Comic:Paper or Plastic
From CGWiki
| Paper or Plastic? | |
|---|---|
| {{{image}}} | |
| Artist: | Mark A. Cooper |
| Writer: | Mark A. Cooper |
| Characters: | Penny Cash, Frank Romero, Sue Compton, Jeff O'Donnell, Max Value, Price Samurai, Mark Cooper |
| Updates: | Mon & Wed |
| Began: | December 22, 2008 |
| Ended: | Still going! |
| Art style: | Comic book (or comic strip, etc) |
| Rating: | Web-14 |
| Website | [http://paperorplastic.comicgenesis.com Website] |
Paper or Plastic? is a comedy set in a branch of the fictional Supa$hoppa supermarket chain, written by Mark A. Cooper. Although the comic started out based on real life (and, indeed, on many of Mark's own experiences in the world of retail), it has become increasingly off-the-wall.
Contents |
Characters
Penny Cash
Penny is the Store Manager of the Bethel Supa$hoppa store. Regarded as a prodigy within retail, Penny ascended the ranks of arch-rivals Retailworld, moving from Sales Assistant to Assistant Manager within a year. But when accused by a co-worker of granting sexual favors in return for promotion, she punched him out, losing her job in the process.
Fortunately for her, Supa$hoppa founder Max Value was in the store that day, conducting a reconnaissance mission on Penny after having heard of her phenomenal abilities from his scouts. Penny was hired instantly by Max to head up his latest store.
Penny has no time for sycophants, but at the same time, she's no stick-in-the-mud. She's not afraid to party (and get drunk) with all levels of her staff, and she'll bend the store's rules to breaking point, so long as the law, and safety, aren't compromised.
Frank Romero
Poached from Retailworld by Max Value at Penny's request, Frank was hired as the Deputy Store Manager. Initially, he was reluctant to become Penny's second-in-command, having only reached the rank of Team Leader (Electronics) while at Retailworld. However, Penny judged that he had been unfairly treated at Retailworld, and that given the chance to improve his confidence, he could be capable of much better things. Penny's assessment proved correct, and Frank blossomed in the role.
Frank's long career in retail has made him rather cynical, but his nature helps to keep Penny and Sue in check. Most of the time.
Sue Compton
Customer Service Manager Sue Compton was also head-hunted from Retailworld at Penny's behest. Like Frank, Sue had only reached Team Leader position (Home Supplies in her case) and was uncertain about taking on a managerial role. She still remains uncertain about her suitability, but as with Frank, Penny has faith in her.
Sue is more idealistic than Frank, and is determined to see the good in every customer, although her patience is tested at times by some of the more obnoxious ones.
Jeff O'Donnell
Jeff, the Produce Manager at Supa$hoppa Bethel, has a long and proud lineage of feeding the hungry of America. His ancestors were some of the first Irish immigrants to the USA - farmers who sold their produce in the New England region. Although Jeff has left the family business, his family are still very proud of him, as it's his job to source and liaise with local producers for Supa$hoppa. He's also able to understand chickens.
Outside of work, Jeff leads a very successful band called The Hunter-Gatherers.
Max Value
Max is the founder of Supa$hoppa, having formerly worked as an executive head-hunter for another supermarket chain. During a visit to one of the chain's stores, he was shaken out of complacency by the poor morale of the workers. Determined to create a working culture where staff could feel secure about their employment and working conditions, Max quit his highly-paid job and joined up with a partner to found Supa$hoppa on the principle of treating the workforce "like winners". Max promised - and delivered - guaranteed working schedules (instead of the industry norm of a staffing budget based on sales), higher-than-average wages ($15 per hour as of 2009), and generous company perks. The result was the creation of a highly-motivated workforce, whose enthusiasm translated into greater sales than Supa$hoppa's competition.
The downside of this roaring success was that Max was forced to become a virtual recluse, as the once-derided risk-taker became one of the richest and most sought-after entrepreneurs in America. However, Max's door remains open to any member of Supa$hoppa's workforce - a testament to his generosity of spirit.
Price Samurai
The most mysterious of Supa$hoppa's employees, Price Samurai models his behavior on the ancient Japanese samurai warrior class, merged with other aspects of Japanese culture (he is, for example, a master of origami). However, he retains an American accent and American modes of speech, rather than attempting to cultivate Japanese versions.
Price Samurai (his name is never abbreviated) formed his own credo: rather than bushido (The Way of The Warrior), his is kanedo (The Way of the Money).
Despite its name, kanedo describes how to do business honorably. Penny saw that the tenets of kanedo closely matched what she was trying to achieve at Supa$hoppa, and hired him without hesitation.
Penny and Price Samurai may also have had an intimate encounter in the past...
Mark Cooper
The author's "digital counterpart" (his "DigiMe"), working as a Sales Assistant within Supa$hoppa. An ex-patriate Englishman who moved to the USA in 2005 to be with his American wife, Mark was forced to return to retail so that he could find a new place to live before his divorce finalized in 2008. Mark is very uncertain of himself, prone to depression, and is constantly afraid of losing his job. He is also hugely socially inept, and believes everyone else is much better than him. As a consequence, Mark is afraid of socializing outside of work, and only tends to spend time outside of work with his Supa$hoppa colleagues.
The character of Mark's DigiMe and his real-life persona are virtually identical, except that in real life, he is too afraid to even socialize with work colleagues.
Background
Paper or Plastic? started life as Targetoons, gently humorous strips about the staff at a fictional Target store. Mark was intent on seeing his work published in the company's staff magazine, but when this fell through, a friend (codenamed "Pencil") suggested that he rework the strips to remove all references to his employer, and seek publication elsewhere. This meant renaming Price Samurai (from "Target Samurai"), and removing characters and strips which either alluded or referred to Target's working practices.
The comic's title parodies the American tradition of asking if customers want their purchases in paper or plastic bags. In Mark's version, the "paper or plastic" of the title refers to methods of payment.
In the large version of the comic's logo (used in a placeholder cartoon in the run-up to launch on December 22, 2008), the word "PAPER" is overlaid against a parody of a $100 bill, bearing Penny's face in place of Benjamin Franklin, a picture of a penguin (the reason for which isn't even clear to the author), and the words "DEFINITELY NOT LEGAL TENDER". The serial number of the "bill" is PI 31415927A (being the value of the mathematical constant "pi" to seven decimal places, albeit without the decimal point). Behind the word "PLASTIC?" is Penny Cash's Supa$hoppa store card, bearing the card number 3141 5926 5958 9793 ("pi" to fifteen decimal places, again without the decimal point).
Despite being English, Mark uses American English in his strips. This is because his initial audience was American, and he wanted to remove one potential barrier to their enjoyment of the comic. On the rest of the Paper or Plastic? website, British English is used (the excuse being that Mark doesn't want to completely eradicate his heritage).
Mark cites his best friend John Croucher as his main source of inspiration for getting started with creating comics, and web comic artists Bill Holbrook (Kevin & Kell), Pete Abrams (Sluggy Freelance) and Starline X Hodge (Candi) as his "web comic heroes", who inspired him to take his comic to the Internet. Additionally, Mark has had a lot of encouragement from co-workers (to whom the original Targetoons strips were shown, and who have supplied a number of jokes and anecdotes for Mark's use), and friends including eBook author Jack Brackitt.
