Slapdash

News for August 3, 2001:
Okay, no week's worth of strips up August 1 as promised. For one thing, I didn't get back home till four or five a.m. on August 1, not the previous night as I had anticipated. For another, I didn't manage to get as much done in Alaska as I'd planned (I had less down time than I had expected). And, for yet another, I've got bigger problems to worry about right now than catching up on strips... as explained in more detail on one of my other sites (what other sites? Well, um, more on that in my upcoming Comic-Con report), I'm undergoing severe financial difficulties at the moment. This is making it rather difficult to really put too much concentration into drawing comic strips, as much as I'd like to. So, here's one hastily scanned strip (I'll scan it better later). I'll try to have a full week's worth tomorrow, but I'm not promising anything. Sorry.

News for July 24, 2001:
Wow. More than two weeks since I updated? Eep. That won't happen again.

Yes, today's strip is scanned rather badly. Usually I touch up the strips after scanning, but today I'm in something of a hurry because I am going out of town for a week (more on that below) and haven't, in fact, started packing yet. And the plane leaves in ten hours. Hm. I'll fix up the strip when I color it (which will occur when I'm all caught up).

So, since I'm going out of town for a week, and since (of course) I don't really have strips completely finished ahead yet, there will not be any strips posted until I get back, on the first. (Well, I get back on the thirty-first, but there won't be any strips posted till the next day, which is the first.)

And now the good news.

I'll be out of town for a week, away from my computer and most of my normal distractions, and I'll be bringing my cartooning materials with me. (Not that my cartooning materials amount to much; just a clipboard, a pencil, an eraser, blank paper, and some printouts of panels to trace. (Well, and my notes.) Yes, I actually do trace the panels; I know they come out so irregular and sloppy that it looks like I just drew them without guidelines, but I trace them. Just not too well, apparently.) Which means that I'll probably have plenty of down time to draw comics. Which means that chances are very good (as in I'm counting on it) that I'll be able to catch up on the strips (and even get a little ahead). Which means that starting on the first, there will be a week's worth of strips posted every day until I get caught up. And I'm really, really, really, really, really, really, really going to do my best not to fall behind again.

After I'm caught up, the following will happen: First, I'm going to archive all the old news and start fresh, and from then on not leave more than a month's worth of news cluttering up the main page. Second, I'm going to color in the past Sunday strips that I've been uploading uncolored while I'm playing catch-up. This will happen probably one strip a week: every Sunday, in addition to the new Sunday strip, I'll color in an old uncolored one till I've got them all colored. Third, I'll catch up on the Giti's Puzzle Corners, though I think I'll take that feature to a monthly schedule rather than the planned biweekly. And fourth, as I said, I'm really, really, really, really, really, really, really going to try not to fall behind again.

I also want to put up a report of my visit to the Comic-Con (hey, everyone else seems to be doing it (well, okay, two people so far that I've noticed, which I suppose hardly qualifies as "everyone else", but give me a little hyperbolic leeway), but unfortunately I don't think I'll have time before my plane leaves so that'll have to wait till I get back. Hm. Oh, well. So my Con report'll be a week and a half late. My strips've been months late, so a week and a half is nothing.

So, check back on August 1 for a full week's worth of strips (assuming everything goes as planned). I'll get caught up yet!

News for July 8, 2001:
And, as usual, I fail to fulfill my promise. That's right, there were no new strips yesterday after all. But here's a whole week's worth today. There should be another week's worth up Tuesday or Wednesday, at the latest.

Don't worry if you don't get the April 26 strip. I'm not sure I do either. It seemed funny at the time. Now it just seems weird. And don't expect Clotilde to wear that T-shirt (the one she's wearing in the April 23-25 strips) again any time soon. It was a huge hassle to draw.

A note on said strips, by the way: Thanks to those on the Keenspace mailing list who helped out with the Japanese translation, especially Barry Figgins of Only One and Amanda somebody of something-or-other. (I didn't realize until I just now started trying to enter proper attributions that I never quite found out her full name or which strip she drew... oops... Hopefully if she seems this she'll let me know so I can give her credit.) Anyway, though, nobody gave me quite the translation I needed (I'm probably too picky), so I ended up figuring it out on my own (actually, I used Barry Figgins's translation with just a few words changed, but he didn't include the kanji, so I still had to figure that out myself), so any mistakes are entirely my own fault. Then again, of course, in the actual strip the writing is so small that you can't really make it out anyway, so I suppose it's a moot point.

