Nope, I don’t really get either of these Library Comics 4-panel stories; which arrived together in the same email.
In the above “A”-Strip, I thought it would turn out the thing she was using and thought of as a game would turn out to be an IRL investments app (or “stock market gambling” app, if you prefer). But it turns into a Martin swerve.
And in the “B”-Strip, is this at all about the interaction of library staffers Jody(?) and Stephanie, or are both included just so there can be dialogue about but not including the somewhat problematic “patron”? And what is his story, come to think of it?
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Comics I Don't Understand 
Anyone else just getting color gradient rectangles?
I cannot help with either of these. I’m baffled.
@dvandom, sorry, that might be just an arterfact of my attempting to display the 4-panel “strips” using the “gridded gallery” block, with background color. Let me reduce the complication of that setting and see if it improves the display for you and any others who may have been having a problem.
Okay, I can see ’em now. The first game is clearly Settlers of Catan, this feels like a “writer is frustrated by everyone in their vicinity playing Catan” situation.
The cartoonists don’t enjoy games like Settlers of Catan, and would rather read a book?
In the first one, she is confused by what could easily describe pretty much 99% of all strategy games. He is telling her strategy games aren’t for her and she should read a book.
In the second one, the girl behind the desk (and by extension, anyone behind the desk) would really only need to know about something involving a medical emergency. The customer sees a situation he thinks she should get involved in, but isn’t sure it is a medical emergency. The girl sarcastically thanks him for being wishy-washy on whether she needs to get involved (i.e., is it a medical emergency). When the other woman asks if there is something they need to do, the first girl indicates it is unclear and the customer needs to say whether it is a medical emergency or not. (“Ask him.”)
Yeah, I see two unrelated strips of what seem to be the typical “humor” of this comic that I have seen only from its appearances here at CIDU, which tends towards an almost Retail (was that the name of the strip about big box workers who hated their customers?) level of hatred towards the patrons. 1) patron seemingly accurately describes elements going into a strategy game (in this case a physical box game she holds in her hands), and her problem is not in her understanding of the game, but more in her desire for reality to be different. Librarian suggests she read a book instead. OK, I get it, how do you deal with a reality impaired patron? In the real world, you gently suggest that instead of hoping to conform reality to your designs, you should really learn to conform your designs to reality. Often you have to gently do this often. Repeatedly. And it can be frustrating. OK. But almost all the librarians I know are helpful to the extreme and never snarky. Which brings me to 2) a patron has a lack of communications skills. Also very common. And mostly dealt with by the librarians I know by patient elicitation of the needed information, and not snarkiness. Especially when it’s potentially serious (just because it isn’t a medical emergency doesn’t mean it isn’t a potentially expensive, catastrophic, property damaging, or other serious emergency), and you’d best go look and determine the level of the emergency before engaging in aloof snarkiness.
What I’ve seen of this strip, it just does not represent the wonderful people I know who are librarians, and as such, I have a hard time grokking the humor. (I had an equally hard time with “Retail” (if that was indeed the name), but I recall most people (aside from Bill, who’d stubbornly keep posting them) thought that hating your customers was a perfectly valid (or at least humorous) retail strategy…)
I haven’t run into any snarky librarians, but perhaps this comic says out loud what librarians would sometimes like to say.
In the first one, the library guy is always trying to get people to read real books, particularly the ones he thinks will benefit you.
The second one is just a standard retail trope, the customer wants you to do something, but you see no need for it.
I’m not sure she was being sarcastic about him not being specific – given that character (she never wants to interact with patrons, especially problematic ones), she may have been genuinely thanking him for not saying it was something she needed to deal with.
And as Chak said, the big guy (I have no idea of any of their names, though I read the strip regularly) is _always_ trying to get people to read books instead of (anything else).
I enjoy the strip mildly – there are helpful librarian types in it, as well as the book-pusher and the misandrist. 90% of the strips are amusing in the “oh, there’s that character behaving in their usual way” style. Most of them get a smile from me.
BTW, the game sounds more like Splendor or 7 Wonders or…the other one (Puerto Rico maybe?) than Catan. But there are a _lot_ of resource-collecting games, with complex rules. Catan is relatively simple, at least the basic game.
Library used to be one of my favorite games when I was young. All of my books from when I was young have little pockets glued in the front and have my name stamped across the top edges of the pages and a certain page number (forget which) that the local library used to stamp their name on in their books. I volunteered at the school library in junior high.
My poor grandparents would drive out to where we lived on Long Island to visit us and I would make them borrow books and take them home (they had no interest I am sure in the Bobbsey Twins, Honey Bunch, Nancy Drew, Cherry Ames, Rick Blaine, etc or even in “A Child’s Garden of Verses” – but being grandparents they would check out a book and bring it back on their next visit and borrow another one.
Absolute best I can come up with is that the first one is trying to make the point that seeking knowledge is less frustrating and more rewarding than seeking fortune, a proposition I’m not sure I’d agree with.
I had the same notion that it was building up to a real-life investment punchline. I think the author may have just assumed we’d get there and treat the game and book as metaphors.
I think the second one can be taken at face value: The patron being vague frustrates librarian 1, who responds sarcastically. When librarian 2 turns up, she happens to ask a question that librarian 1 can use for a snappy callback.
That could be read as her trying to antagonize librarian 2 by getting her to interact with the guy, or as her taking the opportunity to start gossiping with a punchy lead-in. She may passively-aggressively intend to be overheard. That may be more clear to regular readers but I’m not sure it matters: I think the line was mostly just for the wordplay.
I have received a subsequent newsletter, and have to say, both the comics (plus bonus) were better than the ones featured in this CIDU post — they were pretty clear, and a bit amusing. Well, one was more of an Awwww.
Again, the four panels are separate images, so instead of struggling to embed them here I’ll just post links to the two pages on their site.
https://librarycomic.com/comic/one-thousand-sixty-five/
https://librarycomic.com/comic/one-thousand-sixty-six/