- This was the first cartoon of my second semester. I put this episode and the next episode with Season One because the cartoons cut off suddenly after the next episode -- but I'll talk about that drama during the next cartoon.
- A bunch of us drove to Des Moines to see Varsity Blues, which continues to be at the top of my list for high school movies that bear absolutely no resemblance to the high school experience I had. My experience was more Dead Poet's Society meets Crumb.
- Anyway, I grew up reading the movie parodies in MAD Magazine, and so I thought I'd try my hand at one. This is one of my favorite episodes of the season, but at least one Johnny fan came up to me after publication to say that he was completely lost when he read it. Clearly he hadn't seen Varsity Blues.
- When I was writing the script, Paul got into a Star Wars EXCO class, so I put that in. I forgot what EXCO stands for, but it's basically a set of classes taught by volunteers who have a special knowledge and want to share it with the world. I took a semester-long class on traveling through Europe in preparation for my semester abroad, which proved completely useless since I didn't step foot out of London.
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- The song in the fifth panel is from the musical Rent. I've never seen that show, but have been forced to listen to the soundtrack a few times. I'm pretty sure I would hate it. Even after living in Manhattan, and having to deal with the "rent" situation that these kids whine about, I still think I'd hate it. While my apartment was on the Upper East Side, I did spend some time in lower Manhattan, and was pretty turned off. Maybe it was that a woman collapsed into an epilectic fit right in front of me, or maybe it was because everyone just seemed SO motivated to be unique and different that the entire fight-the-man-hemp-necklace-starving-artist collective seemed as homogenous as the Upper East Side we-have-jobs-and-pay-our-bills collective.
- I think this cartoon was born with the "Life Savers" joke, and grew from there.
- There's Russell K. Osgood in the second to last panel.
- The book on the desk in the last panel says "TTRL" meaning The Thin Red Line (by James Jones), my favorite book (and movie) at the time. I was attached to the book partly because of the good story/writing, but mostly because I was reading the very copy that my dad had with him when he was my age, stationed overseas during the Vietnam War.
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