When I drew this page and the panel of Hanna sitting on her throne I was definitely thinking fondly of my friend Lacey, whose Big Bud Press was really taking off. Beyond her contributions to earlier OP strips, Lacey has always given me the sense that bigger things are possible as long as you have the vision – that the vision, to an artist, is everything in a world of imitators. The skills or wherewithal to make that vision come alive are important too, sure, but those can be learned, inherited, faked through craftiness, etc. To see in your mind exactly what you want, and have the restless drive to produce it is a rare gift. Therein lies the sort of thing we call “talent”. |
This is true in business and politics as well – the guy/gal who gets ahead is not the smartest one. It's the person who has a goal and the pitbull tenacity to bite onto it and never let go – and can convince other people that they know what they're doing even if they've got no idea beyond 'get to Z'. That often includes ruthlessly stabbing backs and grinding peons to dust as cogs in your machine as necessary. I'd say that last bit doesn't necessarily apply to artists, but I've read enough biographies to know it's certainly non-zero.
Thomas Kinkade would be a good example crossing the artist/business boundary. He's not super talented as an artist, but has created a huge empire of peons churning out smarm for old people.
For the record, I absolutely LOVE that chair.
I'm curious about the space. Did Hanna just rent a professional kitchen or something? (If I remember correctly, before now she's cooked from her apartment?)
I wonder the same- is there a storefront to this or is it just a kitchen for her main operations.
It's like a small warehouse unit to cook in. "New digs" as Will puts it. And yes, previously they've always been in Hannah / Eve's apartment. So this is Hannah's thrust to take it all up a level and move into a more professional operation. Note Will's use of 'this company' in panel 4.
At this point, the Bake N' Bake brand is dramatic irony: originally celebrating good food made by high people, its owner reportedly can't get high anymore (which was also Hanna's go-to rationale for not wanting kids during the Occupy Wall Street arc) and its other employee divested in the pot industry in order to work there, more or less.
Nothing marks the passage of time, or puts our plans into perspective, like maintaining outdated personas.
I still don't get how a bakery with only 1.5 employees could make it as a business in New York. There's just not the volume available to make enough money to make rent.