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Retail (comic strip)
Encyclopedia
Retail is a syndicated comic strip
distributed by King Features Syndicate
. It is authored and illustrated by Norm Feuti
. It made its newspaper debut on January 1, 2006, and then gained quickly in popularity following articles in The New York Times
and TIME
Magazine
called "Grumbel's." Grumbel's provides a wide array of goods; customers have been shown shopping for anything from garden equipment and electronics to clothing and housewares. Given the wide variety of products available through Grumbel's it more closely resembles a Sears than other types of retail stores. However, the name Grumbel's is a parody of real life department store Gimbels, which closed in 1987.
Besides being in a generic, suburban mall the location of Grumbel's is kept ambiguous. Grumbel's has been operating at least since the mid-1900's and was founded by the fictional J.P. Grumbel, as seen in one of the comic strips.
In January 2010, it was revealed that this Grumbel's store is located in New England
..
Marla and her fiance Scott were married in June 2011. They are expecting their first child, due in April 2012.
He has built a small lounge on the roof of the Grumbel's out of old patio furniture dubbed "Cooper's Lounge" and also spends time constructing "Box Art" out of empty cardboard boxes. Some examples of his art include robots, castles, mazes and even a "Great Wall of Boxes." He's a fan of science fiction
and geek culture, and often wears Halloween costumes based on obscure movie, TV or comic book characters that other staff members don't recognize, much to Cooper's frustration. Cooper harbored a crush on Val for years before finally asking her on a date in February 2011. They got along far better than either of them expected, and while they have been taking things slowly, they have continued to grow closer.
She is also a published creative writer and would eventually like to quit working at Grumbel's and write full-time. In Halloween 2008, a week of strips focused on a short story she had written. In October 2011, it is revealed that her job is a secret to her family who believes she is an accomplished writer.
Stuart further demonstrated his incompetence and arrogance in July 2009 when, following her vacation, he threatened to replace Marla with Josh as assistant manager. He even went so far as to have both Josh and Marla interview for the position.
Alan manages the shoe department and is good friends with Cooper.
Courtney
Courtney works as a cashier. She is lazy, ditzy, incompetent, and constantly rude to customers. It has been hinted that she was hired largely because of her looks, and she avoided being fired on one occasion chiefly because she isn't paid as well as other store workers. She is one of Marla's sources of frustration (besides Stuart).
Keith Sanzen
Keith was added to the line up in October 2007. He got his job in the shoe department by contacting Cooper through Cooper's Blog. After starting work at Grumbel's, Cooper discovered that Keith had made a blog that copies his format exactly, hence driving a wedge between these two former friends. Eventually, Cooper hacked into Keith's computer and infected it with a virus. Keith held a grudge, and in April 2008, was able to get his revenge when he discovered Cooper's secret lounge on the roof of the mall, and started blackmailing him by making him give total access to the lounge. Within few days, Keith has converted the lounge into "Keith's Poetry Perch." Realizing that he has no other way of beating him, Cooper reluctantly called the police and Keith was arrested for holding a poetry slam on the roof. As a result, Keith is now banned from the mall. Despite this, Keith vows vengeance on Cooper when he "least expects it."
Keith is the only character known to be based solely on a real person. The real Keith Sanzen is a fan of the strip who won a contest on Cooper's Retail Blog.
Josh Tobin
Josh was hired as temporary Christmas help in October 2007. Marla hired him from a pool of otherwise incompetent applicants for Christmas positions, since he appeared to be the perfect employee: his application was correctly filled out, he showed up for his interview and performed well, and his references were good (if a little foreboding). However, Marla and the rest of the employees quickly discovered that Josh is determined to be the perfect retail worker and that he is fond of pointing out the policy violations (and other flaws) of his fellow employees. Stuart, of course, bonded quickly with Josh and considered him potential management material.
In spite of the other staff members' blatant dislike of Josh and their best efforts to have him fired, Josh cheerfully accepted an offer from Stuart for a permanent position at Grumbel's in January 2008.
