#893; The Conversation at Length

Comic Transcripts

[[Evening. In his sitting room, NOSTRUM speaks to VON TONIC through the enchanted bottle.]]

NOSTRUM: …So anyway I guess I feel a little STIFLED sometimes. Just not sure what the next step is, you know?

NOSTRUM: I go through the motions because it’s EXPECTED of me, but I can’t help feeling like it’s just treading water because I’m too DUMB to figure out what to do NEXT.

[[It’s evening at Von Tonic’s too.]]

VON TONIC: Yeah, I know what you mean. When we’re doing ad copy it’s all FOCUS-GROUP driven. More people responded to the RED, so the label is RED. Simple as that.

VON TONIC: It’s NOT artful. It’s not why I went to school. I’m happy to be working in my field, but it’s DRAINING trying to be GENUINELY CREATIVE in the service of someone else’s product that you don’t CARE about nor have a STAKE IN.

[[Back to Nostrum’s house.]]

VON TONIC: (voice) And nobody will ADMIT that their product is inferior to a competitor’s. So you can’t trust the label. You have to think critically about EVERY single thing.

NOSTRUM: That’s exhausting! And if you relax your vigilance you feel DUPED.

NOSTRUM: I RESENT a million ads demanding my attention. I feel FRAGMENTED. I can’t be present with my family. I can’t CONNECT with other people. I feel BROKEN.

[[PANACEA yells from offpanel, very possibly from the bedroom.]]

PANACEA: ARE YOU STILL TALKING THROUGH THAT BOTTLE TO THE DESIGNER OF THAT BOTTLE

NOSTRUM: JUST TRYNNA GET SOME PHOTOSHOP TIPS!

#893; The Conversation at Length transcribed by in

[[Evening. In his sitting room, NOSTRUM speaks to VON TONIC through the enchanted bottle.]]

NOSTRUM: ...So anyway I guess I feel a little STIFLED sometimes. Just not sure what the next step is, you know?

NOSTRUM: I go through the motions because it's EXPECTED of me, but I can't help feeling like it's just treading water because I'm too DUMB to figure out what to do NEXT.

[[It's evening at Von Tonic's too.]]

VON TONIC: Yeah, I know what you mean. When we're doing ad copy it's all FOCUS-GROUP driven. More people responded to the RED, so the label is RED. Simple as that.

VON TONIC: It's NOT artful. It's not why I went to school. I'm happy to be working in my field, but it's DRAINING trying to be GENUINELY CREATIVE in the service of someone else's product that you don't CARE about nor have a STAKE IN.

[[Back to Nostrum's house.]]

VON TONIC: (voice) And nobody will ADMIT that their product is inferior to a competitor's. So you can't trust the label. You have to think critically about EVERY single thing.

NOSTRUM: That's exhausting! And if you relax your vigilance you feel DUPED.

NOSTRUM: I RESENT a million ads demanding my attention. I feel FRAGMENTED. I can't be present with my family. I can't CONNECT with other people. I feel BROKEN.

[[PANACEA yells from offpanel, very possibly from the bedroom.]]

PANACEA: ARE YOU STILL TALKING THROUGH THAT BOTTLE TO THE DESIGNER OF THAT BOTTLE

NOSTRUM: JUST TRYNNA GET SOME PHOTOSHOP TIPS!

I am trying to figure out if the magic wand tool is real

#893; The Conversation at Length

— December 11th, 2012

[ Tags: advertisements, despair, marketing, marketing is a conversation ] Permalink: https://wondermark.com/c/893/

Continued (and concluded) from Part 1 / Part 2. We’ll leave it there, I think; another new comic tomorrow!

Buy a Print

The past few weeks have been a frenzy of assembling the very laborious, very bespoke first print run of NOODLE BATTLE, the puzzle game I am releasing this weekend at PAX West in Seattle!

PAX has an event called the PNW Tabletop Game Market (Saturday night ONLY), which is a curated selection of short-run games from local designers. As I’ve mentioned in this space before, I applied for a space in this fall’s event mainly as a way to force myself to finish a new game. And here it is!

The drawings are all by Jason Poland, good pal and cartoonist of My Dad Is Dracula. Jason played an early version of this game at Alaska Robotics Comics Camp this spring, and really liked it!

So I said, “Do you want to help me make it?” And so he has! It was his idea to make all the characters fun little animals, and I think it adds a ton of charm.

Because this edition is limited-run, it has been incredibly labor-intensive to make! The boxes and cards were made by a game factory in the usual fashion, but separately. The blank tiles were made by a woodworker dude out of Connecticut. For each game, we have had to:

Cut a piece of plastic and install the box window
Paint all the tiles, hundreds at a time
Apply a sticker to both sides of every tile
Apply stickers to the box (we couldn’t get the box back printed in time, so the whole back side of the box is a sticker too)
Apply the “Nutrition Facts” sticker, which was a late suggestion by my kid that I just had to run with
Fold up the rule sheet (they come from the printer as big strips of paper)
Put all the components into the box and seal it all up

I knew it would be a lot of work and would require some inefficient, expensive compromises AND I WAS RIGHT. But the final product is turning out great, which is the important thing!!

I will have 50 copies with me (if all goes well) at PAX, and then between now and the holidays we will be putting together additional copies to round out this first edition.

I will announce additional copies on Patreon first, once they are available online!! And here too, naturally, before long.

You can also sign up here if you’d like me to email you once the game is available online!

Comic Transcripts

#893; The Conversation at Length

— December 11th, 2012

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