I went back to my Pentel brush last night, and I should not have.  I can’t keep a flood of ink from pouring out of the brush, which is really counter-productive when I’m trying to do most of my line work.  It’s not the end of the world, of course, but it does cause inconsistency in my work.  Given I only update twice weekly as it is, that’s not a great thing.

Speaking of which, I’m watching my traffic numbers slowly die.  I never sallied forth to set the world on fire, but it’s pretty clear that this strip just isn’t catching on.  It’s a shame, because I know who my loyal readers are and I know you really dig it, but it’s just not going beyond that.  I have so many creative endeavors I wish to pursue,  and only so little time to do so.  I’m considering ending the strip as we know it today.  I’m not sure if I will continue, but with less spit and polish (perhaps rough pencils, maybe just black and white?), if it will go on a long hiatus or if I will just kill it off, but over the next month I’m going to seriously consider the future of this strip and what I could do with the free time (and there’d be a lot of it) if I were to cut back or cut it out entirely.

All comments are, as always, quite welcome.  If I didn’t want to hear from you, I wouldn’t put it up on the web in the first place.  That’s what sketchbooks are for.

Gotta love that term: Two-bit hussy.

I don’t like the first panel at all, among other things the fist is completely wrong.  The fist is wrong in the fourth panel as well, but it’s smaller and less noticeable.  My favorite panel is the second one.  All in all, though, I like how this strip flows.  Everybody gets to react individually.

There’s lots of fun things that go on here, too.  We see the guy stand up for himself.  He doesn’t need to make any lame excuses and run away, or have the girl run in and save him.  This point will be developed a bit more in the next strip.

I also got to play with some word balloon techniques.  I am not really happy with how they came out, but doing is how you learn.  Heck, this whole strip is essentially one big sketch book for me.

And isn’t it funny that Eve disappeared before the girl saw her?  I’m not saying she doesn’t exist, that she’s a figment of anyone’s imagination, but there’s definitely not room for both Eve and the girl in his life at once.  Maybe I’ll explore that later.

I’m not sure this was the best layout for this comic, but it’s what I have.  I took this strip as an excuse to do some perspective work, but it occurs to me that I should have done the same behind Eve in panel 3.  Oh, well.  That’s how you learn, I guess.

I like this exchange.  He’s, of course, suspicious, and he’s looking outside as if he wants to be elsewhere, but he just can’t walk away.  Eve’s got a hold on him for some reason, and I’m not totally sure why.  She clearly treats him quite poorly.

I wanted to explore the history of the guy and Eve when I first introduced her, but that story was more about the lobster: How he has adopted some of the features of human life, and how he is between worlds.  Over the next few strips, I am going to give more insight into the relationship Eve and the guy have, and how that will play out in the future.  You can consider that a promise if you wish, because I definitely intend to bring her back for more after this story.  She’s just too good a character to send off into the sunset.  My only regret is not having more time to draw so that I can do more stories, and spend more time on each one.

Hey everybody, it’s Eve!  Y’all remember Eve, right? (Hint: she’s from a story arc around the 180-185 mark).  The Evil Ex, we’ll see how things play out now that she has cornered her quarry.

For those who have followed the strip for  a while, you probably have the inkling that he’s not in to fishing and she’s not in to shopping.  I tried to structure the joke so it worked with the characters but at the same time stood alone, so anyone who came in with stereotypical roles would still find it funny.  I’m not sure how it worked, but this is what I have.

As far as the backgrounds go, I tried a new technique.  I set the background flats, then took a textured brush at 50% opacity and applied colors on either side of the flats (about 15% saturation either way).  The texture and the opacity kept a good bit of the background color showing through.  Then, I took the airbrush tool and blended it all together.  The airbrush tool is pretty cool, but it’s obvious it’s going to take me a while to get used to.  The biggest issue I’d like to solve is that it will blend with colors in other layers (or white, if there are no active colors).  For the background, I’d like to not have the edges bleed white.  The technique will take some time to get used to, but I hope you enjoy it.

I don’t think they realize the lobster is a criminal, or else they would be quite offended.  I think at this point, they just accept his presence without really thinking about it.  He can easily grab some cash while they’re discussing something else, and for some reason it’s just taken as a given that he has money.  I imagine it’s how children manage to get into trouble even when their parents are generally vigilant.

If you wanted to read in to it, I imagine his larceny during conversation may stem from his communication frustrations, but I wouldn’t read too far in to it.  The guy’s (lobster’s?) a jerk.

I am certainly not intending to make light of alcoholism here.  This is a comic, and I am doing the reader a disservice if I don’t have a joke at hand.  It’s a balancing act, and we will go deeper into the rabbit hole together as this story plays out.  It is a tale of frustration in the face of honest effort told by an idiot, full of sound and fury signifying nothing.

As I’m sure you’re tired of hearing, I never intended to keep the lobster around.  He was such a hit, though, I couldn’t get rid of him.  Since then, he’s become a way for me to explore my satisfaction with my art technique.  The lobster cannot speak, and he’s not really capable of writing.  His frustration with his inability to communicate mirrors my frustration with the limits of my ability.  I really feel for the guy.  Even as people start to get accustomed to some of his semaphores and moods, he will always be behind the curve and he will always want to have a richer communication.  In a similar way, even as my art improves I will always be frustrated at my limits and at how much more I would like to convey to you, my readers.

Of course, that seems to be a very common trait in animals, humans included: We all want more.