News for July 6, 2001:
You may wonder why I haven't updated the site in two weeks or so. Hm. So do I. My best guess is that maybe it's because I've been depressed about how the webcomic tribute to Douglas Adams turned out. Participation was depressingly low; I wasn't altogether happy with my own contribution (which turned out rather illegible and, oddly enough, didn't actually mention Douglas Adams); and... well, I guess that's about it, really. But I can't help but think that I could have gotten more people to participate. All in all, I just don't think I did a very good job of organizing the event. I left too much till the last minute, and I didn't do as much to get the word out as I should have. I'm a very poor organizer, and probably shouldn't have volunteered to organize the event in the first place; if I hadn't, presumably someone else would have who'd have done a better job than I did.

Ah, well; what's done is done. Anyway, here's the next missing strip. Yes, I know it's just one strip, not a whole week's worth, but there are several reasons for this, which I won't go into now except to say that tomorrow there will be a whole week's worth of strips up, and there will be another every day till I get caught up.

Blargh.

Of course, when I do get caught up and color in all the uncolored Sunday strips, today's strip will be a pain to color (it was something of a pain to draw even without coloring it, especially that first panel), but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it...

News for June 22, 2001:
Today's strip is part of the webcomic tribute to Douglas Adams. Tomorrow I return to the week's-worth-of-strips-in-a-day-until-I-get-caught-up schedule.

In related news, "related" in the sense that the preceding was news and the following is news about news, yes, I realize the news section is getting very, very long and unwieldy. As soon as I get caught up on the strips I will put the old news in a separate "old news" section.

News for June 21, 2001:
Another week's worth of strips! Hooray!

There'll be only one strip posted tomorrow, because it'll be part of a special event. After that, though, back to a week a day until I'm caught up again!

News for June 20, 2001:
And I fall further and further behind. But despair not, for here, at last, is one week's worth of strips! Which leaves me, er, okay, still about two months behind. But I'm going to try to post a week's worth of strips every day until I get caught up (I've already got one more week's worth all finished that's going up tomorrow, and another week or two sketched but not polished and scanned after that). Sorry for the long delay in these strips; I've had a lot of problems the last few months, and I won't go into details, but anyway even if I don't meet my goal of posting a week's worth of strips a day until I'm caught up I'm going to do my best to post at least one strip every day. Actually, part of the reason I'm so far behind is kind of a psychological vicious circle... once I fall behind, I decide I want to get all caught up immediately. Which of course is rather overwhelming, so I end up not doing any strips, or at least very few. But even if I do get a few done, since I don't have all the strips done, I don't post any of them, since I want to get caught up all at once. But now I'm even farther behind, so getting caught up is even more overwhelming...

Well, anyway, I'm going to try to break this vicious circle by posting a week's worth of so of strips a day instead of getting caught up all at once. Hopefully this way I'll still get caught up eventually. You'll also notice that, for the moment, Giti's Puzzle Corner is still on hold, and Sunday strips aren't colored. Those will both be remedied once I'm caught up. But for the moment, just catching up is going to be the number one priority. Expect seven new strips posted tomorrow!

News for June 9, 2001:
Remember what I said yesterday about having my priorities? Well... I just realized that there are a lot of things I have to do this weekend that are kind of a higher priority than posting a week's worth of strips. So, um, I'm afraid there'll be a slight further delay. I do, in fact, have the requisite week's worth of strips drawn... but actually scanning them and particularly coloring the two Sunday strips is going to take a while, and I have other things to do. So... Monday. But Monday there'll be two weeks' worth of strips. I'll get caught up yet.

News for June 8, 2001:
Blargh. It has now been several weeks since the last update, and I am falling farther and farther behind. Well, that will be remedied. Tomorrow there will be at least a full week's worth of strips up. Really.

Giti's Puzzle Corner, however, is on hiatus until the actual strips are caught up. Sorry about that, but I've got to have my priorities.

So, as I said, new strips tomorrow. Lots of them. I hope to get caught up by some time next week. (At which time, of course, the archives will also be cleaned up so there won't be the duplicate strips and all that are there now.) We'll see how that goes.

News for May 18, 2001:
I am a big stupid procrastinating idiot!

Sorry. Just had to get that out of my system.

Welp, I'm going out of town for most of the weekend, but I've uploaded a strip for tomorrow, so it should update automatically and everything will be fine. I'll try to have the promised full week's worth of strips, or more, up on Sunday - but don't be too surprised if my big stupid procrastinating idiocy gets the better of me again.

