#159: "What's Your Origin Story?"

Arthur Trope Presents: The Inscrutables

No. 159

“What’s Your Origin Story?”

Artie put in his 2-week notice. He submitted it to me, for some reason. I suppose he doesn’t really feel accountable to anyone here anyway, but I wasn’t sure what to do with it. I’m trying to avoid any contact with HR these days. It was a little surprising because I thought he’d really resigned himself to sell-out status, for the paycheck and the healthcare, etc. But creatives, right? He didn’t complain about the SynerSys takeover, or send a flamogram to the Committee and burn the whole thing down on his way out. He just sent me a note that said “I’m quitting. Please tell somebody.” I called him immediately and he said he had come up with an idea, a franchise, and this could be the Big Thing, so he’s going to focus on this and nothing but this. It’s a superhero thing and he’s thinking DC, not Marvel. The idea is, a girl gets a paper cut from a radioactive calendar and she develops the ability to travel through time, but only for 1 day every year, and she can only travel within a twelve month period around that day. Forward and backward, apparently. He’s been sitting on this since it came to him while he was studying early Vedic comics on the Mumbai trip. I’ve never heard Artie more excited about anything. He’s calling it “Ms. Fourth of July”. So he sent in #159 with the resignation note, and I took the panel but not the note to the Committee. It went through without changes, and got a respectable 17.1 on the S-MCSS. I’m glad I held on to the note, bc at 2:30 I got a voicemail from Artie saying never-mind, he’s back. He was at his chiropractor at the time, so I guess they asked him if his insurance had changed and he thought better of the whole quitting plan. So he’s going to work on Ms. Fourth of July in his spare time. I’ll keep you posted. Meanwhile, #159 will have to suffice. -Ed.