The End of Midsummer

This is the winner of the comics/art poll this month! Please enjoy this goofiness... and for added bonus, I'll add the sketch as well!

This was a silly 2016 cooldown sketch from back when I did livestreams. (I have been saying for years that I'd like to start doing them again, but sorry y'all, our art program just doesn't work on Linux. We haven't been able to do digital art on this comp reliably since we got it in Thanksgiving.)

(Alternate title: the Devil Went Down to Georgia... and Regretted It)

While talking with our roommates about the fiddle as the Devil’s Instrument, we got to thinking about the comparative Satanism of other instruments, ranked by how well you could make a Devil dueling song out of it.

The fiddle, yes. The banjo, of course. The harmonica would also be a good contender.

But then we got silly. The tuba would just end like that Spike Jones record where they try to play Flight of the Bumblebee on the trombone. The Devil’s Tympani? The Devil’s Theremin??? (Well, the theremin would likely work out fine.) Warring bassoons? (As a former school bassoonist, we are of course obligated to declare that bassoons can totally war, it’ll just look undignified as the thumbs fly.)

But then we knew. The Devil’s Horn. The instrument that regardless of playing ability instantly sends all listeners to hell:

THE VUVUZELA.

All other contenders go home.

Some smartphone door-to-door salesmen were going around my neighborhood a few days ago, but they made the terrible mistake of getting me at the door, and I easily banished them with the words, "I don't have a smartphone."

Later that day, as I was hauling my laundry for washing, I encountered the salesman again, along with their colleague, both of whom looked to be young, in their early twenties. The one who hadn't encountered me complimented my "necklace," which I said, "Oh, it's a compass!"

"What, really? Can I see?"

"Yup!"

I opened the compass, dazzling both young sellers. They very well may have never seen a compass before in real life.

"Can you really use that?"

"Yup! I use it with maps so I don't get lost!"

"Like, on paper? YOU CAN READ A PAPER MAP???"

At which point the one who'd encountered me said, "They don't have a smartphone either!"

"REALLY?!"

With a flourish, I whipped out my dumbphone and flipped it open. The two salespeople watched as though I had done a magic trick, utterly enchanted, staring at me like I was some kind of Amish wizard. I should've bowed.

So now we and the salespeople are on good terms. ...they probably won't try to sell to us again.