On a positive note, I have a forum now! Lookie there!

Oh... and as for the mistakes in the logorinths in Giti's Puzzle Corner, uh, still not fixed; sorry. I'll fix them when the next installment of Giti's Puzzle Corner goes up on Sunday.

News for May 10, 2001:
And again because I'm an idiot, there's been no update the last two days. Well, tomorrow there will be a full week's worth of new strips up. Really.

And now, in the "oops" file, I just realized that I made a mistake with a few of the logorinths in Giti's Puzzle Corner. Sorry about that. The mistakes'll be fixed tomorrow. Not that it probably matters too much, seeing as I've gotten no feedback whatsoever on Giti's Puzzle Corner, so I don't even know if anyone visited it. Oh, well.

News for May 7, 2001:
No update yesterday. Grr. There should have been, but you see, I'm an idiot.

Anyway, I'll try to make up for it with a full week's worth of strips tomorrow! (The operative word, of course, being "try".)

The good news is - well, actually, there are two pieces of good news. One is that, as witnessed by the above strip (the one for April 2), my lettering is beginning to approach legibility again, after an inexplicable period of almost complete illegibility.

But the other piece of good news is that the new site feature I had said was going up on Sunday the 6th is up! Yes, that's right! Look over on the right and you'll see a button to take you to Giti's Puzzle Corner! Hooray!

News for May 5, 2001:
The above strips were drawn for the the Webcomics Awareness Event, which is why I took time out from catching up on old strips to put them up.

Speaking of old strips, due to my erratic updating right now the archive is fairly chaotic, with many repeated strips and out-of-order bits. Sorry about that. I'll fix that once everything's caught up, but I didn't think it was necessarily worth the bother to fix it all right now when further catching up is going to introduce new problems anyway.

News for May 4, 2001:
Well, for once I actually followed through on what I said I'd do. Three new strips today! Which means the month of March is finally done...

Tomorrow I'll be taking a break off from playing catch-up for the Webcomics Awareness Event... but if all goes as planned, the next day the entire week (minus a day) of strips from April 2 to April 7 will go up. All may very well not go as planned.

News for May 3, 2001:
And another three strips today! Woo hoo!

I'll try to keep up this pace until I'm caught up, but I'm not promising anything.

Anyway, the March 26 strip is a bit of a departure for me. I am by nature a very wordy type of person (as you've probably noticed), and coming up with a strip without dialogue is actually rather difficult for me. Ah, well.

With any luck, there'll be three more strips coming tomorrow.

News for May 2, 2001:
Blargh... No, I haven't given up on the strip; things have just been horribly busy lately. Anyway, here's the strip that was supposed to go up way back on March 25, and which, incidentally, for various reasons took much longer to do than any other strip so far, even though you probably wouldn't guess that by looking at it.

As for the new feature I said was starting on Sunday the 29th... I decided to delay it a week. It's finished, actually, but I want to at least get partially caught up on the strips before launching something new. So, on Sunday the 6th, expect to see a new feature on this site. (It was actually this strip... meaning the March 25 strip, which just belatedly went up today... that gave me the idea for the new feature.)

Yes, I do plan on catching up soon. Sorry for all the delays.

News for April 15, 2001:
Ironically, on the day of MST3Keen, the SciFi channel changed the time they ran MST3K (again) so I didn't manage to record it (since I had had the timer on my VCR set for the wrong time). Or at least I only managed to record the very tag end of the credits, followed by Krankor's "Hna hna hna" laugh. It was an episode I hadn't seen before, too. (I only know the character in question was Krankor because he made a brief appearance in another episode.)

It's looking like there won't be any new strips up till Tuesday (sorry), but there should be several then.

News for April 14, 2001:
Hm... there haven't been any new strips in a while because this has been a horribly busy week in school, but next week I hope to catch up completely. In the mean time, here's a strip for MST3Keen.

In other news, there's going to be a new feature on this site starting Sunday the 29th. I won't say what it is until then, but I think it's going to be good.

News for April 9, 2001:
As expected, all did not go well, in the sense that I did not have three new strips up on the sixth. There will be at least one new strip up tomorrow. I'm not promising more than that.

You know, it's kind of ironic... well, maybe not, but odd. One of the reasons I settled on a delivery company as the venue of this comic was because it would give me an excuse to send the characters off to all sorts of exotic locales and have them meet all sorts of unusual people. And yet so far every single strip has taken place in the office. Oh, I do have some future storylines planned that will take place out of the office... but I really think I should put in a few out-of-the-office strips sooner. Oh, well.

