Yet Another Web Comic (YAWC)

The title is a not so clever pun on the name of the first chapter of Half-Life 2, Point Insertion. The comic shares nothing with HL2, I just wanted to use the name.

This is probably going to be one of those strips that few find funny. I had a blast with it. Normally, I add small things to my strips; a background detail here, a particular wording there, that has particular meaning to me. In this case, I`m commandeering a whole comic. Y`all are going to have to accept that this is one of those occasional strips that is totally self-indulgent in its entirety, and though I`ll explain the joke here in my commentary by explaining it I`ll rob it of all its humor. Play along, anyway, it might be insightful.

First off, the big joke here is that self-insertion cartoonist characters, especially those who break the fourth wall, are doomed to failure. By show of hands, how many are familiar with a strip called Garfield? In the first strip, Jon Arbuckle accomplishes all of this. Garfield has gone on to be one of the most successful comics of all time. So, apparently, it can`t guarantee death.

However, this joke is a big one for me, because as I look back on my work on Yet Another Web Comic, I see myself making all the same mistakes (with the exception of breaking the fourth wall, correct me if I`m wrong). The further along I got, the more I regretted each cheap, amateur move I made. This appears to be a common thread among cartoonists, but there`s certainly a learning curve. Just like anything else, you have to make mistakes to learn. For me, I don`t even recognize why something is a mistake in cartooning until its way too late.

All of this is in the context of all the `branching out` I have either done or been trying to do lately with art. I`m hoping to make some big mistakes in the coming weeks, and lots of them. I probably won`t recognize them until months from now, and hopefully they won`t all be in the strip (to spare you, dear reader), but here`s to learning.

Oh, and put your hands down. You`re probably all alone in front of your computer, where nobody can see you. I`ll bet you look ridiculous.