One day late. Not bad for a crazy week that capped off with more than a foot of snow. December 9th. I can't remember the last time it snowed this much in early December.

Anyway, as you can see, the new strip relies a lot on "Monster," the movie that won Charlize Theron an Oscar. More accurately, it relies on the zany, iconic quality of convicted/executed serial killer Aileen Wuornos, who Theron pretty much channeled for her Oscar-winning performance.

I have a lot of problems with my own humorous use of Wuornos' image. She led a tragic life to say the least. It's still unclear -- and probably always will be -- just what motivated her "career" as a serial killer. She was disturbed, yes, but she claimed to have been raped, brutally, by her first victim, and said she was afraid the other men she killed were also going to attempt to harm or kill her. The police departments credited with arresting her were allegedly dealing for movie and TV rights before she even stood trial, and Wuornos' public defender was a green and unqualified to handle a murder defense. She fired him, but the boobish, rock-star-wannabe lawyer she replaced him with was both insensitive and greedy. As seen in the excellent documentary film "Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer," he's pretty much a walking, talking conflict-of-interest, and he certainly could have done a better job of earning whatever money Wuornos paid him prior to her execution.

Then there's the ultimate not-funny piece of the Wuornos story: she did kill seven men. Undeniably. A horrible life isn't a good excuse for that -- nothing is -- but it is an excuse of some sort.

She was a bizarre character, but beneath that surface nothing about her life is all that funny. Ultimately, though, I just couldn't resist the idea of combining the extreme unglamour of Theron-as-Wuornos with the hyper-plasticine sexiness of Theron-as-Aeon-Flux. They were such polarized images, they had to be put together.

Had to.