In this week’s comic strip, Frenchy shares her BIG DREAM with us. When every other comic strip ends, leaving readers wondering “what happens next”, Charmy’s Army answers the concerns with a blog explaining WHAT HAPPENS NEXT! So, what DOES happen next in today’s comic strip? Frenchy flips the question back to Charmy and asks him, “Charmy. Don’t YOU have a dream you’d like to make a reality?”
“I have a TON of them actually” Charmy answers with an expression of pure happiness with a relaxed acknowledgment, a simple sigh, as he drifts into a state of zen.
“Please share!” urges Frenchy as her eyes open wide with excitement.
“I had one dream last night where I was able to fly…” answer Charmy as he pauses slightly, and then continues, “Oh! I once had a dream that everything tasted like bacon!”
Weaver pops in quickly and responds, “I had that dream too! It was so awesome!!! In my dream, even sheetrock tasted like bacon!”
“Why would you be eating sheetrock in your dream?” Frenchy asks with a frustrated response.
“Because…..” Weaver answers with a drawn-out response, “The other walls were made of brick. You’d chip your tooth eating a brick wall”.
“Why would anyone eat a brick?” Charmy jokingly reacts.
“WHY WOULD ANYONE EAT A WALL?!?” yells Frenchy.
“It tasted like BACON. What is she not getting here?” asks Weaver.
“Maybe she doesn’t like bacon”. Charmy suggests.
Ha ha ha, Who in their right mind doesn’t like bacon?” ponders Weaver.
In pops Flimp and he yells out, “Oopa doopa Ekk!!!”
“Flimp hates bacon”, interjects Frenchy.
“He asked who IN THEIR RIGHT MIND hates bacon,” Charmy says in defense of Weaver. “Flimp is not only in his RIGHT mind, but his LEFT brain is out of whack as well”.
“Wait. Wait. Wait…” Frenchy reacts as she shakes her head side to side to side. “I am not talking about THOSE kinds of dreams.”
“Oh!!!! I am sorry” apologizes Charmy. “You are talking about the other kind of dreams.”
“Yes!!!” Frenchy says with a sense of relief. “Tell me about THOSE dreams. The ones that you’ve been dreaming of your entire life. Dreams you really wish would come true. Dreams that you have worked your entire life for”.
“Yes-s-s-s…” Charmy answers as his mind seems to drift away… He continues as he mutters, “Annie Rollins… I dreamed about here every night as a kid”
“Not that kind of dream either!” Frenchy yells as she pulls at her hair.
“I know what you mean Frenchy”, admits Weaver. “As a young kid, I wanted to be a professional baseball player. My family lived out in the country in a tiny farm town. There were no Little League teams so I never even played baseball until High School. I tried out for the team and was cut the first round.”
“Weaver, that is so sad!” Frenchy replies as she consoles Weaver.
“I ended up being a trainer for the team”, admits Weaver. “I made the team… in a way”.
“See! You found a way to follow your passion and make do with your dream”, Frenchy explains. “Now you can look back and feel great that you contributed in some small way to the sport you love!”
“Oh-h-h-h ho ho ho ho NO!” reacts Weaver. “That experience tarnished my outlook on BasebaLl. I absolutely HATE the sport now! I just HEAR the word baseball and all I can smell is the foul odor of dirty uniforms and jockstraps! I was basically the team laundryman. I HATE BASEBALL NOW!”
“Yeah, ninety percent of all dreams die out and break hearts” acknowledges Charmy. “That is why I never build expectations and create goals for myself”.
Flimp answers with, “Eppa arg arg oop!”.
“Yeah!”, Frenchy agrees. “You never make goals because you are just PLUMB LAZY!”
And scene change… We move on to something else.
Davy’s Big Dream
You all know about my big dream. My life-long goal has been to become a real cartoonist. I am so happy to have the two newspapers running Charmy’s Army, so if this is as good as my career gets, I will take the limited success I have experienced. My failures greatly outweigh my successes of course, but the newspaper run really lightens the blows.
Most recently, I requested full membership into the National Cartoonists Society after seeing a few cartoonists on my level make the cut. I was turned down so quickly! This epic fail really stung, unfortunately. Add to this the fact that I cannot any responses lately from newspapers… and the fact that the national syndicates have not responded to my submissions and the failure begin to really sting.
I cannot really complain though.
The good news is that I have a large following of fans who keep me motivated. I have an even more amazing day job that I love where I feel I make a huge difference for my employers and for my co-workers. If I am still employed here in ten years, I would be happy knowing I was Blessed with employment somewhere where I touched the lives of my co-workers and the consumers purchasing our products. For me, the real goal is just to make a difference in people’s lives.
I also have a string of comic con appearances coming up where I can “pretend” I am a real cartoonist. These shows are awesome because I get to live the “fantasy” where I am a big, syndicated cartoonist. I strut into the comic con’s venue with my sunglasses, posturing myself as though I am a superstar. I live the role for a weekend and it is a rewarding feeling after all the hard work I have been putting into my dream.
Come July, I will be back. Comicpalooza will be the show to get my emotions back on track. July just cannot get here soon enough!
-Davy
Charmy's Army - The Comic Strip 