Christmas has come early for Kelly.
Kelly is original to the Hubris comic strip, but not the way he is now. Paste, Kara, Lowell… they all found a place later.
Originally, Kelly was supposed to be a character behind the camera that would always be pointed at Hubris. That’s because Hubris was supposed to be the host of the show ‘Because It’s There’, which was also the name of the comic strip way back then. Hubris’ father was also alive back then, too. Honestly, I don’t really recognize the original incarnation any more.
Kelly was to be an off-panel voice. He was to be ‘Us’- able to talk to Hubris while remaining remote. Genderless (that’s why he’s named Kelly- I’ve known both genders to be named Kelly) and faceless, he was a character without being a character.
As Hubris found a place away from a TV show, and into the shop his father was supposed to have been running, Kelly remained and took on a gender and a race and a face. He became one of those upscale guys who obviously visits the gym and makes time to do cool stuff even though he’s more often wearing a suit and doing big things.
Then, I needed the TV show to be a peripheral thing in the new version of the comic strip, and Kelly resumed his cameraman duties.
Weird, how these people take on little lives in these comics.
Many years ago at a major scifi convention an early sunday morning panel with a lot of big writers, some didn’t show up (too early) and they went into ‘what to do when your characters run away with your story’ and it was totally the gem of the con….
You’re just having your characters run away with your story, Greg.
As for Kelly, he might be just the thing to sic on SportSmart after all. Love the Grinch-esque smile there.
THAT here is the perfect grinch “smile”
it gave me a shiver i admit lol
Seems like Nikki may be overly bold, calling in the press on an off-hand ‘me Tarzan’ remark. Of course, her experience with Lowell is limited, and his handling of Mel WAS predatory, so maybe not.
I don’t recognize it either Greg … mind you, I started reading it only when you posted it here cuz you forced me to… LoL (j/k)
Great arc with the recent Fest – glad to see I was in the fest again, even if I wasn’t around on ‘the outside’ as they say.
Hey TSOJ, FFY, CrazyAl, and everyone else! I missed ya’ll!!
Hey Allan! Welcome back!
I didn’t notice the Grinch resemblance, but the way Kelly’s mouth curls up at the corners reminds me of Snidley Whiplash.
Kelly has a wonderful AWFUL idea!
Not only has Lowell inadvertently picked the worst person to honk off, but he has also handed Kelly an early Christmas present. Let’s celebrate!
Notice how Nikki speaks of “little stores like mine” — much like the time she had yelled (simultaneously with Hubris), “Get out of my store!” at Lowell. At the time it crossed my mind: Is she seeking to take the store from Hubris?
But that train of thought didn’t go far, given the hint of something in Nikki’s past that has left its mark on her. Still, it’s obvious that the store is more than just a job to her, given that she’s about to go ballistic at the idea of it being forced out of business. And if there really is a danger of that happening, she will fight like hell to save it — possibly even harder than Hubris would, because she needs (if I read her correctly) to redeem herself from the trouble in the past that still haunts her.