Man Walks Into A Bar

"'Turn off the music,' says the man. The barman hesitates for a moment, and then obliges. After a couple of seconds, everyone realises that the music has stopped. The place goes quiet. Everyone looks up.

The man climbs up on top of the bar and produces a megaphone. 'This man here,' he says, pointing at the barman, 'says that there's no demand in this bar for alternative, independent or experimental comix.' He pronounces it that way, with an X. He's spent years practising it. 'This man here,' says the man, 'says that when you people go to a bar, you aren't asking for STREET ANGEL, or SCOTT PILGRIM, or IN THE SHADOW OF NO TOWERS, or even some generic, wholesome Eisner nominee. Is this true?'

The customers look a bit bemused. But after a few moments of silence, they signal, by nodding, that indeed it is true. They do indeed have little interest in such things.

'Are you seriously telling me,' says the man, 'that not one other person in this room is an admirer of the work of James Kochalka?'

The customers indicate, through a combination of confused looks and shrugs, that they are unfamiliar with Kochalka's work.

The man looks at them all with disgust. He shakes his head in amazement. He turns to leave. Then he pauses at the door and looks round the room.

'It's people like you that are killing the fucking industry,' he says."