Avery, "regular" guy
Originally published 29 August 2002

This strip, and the one after it, were so good that they were shamelessly plagiarized by a college cartoonist who probably thought I'd never learn about it. I took it, truth be told, as an enormous compliment.

Avery is not a complex character, really. He hopes that commercial products will infuse him with that nebulous characeristic we call "coolness," which in turn will validate his existence. That this never happens doesn't discourage him, apparently.

I think of Avery as a victim, really. The original "cool" people, folks like Miles Davis or James Dean, were mavericks, not slavish followers. But it's a lot more profitable to sell the idea of "cool" if it can be made uniform. Of all the characters in the strip, Avery has most completely bought into this. Even Felicia has more genuine style than he does.

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