The (Dun-de-dun) Jimbo & Johnny Mission Statement
Welcome to the world of Jimbo & Johnny – a strip that features two roommates who are good friends that, in the course of just trying to live their lives, find themselves in a never-ending adventure.

Notice that I didn’t describe the strip as being “about” Jimbo and Johnny. It’s not, really. It’s more about the things that comics used to be about- being fun, spontaneous, wild, imaginative, unpredictable, personal and (hopefully) funny.

As I explained to a friend of mine while developing the strip, I hate when cartoonists revert to using cheap puns or the same old tired jokes every week. It turns the reader off when three separate comics on any given day are about playing golf. My goal is to never resort to that in my strip. If Jimbo & Johnny were to play golf, they would most likely get a golf cart stuck at the top of a tree and use that as a springboard for a storyline. Or if they were to get a dog or a cat, the strip wouldn’t be about pet jokes, but perhaps about the lengths they would go to hide the dog from the apartment manager or taste testing the dog food. The point is that it wouldn‘t be just about “dogs are smelly” or “cats are finicky.” That’s been done… to death.

The Setting & Minor Characters
Jimbo & Johnny is set in The City. No particular city… just THE City. The guys live in an older style apartment building in the middle of The City. The building is old and rent is cheap, but the building is in decent condition. The walls are thin and everyone knows each other’s business. The place smells like a combination of mothballs, old paint and Lemon Pledge. The guys’ apartment is one the third floor and has one endearing bright spot that any two single guys would appreciate… it overlooks a pool at a nearby building.
Jimbo and Johnny have neighbors above, below and all around them. Their interaction with their various neighbors is important in the strip because their neighbors are the recurring minor characters in the strip. A couple of them appear in this submission package.

Other than that, the minor characters will be the guys’ coworkers, dates, other friends and people they interact with.

Jimbo & Johnny
Jimbo & Johnny are best friends. They’ve known each other since college and have been friends ever since. When they graduated, the y decided to share an apartment. They hang out together. They eat together. They play together. They watch sports together. But, like anyone else, they have disagreements and, sometimes, even full out wars of will.

About Jimbo
Jimbo is the wilder one of the two. His sense of humor is silly and sarcastic. He’s the one who’s most likely (though not exclusively) to take up a cause and champion it- until he gets bored with it. He’s idealistic and stubborn once he makes up his mind. Jimbo is a bit if a free spirit and has a creative streak. He ultimately wants to do something different. Sometimes he wants to be a writer. Sometimes he wants to be a painter. Sometimes he wants to be a cowboy.

He’s not all that outgoing and, with the exception of things that allow him to “commune with nature,” he wouldn’t normally prefer to do physical things. He would prefer to watch TV or play video games. Johnny is able to talk him into some things eventually, such as running or working out… but usually only because it involves the prospect of meeting girls.
Jimbo works in the art department of an ad agency. He gets to wear whatever he wants to work and tends to abuse the privilege. He’s not really in charge of anything at work. He takes a lot of dumb orders from people who don’t know much about creativity, but like a good soldier, he grumbles through it. His immediate boss is an old hippie who probably (and I don’t ever plan to develop or explore this) probably still smokes a lot of dope. He fancies himself a philosopher, but usually ends up making no sense at all.
Jimbo prefers alternative rock, but also enjoys a lot of classic rock bands, so he’s able to tolerate Johnny’s music. When Jimbo cooks, it’s either to warm up something frozen or to try to copy something he saw on TV- with less than stellar results.

About Johnny
Johnny’s sense of humor is dry and understated. He is generally more subdued. He’s more likely to take things in stride and is generally unopinionated. He’s easily swayed and goes along with Jimbo’s schemes. Johnny is a wanna-be tech guy. He’s a bit of a nerd and loves his computer and pretty much all kinds of electronic gadgets- the more features the better.

Johnny is the more outgoing, friendly one of the two. He actually knows the names of his neighbors. He’s a very sensitive guy and tries not to hurt other people’s feelings. He often finds himself apologizing for Jimbo.

Johnny works for a computer company as a software bug fixer. He must wear a tie to work and dresses like an engineer. Compared to the other geeks at work Johnny is a really cool guy because he actually does things such as date and play football with the guys, so they consider him a god. Johnny is unhappy and repressed at work because of the constant barrage of bureaucratic hoops he must jump through. Johnny’s company is always downsizing, which leaves him a constant state of fear of losing his job.
Johnny’s favorite thing to do at home is “upgrade” his computer- which usually takes the form of Johnny taking it apart, installing a new piece, realizing it doesn’t work and cursing under his breath while he has to take the whole thing apart again to remove the part. He also likes spending time in his room blaring soft rock favorites such as Peter Cetera and Enya. Johnny fancies himself the chef of the two, despite the fact that most of his dishes end up as a concoction of food- a kind of culinary Frankenstein’s monster. It’s usually edible, but rarely tolerable.