Riposte Card No. 2: Bedroom brevity!

Or, Tom Stoppard by Chip Zdarsky

You know how people complain that comic books have taken over culture? That’s approx. 85% Chip Zdarsky! And now he’s gone and drawn Riposte Card No. 2, to be mailed out in April 2023 to my paid subscribers.

Chip and I once worked together at a family newspaper in Toronto, and his occasionally salacious work would generate shocked-and-appalled letters to the editor. He soon realized this was a feature, not a bug, and began a glittering career in comicdom with the series Sex Criminals, in which the protagonists discover that their coitus can stop time. (I must here note that he and collaborator Matt Fraction published a spinoff book of amorous advice called, ahem, Just the Tips.)

All of this to say that when Chip and I were exchanging great lines upon which to riff, he went there.

Here’s a bit more from the grown man who calls himself Chip:

What's your go-to item in a well-stocked stationery store?
all the money in the register. easy does it and no one gets hurt.

Where do you go for inspiration and/or information?
I go down to a rocky beach near my house when the wind is picking up. I love watching the clouds moving quickly across the sky and the feel of the salt air. And then I check twitter for inspiration if I can still get a signal.

Is there one joke, witticism, or aphorism you live by?
keep your friends close but your enemies closer so you can grab them while your friend plunges the knife into their belly

What's the best thing to put on toast?
one gold bar

What work are you most proud of, and how can people support it?
I’ve never been proud of my work but I write and draw a comic called PUBLIC DOMAIN from Image Comics. The first collection is available everywhere! Too many places, really.

And here’s more on playwright Tom Stoppard, one of the Great Wits:

The winter of Tom Stoppard's wit