“he was a petty and unjust King,” they will say

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Since I know you are wondering; the game I was playing was “Escape Velocity Nova” and the radio show was most likely “Dimension X”. The media player was, I think, Windows Media Player with some sort of skin. And the spreadsheet program was probably OpenOffice. The thing I am standing on in the third panel is a rock.

There, now I’ve explained it TO DEATH. Oh no wait, the whole thing took place in my parents’ basement, for extra Nerd Cred Points. Is there anything else you could possibly want to know? If so, email me at nathan@interestingtimes.ca

(That sounds sarcastic but I will actually answer your questions if you have any!) [June 2, 2011]

there may be a more graceful solution

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I’ve actually been on the verge of taking this comic down in the years since posting it. But I’ve talked it over with a few people and apparently I’m being oversensitive, so for that and various other reasons it stays.

The problem I had is that the comic appears to rely on violence against women for the sake of a punchline, which is not what I’m about. However nobody I’ve shown it to reads it that way. Also, a friend of mine convinced me that it’s more important to chart your growth and changes as an artist than to try and censor or bury work that for one reason or another you aren’t proud of.

So, my fears about this comic have been allayed. [April 26, 2011]

the town only has one hill, but it works

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For various reasons it is sometimes extremely difficult to come with a new idea when I sit down to write a comic. Since I have almost never had any kind of backlog of work, I have done almost every comic on the day and as such my mental state is subject to the various pressures and goings-on of that day. And some days it just doesn’t seem possible to write something good.

At those times I have the debate that I’ve never really managed to definitively solve in the years since I started Interesting Times; is it better to post nothing at all than to post something I know will be lackluster? More often than not I try to write SOMETHING, partly because I don’t want to fall out of the habit and partly because I have learned that I really can’t predict which comics are going to really resonate with people. [May 22, 2011]

has he thoughts within his head

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Of course there is a strong temptation to go back and somehow either redo or hide old work that I feel is not up to my current standard (this is known in some circles as “pulling a Lucas”). This comic in particular is one I have wanted to re-draw for a long time. And actually it isn’t even that I think it doesn’t look good, because despite everything I’m really happy with it. It’s because I like it that I want to try and do it even better.

The main thing that stands in my way is my own laziness; some days (not many, but they are there) I can barely muster a brand new comic; never mind spending time on re-drawing old ones. So it stays. [May 22, 2011]