I guess I should offer a setting to anyone that doesn't know me. I work at a printing press in the pre-press department. It's a smelly, drab, leaky, concrete area. Calling it an office is a real struggle. Seriously, the place looks like a partially finished basement. When I started working there the coolest piece of decor was this spray painted Apple logo on the white-washed concrete blocks. Real rebels in this office. I guess they thought it would really look nice under the fluorescent light?
Story time kids! So during what I like to call Ye Golden Age there were six of us in the office. I'd been there the longest with Matt hired several months after me. Hunter was hired next and then Greg. These three had been in school together and the four of us became pretty good friends. Ron was soon after to run the department and Bob came at the end of the age. Ron quickly earned many nicknames that almost all came out of love.
Now imagine working in a basement that is constantly 80-degrees in the winter and often hitting 90-degrees in the summer. Great environment for computers, right? Aside from the aforementioned Apple there were an assortment of maps taped to the walls. The center piece in the office was a map of Columbus Ohio. I've spent a lot of time doodling things that I'd tend to throw away or give to others. And one day I noticed that Matt and Hunter had been writing double entendre's next to the sites on the map. So I decided to start putting my drawings on the map.
I'm not certain where I came up with Suicide Bear. It was probably some amusing conversation we had. Needless to say a chuckle at Suicide Bear was always accompanied by my impersonation of a bear. Which, is terrible, of course. But just the thought of a bear as a suicide bomber, while possibly tasteless, is still quite amusing.
This fan favorite is brought to you by none other than Greg. AKA Greggycakes. AKA Captain Greggles. His impression of Randy Savage as Bonesaw McGraw in Spider Man is pretty tight. And of course he inspired the rest of us to yell the signature phrase across the office. In fact I still love saying it! Say it with me now! Come on, you know you want to!
We have a host of colorful characters here at the printing press I work at. This is Tom. He's a helper for one of the litho press operators where I work. But we call him Indiana Jones. Despite his scruffy and unkempt appearance he bares a striking resemblance to the intrepid adventurer. Albeit an older and far more weary version. But the fellas from graphics and I never fail to break into a rendition of Indy's theme every time we see him. I hear he smells pretty rancid, but I keep my distance. I'm content to take the other press operators' word for it. But I decided to depict him on one of his better days. Namely when he had court and got a haircut.
