Month: September 2023

Here’s the text for easier reading:

Odds & Ends

Your questions and comments addressed by none other than our resident Odditer…

Full disclosure: The questions and comments at hand are completely fictional as of this moment. So… send us questions and comments, will ya?

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Dear Oddballs,

Sometimes I wonder what the world will be like in ten years. Is there anything you can tell me to make me feel better about the future?

Hopeless in NH

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Dear Hopeless,

It’s important to understand that even people in the past thought the world was going to end… but it didn’t. Well, it did for them when they died. And a lot of them died young because of germs and outlaws and hoodlums. We still have those things. Feel better?

Seamus C. Monster

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Dear Oddballs,

I was pleasantly surprised to see an issue of “Fashionable Mongoose” in my mailbox. Then I realized it was a fake cover. I’ll have you know that I’m a mongoose and there aren’t many magazines for us.

Mongoosed in MN

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Dear Mongoosed,

But are you fashionable?

Seamus C. Monster

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Dear Oddballs,

You’ve mentioned “carbuncles” in past issues. I don’t think us readers can relate. Can you relate?

Carbuncleless in CA

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Dear Carbuncleless

Some of my relatives have carbuncles so I guess that means yes, I can relate

Seamus C. Monster

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Dear Oddballs,

I’ve been told to not give money to panhandlers at stoplights because it only encourages more people to panhandle. I want to help out the needy but don’t know if giving to panhandlers is the right way to go about it.

Generous in GA

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Dear Generous,

Are these “panhandlers” actually panhandlers? What I mean to ask is, are they handling pans – rattling them in front of you to beg for money? If someone were to do that AND dress as a circa 1849 gold rush miner, I’d shell out a few bucks. But that’s just me.

Seamus C. Monster

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Send questions and comments to jason.salas1@gmail.com or DM them on Instagram @OddballsZine

Do you believe that Methuselah lived to be 968 years old? What would you do with your life if you knew you were going to live that long?

On another note, you’ll notice on the video of me inking this page that I forgot the “H” on Methuselah’s name. I added it post-production.

The Mothman is a strange story. It doesn’t make much sense but there are witnesses.

Have you ever seen him? What would you do if you did see him?

I’ve been dabbling in AI and I can’t figure out if AI is good for us humans or bad for us. I guess time will tell.

Jessica and I have had Bash in swim lessons for a while now. He was in a couple of different groups and, recently, we’ve got him in one-on-one lessons at the YMCA. It wasn’t until I got to the very end of penciling this comic that it hit me to have the guy being taught to swim by the giant squid. Thanks, Bash, for inspiring the punchline!

Jessica, Bash, and I went to the San Antonio Rodeo earlier this year. While there, we saw the unlikeliest of rodeo animals: a sloth!

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A post shared by Jason Salas | Humorist (@jasonsalascreative)

All that said, as I get older, I too get slower. You will too.

Have you ever seen Disney’s “Frozen”? If you haven’t, it may have been because you were locked up in a castle your entire childhood, kept away from the outer world for your own good.

In the very first Oddballs (yes, there’s Issue #1, but I keep it in a vault for the time being), I had a feature called “Shoes for Women.” When my dear Mom (God rest her soul) found my Oddballs #1 among some stuff I left at her house, she read it and said this was her favorite feature:

And, of course, I got into MAD Magazine with another feature involving feet – specifically high heels:

I’m not a fan of high heels. I think they’re weird, expensive, and impractical. A woman can choose to wear them if she wants, but I can also choose to have my opinions.

Jessica and I recently watched “You Are So Not Invited To My Bat Mitzva.” In it, the main character, a girl about to turn 13 (obviously) wants to wear high heels to go somewhere. Her mom and dad allow it but her mom says, “You’re going to hate them in two minutes,” which the girl does because they hurt and are impractical.

I created “Random Humans” while exhibiting at a Comic Con, back when I used to do that sort of thing. I took a look at other artists’ tables and saw that they created sketch cards – small, trading card-sized pieces of artwork that they sold for a few bucks each. I thought I’d give it a shot.

I traced my debit card on a piece of cardstock paper (used for signage) and got to work. But what to draw? No one really knew my Perk@Work characters so there would be limited appeal there. So I came up with the idea of “Random Humans.” My first random human was “An Old Man.” Immediately, a con attendee spotted it and bought it for a buck. Then, a few minutes later, she came back and told me how much she liked the old man and wanted an old lady to go with him. I told her to give me about ten minutes and I’ll knock it out. Here she is:

I took a pic of this second one because I thought it would be good to have a record of it. I hadn’t taken a picture of the first; didn’t occur to me to do so.

Since that time, I created many Random Humans and sold a bunch of them. I even printed out sheets of them and cut them out and sold the individual cards for a buck (the originals I sold for more).

I’ll post all my Random Humans some day. For now, enjoy this new batch!