Absurd Notions Classic: Fall 1989

Absurd Notions and its characters first appeared in the Signal, the student newspaper of Trenton State College. See its humble beginnings unfold in the fully annotated
Absurd Notions Classic: The College Years.

Comic from November 17, 1989

A decade ago, making fun of the competition was not yet such a tired old ploy in comic strips. Or maybe it was, but at the time, I didn't know better. Actually, the first appearance of Absurd Notions came at a crucial moment. The nonsensical cartoons to which it refers had disappeared from the Signal by the time it was submitted and published. Most of them had been done by the same cartoonist, a talented artist that had either a very strange collection of in-jokes with his closest friends, or a reliable source of hallucinogens. (The excerpt Biff is puzzling over reads, "Look out! A renegade schwa and a marauding ampersand are headed this way!" This was actually one of the more lucid moments.) When he left, there was an embarrassing void in the Signal waiting to be filled, and I was the first to rise to the challenge with the awkward first steps you see here. Others soon followed.

Comic from December 6, 1989

This hit home with my fellow art majors. Only we who, on a regular basis, have had to struggle with portfolios (from Latin portare, to carry, and follis, fool, thus literally "foolish way to carry things") can truly understand. Which is not to say the humor was lost on others; a weak, limp-wristed youth attempting to transport a door-sized piece of cardboard stuffed with loose paper across campus on a windy day is a familiar and obviously funny sight to any college student.

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