Scott Meyer

How to Use Someone Else as a “Sounding Board”

Some weeks, I have a clear idea what I want to make a comic about.

Other weeks, I have to go through my notebook of unused ideas and find one that jumps out at me as something I can write a comic about.

But sometimes, I can’t find any idea that works well enough on its own to carry a comic, and I’m forced to find a way to glue together a bunch of weird, smaller ideas, hoping to create some kind of humor-Voltron that’s more than the sum of its parts.

Guess which one thi...

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How to Learn About Your Friends

It seems that there are different sizes and types of mouthpiece, and that they are considered to be better for different types of music.

It seems Trombone Champ is not as faithful a simulation of the art form as one would hope.

I kid the trombonists, because I don’t think anyone picks up that instrument unless they have a sense of humor. The problems involved in buying ...

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How to Voice a Petty Complaint

I don’t know, maybe I’m too literal-minded. I just don’t think you can call them ribs if there are no . . ribs. I mean, if you ordered a drumstick, and were just given the meat from a drumstick, would that be a drumstick? You know how I’d answer. I know there are “boneless wings,” but at least they’re formed into the shape of a wing. And with the McDonalds McRib sandwich, even though they don’t promise actual ribs on the sandwich, just rib meat, they still attempt to form the ...

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How to Re-Introduce Multiple Characters to Your Audience

The Knifeketeer returns!

I had some sort of weird writers' block thing going on with all of my heroes for a while there, but that seems to have broken. There are other recurring characters we haven’t seen in a while. Maybe they’ll be back. Angry Client? Athena? Those two guys who I never named? Who knows? Maybe Rodney? I don’t think he’s dead anymore, so maybe!

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BOTsic Instructions

Here's a slideshow of AI attempts at creating art in my style. I'm not sure what it proves, beyond that even for powerful AI entities, hands are hard to draw.

How to Behave When Involved In an Important Current Event

To be honest, it’s a very long list, and the inclusion of my work is probably due to the large amount of it available free of charge in an easily scannable format, not the quality of that work.

Also, because the whole system is most likely automated, I probably only wasted a few seconds of their time. Still, th...

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How to Show Off a New Belonging

Short commentary today. People sometimes ask how accurate Basic Instructions is to my real life. The answer is that it varies. Sometimes it’s not accurate at all. Other times, as the attached photo demonstrates, a comic will come directly from an actual situation.

Note: I think the fact that the Christmas decoration I’m standing in looks like some sort of 1960’s SciFi charging pod adds to the effect.

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How to Employ a Positive Mental Attitude to Improve Your Life

The shocking return of Rocket Hat! It’s been a while. And he’s just as talkative as ever.

The Rocket Hat comics, and most of my comics involving superheroes, are primarily about failure. All of them either have powers that are laughable, self-defeating, or, in the case of Rocket Hat, used solely to repeatedly beat the actual protagonist of those comics to a pulp. In that, the superhero comics actually owe a great debt to my favorite comedy team of all time, Bob and Ray.

For th...

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How to Analyze Your Viewing Habits

Before I continue, I want to point out that I don’t want to shame any of these people. I have my own experiences with projects that turned out to be harder, more involved, or less enjoyable than I expected. I’m not making fun, I’m commiserating, and enjoying watching them tilt at their windmills, which are different from, but surprisingly similar to, my own.

That disclaimer out of the way, I currently subscribe to the following channels:

2024-01-08 08:00:01 +0000 UTC View Post

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How to Share the Benefits of Your Wisdom

I’m not saying that McDonalds food is healthy. It is not. But because the ingredients are prepared off site in a regularly-inspected factory, then assembled and heated in plain view, I can reasonably hope that it is relatively clean. For the short-term avoidance of food poisoning, that’s the important thing.

Please, I cannot stress this enough, DO NOT TRY TO CONVINCE ME I’M WRONG BY SENDING ME YOUR HORROR STORIES. I worked at a Pizza Hut and a Skippers. ...

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How to Learn About Yourself, and Others

I want to be clear that I love our cats, and would never do anything to harm either of them. I will, however, admit that if you had asked me the split second after I discovered that one of them had managed to claw a hole in my best jacket, I might have been tempted to answer differently.

I wonder if part of the reason we love our pets is that they make it difficult sometimes. They are just poorly behaved enough, just needy enough, just selfish enough that we find it adorable . . . after...

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How to Make an Unpleasant Decision

Ric did make me the, “custodian of his memory.” Given his treatment in my comic, that seems like bad judgement. Maybe he figured I was already doing the job of destroying his reputation, so he might as well make the job official.

A trailer for DUNE: Part 2 has come out. It gives a brief look at the character Feyd. They say when Brie Larson was offered the roll of Captain Marvel, they told her not to look up the character online, and if she did, to know that they were not going to us...

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How to Discuss Your Recent Bout of COVID-19

Missy and I had COVID, but are both feeling much better now.

We know where Missy caught it . . . at home, from me. We will never know for sure where I got it, but I strongly suspect a woman I rode near on an escalator. She appeared to be on her way to compete in some sort of wet, hacking cough competition.

“Carl Sagan’s Cosmos: the Marvel Edition” is not the only stunted fruit from my feverish, medicated brain. There are two other ideas I wrote down in detail. Here’s one o...

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How to Prove Drugs Don't Enhance Creativity

This isn't an official Basic Instructions comic, and won't go out to non-Patrons. I'm just throwing it out here in hopes you'll enjoy it, and to thank you for your patience. Missy and I are feeling better, and should be back up and running next week.

Thanks,

Scott Meyer

A Clarification:

Hey everybody. I accidentally wrote something misleading in a reply to a comment yesterday about the posting schedule for the next few weeks. I'm just going to take a moment to correct my own error (which is a surprising amount of the actual work of being a web cartoonist, at least in my experience).

Because of my recent bout of covid, next Monday there will be no fresh comic, and the following Thursday there will be no Out of Context comic. Monday the 4th, patrons will get a new comic,...

How to Recognize Genius When You See It

(NOTE: There will be no new comics next week. Covid. It's a mild case. Already feeling better, but it has thrown the schedule off. I think the fact that it hit me right after a comic about my experience traveling should not be taken as a coincidence. Sorry for the gap. I'll be back soon.)

The attached photo doesn’t quite do the effect justice, but it will still serve as evidence. This hotel lit their room primarily with what appeared to be ultraviolet light...

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How to Explain Your Specific Problems

I probably will watch ‘The Continental’ eventually. The fact is, hundreds of people are involved in the making of a modern, high-end TV show or movie these days. Statistically, one or more person in every production has to be awful. It’s just off-putting to have that awful person be one of the stars. It’s like having a beautiful car with a hood ornament of Baron Harkonen, from David Lynch’s ‘Dune.’

Darn. Now I kinda want that.

When I was a trainer at Walt Disney Worl...