ZLM_GoToYale

No smart remarks, jerk.
Zero Like Me #144:
The Cantabulous Life of Zero Zetsubo Pt.3 -
Go To Yale
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-First Comic-

=Full post=
Easter Eggs: "Yale" in tree. Today's setting is the castlistic Lampoon hangout, whose colors can best be described as "Lakeriffic." Today's guest star is John O'Brien, the naive and hopeless Harvardian, named first in honor of my truly wonderful Harvard informant and secondly for the object of my supreme ire and creative envy.

Fun Facts: This comic is based on the experience I've had interacting with Harvard students every single time I went up for The Game. They will see you absolutely DECKED OUT in Yale gear amidst a sea of Crimson, and they literally, truly, honestly have to ask in order to determine if you're a Yalie. Oh, how my suppressed sarcastic tendencies war for release.

My most recent visit featured a Harvardian ask me to swipe her up into Leverett, meanwhile I'm literally wearing my Yale hat, Yale sweater, and Yale scarf--all blue and blaring "Y"s if not full on "Yale"s. I pointed to the "Yale" printed on my sweater and then only after a few seconds did she finally figure out that I couldn't help her. She laughed at herself and apologized for interrupting my Masterpiece Theater in the Lev JCR. It was at once both charming and facepalmy.

Baa: During my stay at Harvard, I learned that the Lampoon is very much a ghastly shadow of its former self. The Cantab I interviewed tells me they're basically now 60% a social club and 40% an actual magazine-maker. As an undergrad I would read issues at the Yale Bookstore every now and then and I did find it laugh out loud funny at times, but it was also often absolutely repulsive otherwise--especially the art! You actually feel physically upset seeing Lampoon art, it's so gross-looking.

Anyway, my impression of the Lampoon before my visit was that it was like the comedic equivalent of the YDN in terms of pre-professionalism. People on the YDN are quite serious about what they do and they have great pride and ambition, and this was apparently also true of an age long gone from the Lampoon (7:18). But nowadays, it's no longer that comedic training ground. The most recent high profile export was this guy, who even visited Yale a while back (Fun sub-fact: his cohort, the hilarious John Mulaney is the brother of a fellow Record '10er). But I guess either that guy is an anomaly or he represents a greatly outnumbered minority of Lampoon people who actually wants to be funny for a living. I would say this is unfortunately a similar state at my native humor magazine, the Yale Record.

I wish more of us wanted to be creative professionals--I guess it's tacky to ask classmates to enter creative partnerships, but it feels like nobody's interested in teaming up, let alone trying to be a professional creative (least of all in comics), you know? And that's a let down, cuz honestly, I doubt going solo is the safer bet, and Yale has immense (if latent) talents on tap.

All right. So, depressing real-world stuff is starting to infringe on my comicsing capacities for the time being, but hopefully the coast'll clear soon. I'll keep posting the latest comic's URL up top, though, cuz I know digging through the standby art can't be too fun.

Reuxben