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Decaff Blues #2

Right at the top of my list for things not to do with your mini comic would be to misspell the title.  Granted, “decaf” is an abbreviation so I suppose you can mess it up a little bit, but it’s also commonly used and it’s hard not to know how to spell it.  It just gets the comic off on the wrong foot and it’s so very easily avoided.  Anyway, this is the story of the lead character trying to get into town for a job interview.  He takes the bus and deals with what everybody deals with while trying to get anywhere on the bus: stopping to pick up a handicapped woman (and the invariable asshole who wonders why they have to stop to pick her up at all), being picked up late, offending other riders, trying to reason with a bus clerk, being hassled by people trying to sell you (obviously stolen) goods, and getting cheated at three card monty.  All of this leads to our hero finally getting to his job interview very late, and I don’t think it’s spoiling anything to tell you that employer’s don’t care what your excuse is if you’re late to a job interview, they’re not going to hire you.  It’s a fun story, but I have to point out again how obnoxious all the unerased pencil lines are.  It makes everything look rushed, and the fact that the pages are poorly centered doesn’t help at all.  At least he used staples this time, although that just has the effect of occasionally chopping off dialogue.  See that crease at the bottom right of the cover scan?  That wasn’t from my scanner.  There are simple fixes to all of these problems, that’s why I continue to complain about them.  I read it and enjoyed it, but I run a website about this stuff.  Most people seeing this is a shop would probably glance at it and move onto something that looked more professional.  Yes, I am aware of the fact that I’m looking for professionalism in mini comics.  Not really, just a command of the basics and the ability to make a good story look good on the shelf.  <angry old man rant over>  $1