TAGS December 13 & 14, 1993

12/13: Mall I Want for Christmas...



12/14: 'Tis the season, ya'll.

December 13, 1993: Nearly four months since the last strip, Monster and friends are in the middle of the Christmas shopping season at the Westfield Mega-Plaza. If the Plaza had a real-life analog, it would have been Orange County's Main Place shopping center, Santa Ana, CA. The name "Westfield" was conjured subconsciously, because Main Place is actually a Westfield shopping mall, and all names in TAGS were been changed to avoid tradmark issues. I must have thought at the time that "Westcoast" sounded too much like an actual place.

Here Barron (Teddy bear) can't wait for the spending frenzy, and Nick (striped skunk) is on the hunt for a parking space. Monster plays the part of the questioning novice, the better for exposition. The first panel of three car lanes of night time traffic is a bit unclear, not the best establishing shot.


December 14, 1993: Santa Claus country-line dancing is better left to the imgination I think.

In the bottom left corner of panel one, is the head of an excited child pointing to the right - see it now? There's an eye, a gloved pointing hand, a... uh.. parasitic bubble on the side of her head? Never mind - Hey, look it's Saint Nick!

- - - - - - - - - -
That's appearances 5 & 6 for Barron. Barron's character is much the same as those of Shermy and Violet in the Peanuts Christmas specials, a kid there to offer a point of view different than the main player (say Monster), but otherwise has no distinguishing personality. Still, with the fluff in his noggin, he's pretty up beat most of the time.

For Nick that's appearance 4 & 5 not including off-stage mentions.

BackStage No. 014 - 1989

from black and white xerographic copy
1989

"Slow down,
you're goin' too fast
You've got to make
the mornin'
last..."

"Like a bridge
over troubled waters..."

"Hmmn? Simon
and Garfunkel, I
Haven't heard
them in a
long time."

"Yeah.
They put out
some pretty
good songs."

"Aaw, they aren't
that great. ..."

"... There are a lot
of better groups
than Simon and
Garfield."

"I don't know.
I think Paul
Simon might
agree to
cut a disc
with me."

"Copyright!"

"Copyright!"

Featuring Tom Almroth (pit bull terrier), Damon Johnson (greyhound), Paul Hogan (opossum)

-----------

Kitchen, The French Market Restaurant, N.O.S., Disneyland.

Ha, word play.

On his request, Tom's crittature was revised from a beagle to a pit bull. I would in later strips change him back.

A radio/ cassette tape player was permitted in the back kitchen. ... No, that's not very interesting is it.

The Disney company is pretty aggressive about protecting its rights over intellectual property. I don't know if Jim Davis or United Press Syndicate feels the same about "Garfield." The industry gets a bit more open about these things if it isn't re-occurring and/or it's editorial. At the time, I was concerned about it.

BackStage No. 013 - 1989

from black and white xerographic copy
1989

"Bussing!...
It's more than a job!
And it's no adventure!
It's war!
War, man, war!
A dirty, gritty
battle against
filth, grunge and
disorder!"

"These
are
your
allies"

"Paul, Gina, Todd, Chris, Tom"

"And
these
are
the
enemy..."

"... to
name
a few."

"Peter Birdfeeder, Shirley-Seat Shifter, Teddy Tablepusher, Baby Throw-It-Any-and-Everywhere."

Featuring Lionel Rodriguez (lion), Paul Okamura (cheetah), Gina McWilliams (mink), Todd Virtue (horse), Chris Dennis (rabbit, cottontail), Tom Almroth (beagle).

-----------

Patio, The French Market Restaurant, N.O.S., Disneyland.

The allies depicted were all leads at the time, kind of equivalent to shift managers. Gina holds the tell-tale break sheet and pen.

The "enemy" consists of characteristic guest (visitors, customers) annoyances:

Peter Birdfeeder) People like to feed little things like birds and squirrels. Other times food on the ground is food on the ground that cast-members must sweep up.

