TITLE The Bastich By Hart
PANEL 1 (Bastich, Faith and Hacker-Lad are at a party full of nerds) BASTICH: I don't know how I let you guys talk me into coming to this computer science party. This is super-boring. FAITH: Give it a chance, 'Stich. HACKER-LAD: Yeah, these guys aren't as dull as they look.
PANEL 2 (A nerd with glasses and a bowl cut and a "France" T-Shirt is talking to another nerd with a flat top and glasses and a loud button shirt.) NERD 1: ...so then I changed the hex variables in the binary search patterns and added a zero-page memory so the indexed register would add a third data counter to the fourth... NERD 2: Ah...I see, thereby tripling the speed output! Good thinking my friend!
PANEL 3 (Bastich puts his hand to his chin, unimpressed.) BASTICH: Oh yeah, these guys are fully invigorating.
PANEL 4 (Hacker-Lad speaks to Bastich) HACKER-LAD: Quit griping... Look... things ought to start picking up now... BASTICH: What do you mean?
PANEL 5 (Suddenly, Bapper appears holding a cauldron above the crowd of nerds) BAPPER: All right everybody! The Romulan Ale is here! NERDS: Whoo hoo! Yay! Fill 'er up!
PANEL 6 (Later, Bastich cowers behind a couch as the whole nerd party has turned into a wild brawl) CAPTION: Five minutes later... FIGHTING NERDS: Fight! Fight! BSD!!! LINUX!!! HP-UX! MS-DOS (not!) MacOS Ra! Ra! OFFSCREEN NERD: Root Beer? Isn't that a Keg set aside for the sysadmins? BASTICH: Sheesh, this is getting dangerous!
CREDITS (c) 1995 Joshua Adam Hart
Commentary
Chico State was known for its parties, and the Computer Science majors were no exception (yet somehow the school held onto its CS accreditation). I wasn't great at parties, but this group was inviting and always such a blast to hang out with.
Bapper makes his second appearance here, unleashing his famous "Romular Ale" (I think it was some sort of pineapple concoction that had to be boiled in a pot before we could drink it). It wasn't blue like its namesake, which I'm sure I pointed out once or twice. But it didn't stop any of us from consuming our share.
The two nerds in Panel 2 are meant to be me and one of my best friends from middle and high school. His "France" shirt and my eyesore fashion sense were in-jokes.
The nerd rumble in the final panel is filled with cameos from our usual gang from the computer labs. If you think you see yourself in there, you're probably right.