Failure to Lunch — Eternal Beach City (Patreon)

Even now, I’m not sure if it would have been better to composite in a photograph of the Lunchables packaging for panel two or if my stylized drawing of the product helps everything flow better. Would the photo have felt too jarring? But jarring can be good if it makes it more funny. But is subversion without any clear intent funny? But I feel confident that the subversive use of an unexpected photo in comic #66 (Lost in the Crowd) is funny. But I don’t know that I can explicitly articulate what the intent is in that decision, except that it’s more funny to me.

But I also wonder if I ultimately defaulted to the drawing, because in this case (unlike all the backgrounds) it’s the choice that takes more work. And perhaps I have some subconscious anxiety over not being thought of as someone who works hard. Ironically enough (if that’s the right use of “ironically”) I’ve come to find that the easiest way to be viewed as someone who works hard is just to… work really hard. Like, you know the dude or chick at work who spends all their time trying to convince everyone else what a hard worker they are instead of just doing any work? How long did that tactic work before you clocked what really was going on? And if they’d spent that time and energy actually working, not only is that far less complicated, but in terms of manipulating people into thinking you’re not lazy, it’s bulletproof!

So yeah, just to be on the safe side, I did a drawing of the packaging. I guess I could have recreated a flawless, one-to-one scale replica of a thing of Lunchables and then photographed that. Fuck! Why didn’t I do that?! I’m such a fucking lazy piece of shit!