Lunker
Lunker is Cooper's co-worker in the Grumbel's stockroom. His real name is Mel and, according to Cooper, he is "bald, about 7 feet tall, all around huge and only slightly more articulate than the Hulk
." Cooper took immediate liking to Lunker, as he has "chaos potential." Lunker has shown brief moments of unexpected intelligence or insight, and is very loyal towards Cooper. When Cooper was going to be fired as a cost-saving measure, Lunker intervened and offered to cut his hours so Cooper could stay on.
Mrs. Masters
Mrs. Masters' is Marla's mother. She is an understanding mother to her daughter, but frequently frustrates her with her inability to understand many of the inconveniences Marla experiences. A running joke in the strip is Marla's mother asking her to run out and buy something during holidays, which annoys Marla due to her belief that business shouldn't make their employees work then.
Jerry Deco
Jerry was initially the district manager in the strip, who was even more obsessed with rules and a source of great frustration for Marla, who he constantly calls "Darla", since he can't remember her name. While his demeanor may reflect problems in his personal life (as revealed in a November 2007 story arc where he was in a middle of a divorce), the way he took it out on the employees of the stores in his district earned him little (if any) sympathy. Jerry was written out in May 2008 when he was promoted to a regional position. Much to Marla's horror, he was brought back in May 2009 when Gary, the current district manager, was fired.
Connie
Connie replaced Jerry as the district manager. She is portrayed as much more reasonable and understanding than Jerry, leading to surprise from Marla and Val that someone "human" could be in upper management. Connie left her position a year later when she accepted a job in another company.
Gary
Gary replaced Connie as the new district manager. In his few appearances he is shown as more focused on the rules than Connie, though less so than Jerry. After watching Marla and Stuart bicker and attempt to undermine the other, he assigned them to a weekly management communication seminar. Gary was abruptly fired and replaced in May 2009 upon Jerry's return.
Scott Garrison
Scott is Marla's husband. He is a bartender at Dave's Carousing Cantina in the same mall as Grumbel's. They met after Val insisted Marla spend an evening out with her in February 2007. Marla feared that Cooper ruined her chances with Scott when he spilled the news that she liked him during a visit to Dave's. Fortunately, Scott liked Marla too, and the two were shown as a dating couple in occasional strips since that time.
After pressure from Marla to make a commitment to their future together, Scott proposed in May 2010. They were married in June 2011.
Warren
Warren is the buck-toothed mall security guard. His job is to make sure that the stores and the employees in the mall follow all mall regulations to the letter, although he would often prefer to hang out with Cooper than do his job. He regularly rides on a Segway scooter.
Jasper Morley (deceased)
Stuart's former manager, who died seven years earlier when he choked on a Clucky Chicken sandwich. He reappeared as a ghost in front of Stuart, revealing that he is forced to walk on Earth for all eternity
wearing a chain of Grumbel's Policy and Procedure Manuals.
Zoe
A barista
at the mall cafe who has an uncanny resemblance to Marla (with blonde hair). Marla denies seeing any resemblance, although she was creeped out when Cooper asked Zoe out for a date. The date, however, went downhill when Cooper discovered that Zoe's dad resembles (and acts like) Stuart. After a while the two started dating again, but Zoe eventually broke up when Cooper stopped paying attention to her.
Spike
Was hired after Marla discovered Stuart was keeping a secret "Do Not Hire" file based on visible tattoos and unnatural hair colors or styles. Marla informed Connie, the DM, and Stuart was forced to hire employees he felt were not employable. Spike, a man sporting a mohawk and sleeve tattoos, was Marla's first hire. Much to Stuart's chagrin, Spike turned out to be a model employee: polite, courteous and knowledgeable (especially in terms of video games, he has several YouTube videos reviewing different systems and games). Despite all of these favorable aspects, Stuart transferred Spike from the floor to the stockroom where he worked with Cooper and Lunker. Spike was written out in January 2009 when Stuart was forced to lay off all seasonal help.
Gus
Cooper and (formerly) Lunker's manager at the Gas We Got convenience store.
The strips generally are daily and alternate between stand alone, and serialised or sometimes themed with the story running for a week.
The daily strip usually runs to four panels but on occasions there are three panels. The Sunday strip is in a two tiered format with a large logo panel appearing on the left of the strip.
