One more comic in this story line, then on to some one-offs and more lobster. Things are a bit disappointing here, but the next comic will leave this story with hope. Clearly I will not be introducing a baby for the time being, though I may revisit the guy’s inner dialog with the daughter he imagines he will have. It is a great mechanism for exploring his maturity.
I have come to the inescapable conclusion that companies can become too big for their own good. Also, with the way many large companies treat the public and their employees, is it any wonder that distrust is so infectious and pervasive that it seems to be an epidemic? If you’re reading this and are in a position to make changes at your company (ha!) you may want to check how you deal with the public and with your employees. Make sure it is fair not only with respect to the letter of the law, but to the spirit of the law as well. Whether or not you are part of the problem, the collective image is very negative right now. A little bit will go a long way.
Individuals, we should deal with each other fairly in letter and in spirit, too. First, companies are made up of individuals. This might help. Second, we as individuals can’t expect lofty ethical standards of corporations if we don’t hold ourselves to the same. Lead by example (and vote with your wallet).
It’s good to be back in the swing of things! Unfortunately I started on a more serious arc when I backed off the updates, but I’ll bring the comic back to a lighthearted tone for a while after this.
“Yes” but No will be explained in the upcoming comic. Suffice it to say, at this time, it looks as if the baby talk has hit an impasse.
I have experimented with using children to convey things, but mostly it’s been showing the childish side of the main characters. I didn’t like the way it worked out, so I haven’t done it in a while. By introducing the main character’s potential daughter, I get to have the variety of perspective without committing to a new character. If it doesn’t work out, she doesn’t have to come back. If it does, maybe it’ll be a recurring theme. That would be nice, because it’s something I’ve missed but haven’t yet found a way to execute well.
If it’s not clear in this strip, the main character is falling asleep. Yes, this is a dream. I’m not really giving away any spoilers, because the setup for the joke in the next strip makes it painfully clear.
I wish I had more time to spend so I could shade this comic, but I pretty much always have something I wish there were more time to throw at. I’m actually excited about the inking in this one. It finally feels like it’s loosening up a bit for me, which is important: I’m not an mechanical draftsman, after all. I’ve noticed huge improvements in my pencils, but I’m still having a hard time translating that in to huge improvements in my inks, so it’s hard to show that progress to y’all. Perhaps I should resume fixing the gallery code and making more gallery posts?
Perhaps that’s a project for the holiday break, if I get much of one. I have burned through my vacation time at work, so I won’t be off much this month, and I have to burn through whatever overtime I can to get everything squared away for the year. It’ll be a long two weeks or so coming up, but stick with me: I will finish this story line in some way, shape or form.
I’m not sure about the future of the strip, but I have had this story line in mind for a while. I don’t have it scripted out yet, but I know that I want to finish it before I finally hang up my hat. I hope you enjoy the upcoming few weeks as much as you have the past three years.
Oh, and I forgot to mention, the strip’s third anniversary was 23 October 2009. Three years! Congratulations!
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.
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.