#fully documented

(Gino's, "FIFO," stands for "first in first out," a way of managing inventory--when you sell a pencil, is the cost counted as the *oldest* pencil you bought for inventory, or the *newest* (LIFO)?)

(Tom's is... self-explanatory.)

In today's "Fully Documented," Gino goes to Connie's wedding with his family. Don't worry, he manages to get through without biting anyone this time! (His mother is... more aware of the issues this time, though.)

I've got Sandra, Kay and Michael in the background but I kinda figure that's not worth a tag...

I've been having fun making Gino expressions/reactions and thought I'd pile all the ones I've made together

Not much at "present", for sure--I'm just before the wedding, having stalled on a big spread I'm working on for the occasion. BUT my planning has been moving much faster than my cartooning, so--in pursuit of Freddie content, why not skip ahead?

--

The year is 1951. Tom Hagen has moved to Nevada in disgrace, being demoted from consigliere and handling solely the family's legal concerns as they wrap up their New York City businesses and expand their investments in Las Vegas casinos.

Gino's whole thing is paperwork, so he gets sent too. Even receives a promotion! "Compliance Officer." Moving expenses, too. So... he can live by himself in an apartment for the very first time in his life, with absolutely no idea how to take care of himself.

So I figure he goes around, collecting paperwork, entering the proper data into the proper forms, filing suspicious activity reports on people that absolutely nobody wants him filing a report on, pestering everyone for extra documentation, trying to get Dr. Jules not to bill for imaginary patients, and in general making an absolute pain of himself.

So where does Freddie come in?

Clearly, he's one of the people Gino's collecting paperwork from. And maybe that should have been the end of it.

What on earth does some random minor paperwork gremlin have in common with other remaining scion of the Corleones? Why should Fredo know he exists?

...then I realized: because Fredo sees this tiny, uncertain stick of a man, just *oozing* an aura of "I don't belong here please help me," and decides he has a spiritual chum.

Fredo: "Look, kid, it's just that you remind me a lot of me when I got here. Totally alone, in disgrace, humiliated." Gino: "I'm not--" Fredo: "Given a complete makework job under a rival who, can I say, didn't like me very much." Gino: "My job's not makework--" Fredo: "Sending Sonny's side piece to spy on me..." Gino, Internal: "...this isn't about me, is it" Fredo: "Anyway, I turned it all around. And you know what did it? Girls. Maybe all the men in your life don't think you're worth shoveling garbage, but this city is just full of pretty ladies who know how to make you forget about all of that. And how!" Gino: "Mr. Corleone I promise Mr. Hagen respects what I do very much--" Fredo: "Please, it's Freddie. And Gino, I am going to show you what this city is good for."

(...I also began to realize that my "Gino changes his look when he moves to appear older"--cutting his hair and growing a mustache--puts him way too close to Fredo's look for my cartooning comfort. But I think I can keep them distinguished.)

Now, Gino is a deeply nervous, twitchy nerd and an actually-believes-this Catholic--who, moreover, remembers every piece of paper he's ever set eyes on. And Fredo's convinced that all of Gino's problems will solved if he can just get laid.

...so here's the comic that came from that. @drc00l4tt4, I realize this has an awful lot of OC-babbling, but--I still hope you enjoy this contribution to the Fredo tag :-)

I haven't developed Gino's initial interview as far as I should, but I've been thinking about it for half a year--have a WIP. More circling the concept than rough draft.

Oh, yeah, Pop brought home the ledgers a few days ago. I--I didn't really know what he was getting at. He doesn't--he doesn't say much? But you know, I figured maybe he--you--wanted them processed into statements--profit and loss, cash flow, balance sheet? But it was weird. The numbers--they all matched, and they all made sense. But it... there was something weird, vague. Like it wasn't... actually trying to track the money? Like it was trying to hide what it was actually about. There's like four different types of money coming in under "4051 business income"--different patterns of receipt, different sizes. There's loans with interest, coming and going, that don't... don't match any kind of actual things people do. And most of the money going out is just in a bundle called "contractor expenses" that doesn't tell anyone anything.

And I can't figure out what's underneath any of that from a piece of paper, of course. You've heard "the map is not the territory"? It's like that. The map is what--what people wanted to be on there, whoever your existing accountant is. But the territory... that's phone calls, that's interviews, that's talking to people and looking what's moving in and out of the loading dock and writing down what's actually there.

Bonus panel behind the cut!