FSC: Tour Group

Archived Strips:

What is "Tour Group"? This is a little comic I through together for Fitchburg State College's student newspaper, The Point. The first strip went over so well that I decided to make it a ongoing thing, at least till I graduate and get the hell out of here. So that means, at least until May 2003.

The premise is simple. We here at FSC have groups of prospective students and their parents that tour the campus by student guides. So, with that simple idea in mind, I just decided to poke fun at our campus.

Any simularities of characters to actually living people is interely coincidental.

Background Info: (Please Forgive my spelling mistakes.)

Back Story: The Image Above- At some point one day when walking through the Quad I saw a bunch of pink flamingos hanging from the trees, wrapped in what looked like toilet paper. I was told later that it was an advertising thing for a comedian, at the time I assumed it was a Frat Thing, either that or we declared war on Leominster. I almost used this as a comic, but it was too obscure.

Back Story: Squirrels - I sat down one night and drew this all non-stop. The tour guide isn't a real person or based on anyone. I'm still not even sure if the Tour Guide is male or female.(I've heard both, for practical purposes I call Tour Guide a 'he'.) The clipboard he carries is modeled on the one I use for drawing. The squirrels are many on the Quad, and during fall all of them have red stained mouths from eating cherries. (Or students... I'm not sure.) The film/video students are actually shooting video and the girl with the DV camera looks a bit like me. (I'm taller and my hair is different now.) That kid looking up at the squirrel shows up in the next comic with the squirrel perched on his head. Upon seeing the comic, profesor Gunther Hoos photocopied it and used it as an example of how bad last years film festival was... I'm not sure exactly how he did this, I wasn't there.

Back Story: Tunnels - This is based on Lord of the Rings, going down into the mines of Moria. Almost no one actually uses the Tunnels that run under four main campus buildings here, although I used to especially in winter. Some people have never been inside them. The radio station is in fact down there.

Back Story: Comm Teachers: Well, I was originally gonna do just M&M lounge for that week, then Chrissy told me I should draw a strip of the Comm Department teachers with Peter being really tall and drinking fix. So I drew it. Bob Harris was supposed to be in the pict but I was running short on space. Sorry Bob.

Back Story: M&M Lounge- The M&M lounge barely has any of those M&M chairs left in it. Incidently, when the point printed this strip it got squashed and came out looking like crap. Thanks a bunch guys.

Back Story: Parking- Campus police likes to make people play musical cars. Usually giving a hideous time that people have to move them to and from parking lots, like 5AM. We have a serious lack of parking space around here anyway, let alone when it snows. I figure that unless things improve it will come to this.

Back Story: Internet Issues- Yup. That's pretty much what's been happening here for the last year or so. Lately it likes to be up one second and literally down the next. It's fun! I have yet to go histerical like that yet, though.

Back Story: Snow- I came back from winter break and it was like that. Seriously. Fitchburg got about three feet of snow while we were away. Insane.

Back Story: Budget Crisis and Rivals- It actually has the title on it, the first time I've bothered. It actually needed the title to make it funnier. Andy told me I should do a valentine's day strip, Catherine told me this elaborate thing about how BU sucks that only we'd understand, and Chrissy wanted Trolls under Daka. I give you rival tour groups. I also give the Tour Guide the name of 'Alex', based on a suggestion by Amy and because it reminds me of my "Chip and Alex Radio Show". Still pretty ambiguous. This is the marked return of the clipboard, and Chris' two prospectives have names, Vee and Kieth. (From another project of mine- not comic related.)

Back Story: Daka, Daka- I guess there was a printing error that week and the whole newspaper was reprinted because my comic strip was missing, among others things. This strip was inevetable, but really it's about this point I started running low on ideas and high on stress.

Back Story: North Street- North street was under construction since the begining of time. Or a year, or something. That place is so ghetto anyway, only taking out the whole block could unghetto it. My lazy lack of backgrounds makes north street look like a void, with one blinking barrel.

Back Story: Dorm Room?- This was originally supposed to have boys and girls cramed into the room, but that wouldn't make much sense, since rooms aren't co-ed. Tour Guide Alex's reaction is how I feel most of the time walking around campus. This was my not-so-subtle overcrowding comic, forgoing a fire alarm concept. Fire alarms aren't funny, they just make people want to set other people on fire. See "Adios" for more on setting people on fire for fun and profit.

Back Story: McKay- Doesn't have a title on the comic, again. I was out of ideas, well, I had an idea but knowing the point I figured it wouldn't fly. I might draw it anyway and put it up on here... So instead I took the only other idea I hadn't covered. McKay. For the record, McKay isn't all that far away, especially for me- I went to UNH freshman year. That was a half and hour walk from one side of the campus PROPER to the other.

Back Story: Adios- Alex's reaction is my exact reaction to this comic. It's over, thank god. Recently, I've seen so many tour groups on campus, for real, it's unreal. All sizes, all sorts. Fight the good fight guys, suck them kids dry! Like good little state constructed vampires that Mitt Romney has made us resort to. Also, for some reason Amy the Editor wrote in the paper that maybe I would 'draw more comics next year if people tell me they like my work'. I'm not sure if she realizes I'm not even going to be on campus next semester, I'll be interning. If the comic wasn't enough of a giveaway, maybe I should hire a plane to fly over with a big "SO LONG SUCKERS" sign.
Anyway, this is all fun. It was fun being one of the only reasons people read The Point. Thank you all for reading, it was fun having strangers tell me my lame comic was funny. Special thanks to the Communication Department and all my fans there. Adios!

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