So I wanted to compensate by posting something on the blog today.  And I’ll start with a little inside baseball into why I do my comic in the format I do:  I decided to use the standard newspaper strip format because I originally intended to submit my comic to newspaper syndicates.  I did so only once, a few months back when my act was noticeably less together, and it was rejected.  So up until I introduced the stoner character I was still operating under the assumption I’d submit again when I thought my material was good enough.  But lately I’ve been less interested in that direction and am becoming more content on doing whatever I want with my comic here, on this site.

The 3-4 panel format has always terrified me because everyone knows you have to dump a joke in the last panel, and I always feel like I’m under a lot of pressure to work in a rigid format.  So I may change the format of this comic up a bit in the coming weeks.  I noticed that when I started the graphic novel I’m working on, my brain felt so free and unencumbered by structure.  Updates to follow.

Other than that, the song remains the same.  I hope you’ll forgive me my gaffe, and maybe you and I can take solace in the fact that the next comic represents a leap in progress.  I don’t know what happened but I’m becoming better at picturing things.  Legitimacy is within reach!

In other news, there is no other news.

Setting: The garage, AKA Steven’s room. It just seemed like the right type of location for something semi-seedy to be going on. And since Steven’s the one who can sew, it makes sense that the Stitch Princess is in his possession.

Next up:  The scene of the crime.

The plot remains shallow!

In case anyone was wondering, I’m picking an ugly color scheme for their house intentionally.

I experimented with a different Photoshop process on this one, which was a giant leap backwards, resulting in the delay.  I’m trying to set myself a schedule of posting Tuesdays and Fridays and sprinkling some blog entries in the interim.  The trick is going to be coming up with interesting things to say about what I do.

Try this one on for size:  Yesterday, I did what I consider to be the best shaving job of my life!

My blog entries will need some work.

This one took longer than usual because I couldn’t decide on what comic storyline to do. I got a few comics into a plot about love, but it rang false, so I switched to a plot about riding the bus, but it became too outrageous (believe it or nuts!). This storyline seems like a nice middleground.

Luckily I have all those halfway completed comics, which will serve me well when I’m out of ideas and desperate for something to slap onto my site while I upturn my last bottle of whiskey.

Commentary: Steven is brushing garbage off the sofa before he sits on it. He has standards. Eric is reading “$pend Magazine,” which I hope doesn’t exist. I’m tired and unable to dig jokes from my resentful brain at the moment, so I bid you adude.

I don’t know if it’s evident, but this strip represents a change for me. My love for the craft has returned after a gigantic hiatus and I am going to breathe more life and love into this feature. I guess today’s strip is a rather inauspicious beginning, but it’ll become more obvious in the coming weeks.

There isn’t really much to illuminate in the actual comic, so I’ll let this one speak for itself.

At long last, here is the comic introducing the stoner character, Rob. One of the main things that kept me from finishing this comic for the month-plus that I had it on the burner is that I couldn’t think of a good surname for Steven (and Damian). After much agonizing and much impulsiveness to counteract the mental agony, I went with Eisenherz. I think it fits.

I hadn’t realized it, but I don’t set many comics outdoors. I intend to change that. Oh, and Steven’s lame pose in the first panel is intentional. I wanted to make my introduction of a new character as forced and obvious as possible without him looking at the camera.

So, as I’ve been saying, this is the final comic I had in the works while I was overcome with malaise, which has been present since the beginning of this feature. The next comic you see will have love splattered all over it. Prepare to have your minds fail to blow!

Alas, this is the last of my Wacom comics. This was supposed to be in my series of sandwich-related comics, but I got disgusted with myself for being a one-trick pony and held off on it. And drawing on the computer as opposed to drawing on bristol board feels less satisfying. I did, however, enjoy coloring this one.

I’ve got one more comic to toss out (which introduces a new character) and then I can get to work on putting sweet love into my comics for the first time in years (and for the first time EVER in the run of this series). Back to the ol’ drawing board. Except I mean it literally!

If my recommendation wasn’t obvious to you, please excuse my addition of the word “obviously” which I can see coming across as a bit mean.

If my recommendation was, in fact, obvious to you, as it should be to anyone who isn’t a stupid idiot, please excuse my previous apology, which I totally faked.