Of course, looking at THIS comic from my vantage point a few years later, I’d say that even the “improved” version could use a bit of work. I’m not even consciously aware of these changes happening, which is odd. It also makes me worry sometimes that I’ve hit a plateau, because even though I feel as though there’s a general upward trend in the quality of my work, I’m not really trying to get better. That sounds boastful, which I am not going for.

Let me try an analogy. Someone you know decides to grow a beard. You see them unshaven, and then don’t talk to them for a number of weeks. The next time you speak you might be surprised at the fullness of the beard, whereas they didn’t really notice a huge difference because the tiny bits of regular beard growth are harder to track and easier to adjust to. And on his part, it’s not like a guy just says “I’ma grow a beard” and it just appears, it’s a relatively small decision (“I’m not going to shave today” or in my case “What does it look like if I draw it like this?”) repeated over the course of many days.

Whether or not your friend looks better with a beard, or my comics look better today than they did years ago is going to be subjective for each person I suppose. But I happen to think your friend really does look better bearded. [February 27, 2012]