Employee-Management Relationship
This type of relationship occurs in nearly all types of employment, but there are facets of this relationship that are unique to retail situations. Some of the struggles that take place in retail employment is the issue of scheduling, managing difficult customers, enforcement of store policies, the perception of management incompetence, and so on. Feuti has used the dynamics of the relationship between Stuart and the rest of the staff to illustrate this relationship.
Employee-Customer Relationship
While the customer dynamic exists in all types of businesses, in retail stores this dynamic can take on a unique flair. Since retail stores cannot choose who their customers are, retail employees are forced to wait on anyone who walks through the door. While most customers are polite and understanding, a small percentage can be rude, egocentric, demanding, mentally unstable, emotional, or suffer from any number of other types of undesirable traits. Since all retail stores have a goal of earning repeated business, employees will often sacrifice their better judgement or dignity to meet the demands of such customers. On the other side of the relationship, stores often hire individuals who are not up to the demands of the work placed on them. When customers find themselves dealing with an employee who is incompetent, it can often be a very frustrating experience. Dealing with annoying customers is probably the most frequently recurring theme in the strip. For the flip side of the relationship, the character Courtney is typically used to highlight incompetent retail employees.
Employee-Employee Relationship
As with most emplacement situations, retail employees find themselves working with their coworkers for dozens of hours each week. This proximity forces relationships, some of which work well, other don't for a variety of reasons. While for the most part the employees of Grumbel's are shown as a group of friends, there have been exceptions throughout the strip's run.
Individual Store-Corporate Headquarters Relationship
Retail stores policies are often set by a corporate headquarters, by people who do not interact with customers on a daily basis. This can create tension between what the employees see as practical and what corporate headquarters views as financially lucrative. This dynamic is most often illustrated in the strip through the relationship between Marla and Jerry.
. While initially excited by his luck, he became despondent when he realized that $5000 was not enough money to have a significant effect on his quality of life. He cheered up though when he realized that he could use the money to purchase a laptop and air his grievances through a personal blog
. Once the strip was published Norm Feuti published the blog and wrote it from the perspective of the fictional Cooper. The blog is used with his own personal blog to communicate with his fans and keep them updated with news on the strip.
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
distributed by King Features Syndicate
King Features Syndicate
King Features Syndicate, a print syndication company owned by The Hearst Corporation, distributes about 150 comic strips, newspaper columns, editorial cartoons, puzzles and games to nearly 5000 newspapers worldwide...
. It is authored and illustrated by Norm Feuti
Norm Feuti
Norm Feuti is an American cartoonist and author best known for his nationally syndicated comic strip Retail.-Retail:Having worked in retail for more than 15 years, Norm Feuti started working on the daily comic strip Retail which was eventually launched on January 1, 2006, by the newspaper syndicate...
. It made its newspaper debut on January 1, 2006, and then gained quickly in popularity following articles in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
and TIME
Time
Time is a part of the measuring system used to sequence events, to compare the durations of events and the intervals between them, and to quantify rates of change such as the motions of objects....
Magazine
Setting
The strip is set in a fictional department storeDepartment store
A department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...
called "Grumbel's." Grumbel's provides a wide array of goods; customers have been shown shopping for anything from garden equipment and electronics to clothing and housewares. Given the wide variety of products available through Grumbel's it more closely resembles a Sears than other types of retail stores. However, the name Grumbel's is a parody of real life department store Gimbels, which closed in 1987.
Besides being in a generic, suburban mall the location of Grumbel's is kept ambiguous. Grumbel's has been operating at least since the mid-1900's and was founded by the fictional J.P. Grumbel, as seen in one of the comic strips.
In January 2010, it was revealed that this Grumbel's store is located in New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
..
Marla Garrison (nee Masters)
Marla, a brunette woman in her 30s, is Grumbel's assistant manager and the main character of the strip. She is good at her job and cited as a reasonable manager, but is often discouraged when the bureaucratic rules set by the corporate office work against the store's stated goal of customer service. While the daily strips' plots often deal with her discouragement, Marla maintains an optimistic attitude and often mentions a dream of opening her own small store or boutique. She vents her frustration by writing a retail manifesto railing against the idiocies of customers and management, which at last mention had grown to 200 pages. She is currently making plans to start her own retail business, but is determined to keep this secret at work for fear of being fired by the management.Marla and her fiance Scott were married in June 2011. They are expecting their first child, due in April 2012.
