The inspiration for this was a job I had during University. In order to make ends meet, I worked at a Tim Horton’s (for you poor fools who have never experienced Tim Horton’s, it’s a coffee stand located just about everywhere in Canada, and has the BEST cup of Joe I’ve ever experienced). I did everything there, from serve coffee, make muffins and baked goods, cleaning, etc. I had a manager by the name of Dave and he was just amazing to work with. Great fucking guy. After our shifts we’d cross the street to Ethel’s Lounge (a fixture in the comic “Little White Lie”) and drink Sleeman’s Cream Ale, the world’s FINEST brew. Oh, how my taste buds miss all that now.
But working was also (mostly) a blast. Here we were, in our polyester uniforms, working just slightly above minimum wage, really one of the lowest possible classes and still being employed. And the women that came in! In their halter tops, tank tops, sweating from the summer heat, asking for iced tea. Whenever a good looking woman came in, Dave would suddenly appear out of nowhere to serve her (there was a security camera he’d watch from the office). If she decided to sit in the eating area, that area would soon be spotless as we’d all run out taking turns cleaning the area so we’d get another glimpse of sexy customer goodness. Those were the days.
However, later on, I was offered a management position. I had to decline it because the workers apparently hate their managers and they were beginning to direct some of that towards me. When I see “American Beauty” and see Lester flipping hamburgers happily because so little is expected of him, I know that feeling. Responsibility sucks. When you get some everything changes, and generally not for the better.
I recoloured this from the original greyscale because somewhere along the way I had lost the GIMP file so I decided to redo the colouring.
Love the mike lefty comic with the shake, you should do more like it and also want to see him in just a pair of speedos or nude better. Great comics, im new just subscribed for e,mails. Thanks
Roger h
Thanks for the kind words. He walks around with his dick out in later comics, I know that’s not a Speedo but …
Cock is better, you draw good cock . hard cock soft it all works. Makes mine hard talking about cock…:)
Why is there a shit on the table?
I take it you’ve never worked in fast food.
I have, Weirdest thing was finding out that the Store manager was a Sub, and only found that out because he came in through the back door while I was taking out the trash.
Keep up the good work on cocks. Keep it cumming;-) 😉 😉 ?
You know Clay, when I was perusing YouTube–namely, the new “This Aged Great!” channel that dissects “classic” movies that carry inexplicable and inexcusable moral baggage for the recent generation–and listened to the one about “Fast Times at Ridgemont High”, it did not dawn upon me at first but, on a second watch, it made perfect sense in my mind.
Here’s a link to the episode in question: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tU-0K29U0v8
See, long ago, I read your comic almost religiously (and intend to binge it once I got a spare moment); between my two favorite characters (the other being Yuuko), it is a coin flip. Lefty has quite the dangerous power in his hands. In the episode, the gent presents an unusual theory about the movie’s tenuous, even surreal reality–the main reason David Lynch was optioned as a director.
For context, Brad Hamilton, a workaholic teen trying to pay off his beloved Buick and be the most responsible man in school (he’s already fairly popular and respected), is a burger-flipping dude with a cheery disposition. However, a horrid chain reaction of miserable luck gets him fired through one mistake. Can relate.
Brad undertakes another entry-level job, only this time, he must don a pirate costume as part of it. His circumstances continue to spiral downward and he gets to be as joyless and despondent as the contemporary commentator Matt Walsh, or perhaps a 1980’s retread of the movie Sullivan’s Travels.
In seeking release from his frustrations, he comes back home one day when his sister’s friends, including her pizzeria co-worker, the gorgeous Linda Barrett–played by Phoebe Cates, no less–are having a pool party. He spies upon her by the pool while in the bathroom. It shocks him to the core. A lot of people recall the stylized scene in the movie where Linda strips topless, but Brad is fantasizing and masturbating into the toilet, trying to seek physical relief from the constant humiliation of his dull and sour spot in life (this includes his car getting torn up, I believe).
Even after Linda, in reality, spots him in the act and walks away in confusion and disgust, Brad continues. Now, the rest of the movie has him quit the pirate job, get his sister to an abortion clinic, and stop a robbery from happening at his third job in a heroic fashion. This is crucial to know because, in all honesty, this stroke of good fortune is implausible, according to Ben Moore (host of “This Aged Great!”) and, as such, he has a theory regarding the film’s surrealism:
After Brad starts whacking, we never quite leave his fantasy.
Now, think about this. You don’t always fantasize about sexual partners straight up while masturbating. It’s an optional affair. Some people use it as a means unto an end, sometimes to fall asleep via the muscle relaxation of an orgasm. A fantasy is where you get to explore or achieve without fear of failure or severe ramifications. And Brad thinking of his next job being solidified via heroism, or getting back at his sis subtly by taking her to abort her kid, or scoring with her beautiful best friend, are all facets of fantasizing that can come from masturbating. And perhaps this effect, courtesy of the law of attraction, has an effect upon the movie’s reality.
Which brings us back to Mike Lefty. He is unaware that his bottomless autoeroticism is the window to reshaping the world as we know it! And I figured it was a fascinating idea that you already came up with. Until I read the fine print. Upon reviewing your background notes, detailing your own work history and the insight you have about responsibility and what movie you recall had shaped the character’s placid disposition bereft of ambition, I became disappointed that it was not “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” or Brad Hamilton that inspired Lefty, but Lester from “American Beauty”. The idea of him shirking responsibility and never amounting to anything beyond being a soda jerk could, however, be a byproduct of trying to be the Brad, but becoming the Lester after a trauma that also drove him into autoerotic madness.
That’s my theory. About Lefty, that is.
Mike was already formed before I saw American Beauty. He was basically inspired by roommates, especially one that would masturbate in the living room in the middle of the night. It made me think about a character who just did it without shame at all. Then turning it around, someone who was actually proud of it. That reversal was interesting to me, and provided a lot of material to work with. What helped was that there were very few characters remotely like him so I could be sure what I was doing was fairly original.
I’ve seen Fast Times when I was in high school. It’s one of those movies like Breakfast Club you don’t watch for entertainment, you watch to relate. You saw people represent yourself and people you know, and you feel someone gets it, they understand. We all knew a Brad. A car was the status symbol he was aiming for, and he did those low-paying low-status jobs to get it. In high school, having a car meant freedom. Brad hits bad luck after bad luck — getting caught wanking would end any dream of status he had in high school, the rumour mill is that fast and cruel. It’s an interesting snapshot of a time growing up. It may not have inspired Mike — Mike doesn’t have the kind of shame that Brad does, but they do share the same sense of opportunism. I couldn’t imagine the risk Brad was taking by doing it right there but I suppose it was necessary for plot.
Thank you for the comments and the analysis.