quite interesting. Though i'm oddly curious on what a human would be like after having prolong exposure, since there contagious o.o

Heh, I'd be intrigued by this "contagiousness"... ^_^;;

And is the change to plastic reversible, or do they simply not recover from that...? (Good thing I'm a teetotaller, hard to have fun as an unthinking/unfeeling statue... ^_^;; )

Contagious. As I wrote, the effects are highly individual. A mild infection might only mean developing a barely noticeable point to the ears and a sense of humour grown more mischievous than before. As for the worst possible case... that was the basis of a novel I once plotted. It involved a little girl named Wendy and what happened when she became too curious about the Gamins living in her house. I'd love to tell you the whole thing, but then I wouldn't have a book to write when I finally retire.

This just sounds like insifficient research! *volunteers*

But yeah, somehow, I had a feeling that the group most likely to get "infected" would be curious children. ^_^;;

While I understand the impulse, the events of "Wendy & the House Gamins" would have been serious enough. At the end of the story, Wendy would have literally had to choose one form of death to avoid another. Not that it was an unhappy ending, exactly. But more than that I do not chose to say.

Oh I'll bet you have plenty of books you could write ^_~

But you're choosing one that, while perhaps unlikely to unseat a J K Rowling or a Terry Pratchett, will at least be able to hold its own in a market defined by such heavyweights. And I don't blame you one bit.

I may have to write books if I'm ever to make a significant change in the frankly grinding poverty I'm used to. I've pretty much ruled out comics and obviously furry art isn't ever going to make me rich.

Some philistines have suggested I should just go out and get a job, and do art in my spare time if I have any. It's nice to know some people have such a high regard for my efforts, that they put free market economics ahead of it. *ahem* Anyway, what sort of job can a 56 1/2 year old slob expect, who doesn't own a suit & tie, or even "good clothes", and hasn't nothing on his resume for the last 30 years but "self employed artist". I'd be lucky to be employed as a "greeter" at Wal-Mart. Most of the money I'd make would end up going to rent, since it's geared to income in my city-owned apartment. So that's out.

I wouldn't mind starting a grow-op on my balcony and sell pot -- that's honest work and lucrative. But it's a wee bit risky...

So that pretty much leaves writing...

You could work in telephone customer service, if you're lazy and have a thick skin.

EEEEEEEEeeeeeeeee! How could I possibly take up telephoning as a living after I've murdered those 15 telephone solicitors... oh, wait. You mean answering a telephone, when people have problems.

What sort of problems could I solve I wonder? I suppose I could give advice to people who get too many telephone solicitors on how to dispose of bodies.

Well there are some where people call in to buy products instead of having telemarketers dial out. You know, like, when you're watching t.v. and there's an infomercial or there's one of those commercials where the screen goes blue and it says, "Dial this number now and get two!" you could be the one on the other end of the line. My ex girlfriend does that.

I used to work for a place that did a sort of reverse telemarketing, where they trick you into calling them and then you try to sell them things that some jerk convinced them were free. That's also an option.

It's a shame we have to wait for you to retire. XD

It's a shame *I* have to wait for me to retire. I'd do it now, if I could. I would have done it 30 years ago... but they don't pay out pensions to white, urban, middle-class, straight guys under 30 with no obvious dementias, disabillities, or dependents.

I would not be surprised if I had these critters at my place.

If scraps of food you leave out disappear, then you have Gamins. If not, you're just a slob who makes a mess out of things and doesn't remember quite how it happened.



One thing I didn't mention in the cartoon page is that most people don't believe in House Gamins. Since they're almost impossible to get rid of, its better to not notice they're there.

I dunno. I've always been plagued with losing things.

I understood it, when I had ferrets, but I ain't had 'em in years, and stuff still goes missing.

If only The Borrowers had been like this!

I read those a fews ago. Okay as far as they go but pretty tame. I seem to recall there was some other children's fiction about little people -- "The Inbetweeners" or something... I'm not familiar with them. Then there are Smurfs...

The main difference between all those and Gamins is that the later aren't at all human. Smart but still basically wee beasties.

Hmm. I recently unearthed a box of old Marx plastics. I'd better look thru them carefully.

Even back when I first saw this well-written work, I took issue with the title. There is absolutely nothing 'common' about Gamins in general and House Gamins in particular. And everything you've written (that i've been fortunate enough to find and read) has only confirmed that fact. I hope you do make them the focal point of a novel - I'd purchase a copy in a New York minute.

The Common House Gamin also has a "wild" cousin, the "Field Gammin". You dont' want to know about any "uncommon" ones such as you find in the deepest parts of mines, or in the Brazilian rain forest.

This is exceedingly adorable. I am so very leaving out little bowls of chocolate syrup on the kitchen floor tonight. ^__^

Both simple and complex have their place. In a good picture I like an overall siplicity of construction, with detail in chosen places where it will matter.

But this reminds me of Mad magazine. I used to read it as a kid, but gradually lost interest from about 1965 or so... It's clear to me now that the reason I was losing interst was that I liked the dense content of the magazine when the main contributors were George Woodbridge, Bill Elder, and others like that. But as the 60's wore on, they retired or moved on, and in their place came artists like Paul Coker Jr., Sergio Aragones, and Antonio Prohias (that Spy vs. Spy guy). Fans of their cartoons say they're very funny, and I guess this is so. But instead of spending ten minutes on every page, extracting hundreds of deliciously weird detail from an exquisite Bill Elder page, I could read a page of Paul Coker crap in about ten seconds. That sort of stuff used to be printed in the *margins* of Mad magazine... now it was the whole page. So I gave Mad up.

perhaps the universal greeting might work?......


Bah weep grana weep nini bong.......