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Description
TALES OF AUTUMN SPRING (ToAS)
by Richard Mandel

based on characters and situations

copyright (C) 2019-2023, all rights reserved

Episode 2 - "Almost a Date"

PREV: FIRST: NEXT:

--------------------

COMMENTS

Jim Cozort is one of the original supporting cast members of the Autumn Spring series. Remember the guy who seemed to hide out all the time in #5 at the Richland Townhomes in its first season and wouldn't come out because he suffered from caligynephobia, caused after his wife left him for another woman? (long laugh). The same guy who used to sneak around in the city sewer and storm drain system to do his business in town despite his phobia so Richland Townhomes manager Lester Dent wouldn't know he was getting out and couldn't pick on him via his phobia? Yeah, that Jim Cozort (grin). He came a long way during the original Autumn Spring series and here he is now over a quarter-century later helping Brandy out of her present fix. BTW this was how I planned for this episode to end all along, although there was an extra bit I had to cut and I'll talk about it a bit later. Jim is a custom model made by taking the rigged head of Paul Mamoru's public domain character model of Star Trek's Captain Kirk that I released for XPS use many years ago and attaching it to the body of the 1950's version of Demitichev from Singularity, along with changing and modify some of the textures of both to get what you see above. I was going to make his sideburns grey too to hint at him being older (he's about the same age as Brandy) but it was going to be more trouble than it was worth, plus I wanted to get this story finished so I could move on to finishing another unfinished project of mine from last year. All the parts are out there if you want to recreate Jim in this form, so happy hunting. XD

Through the basement. Reina let me in. - And via a door that opens straight into the city sewer system, a feature that you often get in certain cities, especially those with older water systems or with buildings located close to its core areas as opposed to its outliers. I'm sure you folks can speak of examples you know. Such doors are usually there for maintenance purposes.

Bet you're glad I left Marr Freight ... - Jim's first job after he was cured of his caligynephobia by his friends was as a forklift driver at Marr Freight. How he got that job and why is told in the third and final season of the original Autumn Spring series. Now you're up to speed in brief as to what happened to him after the end of the series, save for one more bit of info in that cut section, but as I said I'll talk about that shortly.

Do you know how many years it's been since Larry and I ... - Brandy is referring to the events of the Autumn Spring second season episode "The Thing What Lurked in the Drains." Here's a direct link to the first page if you haven't read it before:

I had to delete the better part of the conversation between Jim and Brandy as they're walking through the sewer, as well as change what I was going to do for this final scene given I had only one more page left in my normal 20-page or so limit for my web comic episode format. In the original draft Jim would have told Brandy that he was taking her to the Richland Apartments (ref. "The Thing What Lurked in the Sewers"), where she and her late husband Larry both lived and first met many years before, because that's the last place Kerry would expect her to go -- once she figured out Brandy had left Reina's bar via the sewers. Reina had already called her family to let them know where she and Jim were going, and his wife Mei (Reina's niece, their story is told in in the third season of Autumn Spring, and this is that other bit of info regarding Jim's activities since the end of Autumn Spring) was going to have dinner ready and waiting for them when they got there. Brandy would have pointed out that it was going to be a bit of a hike to get there, Jim would have offered to converse all the way to pass the time, and that's when Brandy would have suggested singing instead. I had to compact this down due to my page limit issue, so the trip to the Richland Apartments was cut in its entirety and replaced by the city utilities truck parked eight blocks away instead. I kept the song, though, as that I how I had planned for this episode to end when I first began drafting it. BTW when I cut all of this I also cut a potential appearance by Mei herself, who was played in Autumn Spring by Lei Fang from Tecmo's Dead or Alive fighting game franchise. So if you're planning on recreating Jim Cozort's character model you be happy to know you won't have to do the same for his lady love Mei. Plenty of Lei Fang game model rips and fan custom models already out there.

"The Song of the Sewer" as performed by the late Art Carney of The Honeymooners fame was not part of that show proper, although Art sings the song in character as Ed Norton, the New York City sewer worker from that series, and it's often associated with it because of that. It actually comes from his independent album Music for Working Men from 1955, released in conjunction with the series, and it was also released as a 45 RPM record single. I felt it made for a fitting end song for this episode of ToAS, given that it ends in the city sewers with the chief city sewer worker (Jim) escorting Brandy through them and away from the clutches of nosy reporter Kerry Ingram. Here's a YouTube link to the full song:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRvrj-…

BTW there are a number of Honeymooners references throughout Autumn Spring. It's a true American sitcom classic and a personal favorite of mine, and I'm fortunate enough to have acquired every single episode -- including the old Jackie Gleason Show shorts from which it sprang and later continued after the series proper left the air. It finds new fans all the time, which is a testament to its genius and the four people who make it work -- Jackie Gleason (Ralph Kramden), Art Carney (Ed Norton), Audrey Meadows (Alice Kramden), and Joyce Randolph (Trixie Norton). Va-va-va-va-voom!

That's it for this installment, folks. Credits to follow.

