WASTED POTENTIAL in ALIVE! Week One

If you haven't already read the strip, rush out and pick up a copy of Columbus Alive! now and do so and read Wasted Potential....then come back and read the following comments on this week's strip.

I chose this particular strip to begin the Alive! run because, while it's not actually an "introductory" strip (those ran in The Atomic Tomorrow last year), it does serve to introduce many of the main characters and tropes of the series. Most importantly, it features the three main characters, Norm, Amy and Bill, and establishes the relationship between Norm and Amy. (For those who don't know, Bill is Norm's room-mate. Norm's sister Amy does not officially live with him, even though she's there all the time, which Bill is none too happy about.) It also establishes that Norm is a cartoonist with a tendency to run up against deadlines and a penchant for being distracted by such important things as Gilligan's Island marathons. This is a recurring theme in the strip, and a later strip in this run will visit the topic again. Peanuts creator Charles Schulz is also mentioned, and Norm's great admiration for this great cartoonist is another recurring theme.

One thing I want to mention: The episode of Gilligan's Island "...where Mary Ann hits her head and thinks she's Ginger" is an actual Gilligan episode. All such citations in Wasted Potential refer to actual TV episodes or movies. I hate it when TV or movie writers cite a totally made up episode of a real TV show because it shows a lack of knowledge of what the hell they're writing about.