This probably isn't translating quite right in today's strip about "King Kong," but in the second panel, when "Kong" claps his hands, he's turning on the lights. With "The Clapper."

I didn't want to spend time trying to explain that in the strip -- it'd just get too wordy (as you can see). I wanted the silly emotion and Naomi Watts' confusion to drive the action. But I think it works even if you think Kong is just doing his ape thing.

I like to write/draw stuff without explaining. So a reader who cares enough to wonder why it's dark in the first panel, then light in the second, might figure it out on his/her own (or maybe I'm just being lazy, I dunno).

This post is for those who aren't interested in looking quite that hard.

Couldn't you just see it, though? From Hollywood? The Ultimate Land of Bad Relationships? Hee-hee!

I had an odd dream this morning.

I was tossed onto the beach by a large wave, though "tossed" probably isn't the right word. When the wave crashed and receded, I was standing on the beach. I hadn't been crushed by the water, or twirled around in the sand or anything. I think I was even dry, almost like I'd never been in the ocean.

I started talking to a bunch of random people on shore; they were all surfers. Despite my low surfing skill level, I grabbed a board (which looked more like a surfboard-sized boogie-board, a bigger, more colorful version of the one in my breezeway in real life), and jumped back in the ocean. I ducked the board under a few small waves, then realized a gigantic one was coming. Not just a tsunami-style wave, but a real tidal wave, like the ones you see in disaster movies after a comet hits the planet.

The wave changed into a floating mansion. Which makes sense when you think about it.*

I climbed onto the mansion-boat (or maybe just found myself on board, I don't remember), and started wandering around. It was huge, palatial, really, but I started to worry about being caught and remembered I'd climbed on board to avoid being crushed by a giant wave. (Yes, I know the wave had turned into the mansion-boat.) As I started making my way through the mansion-boat, it gunned its engines and started heading out to sea at top speed. I hurried to the back (or aft, if you want to be technical about it), tossed my board over, and dove in after it.

I got sucked along for a second or two while a spinning whirlpool of bubbles swirled past my head -- the propeller's wake. I let myself be tossed around a bit, and as things calmed down, decided to hang out underwater rather than surface. I found a wrecked ship and made my way inside through a small doorway. Lots of weird, orange algae was clouding the water, and I briefly wondered if I should be breathing it -- which was a strange sensation, pulling fluid in and out of my lungs. Inside the doorway was a dark passage and ladder leading up. I started climbing, pulling myself, floating, through the murky orange water with just my hands.

I got to the top of the passage and woke up.

Also, no new strip this week. Whole weeks off will be rare, but they will happen. It's unavoidable. I can't always spend hours and hours on something that doesn't make any money. I'm sorry. If you want the strip to always come out on time, every single week, consider buying a t-shirt (of which there will soon be new options).

Do look forward to my King Kong strip, though. It's funny!

*Not really.

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.

As y'all can see, there's no new strip today. I'm sorry, but I was offered a last-minute illustration job that paid a lot of money, and since Popcorn Picnic currently pays me, well, NOTHING, I couldn't turn it down.

The new strip's almost done, though. Just gotta color it. I'll post it tomorrow.

The shame.

HELLO

MY NAME IS STEPHEN CLARK, THIS IS NOW MY BLOG

OVER THE SUMMER I PLAYED WITH MY FRIENDS AND WENT TO CAMP IT WAS FUN. IN THE FUTURE I WILL POST MOVIE REVIEWS AND HAVE FUN TIMES WITH ALL MY POPCORN PICNIC FRIENDS.

IT IS FUN (POPCORN PICNIC) AND I HOPE YOU TELL YOUR FRIENDS ABOUT IT, ANWAY

ANYWAY THAT IS WHAT I DID FOR MY SUMMER VACATION. HOPFULLY NEXT SUMMER WILL BE AS FUN TOO.

STEPHEN CLARK