Shirley - Seat Shifter and Teddy Table Pusher) Groups of people like to eat together, no matter the number. Tables get pushed together as a result. Do you know what you get with two round tables? You get a figure-8 accommodating 25% less diners than if you didn't push the table together. Often time extra seat are left along walk ways.

Baby Throw-It-Any-And-Every-Where) Babies are a handful and don't know table manners. They DO know when they don't want to eat any more, however.

There are other annoyances. Hopefully, one of these BackStage's will give me the opportunity to reminisce about Sani-Sor-Bits®.

BackStage No. 012 - 1989

from black and white xerographic copy
1989

"Kelly (Holmes): Why don't you draw
a BackStage of me?
You did one of
everyone else."

"Bryan: That's not so, but
alright."

">scribble< >scribble<"

"Kelly: A Parrot!?
You think I look
like a parrot!?"

"Bryan: Well...
O.K. I'll try again."

"scribble"

"Bryan: How's this?"

"Kelly: WHAT!? No. ... "... NO! "... NO!"

"Kelly: Geeze. If you're not
gonna be nice about it,
then..."

"BAMM"

"Kelly:
A Koala!
Now that's
more like
it. Thanks."

"I knew drawing
could be
hard, but
I didn't know
it could be
so painful."

Featuring Kelly Holmes (koala, finally) and Bryan (monster).

-----------

So, BackStage started to get noticed. Nice, that's what I had hoped would happen.

But then came the requests to include people in the strip. In my assumed role of documentarian (or the like), that was much better than an angry "is that what you think of me?" which as evidence by this strip, something I think had/has more comic value.

BackStage No. 011 - 1989

from black and white xerographic copy
1989

"Boy! Am I tired.
My back hurts. My feet
ache. And on top of all
that, I've got homework
to do."

"That does it.
If I'm asked,
I'm not extending.
-Period-"

"Bryan! How would
you like to
extend!?"

"Ummm...
O.K."

"Yeah, i know i have
homework.
But academic
excellence is
far too
overrated."

Featuring Gina McWilliams (mink) and Bryan Mon (monster)

-----------

Patio, The French Market Restaurant, N.O.S., Disneyland.

I'm pretty sure I lost some of the early strips, so I arbitrarily jumped the numbering to 11.

I was hired on as a busser (i.e. buss boy) and that was probably the extent of my Casual-Temporary ambitions.

The tub contents are fairly accurate: oval platters on the ends and two round plates on the sides extend the walls of the tub vertically, a single perforated canister holds flatware besides a few stacks of plastic tumblers reserving two-thirds of the tub for food and whatever else you clear off a table. Then you shoulder it. Some times the tubs got over 50 pounds - and the mechanical tub conveyor would break down.

Regarding my monster crittature: this is possibly a representation of my Id. My stomach didn't look like that back then. The initial design seemed to necessitate a cookie monster like appetite, although that too was not a defining part of my personality.

Mmmmm, cookies.

BackStage No. 006 - 1989

from black and white xerographic copy with re-traced lettering.
1989

"Uh! uh! Chuck!
Look at the beach balls
on the babe!"

"Wha'!? Wha'?
Oh, no Way!"

"I'd drop fish
for her
any day!"

"Get out!
no way, Dude!"

"You need glasses
more 'n I do"

"Hey! Check her out!
The one in the pink!"

"Where?"

"The one in pink
gettin' spaghetti."

"That's not pink.
That's more of
a rose/lavender."

"Hey pink is pink."

"'Pink!?' They're
arguing about colors?
And isn't someone
supposed to
be working?"

Featuring Russel Wolfram and Chuck Martin, with Jillian.

-----------

Kitchen, The French Market Restuarant, N.O.S., Disneyland.

Oh, dear, what coarse language I chose to use.

Russel and Chuck were a team of cooks in the Market's kitchen working (at the time) the deep fryers. "Drop Fish" was one of the call outs when we were low on the main component of the "Fish and Chip" dish. The restaurant obviously also served spaghetti with marinara sauce.

