Flies on the Wall

A closer, unobstructed look at the portrait on the wall of Jonesy's and Danny's apartment.

Surfin' Safari

Huh!

Reception to this week's strip has been quite positive! Which sorta surprises me, actually. I thought it was a hard sell, certainly less self-explanatory than some of my other strips. But then, I'm still looking at it from a creator's point of view. After squinting at my at-first blank piece of paper for several hours, I can only see the flaws and problems. The smudges, the fights! THE LIES!

Okay, not the lies. There aren't any lies.

It'll take some time, I guess. While we're waiting, I hope you'll enjoy the photo of me, taken in northern California last year. I'm posting it for my friend John, who wrote to me the other day after I'd neglected his correspondence for months, to show him just how far I've come as a surfer since our trip to El Salvador a few years ago.

Hoodwinked

Popcorn Picnic doesn't have a whole lot of readers yet, so this probably wouldn't be noticed by anyone . . . except I'm gonna point it out.

PP is published a couple places on the Web, most prominently at Flak Magazine. I usually give the strip to my editor at Flak, Sean Weitner, one day before I post it on my own site so Flak gets a bit of an exclusive, and I get a bit of an excuse -- to put off whatever Web-construction is necessary until Tuesday. This week's workings were no different. Until halfway through the day today.

Around lunchtime I was hit with the overwhelming urge to change a few things. There'll always be something that bothers me about every single strip after I've clicked SAVE and shut down my computer, but I can usually let sleeping dogs lie. This time poochie needed a kickin'. The pace was off, and the second-to-last line of dialogue sounded forced. I try to write dialogue to fit my characters' personalities, and to fit whatever situation I've stuck 'em in. It doesn't necessarily have to sound like "real life" -- since lots of my strips have almost nothing to do with that -- but it does have to sound like something someone would say if he found himself walking around a Shadoian cartoon landscape.

In the second to last line of my original version, Danny digs at "Hoodwinked" with a sort of reverse negative assessment. No one does that. No one would say, "I hated X because it was this good at something." The implication may be that "this good" is "really bad," but it doesn't have the same zing that plain ol' hatred does. I was trying too hard to make the one word punchline work, but when you hate something you say it's bad, not good. BAD! Therefore, the strip works better with a different second-to-last line, and an entirely cut last line.

Yes, I know. That makes the second-to-last line the last line. Aren't you smart!

Anyway, for those who're interested, here's the original version. Thanks for reading!

Underworld: Evolution

This blog posting is pretty tardy. I've been meaning to post something new for awhile, but I've been busy, and sick, AND my computer crashed after I'd written a whole post.

Also, the dog ate the computer.

Anyway, this'll be brief, since it's late, and since I'm trying to knock this damned cold out quick in order to get back to comic-y goodness. But I have to mention a couple of things. Popcorn Picnic has received a couple of nice mentions/links in the last week or so, which have given a good bump to readership. They are:

The Webcomicker Blog - Webcomics enthusiast Gilead Pellaeon has written a substantial, thoughtful, positive piece about Popcorn Picnic. I've thanked him by email, but here it is in public: Thanks, Gilead!

Theater Hopper - another online movie-based comic strip you'd do well to check out. It's funny and writer/artist Tom Brazelton been doing it for quite awhile (over 500 strips!). Tom generously dropped PP into his blog today, which has driven a lot of readers my way. Hopefully I can do the same one day. Can't thank you enough, Tom.

One more thing to mention: I've gotten some complimentary and encouraging emails from Gordon McAlpin, who writes and draws Multiplex, another unique comic strip take on the movies. It's fun and funny, and I love the way it looks. I wish I had the patience to produce vector-based art. Alas, I'm stuck in the stone age until I get to the retouching, coloring and posting stage. Sigh.

Happy Groundhog Day, shadowcasters!