Blast from the past. Barndale

[bigguy]

I was digging through an old file cabinet today and ran across a bunch of my old "Barndale" strips. I ran this strip for about 2 1/2 years from 1988 to 1990. It was a different world back then, but some of the material is still relevant.
I have no interest in reviving the strip, but thought I might post a few over the next several days. Some of you guys may be old enough to understand the humor.

A lot of it was office humor. I only had to look out my office door for material.

[bigguy]

Still at the office with office rituals. This one is probably common with some variation at most offices.

[bigguy]

The characters did have a life outside of the office. Doc even put in a swimming pool, though it was a lot of work and he wasn't sure he wanted to keep it.

[vanagon40]

Great stuff.  Keep 'em coming. 

[A lot of hidden (or not so hidden) talent here at the VRCC]

[hubcapsc]

Daniel Meyer works with a cartoonist, but BIGGUY is the
first other person who *draws* cartoons that I've
run into on this site...



-Mike

[bigguy]

Daniel Meyer works with a cartoonist, but BIGGUY is the
first other person who *draws* cartoons that I've
run into on this site...



-Mike

Mike. Is this yours? Are you a fellow cartoonists?

[hubcapsc]

Are you a fellow cartoonists?

Yep 



-Mike

[bigguy]

Are you a fellow cartoonists?

Yep 

Cool. If we ever bump into each other, we can use the secret handshake.

[bigguy]

When we got married, we actually heated our house with a fireplace that hooked into the AC ducts. It was really cool in a lot of ways, but chopping and splitting wood got old pretty quick.

[old2soon]

When we got married, we actually heated our house with a fireplace that hooked into the AC ducts. It was really cool in a lot of ways, but chopping and splitting wood got old pretty quick.

          Having wood fired heat in East Texas I can relate!  I also have 3 sons!  I like how subtle this stuff of Barndales's is.  RIDE SAFE.

[bigguy]

Two sources of material came together in this one. Doc's unreliable truck, and his mechanical ineptitude. I got more mileage out of the truck (pun? what pun?) than Doc's handyman skills. But I enjoyed both themes.

[bigguy]

Here is an earlier one. You can see that Miss Chickadee has evolved some in the later strips. This was part of a running line where she and Doc went to the mall.

[bigguy]

Another early one from the mall set. This is back in the days when the first realistic mannequins came out. I was a little creeped out by them.

[bigguy]

I actually know folks who did this.

[bigguy]

Remember video stores? Remember VHS tapes? I can live with the change to CDs and Blu-ray, but I miss video stores.

[bigguy]

Anybody remember checks? I've actually run across some younger folks who have never written a check. Don't even start trying to explain float.

[old2soon]

Most of my monthly bills are paid with a check. Couple of them want me to give them my credit card number so as to make my bill paying "easier" their words not mine-which B T W I adamantly refuse to do. My Willow Springs utility bill can be paid with a credit card BUT-that word again-they tack on  5% handling charge for credit card bill pay!  RIDE SAFE.

[bigguy]

I still pay several bills by check. In fact I just paid the water bill about an hour ago. We pay some bills online through our checking account, but so far I've refused auto-pay. I'll log on every month and initiate the transaction thank you very much.

[bigguy]

I've actually seen this happen. I worked in banks for about 8 years. One day one of the ladies I work with had her husband come by and pick up some cash. She ran out the front door, handed him the money and gave him a kiss on the cheek. This was in a small town and the customer who witnessed it knew they were man and wife, but still made the comment about fast and friendly service. Wasn't it Picasso who said something about the difference in good artists and great artists?

[bigguy]

The repairman was at our office, working on the copier so often that I suggested we get him his own desk.

[bigguy]

When you're desperate for an idea, you can always do something about dieting.

[bigguy]

I had a bit of a following from some of the local elementary schools and was invited to speak at several of them. When I visited Nash elementary 4th grade, the kids wanted to help me do a cartoon that would run in the paper.
I got permission from the editor and drew this one at the direction of the 4th grade class. They thought it would be funny if the pig was the waiter and ate the food before he brought it out to the guests.
This has Mr. Troff stepping out of character, but it was worth it for the pleasure it gave the kids. Their teacher (wish I could remember her name.) called me a couple,of days later and told me that they were thrilled to see the comic we’d drawn on the chalk board appear in the paper the next day.
That is the part I miss most about dropping the strip.

[bigguy]

Some skills are transferrable.

[bigguy]

I guess I'm about six months out of seasonal cycle. Brother Bubba often had unique ways of guiding his flock.

[bigguy]

Mr. Troff wasn't the only resident of Barndale with weight issues.

[hubcapsc]

I can't help but wonder where Mr. Troff's name came from...



-Mike

[bigguy]

I can't help but wonder where Mr. Troff's name came from...



-Mike

Ha. It'd take a nerd to come up with that, or know what it means. TROFF (Trace Function  OFF.) See also TRON. (Trace Function ON.) Somebody's done some coding.
However, the Troff I was thinking about when I came up with the name of the CEO and President of Barndale Bank and Trust was a hog troff.

EDIT: I just read the manual part of your post. I'd forgotten about the text editor. I first ran across TROFF in BASIC where it meant Trace Function OFF.  TRON, Trace Function ON would display each line of code as a program ran. Once you found and fixed the issue, you would turn it off with TROFF.

[bigguy]

When Edward moved in with his aunt, Miss Chickadee, some of the residents had to adapt to having young people around.

[bigguy]

The unreliability of Doc's truck was a running gag.

[bigguy]

Another running gag was Doc's mechanical ineptitude.

[bigguy]

When I originally created Barndale, the only married couple were the Troffs. But somehow the strip wanted to center around Doc and Miss Chickadee. This became even more apparent when I introduced Edward and the three of them became a quasi family.

[bigguy]

This originally ran in September and school had just started back from the summer.

[bigguy]

Edwards first day of school in Barndale.

[bigguy]

Miss Chickadee had a lot to learn about having kids. Fortunately Doc was more than willing to help out.

[bigguy]

Miss Chickadee was rather naive about having a kid in school.

[bigguy]

Miss Chickadee might have been rather naive about having a kid in school, but she was a quick learner.

[bigguy]

Brother Bubba went on a mission trip and had some interesting adventures.

[bigguy]

And the adventure continues.

[bigguy]

Brother Bubba headed home with a lot of memories, but not much else.

[bigguy]

Now we're getting close to the correct time of year.