News for April 5, 2001:
Um... Well, so much for "three strips tomorrow" as I said on April 1. But here are three strips now, anyway. (Four, but three new; the April 19th strip is repeated because it was the beginning of the "storyline" (so to speak) continued in the April 20 and 21 strips.) Yes, I do still plan to get caught up.

I really, really messed up the last panel of the March 19 strip. The table is seen from slightly above, but Theo is inexplicably still seen from straight on the side. Apparently he is floating diagonally slightly above the table's surface. Which he certainly isn't supposed to be doing. I may get around to fixing that, but given that I'm already behind I wouldn't count on it. (Actually, the table is far too thick in the second, third, and fourth strips from the end, as well (some space under the table should be visible), and Theo's legs should be wider or his waist narrower (probably a little of both) in the third strip from the end, so in the unlikely circumstance that I ever do get around to fixing the last panel I'll fix those too.)

Not to mention that much of the text (particularly in the last panel, in which the text also slants noticeably upward - I've gotta watch that) is so small as to be virtually illegible. I'm very, very wordy. Sorry.

One more note: In the last panel of the March 21 strip, Theo should be saying "obviously", not "certainly". I intended for him to say "obviously". I had planned for him to say "obviously". But for some reason when I actually drew the strip I wrote "certainly" instead. I may go back and fix that too, but in the mean time, just trust me, even though the text says "certainly", he actually said "obviously", okay?

If all goes well there should be another three new strips up tomorrow. But it probably won't.

News for April 1, 2001:
The above April Fools' strip was drawn by Alun Clewe. The strip I drew for his comic Academonium can be found here.

The April Comic Swap Hub

On other news, yes, I'm two weeks behind. I'm getting caught up, though, and I expect at least three strips to go up tomorrow. Maybe more. Anyway, I'll get caught up soon.

News for March 19, 2001:
Oops... no strip yesterday. Sorry. Something came up, and I ended up going out of town for the weekend; I thought I'd be able to finish and upload the strip there, but no such luck. I'll fill it in later, though; I'll let you know here when it's up.

News for March 17, 2001:
Mrs. Brady is, by far, the hardest character of my cast for me to draw. I don't know why, but for some reason I have a heck of a time getting her to look the way she's supposed to. Which is why she ends up looking completely different in every stupid panel.

Not that you probably care. I just thought I'd mention it.

News for March 12, 2001:
For those of you who are actually reading this comic, if any, which there probably aren't, I apologize for the late update today and the lack of updates yesterday. (Yesterday's strip is now up and in the archives, though.) Sorry. I was rather sick yesterday. Actually, at first I was worried that maybe I wasn't really sick, and I had just convinced myself I was sick because I had so much to do and didn't want to do it, but then I threw up, so either I was sick after all or my psychosomatic powers were greater than I realized. Either way, well, sorry about the lack of updates. It's all caught up now, though, and hopefully this shouldn't happen again.

News for March 9, 2001:
Yes, once again we have people with grotesquely disproportionate heads! THRILL at the fact that the sizes of the characters' heads seem to bear little or no relation to the sizes of their bodies! MARVEL that the characters' heads are not only disproportionate in a given panel, but actually manage to change size between panels! WONDER why I'm trying to draw a webcomic when I have such drastic trouble with simple proportions!

And not only that, but as an added bonus, today only (I hope), you get virtually illegible text! Hooray!

I'm still hoping I'll get better with practice...

News for March 6, 2001:
I should rename this comic "The People With Grotesquely Disproportionate Heads Extravaganza".

Okay, obviously I don't mean that. "The People With Grotesquely Disproportionate Heads Extravaganza" would be an extraordinarily bad name for a comic strip. Well... actually, maybe not. But it would be a bad name for this one. But I wish I could keep my characters' proportions right. Yeesh.

Ah, well. I suppose maybe with practice I'll improve... We'll see how the strips look a year from now... (Assuming I can keep this up that long... but I certainly plan to...)

I used far too many ellipses in the preceding paragraph.

News for March 3, 2001:
Yes, I do plan on customizing the web page layout eventually, but it may be a week or so before I get around to that. There should still be a new strip up every day in the mean time, though.

Incidentally, if you're wondering why the receptionist appears to be holding the telephone above her ear, rather than to it... It's because I can't draw. Sorry.