Working Daze: Archer!

This comic is hilarious because someone is referencing Star Trek: Enterprise in a nonderogatory manner.

Working Daze: The staff is now totally familiar and comfortable with the new software we're using!

The moral of this cartoon is that if you can't think of a decent joke, just distract your audience with a gratuitous ass shot.

Working Daze: You win the bet. Dana can read minds.

I'm really looking forward to the installment of Working Daze in which one of the male characters is drawn without any clothes on.

What is that you say? You don't think that's ever going to happen? Interesting.

So, yeah, there's a double-standard at work here. On the other hand, Dana does kick the daydreamer's ass. So maybe Working Daze is feminist! Well, probably not.

John Zakour sells Working Daze as a geek strip, and the way he presents his female characters is clearly informed by that. The past couple of weeks have featured stories in which Rita and Dana each literally have superpowers. They are each drawn sexily, in general, and occasionally blatantly objectified, as in the the cartoon above. As such, they bear a striking resemblance to countless female science fiction characters/sex-symbols: Princess Leia, Xena, Buffy. I think it's fair to say, of course, that Buffy the Vampire Slayer is more feminist than Star Wars, but science-fiction and fantasy shows constantly deal with and often exploit the tension between objectification and empowerment.

Working Daze isn't really a fantasy, though. It's a work-place sitcom with elements of fantasy. All the male characters are geeks, and they relate to the women of the strip as geeks relate to sci-fi sex-symbols, because in the world of the strip the women basically are sci-fi sex-symbols who just happen to work in an office. It's a fine conceit, if a bit too overly broad to be smart exactly. The way the stereotypical geek relates to the fictional female archetypes in his stereotypical comic book does say something about the way socially awkward men relate to women in general. But Zakour doesn't really explore these relationships all that much, and instead just chooses to use his conceit for cheap gags. The result is that his comic leans more towards the objectification than the empowerment.

Working Daze: Sure, right after I finish my vacation.

I've always suspected that Scott Roberts enjoys drawing the female characters in Working Daze just a little too much.