Tapping her marker pen on the kitchen table, Eileen let out a sigh. The sketches in front of her depicted irregular looking animals in squares. She fiddled with her dark brown ponytail for a bit before checking the time. It was 4:38 PM. She had forgotten how long she was sitting there.

“Hey Eileen, what'cha up to?” A woman with dark complexion and black, wavy hair down to her neck came into the room, opening the refrigerator and looking through it's contents. “drawing some buff dudes or cute cats? Wait, some buff cat dudes?” Eileen chuckled at her roommate's notion.

“Please, I'm over that phase Dani. These are character designs for a comic I want to post online. Right now it's a work in progress.” Closing the fridge, Dani took a swig of a lemon-lime soda from within. “Wow, a comic?” she said. “But why? Sounds like a lot of work.”

“Well, remember my friend Nat?” said Eileen. Dani nodded. “She runs a web-comic and lately, it's been getting a lot of traction. She even sold some merch and I draw sketches already so...”

“So you wanted some extra cash.” Dani conjectured.

“Basically. But aside from that, I thought it'd be fun.” said Eileen.

“Mhm, alright then. So what's it about?”

Eileen exhaled a sigh and looked back at the sketches on the table. “Uh, yeah that's the thing, I don't know yet. Comedy's harder than it seems.”

“That's true. Hey, how about...an owl that has laser eyes, but he wears glasses and can't see too good?” Dani asked before taking another swig of her soda. “That sounds cute, but this thing needs more of a zinger.” Eileen added.

“Hmm.” Lost in thought, Dani starts gazing around the kitchen. “Let's see, let's see...what if you had these anime looking girls, but they have cuts of cheese for heads?”

“I'm sorry, what?”

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Dani then eyes the pile of sketches in front of Eileen. “Are these like a “maybe” pile?”

“Oh yeah, those were some scrapped ideas.”

Looking through the papers, Dani's eyes widened with interest, then settle on one page in particular. It depicts a human-like shark wearing a business suit and carrying a cup of coffee.

“Hey this looks funny, you should draw a mustache on him. Ooh! Maybe make him mad at his job or complain about taxes.” Dani looked giddy as she expressed these ideas. Eileen seemed interested for a moment, then made a small frown. “I mean, I like it but I doubt it'd go over well.”

“So?” Dani replied. “They say quality and humor are subjective anyway, so just go for it. Or any of these others, they have potential too.”

“Maybe, ugh, I don't know.” Eileen began to look frustrated. Dani took out her phone, presses the web browser and quickly opens a bookmarked site. “Here, check it out. This is a web-comic called “Deadshow”.” The comic features crudely drawn art and all of it is in black and white with minimal shades of gray appearing sometimes. Eileen goes through a few of the pages, chuckling as she reads. “These jokes are pretty good.” She said.

“Yeah, the art's pretty uh, crappy and the humor can get dark or weird sometimes. But all these people love it, me included.” said Dani, pointing at a view and comment counter on one of the pages. “What I'm saying is, it's not about pleasing people or chasing the biggest crowd, but just being online. Someone out there will find something you make funny and eventually, more people will join in.”

Eileen contemplates this for a few moments. “You know what? You're right. I should listen to you more often.”

“So what are you going to go with?” Dani asked.

“I'll make the shark-man comic.”

Eileen went back to drawing pages of a shark in a business suit and goes on to title it “Salary shark”. Over the course of 2 and a half months, she uploaded 1 to 2 pages a week to a comic hosting site. One evening, Dani walks into the living room with Eileen on her laptop.

“Hey Dani, remember that shark comic we talked about weeks ago?”

“Yeah, what's up?”

“Well after a couple of pages, it's got some recognition. Ten comments so far.”

Dani smiled brightly. “You see? I told you it was funny!”

“Mhmm, except nine of them came from a guy called “Big-fish-Jack96”, who keeps commenting on how hot the shark man is.”

A quick, quiet moment passes with Dani's smile shifting into an uncertain grimace. “Oh...well hey, it could've been worse. He could've asked for some weirdo art.” Eileen's eyebrows raised in the center of her head.

“He already asked for drawings of him swallowing someone whole.” Another quiet moment passes. “I, uh, I'm starting to reconsider this idea.” Eileen added. Dani's mouth curls to one corner, then let's out a smirk.

“Pfft, come on Eileen.”