Cooper Costello
Cooper works in Grumbel's stockroom and is the store's clown. His attitude makes him a regular antagonist to Stuart. He is constantly frustrated by bad policies and customers, and regularly lashes out at the store by goofing off during his work hours and playing practical jokes. He is often the one most directly affected by retail management policies such as the lack of employer health-care programs and the erratic amount of part-time hours. In recent strips, he was nearly fired as a cost-cutting measure but was able to stay on when Lunker offered to cut his hours in half. To make ends meet, he now works part time (in addition to Grumbel's) as an attendant at a gas station mini-mart, which he describes as "same doom, different flavor."He has built a small lounge on the roof of the Grumbel's out of old patio furniture dubbed "Cooper's Lounge" and also spends time constructing "Box Art" out of empty cardboard boxes. Some examples of his art include robots, castles, mazes and even a "Great Wall of Boxes." He's a fan of science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
and geek culture, and often wears Halloween costumes based on obscure movie, TV or comic book characters that other staff members don't recognize, much to Cooper's frustration. Cooper harbored a crush on Val for years before finally asking her on a date in February 2011. They got along far better than either of them expected, and while they have been taking things slowly, they have continued to grow closer.
Val
Val is a department supervisor and good friend of Marla. She regularly challenges Marla's resigned attitude toward her work, asking her what her goals were and pushing her to get out of the store and find a boyfriend.She is also a published creative writer and would eventually like to quit working at Grumbel's and write full-time. In Halloween 2008, a week of strips focused on a short story she had written. In October 2011, it is revealed that her job is a secret to her family who believes she is an accomplished writer.
Stuart Suchet
Stuart Suchet (his last name is pronounced "soo-shay") is the store manager. Often viewed by his employees as an incompetent tyrant, he is a "corporate yes man" who implements any instructions sent from the corporate office without question. He has a working relationship with Marla (which has become more strained as the strip has progressed), and relies heavily on her to complete his work and keep the employees' morale up. He also has a strained relationship with Cooper, who often calls him "Zucchini Head", and can't understand why Cooper won't follow corporate policy without question.Stuart further demonstrated his incompetence and arrogance in July 2009 when, following her vacation, he threatened to replace Marla with Josh as assistant manager. He even went so far as to have both Josh and Marla interview for the position.
Minor Characters
AlanAlan manages the shoe department and is good friends with Cooper.
Courtney
Courtney works as a cashier. She is lazy, ditzy, incompetent, and constantly rude to customers. It has been hinted that she was hired largely because of her looks, and she avoided being fired on one occasion chiefly because she isn't paid as well as other store workers. She is one of Marla's sources of frustration (besides Stuart).
Keith Sanzen
Keith was added to the line up in October 2007. He got his job in the shoe department by contacting Cooper through Cooper's Blog. After starting work at Grumbel's, Cooper discovered that Keith had made a blog that copies his format exactly, hence driving a wedge between these two former friends. Eventually, Cooper hacked into Keith's computer and infected it with a virus. Keith held a grudge, and in April 2008, was able to get his revenge when he discovered Cooper's secret lounge on the roof of the mall, and started blackmailing him by making him give total access to the lounge. Within few days, Keith has converted the lounge into "Keith's Poetry Perch." Realizing that he has no other way of beating him, Cooper reluctantly called the police and Keith was arrested for holding a poetry slam on the roof. As a result, Keith is now banned from the mall. Despite this, Keith vows vengeance on Cooper when he "least expects it."
Keith is the only character known to be based solely on a real person. The real Keith Sanzen is a fan of the strip who won a contest on Cooper's Retail Blog.
Josh Tobin
Josh was hired as temporary Christmas help in October 2007. Marla hired him from a pool of otherwise incompetent applicants for Christmas positions, since he appeared to be the perfect employee: his application was correctly filled out, he showed up for his interview and performed well, and his references were good (if a little foreboding). However, Marla and the rest of the employees quickly discovered that Josh is determined to be the perfect retail worker and that he is fond of pointing out the policy violations (and other flaws) of his fellow employees. Stuart, of course, bonded quickly with Josh and considered him potential management material.
