Hope your stockings are hung by the chimney with care.

What kind of reception did he expect with a store-bought pie?  That he bought on Thanksgiving?  I’m pretty sure all the decent pie stores are shut down on major holidays.  Of course, if he left that part out, it looks like the Lobster might have been warming up to him…

I need to shade this, but I also need to go to sleep.  I powered through the coloring tonight so you’d have something to look at.  I wouldn’t expect it to be perfect too early tomorrow, because I need to fix a recurring problem with my truck.  At least it runs, and I can get around with it if I have to.

I figured with this strip I should reintroduce the basic history of the guy and the lobster (http://www.yawcomic.com/2007/03/02/043/).  It’s only been 300 comics, but it’s been over three years.  Speaking of which, wow, that art is old.  If I could be a professional cartoonist, redoing all the early strips would be item four on my to-do list.  One would be to update, in color, five days a week.  Two would be to do all the character stuff I should do (proper models, lineups, etc.) for consistency.  Three would be all the upgrades I want to make to my drawing table.  Then, fix the original strips.  If I were a professional, I’d have time to do it.  Then I could sell books with nice art in them.

The “tackses” pun isn’t that great, I admit.  But, it is what it is.  I like bad puns.  The linework doesn’t totally offend my eyes, so that’s a plus.

The comic makes it look like he’s sitting in a corner.  I’m not sure why I did that, except for the fact that everything was floating earlier (no walls, floors, etc.) and it looked too “disconnected”.  I thought it grounded the comic, even though it’s probably not a common seating configuration.  It looked better than no wall.  The perspective was weird (and still not quite right) because it’s supposed to be looking up from Lobster-level.  That made the lack of walls even more disorienting.  I probably could have made better decisions if I had more time, but this was a rush to production.  All in all, I’m not unhappy with it.

Man, I have not been good about posting.  Sure, I’ve been busy, but this is just embarrassing.  It’s certainly not a lack of ideas.  Perhaps I have too many, and it’s crippling?  Perhaps I’m just lazy.  That’s probably the case, because this one is obviously rushed.

I look at comics like this, and think that the guy and the girl must have a relationship, at least when it comes to the lobster’s attempts on his life, like Dib and Gaz from Invader Zim.  Clearly Dib is fighting Zim in a struggle of terrestrial incompetence vs. extraterrestrial incompetence.  However, incompetence is incompetence, and an inconvenience to her either way.  In a similar way, I get the feeling that when stupid stuff happens she’s not looking for an explanation, she’s just upset that stupid stuff is inconveniencing her life and busting up her house.

Of course, this is coming from a guy who has a lobster with what appears to be a combustion-powered messenger bag launcher in his comic.  Perhaps the whys aren’t that important in this case.  Maybe sometimes I just want to draw an elaborate yet incompetent sequence of violence.  Perhaps I watched too many Road Runner cartoons growing up.

This is the card I sent out this year.  Sorry I posted it after Christmas, I had a lot of driving to do and then a lot of chores to finish up when I got back.

I liked this one, particularly the neutron saying “meh” in the last panel. The electron gets excited in the second panel, and falls back to a normal state in the last panel, throwing off excess energy in the form of light. None of this is terribly accurate, of course, just one artist’s illustration for the sake of humor, not accuracy.

The first step to realizing you have lost your mind is to admit it is lost. Paradoxically, this requires a mind. I think that’s why people find ways to dig themselves deeper and deeper into holes: They lack the sense to realize they don’t have the sense they need.

I tried a few different things today, but I also rushed this comic. I used my Pentel brush for a lot of the linework, which I keep forgetting is a mistake. I would much rather have more fountain pens with varying nib sizes for this type of work. The brush has its uses, of course, but this was a poor choice. Also, I tried some different things with the coloring, and I’m not sure I like it yet. Keep an eye open, because I will be experimenting in the coming weeks.

I have also tagged the lobster in this comic, even though he’s hidden. I figure, what the heck. Correct me if I’m wrong in doing so. I’m new to your Internet and am not familiar with the customs.

I told myself I wouldn’t do any comics about the economic downturn; That everyone is already bummed enough, and I did not need to bring it up. However, once I came across this gem of a statement, I couldn’t resist. To all of you big-wigs out there, here’s some free advice: If you want to comfort your employees, let them know you have cash and revenue sources to cover their salaries for two years.