Jack's Unfortunate Discovery | Rejected Cards | Cartoons & More
Newsletter #47
In This Issue:
Jack's Unfortunate Discovery
Rejected Cards
Hedger Corp. Story
Top Cartoons
Jack's Unfortunate Discovery
It was a weekday evening, and my husband Jack innocently approached the fridge, looking for a snack.
He opened the door, and found himself staring at four half-eaten containers of blueberries.
The blueberry situation disturbed him. Deeply. In Jack's world (and probably most people's world), you FINISH one container of something before you open another container.
As he was pondering this, Claire walked in.
Later, Jack tracked me down to discuss the "situation."
OK, people, before you judge, let me say this: I usually don't willy-nilly open new packages of food when there's already something open.
BUT I make an exception for blueberries because they are SO unpredictable. One minute you're enjoying some great blueberries...
And then, boom! Out of nowhere you get a mushy, gross one!
Horrible.
So yes, with blueberries, I go through and pluck the good ones out. Anything questionable I just leave in the container for other people to deal with. By opening multiple containers, I increase my chances of finding great blueberries.
I don't know about the kids, but that's my reasoning.
Nonetheless, was this blueberry situation ideal?
But hey, it's better than what the kids did with the mango that one time.
I mean, why put an empty container back in the refrigerator? Why?? Doesn't that require just as much effort as throwing it away?
I guess I can't complain too much because all these issues just become fodder for cartoons. Like this one.
Are there any other "household mysteries" that you can think of? Anything that drives you a little crazy and could be worked into a cartoon? Let me know! In the meantime, I'll be over here picking through our MANY blueberry containers.
Rejected Cards
I found a box full of greeting cards I created years ago -- all of them rejected by the card company. But we learn from our failures, right? In that spirit, I'll be sharing some of these rejects over the next few newsletters.
Today, I have three cards to show you. (Since these cards are old, you'll notice that my drawing style was more rudimentary.)
Quick background: I've spent the past 19 years sending greeting card ideas to Recycled Paper Greetings. It's pretty straightforward: I submit ideas, and they accept or reject them. There have been MANY missteps and failures along the way.
Today we will look at one weird phase I went through. Basically, I was obsessed with having characters on the card react in a weird way to the person opening the card.
Here's an example:
Ugh! Poor Ned, just abandoned there on the front of the card. So awkward.
Things don't improve on the inside:
OK, so Greeting Card Tip 101: If you find yourself writing, "I hope your birthday's a lot better than this card," maybe you should rethink the card you're creating!
Ned tries to save the card with his compliment at the bottom, but you can tell even he knows this card is headed to the reject pile. He's like, "Why did I agree to take part in this ridiculous greeting??"
Sorry, Ned. My bad.
OK, on to the next card. This one features a little guy who inexplicably has no neck. He must have to get shirts specially tailored. Anyway, note that (similar to the card above), I tried to create a card that reacts strangely to the person opening it.
So, if you received this card, you would be locked in a staring contest with this serious-looking dude while nothing much happened. Fun!
You'd probably hope for a big payoff on the inside. Forget that, friend.
"Recipient appears relatively satisfied." Again, if you find yourself writing those words, maybe don't submit the idea to the card company.
And now the final example I'm sharing in this theme. THIS one, I actually like. And I might try to resubmit it in an updated format. It's a "Hello" card and, as you can see, the folks on the card were NOT ready for you to open it.
I especially like the guy in the upper right.
The inside:
I don't know... I kind of love the idea that you open the envelope, pull the card out, and see the world "HELL" staring at you. But this one, like the others, was rejected.
In the next issue, we'll look at a couple weird characters I put on cards that just kept getting rejected. Until a miracle happened. Stay tuned.
Hedger Corp. Story
Does the word "Corp" have a period after it? I think it does. Sometimes I put the period, other times I don't. I like to keep people guessing.
Anyway, as you may have seen, I posted a new Hedger Corp story recently. If you missed it, you can find it here:
Oh, and if you read the last issue of this newsletter, you might recall that I was babysitting a seven-year-old family friend during the same weekend I was creating this Hedger Corp. story. To keep her occupied, I set up a bunch of little toys she could play with. I'm happy to report it worked!
Among other things, she set up a pet store:
It was directly in front of a clothing shop, and the pets were just allowed to roam about. Risky move, but it worked.
Overall, my little guest was very cute, and she didn't disturb my Hedger Corp. employees at all, so it was a success!
Here she is setting up one of many mall scenes. A girl after my own heart.
Top Cartoons
I regularly post cartoons on my website, Instagram and Facebook, so follow along at one of those places!
The following three cartoons were the most popular since the last newsletter.
This first one was for Valentine's Day, and I was happy to see that we are not alone in the way we "celebrate."
The next one was from the archives (I think I originally created it in 2015), but still completely relevant to my life.
As I mentioned on Instagram, my husband has the same problem, but with the rewind button. Don't ever watch TV with us.
Finally, we have this new cartoon, which perfectly illustrates my memory.
I said those exact words to Jack, TWICE. In the SAME DAY. I never did end up sending him the address. He got it from Kate.
More Stuff
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