1010 You’ve Earned It.

I swear Thomas did this to Ed once early on. Or maybe I intended for him to… Certain jokes and references are so ingrained in my head that it’s hard to remember what I have and haven’t done. Having scenes get moved around, or saved for years, doesn’t help either because they’re always sort of in the back of my head, and I don’t always dump the file from memory after I use it. Plus, sometimes repetition is intentional. Ghostbusters was one of my ultimate movie favorites when I was little so the jokes from it are kind of ever present in my life. Between it and Star Wars you’ve got my childhood quote mines covered.

It’s hard to tell, but the candy bar Thomas is holding is a Childnut bar. One of many fake, off brand, candybars I concocted in case I ever needed to make candy related jokes. Other bars include Eat Me, Barely Ruth, Pretty Munch, Eat DX, Gummi Dongs (gummis shaped like bells), and Peanut Shot. In my mind they are all imported brands from places where they don’t understand English as well as they think they do. Childnut and Barely Ruth are both versions of the Baby Ruth bar done slightly incorrectly.

Where I come from there’s a company called Tom’s Snacks that kind of makes all the “fake” versions of snack foods in the area. I don’t know if they are a nationwide thing or what, but I never see them around here. There’s nothing wrong with the snacks other than you can tell what they were trying to make, but fell just shy of it every time. Some of the names of them are also kind of hilariously off to me. Thick & Bold, Tangy Tom’s, Puffed Cheezers… sound somehow wrong. Almost every other thing they make are just called what they are with no attempt to get creative. Probably because when they do things go slightly awry.
I’m not 100% sure it’s the same company, but there are these thing’s called Senor Tom’s Wheat Snacks that I used to eat all the time. Only Senor Tom made them for ages, but eventually Frito Lay trotted out their version of them. It’s the only case I can think of where Tom wins the contest. The Frito kind are too limey.
Both versions of these things are kind of like big Captain Crunch sqares, in so far as they rip the inside of your mouth apart as you eat them. That’s part of why I stopped eating them. It takes a couple days for your mouth to heal. They’re also not particularly good for you. Shocking, I know… Still, every so often I see them in a store and subject myself to them again. I guess it’s one of those pleasure is pain kind of relationships…

14 Comments

Just finished reading your comic from beginning to end. I have to say, it is one of the best I have ever read. You have quite a lot of talent for this. I was just wondering; how many in strip days have passed since comic #1?

I’m still trying to figure out what the clever plan is.

I love the last panel. It’s a perfect character moment for both of them, and I like how Thomas is being a bit snarky without actually being mean. And I love Thomas’s grin.

This comic continues to be one of my favorites.

Poor Mike — his honor was sold out by his sweet tooth again.

Chilled Nuts… Sounds like what I got when I had an outside post for two wintertime hours back in the bad ol’ days working Security. Maybe the Chil’dnut is sort’a like the Hollywood Zero Bar. It was later made by Consolidated, who begat Sara Lee, sold their candy division to Huhtamaki Oy (they’re from Finland — seriously — I couldn’t make this up), which was recently engulfed by Leaf.

The Zero Bar is actually two bars of almond chips (because almonds are cool) peanuts (because peanuts are ¢heap) nougat and caramel, in a sort of (maybe) white chocolate icing. They sound slightly disgusting — not something you’d go out of your way to buy unless everything good was sold out — but then you become addicted to them.

I’d never heard of Señor Tom’s, so I tried looking them up. Apparently they were made by Tom’s Snacks (they’re at toms-snacks dot com), but today Tom’s website vehemently denies it (okay, they don’t mention it). They’ve been bought and sold a mess of times too, most recently to Snyders/Lance (the Snyder’s of Hanover pretzel and Lance cracker-sandwich folks). I did find a bunch of reviews online, but there’s no evidence the chips are still in production.

Your mouth is safe at last — at least from chili-fried Wheat Snacks.

When I was a wee lad, the city pool sold Zero bars that were kept in the freezer until you bought them. As a result I still always expect the zero bars I buy to need to be frozen before eating – seemed strangely appropriate to serve a Zero bar at 0°.

Now I’ve run through the ENTIRE ARCHIVES.
I hoped it would continue, but your backlog isn’t as long as I dared hope.
So, my comments:
BROOKSIE!
So much win in the nerf battle not too long ago.
So much win in general.
Get out of my head- the hilarity seems directed towards me (I have gotten every single reference)
NINA!
Excellent plot.
You, sir, are amazing.
BROOKSIE AND NINA!
You managed to make a jerk character likable without taking away from his jerkitudity. Props.

I have quoted this so many times. My personal favorite:
“I can’t survive jail, John! I’ll be currency there! ADORABLE CURRENCY!”

Well, I am glad to hear you liked it so much. Thank you for reading. I appreciate it. XD

I finished up to the current pages earlier in the week. You have an interesting thing going on. Can’t wait to see how it unfolds. ^.^

Oh, just gimme the candy bar. (It’s against my religion to turn down free food. Especially snacks.)

Wait, so I’m a bit confused. I’m doing a read-through of the whole archive again, after I stopped reading some years ago. Perhaps it’s explained later on, or maybe I’m just missing something, but I thought we liked John? Why does it seem like Thomas is throwing him under the bus all of a sudden? Does he just see him as the least worst candidate, or the most moveable one, or what? If Thomas going forward is under the impression that whoever takes the spot of Assistant Manager will go down in the same flames as the Store Manager, then why does it seem like Thomas is okay with John getting the job? Or is he going to manipulate things to the best possible solution again? Wouldn’t surprise me, I guess.

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