Description
TALES OF AUTUMN SPRING (ToAS)
by Richard Mandel

based on characters and situations

copyright (C) 2019-2023, all rights reserved

Episode 2 - "Almost a Date"

PREV: FIRST: NEXT:

--------------------

COMMENTS

Jim Cozort is one of the original supporting cast members of the Autumn Spring series. Remember the guy who seemed to hide out all the time in #5 at the Richland Townhomes in its first season and wouldn't come out because he suffered from caligynephobia, caused after his wife left him for another woman? (long laugh). The same guy who used to sneak around in the city sewer and storm drain system to do his business in town despite his phobia so Richland Townhomes manager Lester Dent wouldn't know he was getting out and couldn't pick on him via his phobia? Yeah, that Jim Cozort (grin). He came a long way during the original Autumn Spring series and here he is now over a quarter-century later helping Brandy out of her present fix. BTW this was how I planned for this episode to end all along, although there was an extra bit I had to cut and I'll talk about it a bit later. Jim is a custom model made by taking the rigged head of Paul Mamoru's public domain character model of Star Trek's Captain Kirk that I released for XPS use many years ago and attaching it to the body of the 1950's version of Demitichev from Singularity, along with changing and modify some of the textures of both to get what you see above. I was going to make his sideburns grey too to hint at him being older (he's about the same age as Brandy) but it was going to be more trouble than it was worth, plus I wanted to get this story finished so I could move on to finishing another unfinished project of mine from last year. All the parts are out there if you want to recreate Jim in this form, so happy hunting. XD

Through the basement. Reina let me in. - And via a door that opens straight into the city sewer system, a feature that you often get in certain cities, especially those with older water systems or with buildings located close to its core areas as opposed to its outliers. I'm sure you folks can speak of examples you know. Such doors are usually there for maintenance purposes.

Bet you're glad I left Marr Freight ... - Jim's first job after he was cured of his caligynephobia by his friends was as a forklift driver at Marr Freight. How he got that job and why is told in the third and final season of the original Autumn Spring series. Now you're up to speed in brief as to what happened to him after the end of the series, save for one more bit of info in that cut section, but as I said I'll talk about that shortly.

Do you know how many years it's been since Larry and I ... - Brandy is referring to the events of the Autumn Spring second season episode "The Thing What Lurked in the Drains." Here's a direct link to the first page if you haven't read it before:

I had to delete the better part of the conversation between Jim and Brandy as they're walking through the sewer, as well as change what I was going to do for this final scene given I had only one more page left in my normal 20-page or so limit for my web comic episode format. In the original draft Jim would have told Brandy that he was taking her to the Richland Apartments (ref. "The Thing What Lurked in the Sewers"), where she and her late husband Larry both lived and first met many years before, because that's the last place Kerry would expect her to go -- once she figured out Brandy had left Reina's bar via the sewers. Reina had already called her family to let them know where she and Jim were going, and his wife Mei (Reina's niece, their story is told in in the third season of Autumn Spring, and this is that other bit of info regarding Jim's activities since the end of Autumn Spring) was going to have dinner ready and waiting for them when they got there. Brandy would have pointed out that it was going to be a bit of a hike to get there, Jim would have offered to converse all the way to pass the time, and that's when Brandy would have suggested singing instead. I had to compact this down due to my page limit issue, so the trip to the Richland Apartments was cut in its entirety and replaced by the city utilities truck parked eight blocks away instead. I kept the song, though, as that I how I had planned for this episode to end when I first began drafting it. BTW when I cut all of this I also cut a potential appearance by Mei herself, who was played in Autumn Spring by Lei Fang from Tecmo's Dead or Alive fighting game franchise. So if you're planning on recreating Jim Cozort's character model you be happy to know you won't have to do the same for his lady love Mei. Plenty of Lei Fang game model rips and fan custom models already out there.

"The Song of the Sewer" as performed by the late Art Carney of The Honeymooners fame was not part of that show proper, although Art sings the song in character as Ed Norton, the New York City sewer worker from that series, and it's often associated with it because of that. It actually comes from his independent album Music for Working Men from 1955, released in conjunction with the series, and it was also released as a 45 RPM record single. I felt it made for a fitting end song for this episode of ToAS, given that it ends in the city sewers with the chief city sewer worker (Jim) escorting Brandy through them and away from the clutches of nosy reporter Kerry Ingram. Here's a YouTube link to the full song:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRvrj-…

BTW there are a number of Honeymooners references throughout Autumn Spring. It's a true American sitcom classic and a personal favorite of mine, and I'm fortunate enough to have acquired every single episode -- including the old Jackie Gleason Show shorts from which it sprang and later continued after the series proper left the air. It finds new fans all the time, which is a testament to its genius and the four people who make it work -- Jackie Gleason (Ralph Kramden), Art Carney (Ed Norton), Audrey Meadows (Alice Kramden), and Joyce Randolph (Trixie Norton). Va-va-va-va-voom!

That's it for this installment, folks. Credits to follow.