So, in continuing with the workplace cartoons thingie, we are still on floral delivery, in which I did right after high school. As I mentioned, there were few places that I worked at where I didn’t do cartoons about the place. In some instance, I found inspiration, but mostly I was just trying to keep my head above water, working for and with crappy people. Delivering flowers was actually a decent gig. I may have mentioned that. So, those Star Florists toons were amateurish and vulgar and pretty much were right where I was at during those times. I was trying to flex some cartoon muscles that weren’t quite there yet. I made a better leap with Wade’s World.

Now, don’t think that I ripped off that Mike Myers guy with his Wayne’s World, as this preceded that SNL skit by a couple of years. I would say that HE ripped of ME, but this was a pre-internet era and I don’t think that Mr. Myers was hanging out in my neck of the woods, so we will give him the benefit of the doubt.

During this period, I wanted to be a syndicated cartoonist, doing a daily strip. I came up with a strip about this guy named Wade, who was going to college, trying to get a gal, hanging out with his friends and was just plain lost. Draw what you know. Now, there were plenty of autobiographical inspirations in all of this, as I was taking the Rembrandt way of doing things. It was cheaper than hiring a model, or models, as it were. Material was there. Could it be entertaining?

Now, Wade was based loosely on me, but so was this cat named Burvel. He was the floral delivery guy. At the time that I had created Wade, I was on my way out the door at the flower place and took a job at a stained glass shop in Detroit. More on that later. The guy that I worked with there, knew a guy named Burvel, so I ‘borrowed’ the name. Burvel was also based on me, loosely, and also based on another friend, who was a little less reserved than I was. I did have that orchid inspired shirt that he wears, though. We will focus on the Burvel strips, as they were the work related ones.

The above strip was actually the very first Wade’s World that was done. Burvel looked nothing like me. Again based more on that other friend. I guess a bit of that Star Florists angst carried over some. The format for the strip was more of what you would find in a newspaper. This format was for when I printed them up to sell as a book. More of that later. Below, is how it appeared in the Sienna Heights College newspaper, Spectra in 1987. I did not go there, but my friend and fellow artist Dug, did. He twisted some arms on my behalf. I did get up to some hijinks there, though…

This next one is probably one of my favorite strips. I do remember driving through an apartment complex and there were these larger than usual…

And of course, the Sienna Heights College version…

With this next one, I may or may not have had a similar conversation with my floral designer co-workers about how to clean…

And then there was this lunch-time gem…

During the course of each and every day, I had to visit almost every single funeral home in the Detroit area. Most of the funeral home directors were very funny people. They had to be in that they dealt with death on a daily basis. I never encountered any disrespect of any kind, they just had a good sense of humor. Some, however, were creepy…

M. Balmed was based on a guy I had met who gave off some weird vibes…

He kind of talked like that, too. I had material to work with.

The little old ladies that I worked with were fun. Of course, some of them weren’t that old, but I think that they called me ‘kid’ a lot. We would banter back and forth at times and it was hard to get the upper hand with them, as they were crafty. With these two strips, I thought that I got the better of them. Not so much.

I think that they actually put that sign on the fridge. There were only two guys in the whole place! Sheesh!

This next one was probably a reference to my habit of speeding whilst on the job. It would eventually cost me said job.

Ok, I’ll end this one here and finish up with Burvel and the floral delivery stuff next time. Then it will be on to the stained glass shop. Things really got dicey in that place.