On Sunday mornings I’ve been reading mildly silly “Life Stories” to kids at my church. In the latest story, the Doodad Gang (a bunch of kids that help out this famous crimefighter named Detective Doodad) discovered the villain’s secret lair by simply searching for his profile information online.
Ready? I CALLED IT. [November 16, 2011]
This comic doesn’t accurately reflect the horror and revulsion I feel when searching couch cushions. And actually it’s not so much that I can’t see my hands, it’s what I can feel — all the dirt and debris and weird bits of things that get wedged in there just…eeesh.
One of the unexpected side benefits of my being in a relationship is that my significant other apparently doesn’t mind. As such, she has no problem checking for my iPod in the couch while I stand back and cringe. Bonus! [November 14, 2011]
I’ll save everyone some time and say that the acronym for the agency in the alt-text is DRMAICABWTNT, which means nothing. In hindsight I’m very disappointed that I didn’t come up with something better. How would the department tasked with creating clever acronyms not have one for its own name? [November 14, 2011]
See? I was into complaining about “first-world problems” before it was fashionable. #horntoot #firstwordproblems #whyamIaddingtags #thisisnottwitter [November 14, 2011]
Sometimes I write about my trials and travails with putting things up on the walls, because I’ve come to realize that doing so is actually fairly important to me. It’s the way I make a space “mine”. Some people move into a new house and need to re-paint, or change the flooring or get new furniture or whatever. I put up pictures and posters.
On the other hand, when I go to places where the occupants have gone for a more “clean” or “minimal” look on the walls I just can’t help but feel that the place isn’t as comfortable or home-y as I’d like. It makes the the occupation of that place feel temporary, like visiting a friend without taking off your jacket. [November 14, 2011]
Somewhere over the years I picked up the habit of saying “like a million” (yes I know the comic uses “billion”, but generally I go with “million”). “Like”, in that sense, is meant to mean “approximately”. So for instance I’ll say “Man, I watched that movie like a million years ago” or “We’re already like a million hours late so let’s go!”
I bring this up by way of an explanation for the third panel, which probably didn’t need explaining but guess what I’m doing it anyway. What happened is that the people buying my idea have said “We’ll give you, I don’t know, like a billion dollars or something” and then whoever was in charge of printing the oversized novelty cheque just ran with that exact phrasing. It’s probably about a billion and fourteen, plus some change. [November 14, 2011]
So here’s what happened with that gig – I wrote a couple of paragraphs for some kids movies I got to watch for free, as I was still working at the theatre at the time. Most of them weren’t great (“Underdog” was passable and even a bit funny in places). This lasted for…three issues? I think? At which point the publisher decided to have his wife write the reviews instead.
Shortly thereafter, the magazine disappeared. I’m fairly certain that I had nothing to do with it. In the end I did actually get a cheque, and though it was modest I was just happy to have had the opportunity. [November 9, 2011]
I’ve discovered that saying “Fantastic!” when people ask how I am often catches them by surprise, which is fun. And if you’re sincere about it — which I am, because, I am! — it seems to brighten others up a little too. All those pithy motivational posters your schoolteachers had about happiness being contagious might actually be true? [November 9, 2011]
I don’t think I’ve talked about Words With Arrows in my comics! Let’s talk about Words With Arrows.
There are two primary reasons I incorporate WWAs, and both are crutches. One reason is clarity. This one’s slightly less necessary as my drawing skills continue to improve, but sometimes there are times when I look at something I’ve just drawn and I realize that the reader may be confused as to what exactly I’m trying to get across. Either because the artwork is no good, or they just don’t have the frame of mind that I do while creating it. So I throw in Words With Arrows to explain, as I have in this comic.
Now maybe that’s insulting to you as a reader, having your “hand held” like that, but it isn’t mean to be so! It’s mostly just me being unwilling to do my job better.
The other reason is purely as panel filler. It’s when I’ve drawn something and there’s a lot of white space that I’m not sure what to do with. More often lately I’ve been trying to fill that with simple backgrounds, but sometimes I just throw in Words With Arrows just…because. (As of this writing, there’s a recent comic about maturity that relied on WWAs for that). [November 8, 2011]
Tooting my own horn: That is a pretty nice Wasteland of Pain in the first panel. Toot toot! [November 8, 2011]
