The Office Microwave Saga

It's "Stay Sane September"! That means I'll be sharing some of my "greatest hits" from social media and Patreon to keep you entertained while I take the month off in order to avoid burnout, take some theatre trips, and get caught up on various tasks and projects that I have been neglecting. 

Today's comics come from my time working at the University of Michigan Library. For a while I used to draw daily whiteboard comics depicting life in the International Studies division. Here's a series depicting The Great Microwave Crisis of 2015.

Just for the record, I did not actually abscond to a tropical island with the collected microwave money. I went out and bought everyone a nice new microwave. It came in a giant cardboard box, so naturally I turned the box into an airplane.

I still can't believe they put up with me for as long as they did...

Anyways, here's the conclusion:

I LOVE YOU, INTERNATIONAL STUDIES LIBRARY BUDDIES. 

Upcoming Appearances

September 28: Cincinnati Museum Insights Lecture

WHO: Me! Again!
WHAT: Talk followed by Q&A on the development of Good Tickle Brain and approaches to making Shakespeare accessible to new audiences. 
WHEN: Thursday, September 28, 7:30pm
WHERE: The University of Cincinnati College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning
WHY: Because they have a cool Shakespeare exhibit going on right now! 
HOW: Reserve a FREE ticket at the Cincy Museum website!

Greeks Bearing Gifts, part 1

Some days, when I'm feeling particularly unimaginative, I just sit around my office in the library and wait for something ridiculous to happen. And then I take notes. And then I draw it. Hey presto! It's a comic!

To be continued, eventually, once my noble co-worker finishes unboxing all 130 boxes so we have a final tally of how many books we got as opposed to how many tools. 

Stop by on Friday for another in my very-ongoing Shakespearean Character Spotlight series. This week's character is a Chorus... but which one? Ooooo, suspense...

The Bib Record Challenge

If you haven't been living under a rock recently, you're well aware of the fantastic Ice Bucket Challenge that has been making the rounds on social media, raising money for ALS research and patient support. Even my beloved Ladies of Angiers have gotten in on the action, Elizabethan-style:

The Ice Bucket Challenge has been a phenomenal success, and so I decided to see if I could use a similar challenge to raise awareness of a very important issue plaguing catalogers:

Somehow I don't think this challenge is going to catch on...

But seriously, publishers! Print all pertinent publication information in your books! I guarantee you that we do care when that book was published

For more library-themed comics, go here.

Nerf Archer

Due to early exposure to Errol Flynn's The Adventures of Robin Hood, I have always been an absolute sucker for archery. This only intensified when I was subsequently exposed to Shakespeare and learned it was good English and Welsh longbows that won the greatest battles of the Hundred Years' War. 

Next to the great yew longbows, the stupid piece of mass-produced plastic junk with its patronizing pink decoration that I brought in to the office this week looked like an insult to the noble profession of archery. But now I can't stop shooting the darn thing. In my mind, I am now Robin Hood. I am the captain of a company of archers with Henry V at Agincourt. I am Katniss Everdeen.

I am also a menace. My office will never be the same again.

The Dangers of Office Popcorn

This is in NO WAY autobiographical. Honestly.

Time Travelling Records

It's going to shock those of you who don't work in libraries, I know, but book records aren't always correct. Even *gasp* the Library of Congress sometimes makes mistakes. Honestly, if you can't trust the Library of Congress, who can you trust?

I need to thank my co-worker Leigh for providing me with most of my "cataloging disasters" material. 

Boxes of Books

I work in a library, therefore I must love books, right? Well... there are books and then there are books. Context really is everything.

For the record, I don't have anything personal against Bosnian serials. They are just a convenient stand-in for all the troublesome, hard-to-catalog books with bad or non-existent records that regularly plague our office. (I'm not saying that I don't know people who do actually have vendettas against Bosnian serials, mind you...)

If you must know, my personal nightmare involves the delivery of twelve disintegrating boxes of Vietnamese books. I still get jumpy when I hear the mail cart approaching.