It always seems like vehicle bumper numbers are fading, getting chipped, and need re-painting. Maybe it just seems that way to me, at least. But of course a lot of them are on fenders or other areas that get brushed by branches or sagebrush, or splashed with mud or whatnot, so maybe it makes sense that they get obscured or scratched. Touching them up happens at least once a year, it seems.

Meanwhile, when I first encountered a modern maintenance bay (okay, “modern”– it was decades ago) I thought it was pretty clever that they had flexible hoses to fit over vehicle exhaust pipes to vent the gases away from where people were working. That’s all well and good for vehicle exhaust, but for any other operation that involves potentially dangerous fumes there’s not much else for recourse (that I’ve seen). I’ve seen people painting with the big bay/garage doors open and a fan blowing inside, but that seemed like window dressing to me.

So what happens to Alvarez and Albright? Well, they get distorted like Dadaist or Cubist art as a result– that said, for the record I most certainly do *not* draw my comics after painting in an enclosed room, no matter what rumors you may have heard.