#179: Sumo Prodigy
Arthur Trope Presents: The Inscrutables
No. 179
“The Sumo Prodigy”
Artie still gets fan mail in the actual mailbox in actual envelopes with actual stamps on them. He has a following from back in the day who still send him flirty little letters, and sometimes include pictures of their grandchildren. I collect them all into a big manila envelope about once a month and take it to him on my way home. Last night when I got there, Syd was out for karaoke night at the RockBox with the girls & Artie was on the couch with his CK2 Deluxe around his legs, watching sumo wrestling on NHK Channel 245. He was still tan from Mexico and his lips were back to normal and he was eating a bag of Doritos, so his gums must be fine now. We hung out and watched the sumo for a while and he showed me the latest sketches for ‘Miss 4th of July’, which look pretty good. He’s back to the idea of Felicity Huffman for the lead bc he thinks she might be easier to get now & less expensive than Sandra Bullock, and Syd says Sandra Bullock is too young anyway & already has a franchise that starts with ‘Miss’. Then Artie got a call from Stan, his agent. Artie doesn’t keep Stan very busy these days, I don’t think. Stan’s in LA at CAA so he’s got plenty of other clients, but they go way back to Artie’s SF days when he was syndicated and selling some abstract paintings to the David Bowie’s of the world, so... But apparently there was real business to discuss. Artie sat up and dropped his Doritos, so it must be something good. I heard them talking about a Bollywood offer, and Artie was going back and forth mentioning M4J and Gus the Cat, so I couldn’t tell what is was exactly. Artie’s big in India these days, since his Mumbai lecture tour and ancient Vedic Sanskrit comics research trip. So I guess a Bollywood offer isn’t crazy. The call went on & on and I had to go before Artie hung up, so I let myself out, but there’s a 4:00 meeting that just popped up on the calendar today that I’m assuming has something to do with a movie deal offer, and possibly two. Could be big news. We’ll see. Meanwhile, here’s #179, which came in this morning: “The Sumo Prodigy”. -Ed.
