Salem-News.com Benny And Sid articles

Benny & Sid Presents Chapter 15 of the new serialized graphic novel The Hummer -- The Final Chapter

This marks the last chapter in the graphic novel "The Hummer."

(Your City, USA) - This marks the last chapter in the graphic novel "The Hummer." I hope you've had as much fun reading it as I've had creating it. As it turns out it's also the 199th comic I've made for Salem-News.com. I started four years ago this coming August.

The first one hundred comics were under the title of "Nota Bene" and the premise was that the comics represented events in parallel universes. They were thinly disguised satires of America under the Bush Administration.

Benny & Sid Presents Chapter 14 of the new serialized graphic novel The Hummer

(Your City, USA) - We all have things we'd rather not talk about. Every adult at one time or another has made a choice that he or she isn't proud of.

We push that part of us into a dark hole and pack as much earth over it as we can. It's not exactly a secret, but it's not something we care to dwell on either. Once it gets started it loops in our head until we nearly lose our mind. Normally it's controllable.

Benny & Sid Presents Chapter 13 of the new serialized graphic novel The Hummer

(Your City, USA) - Try to make somebody happy, and they're never satisfied. Somebody is always looking for the thing you didn't do, and they don't see the things you did do.

I mean you don't expect to get a cookie every time you make your bed, but for pity sake don't criticize a guy if he happens to leave his shirt tail untucked. People start pushing too hard and that's when you start looking other places to be and other things to do.

Benny & Sid Presents Chapter 12 of the new serialized graphic novel The Hummer

The Truant Officer now available in comic format!

(Your City, USA) - Ever notice people driving around without license plates? Or grumpy old men not wearing seat belts? Or poorly dressed, overweight white trash women parking in the No Parking Zone?

How is it that they get to decide which laws they have to obey and which ones they can safely ignore and not get caught?

Benny & Sid Presents Chapter 11 of the New Serialized Graphic Novel The Hummer

The Truant Officer now available in comic format!

(Your City, USA) - Shouldn't a man be able to change the oil and tune his car up when it needs it?

But does a man spend his mad money on seat covers, steering wheel knobs, and car deodorants to dangle from his rear view mirror?

Benny & Sid Presents Chapter 10 of the new serialized graphic novel The Hummer

More than a few of us end our lives sitting behind the wheel of a car...

(Your City, USA) - We are automotive turtles. In our cars we are self-contained.

There's hardly a human function that can't be performed in an automobile--in the back seat if not the front. We can eat, sleep, argue, gossip, listen to books, even give birth to our children.

Benny & Sid Presents Chapter 9 of the New Serialized Graphic Novel The Hummer

When the day is done you pull your keys from your pocket, walk out to your car, unlock the door and slip into your sanctuary.

(Your City, USA) - You find a note left by your boss. He wants to see you about something. Your boss doesn't ever talk to you unless he's got a problem.

You wanna say, "Now what, you lazy #$@^%#@?" But you need the job. You only half-listen to his beef. Somebody always has something to complain about.

Benny & Sid Presents Chapter 8 of the New Serialized Graphic Novel The Hummer

Do automobiles hold the male gender bond together?

(Your City, USA) - Some boys grow up to be bankers or realtors or college professors. Others become construction workers or ranch hands or maybe they just pump gas to earn their keep.

Some will never carry their lunch in a paper bag while others will never knot a tie around their necks. What holds the gender together?

Benny & Sid Presents Chapter 7 of the New Serialized Graphic Novel The Hummer

Make sure you park close to the building 'cause that's points extra and take cuts in line. It's the American way.

(Your City, USA) - It's all about attitude. It's all about style. What's in your head and the quality of your heart is for sissies.

When you're on the road only one thing matters and that's who's in the lead.

Benny & Sid Presents Chapter 6 of the new serialized graphic novel The Hummer

The manly ritual desire for an automobile is a relatively modern phenomenon, yet it is etched as deeply into our DNA as if our distant ancestors had crawled onto dry land for the first time with a set of car keys clutched in their fins.

(Your City, USA) - The rituals and values of American men are as bizarre as any aboriginal. We practice them, but we turn a blind eye to their irrational qualities.

We don't give them a second thought as we perpetuate them to each succeeding generation.