THE NEBBISH

I've been working with these characters for years now. I'm working on a young adult novel called "Maxwell's Sloth" (and its sequel, "Maxwell's Jest") since 2005-- unfortunately, my return to academia has put a hold on this endeavor. In any case, these characters are near and dear to my heart. In "Maxwell's Sloth," the Nebbish and Maxwell (and the Immortality Worm) function as fictional characters within the construct of the novel-- the characters in the novel listen to radio plays featuring the characters, read comics featuring the characters, and so on.

Here's an excerpt from Chapter Four of Maxwell's Sloth:

The stack of Nebbish comic books sat on his desk. He sat down on the bed and thumbed through them. There were seven individual issues. They weren't anything like what Marvin thought of as traditional comic books; each one was black and white, instead of color. They looked like something Marvin could have put together without too much trouble. In fact, they looked like folded-over photocopied pages that had been stapled together along the spine. Each one was only a few pages long.

Marvin picked up the one on top of the stack. The cover was taken up with a full-page image of the Nebbish. His newsboy cap was at a rakish angle on top of his head and his domino mask was askew. His hair was soaked and matted to his head. His black vest, white long-sleeved dress shirt and long black pants were all thoroughly drenched. He stood in a puddle, his right arm crossing his body and holding on tight to his left arm, which dangled uselessly.

A voice balloon came out of the Nebbish's mouth and occupied the right third of the page. "Officers, I've come to report a murder. A man was killed in cold blood tonight. His body was thrown from the Cold Shoals bridge, battered and shattered along the rocky bottom of the Kathunka River. Deep below the surface, he breathed his last and passed from this earthly life. Who was the victim? THE NEBBISH." The words "THE NEBBISH" were written as if the letters were composed of water themselves, and they dripped into the puddle that the Nebbish was standing in.

"Wow," said Marvin. He sat down and read the comic. It turned out that a guy named The Immortality Worm was one of the Nebbish's arch-enemies. He was an enormous maggot wearing overalls with arms like a bodybuilder. He hated the Nebbish with a deep passion and was always trying to kill him. His special power was that he could bite anyone, and then that person would feel the deep-seated anguish and despair of knowing that they would, one day, die. That would often upset them enough that the Immortality Worm could club them over the head and knock them out. Then he would steal their jewelry and wallets.

The reason that the Immortality Worm hated the Nebbish was because the Nebbish was unafraid of death. The Immortality Worm would bite the Nebbish, and the Nebbish would just laugh, bite back, and foil whatever nefarious plans the Immortality Worm was cooking up.

In this issue, the Immortality Worm decided to get rid of the Nebbish once and for all. He waited until the Nebbish was sleeping, and tied him up. Then he threw him off of a bridge into a river. The Nebbish died, but in his last moments he used his License to Change to convert the blue oxygen-deficient blood running through his body into red oxygen-rich blood. Then he bumped into a rock, which started his heart again. He found the Immortality Worm, beat him up, and threw him into jail.

In the last panel of the comic book, The Immortality Worm was in jail. He held on to the bars with his enormous arms. There was a prisoner number sewn onto his overalls. He was staring with his maggot eyes out at the world. A word balloon led out of his mouth: "Oh, Nebbish, you may have caught me this time. But ultimately I shall have my revenge. The Immortality Worm chews… forever!"

Marvin read the comic book cover to cover five times. "Neat," he said.

THE IMMORTALITY WORM

The Scotch Egg was a creation solely for this radio play.

Since the creation of this radio play, other radio folks have expressed interest in working with these characters and doing a serial version, weekly 15-20 minute episodes, in the fall of 2007.