Ah, the fat man overshirt, wardrobe mainstay of both Kevin Smith and SeaQuest DSV’s Jonathan Brandis. First introduced by Dennis Blunden on Head of the Class (citation needed), the fat man overshirt is a must-have fashion accessory for at least two of the strips’ characters’ real-world analogues. In fact, one of them is wearing one even as he types this column.
The best part about the F.M.O. is the fact that, since much artwork doesn’t scale up on larger T-shirts, it remains just the right size to peek out from between the folds of a properly adjusted outer garment. Fat man overshirt, you are nature’s greatest wonder.
This is one of those strips that exists to get us where we need to go. (Is there a term for such a thing? There should be.) Still, I think it turned out better than I would’ve expected. This is mostly because a last-second conscience spasm caused me to retweak much of the strip. It’s not any nicer on Dean’s real-world analogue, but I figure, if I’m going to embarrass him, I shouldn’t half-ass my way through the pacing and art.
One final note: this strip features the last of our ham jokes for a while. I couldn’t help myself–the assonance of all those A’s in “Glad bags of liquid ham” just struck me and I couldn’t let them go unused.
So, we’re invoking a one-year embargo on ham jokes. We’ll see how that goes.
Luke
Does anyone know where I can get a little countdown clock plugin for the site for the one-year ham joke embargo?
You know, the Fat Man Overshirt started it’s life out as the Disaffected Teen Overshirt – available only in plaid.