Sad Worm!

"Hi, I'm George Beard. This is my best friend Harold Hutchins. He's a great artist."

"I like to draw things" explained Harold. "Nothing you're going to find in a museum of course…unless maybe one day if it's a comic book museum!"

"That would be sooo cool" said George. "We're not legends yet, but we've been making comics for a long time."

"Yeah, I may draw 'em but George is the one that comes up with the genius ideas first."

"It's a gift."

"And I bring them to life on the page, in glorious 16 color art…"

"…except we're out of medium blue…"

"…glorious 15 color art. Remind me to get another one, George..."

"No problem."

"…and that is the entire staff of the world famous Treehouse Comics, Inc. and the pride of Piqua, Ohio."

"Except that we're not world famous yet" George added.

"We're world famous at Jerome Horwitz Elementary."

"TODAY JEROME HORWITZ, TOMORROW THE WORLD!" they shouted together.

"The rest is just a distribution issue; when more people see our work it'll really catch on big" Harold went on. "Speaking of issues, we've managed to come up with a lot of epic adventures for our heroes. Every single one is a real page-turner. Well, they're comic books so of course you have to turn the pages."

"Except for one idea we had" George interrupted.

"Yeah," Harold went on "we had one idea that didn't go so well. Sad Worm. We started it but it just kind of sat there, like he did. We figured it would be the one idea that would never have an adventure. That is, until the Earth was invaded by…"

THE INVASION OF THE CHUCKLEHEADS FROM PLANET LAFFUFOOL
(A semi-epic Sad Worm! Adventure)

"It was totally wild. These aliens from another planet came to Earth to enslave us" George recounted. "Laughter was their weapon; their leader was a clown called Ray Gunn who would aim his…err…weapon at people and zap them with it. People would double or even triple over laughing and become so weak they were helpless."

"Too much of anything, even laughter, can be bad for you" Harold interjected solemnly.

"With his Gigglewave ™ set on 'subdue' he quickly took over the town. Things looked pretty bleak."

"As bleak as things can look like when everyone is laughing. I mean, it's pretty funny when you think of it now" Harold giggled.

"But back then it was horrible. All work in the city came to a stop when people laid about laughing."

"Or is it lied about laughing?" Harold asked.

"Why would people lie about laughing? Anyway, it looked pretty bad for us. We couldn't even rely on Captain Underpants because he was on a brief visit to…to…oh, I can't say it" George guffawed.

"The last planet you get to before Neptune" Harold just managed to get out as he laughed along.

George calmed down enough to continue. "Yeah, that place. So, the helpless city was…well, helpless. Suddenly, from out of the ground…"

"…came a bubblin' crude?" asked Harold.

"Soil, that is. And in the soil was Sad Worm! He reared up on his coiled body and demanded Ray make him laugh. Ray aimed the Gigglewave ™ and fired."

"Nothing happened!" Harold yelled.

"That's right. Ray changed the setting to 'die laughing' and fired. Still no affect. His gleeful expression changed to a huge frown."

"Why aren't you laughing?" Ray demanded.

"I was just thinking I wish my brother was here to enjoy this" said Sad Worm. "But he was eaten by a fish when he was used for bait."

"Oh, sorry to hear that. Maybe a sister?" Ray offered.

"Dried up on a hot sidewalk during the summer." Sad Worm looked away.

"That's terrible. Your parents?"

"Caught…by the early bird." He hung his head.

Ray's lip began to tremble. "No other relatives?"

"Lost in space through a wormhole. Thanks for bringing it up" Sad Worm moaned.

"Not even a cousin?"

"Stepped on in a marching band competition" he wept.

"Ray was so distraught to hear the news that he began to cry. When he felt a tear running down his cheek he turned his weapon on himself to cheer up, forgetting that the setting was still on 'die laughing'. He fired the Gigglewave ™ at himself and perished a humorous time later" George concluded. "The rest of the Chuckleheads left the solar system in their ship the Vaudeville and were never heard from again."

"Sad Worm saved the day!" Harold cheered. "Of course he was still sad, but at least something exciting finally happened."

"Yeah, that comic book was mighty thin until the Chuckleheads showed up. They rescued a franchise."

"Yup" Harold added. "But don't look for another Sad Worm adventure anytime soon. He's on vacation looking for lost relatives in the town of Kannov. Legend has it the Kannov worms are pretty tricky."

"Dude, you gonna end with that joke?" George asked.

"What joke?"

The End

A/N: I enjoyed reading the Captain Underpants books with my son many years ago, and just watched the movie. When I saw that George and Harold had a comic that needed a little work, I jumped in to offer my help. Thankfully they didn't take it.