider to be the biggest issue).
Also, I don’t really fear trademark infringements, but it is kinda fun to come up with alternate names.
Technical Difficulties
Aside from the scripting issue noted above, there were other problems with this comic. I’d been on painkillers all week from getting my lower wisdom teeth out, so getting stuff done was difficult. I was finally going to make it Friday morning after scooping the driveway AGAIN…and then my mother insisted that since my swelling hadn’t gone down that I see the dentist again. He told me that all was well (as I knew), but there was my morning gone and I was busy in the afternoon. To top it all off, these painkillers make me forgetful, and I left my power cord for my laptop at my friend’s house. I was going to get it after he got off work Saturday…and then it snowed AGAIN and the roads got really bad, so I just bumped Friday’s comic to today. So yeah, hopefully no more missed comics in the near future!
Have fun!
~Stretch Longfellow~
-

Canadian Pirate
Ref: Chad (1) (2) (3) | Sally (1) (2) (3)
Chad
I’ve been looking forward to making this part of comic continuity for about a year now. First of all, for those of you who don’t remember (and I certainly wouldn’t blame you), that is Chad. I don’t believe that his name has ever actually been said in comic, though. Chad is your do-it-all guy on campus. He’s already been shown as playing a role on the student activities council and admissions (see links above). Apparently he’s shaved his beard off since then. Now he’s running for Student Congress President. I should note that he is a junior at this point, putting him one year ahead of Percy and co. Chad was somewhat based off of myself (I was quite active on campus, but not quite to this extent), but has since deviated.
And now for the pirate thing. Last year on my whiteboard in my dorm, I would have the Spoofy Randomness Character of the Week drawn on it. One month was dedicated to side characters, and Chad was posted. One of my friends decided that it would be quite comical to add in an eyepatch and hook (by college standards, such additions were extremely appropriate compared to the typical additions…). This probably would not stuck if it were not for the Prairie Winds Chapter of the Golden Sun Lodge. On one of their drives, they were having fun with a GPS navigational system’s language settings. Somehow, the meme got started of a Canadian pirate saying “eh, yargh, don’tcha know”, and it stuck for a very long time. Thus, Chad became a Canadian who enjoys dressing up as a pirate. AND NOW YOU KNOW.
Sally
Sally is Nikki’s somewhat disorganized roommate and also somewhat skilled at video games, as shown in the links. She is the type who would be active in campus debates and the like, and does serve on the Student Congress. That’s all I’m going to tell you about her for now. Originally, I was going to leave Nikki out of this comic since the arc is focused on side characters, but I realized that Sally probably would ahve brought Nikki with her.
Have fun!
~Stretch Longfellow~
-

On A Side Note
As you can probably guess from this splash page, this next arc is going to focus on the side characters a little. My main cast apparently decided to form a union and demanded a break, so yeah, here we are. This should be a fun deviation from the largely plot-based strips I’ve been making lately.
Also, note that I did remember to put “© 2011” right away this time, instead of realizing two months into 2010 that I hadn’t changed it yet!
Have a happy new year!
~Stretch Longfellow~
-

Debate Is Fun, Set-Minded Professors Aren’t
This comic is actually based off of a history class I had. The second panel is a direct quote. Most of my professors in college have been great, but this professor (deliberately unnamed) is one of the worst I’ve ever had. I was quite offended by her statement, but at the time I was too distracted by sketching preliminary comics during class to start a debate, plus she discouraged discussion. Looking back, I wish I would have, so I made this comic instead with the objective to encourage people to have open minds and not see everything as good vs. evil.
Also, this comic lands on Mole Day! I accidentally forgot about Mole Day when I was scripting the comic, and by the time I remembered it would have thrown off my entire script to include a special comic honoring this awesome holiday.
Have fun!
~Stretch Longfellow~