Russel, as this strip now stirs the brain cells, was given by his co-worker impressionists the linguistic prefacing "Uh, uh," or probably more phonetically accurate "ahw, ahw" rhyming with "Saw, saw."

The door depicted is one of two double hinged doors separating the kitchen from the "line" where the food is set buffeteria style. The oval, if it isn't clear, is the window in the door.

Jillian is another origianl character in my stable, name after The Mint Julep Bar. Briefly, I had considered Julie, but went with the less common name.

BackStage No. 005 - 1989

from black and white xerographic copy
1989

"Broken?! Whuduha
mean the coke machine's
broken?"

"Fiddle fiddle"

"FWOOSH!"

"O.K. Now it's
broken."

Featuring Chuck Martin (wolf).

-----------

The French Market Restaurant, N.O.S., Disneyland.

Chuck is depicted as an animal caricature, what I call a crittature (some times "critterature" or "crittaricature") in the tradition of using animals as actors/players: Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, all of Walt Disney's Robin Hood, etc. The two advantages are these: 1) easier to draw, 2) it's more entertaining or at least visually interesting.

Prior to drawing this, an at-the-time anonymous note posted beside one of the BackStages requested to see a coyote. That was enough inspiration for me on a strip in it's infancy to give crittatures a go. I later learned the author of that note to be Jeb Stuart, at the time part of the night cleaning crew.

This is based on actual events.

BackStage No. 004 - 1989

from black and white xerographic copy
1989

"You can call it a mint julep,
But we call it Medina"

Featuring Milton the bear.

-----------

The Mint Julep Bar, N.O.S., Disneyland.

Remember that Tone Loc song?

Just to be clear, NO ONE at work referred to the non-alcoholic mint julep (kind of like minty lemonade) as "Medina," but it would have been funny if they did. Actually it would have been sad it they actually did.

This particular strip (as well as a couple of other early ones) was drawn in green ink, making reproduction difficult, because green doesn't provide a lot of contrast for the color frequency in which the copier machine sees. As a result, the stains across the logo became much more pronounced. The actual strips were taped up on the kitchen walls for about a week, so stains were part of the life of the strip. These two facts plus the crudeness of a 15-minute drawing should be obvious indicators of the transient nature of these strips, not the stuff to be bound in a book.

Milton was named ofter "The Mile Long Bar" the original name of Critter Country's "Brer Bar." The location was closed and converted as an extension of the merchandise location "Pooh Corner," formerly "Crocodile Mercantile."

BackStage No. 003 - 1989

from black and white xerographic copy
1989

"That Quebec looks
good. How does
it taste?"

"Great! And how's
the Trout?"

"WOOSH!"

"It's a little
spicy."

Featuring Diane Ferguson and Richard Brill.

-----------

The French Market Restaurant, N.O.S., Disneyland.

This is the first and ONLY attempt to feature caricatures of fellow cast-members as the strip's players.

As for the joke, two new dishes were added to the French Market menu. (Note: most of BackStage revolved around shenanigans at the French Market Restaurant, New Orleans square, where I worked (naturally)) Twenty years later, I now have no idea what kind of dish the Quebec was, but the trout was spicy.

BackStage No. 002 - 1989

from black and white xerographic copy
1989

"They said it, and it's true.
'Someday that stupid paper hat may save your
life.'
Now, what in the world that vat of gravy was doing up there is another story."

Featuring Tommy the fox.

-----------

Kitchen, The French Market Restaurant, N.O.S., Disneyland.

All restaurant hosts must wear hats (usually paper ones) and hostesses must wear hair nets. Most cast-members quickly accept this as a part of the costume. Still, if you ever gave yourself a moment to consider it, it is a paper hat.

Tommy was named after Tom Sawyer Island on the other side of the Rivers of America in Fronteirland. At the time, Bear Country Restaurants encompassed six locations: The Hungry Bear Restaurants, Brer Bar (now closed), The Harbour Galley (new in 1989), Fort Wilderness Canteen (T.S.I.), The French Market Restaurant (New Orleans Square), and The Mint Julep Bar (N.O.S.)