In spite of the other staff members' blatant dislike of Josh and their best efforts to have him fired, Josh cheerfully accepted an offer from Stuart for a permanent position at Grumbel's in January 2008.
Lunker
Lunker is Cooper's co-worker in the Grumbel's stockroom. His real name is Mel and, according to Cooper, he is "bald, about 7 feet tall, all around huge and only slightly more articulate than the Hulk
Hulk (comics)
The Hulk is a fictional character, a superhero in the . Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in The Incredible Hulk #1 ....
." Cooper took immediate liking to Lunker, as he has "chaos potential." Lunker has shown brief moments of unexpected intelligence or insight, and is very loyal towards Cooper. When Cooper was going to be fired as a cost-saving measure, Lunker intervened and offered to cut his hours so Cooper could stay on.
Mrs. Masters
Mrs. Masters' is Marla's mother. She is an understanding mother to her daughter, but frequently frustrates her with her inability to understand many of the inconveniences Marla experiences. A running joke in the strip is Marla's mother asking her to run out and buy something during holidays, which annoys Marla due to her belief that business shouldn't make their employees work then.
Jerry Deco
Jerry was initially the district manager in the strip, who was even more obsessed with rules and a source of great frustration for Marla, who he constantly calls "Darla", since he can't remember her name. While his demeanor may reflect problems in his personal life (as revealed in a November 2007 story arc where he was in a middle of a divorce), the way he took it out on the employees of the stores in his district earned him little (if any) sympathy. Jerry was written out in May 2008 when he was promoted to a regional position. Much to Marla's horror, he was brought back in May 2009 when Gary, the current district manager, was fired.
Connie
Connie replaced Jerry as the district manager. She is portrayed as much more reasonable and understanding than Jerry, leading to surprise from Marla and Val that someone "human" could be in upper management. Connie left her position a year later when she accepted a job in another company.
Gary
Gary replaced Connie as the new district manager. In his few appearances he is shown as more focused on the rules than Connie, though less so than Jerry. After watching Marla and Stuart bicker and attempt to undermine the other, he assigned them to a weekly management communication seminar. Gary was abruptly fired and replaced in May 2009 upon Jerry's return.
Scott Garrison
Scott is Marla's husband. He is a bartender at Dave's Carousing Cantina in the same mall as Grumbel's. They met after Val insisted Marla spend an evening out with her in February 2007. Marla feared that Cooper ruined her chances with Scott when he spilled the news that she liked him during a visit to Dave's. Fortunately, Scott liked Marla too, and the two were shown as a dating couple in occasional strips since that time.
After pressure from Marla to make a commitment to their future together, Scott proposed in May 2010. They were married in June 2011.
Warren
Warren is the buck-toothed mall security guard. His job is to make sure that the stores and the employees in the mall follow all mall regulations to the letter, although he would often prefer to hang out with Cooper than do his job. He regularly rides on a Segway scooter.
Jasper Morley (deceased)
Stuart's former manager, who died seven years earlier when he choked on a Clucky Chicken sandwich. He reappeared as a ghost in front of Stuart, revealing that he is forced to walk on Earth for all eternity
Jacob Marley
Jacob Marley is a fictional character who appears in Charles Dickens' 1843 novella A Christmas Carol.- Relationship with Scrooge:In life, Marley was the business partner of Ebenezer Scrooge. As teenagers, both men had been apprenticed in business and met as clerks in another business...
wearing a chain of Grumbel's Policy and Procedure Manuals.
Zoe
A barista
Barista
A barista is a person, usually a coffee-house employee, who prepares and serves espresso-based coffee drinks.- Application of the title :...
at the mall cafe who has an uncanny resemblance to Marla (with blonde hair). Marla denies seeing any resemblance, although she was creeped out when Cooper asked Zoe out for a date. The date, however, went downhill when Cooper discovered that Zoe's dad resembles (and acts like) Stuart. After a while the two started dating again, but Zoe eventually broke up when Cooper stopped paying attention to her.
