Fight of the Month

The Protagonist Todd Rosenberg, 32-year-old dot-com casualty and the creative force behind the cartoon Laid Off [oddtodd.com]

The Antagonist The New York State Department of Labor

The charge Making a living without a job

The back story Laid off from AtomFilms in June, Rosenberg began posting cartoons of his misadventures with poverty, bad television, and Pringles. He also started collecting unemployment. This wasn��t a problem��until the cartoon became a hit.

Poverty sucks Rosenberg��s rent was $1,925 a month. His unemployment check was $405 a week, before taxes. So he created a virtual ��tip jar�� on OddTodd and began collecting cash from fans, amassing $9,000.

Whoops! Turns out that making money while on unemployment is a major no-no. Rosenberg was asked to repay $3,000 of the benefits.

Happy ending? Thanks to Laid Off��s popularity, Rosenberg is getting voice-over jobs and freelance design work��and is repaying the state.

Copyright © 2002 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in Yahoo! Internet Life.