Spike
Was hired after Marla discovered Stuart was keeping a secret "Do Not Hire" file based on visible tattoos and unnatural hair colors or styles. Marla informed Connie, the DM, and Stuart was forced to hire employees he felt were not employable. Spike, a man sporting a mohawk and sleeve tattoos, was Marla's first hire. Much to Stuart's chagrin, Spike turned out to be a model employee: polite, courteous and knowledgeable (especially in terms of video games, he has several YouTube videos reviewing different systems and games). Despite all of these favorable aspects, Stuart transferred Spike from the floor to the stockroom where he worked with Cooper and Lunker. Spike was written out in January 2009 when Stuart was forced to lay off all seasonal help.
Gus
Cooper and (formerly) Lunker's manager at the Gas We Got convenience store.
Style
The strip is drawn in great detail and appears in colour. The characters lives revolves in and outside the mall, with items like computers, sales registers, vehicles and other items drawn and presented as close to reality as possible.The strips generally are daily and alternate between stand alone, and serialised or sometimes themed with the story running for a week.
The daily strip usually runs to four panels but on occasions there are three panels. The Sunday strip is in a two tiered format with a large logo panel appearing on the left of the strip.
Themes
The strip primarily focuses on the interpersonal relations between the characters and the additional people they are forced to interact with as a result of their profession. These types of relationships are based very much on the real life interactions of retail employees, and are then presented in a humorous light. There are several types of relationships that are explored repeatedly.Employee-Management Relationship
This type of relationship occurs in nearly all types of employment, but there are facets of this relationship that are unique to retail situations. Some of the struggles that take place in retail employment is the issue of scheduling, managing difficult customers, enforcement of store policies, the perception of management incompetence, and so on. Feuti has used the dynamics of the relationship between Stuart and the rest of the staff to illustrate this relationship.
Employee-Customer Relationship
While the customer dynamic exists in all types of businesses, in retail stores this dynamic can take on a unique flair. Since retail stores cannot choose who their customers are, retail employees are forced to wait on anyone who walks through the door. While most customers are polite and understanding, a small percentage can be rude, egocentric, demanding, mentally unstable, emotional, or suffer from any number of other types of undesirable traits. Since all retail stores have a goal of earning repeated business, employees will often sacrifice their better judgement or dignity to meet the demands of such customers. On the other side of the relationship, stores often hire individuals who are not up to the demands of the work placed on them. When customers find themselves dealing with an employee who is incompetent, it can often be a very frustrating experience. Dealing with annoying customers is probably the most frequently recurring theme in the strip. For the flip side of the relationship, the character Courtney is typically used to highlight incompetent retail employees.
Employee-Employee Relationship
As with most emplacement situations, retail employees find themselves working with their coworkers for dozens of hours each week. This proximity forces relationships, some of which work well, other don't for a variety of reasons. While for the most part the employees of Grumbel's are shown as a group of friends, there have been exceptions throughout the strip's run.
Individual Store-Corporate Headquarters Relationship
Retail stores policies are often set by a corporate headquarters, by people who do not interact with customers on a daily basis. This can create tension between what the employees see as practical and what corporate headquarters views as financially lucrative. This dynamic is most often illustrated in the strip through the relationship between Marla and Jerry.
Parodies
| Title | Publication Date | ISBN |
|---|---|---|
| Pretending You Care: The Retail Employee Handbook | October 16, 2007 | 1-4013-0890-2 |
Cooper's Retail Blog
In early 2007 the strip followed a short plot line where Cooper won $5000 in a scratch off lotteryLottery
A lottery is a form of gambling which involves the drawing of lots for a prize.Lottery is outlawed by some governments, while others endorse it to the extent of organizing a national or state lottery. It is common to find some degree of regulation of lottery by governments...
. While initially excited by his luck, he became despondent when he realized that $5000 was not enough money to have a significant effect on his quality of life. He cheered up though when he realized that he could use the money to purchase a laptop and air his grievances through a personal blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
. Once the strip was published Norm Feuti published the blog and wrote it from the perspective of the fictional Cooper. The blog is used with his own personal blog to communicate with his fans and keep them updated with news on the strip.