July 9, 2002 - An Oldie but a Goodie

July 9, 2002 - click to embiggen

Okay, since this was intended to be a family-friendly stip, I tried to make sure that my female characters did not fall into too curvaceous a mode. As I brought the girl’s roommate into the picture, I realized I’d kinda drawn her “hot.” So I decided to use it. I was a sad, shallow man.

July 2, 2002 - Death of Art

July 2, 2002 - click to embiggen

I read a great line from a comic strip called “The Norm” by Michael Jantze. The gist of it was: “Great. You overthink it while I go marry her.” The idea for this gag popped right into my head. Also, remember this was all pre-"Big Bang Theory."

June 25, 2002 - And All I Have to Do Is...

June 25, 2002 - click to embiggen

It was time to get “the girl” back in the picture. Her face was tough to nail down, but I finally started to get a feel for her around this time.

June 18, 2002 - R to the E to the T to the...

June 18, 2002 - click to embiggen

Jake’s tastes don’t always run the same direction as the rest of the world (not sure where THAT comes from...). I tried to be as obscure as I could with each reference, but I’m sure there are geeks out there who could put me to shame.

June 11, 2002 - La la la la la la

June 11, 2002 - click to embiggen

I wanted to have the Smurfs in my strip at some point (in loving tribute to my wife), and this true trend in comics gave me the just set up i needed. Of course, little did I know the Smurfs would make their own comeback about 8 years later...

June 4, 2002 - What Lies Beneath

June 4, 2002 - click to embiggen

A big thank you to those of you popping over to read these. It is nice to be able to share them with the world again.

I couldn’t squeeze in all the dialogue I wanted, and in retrospect I would not have drawn the upper balloon line cutting off Gentle’s head, but otherwise I like the way this one came out. I love the punchline/threat - never make a ferret angry.

May 28, 2002 - Daddy's Home

May 28, 2002 - click to embiggen

This gag is completely dependent on knowing the storyline. (My friend asked me “why are they playing ‘toss the ferret’?” In retrospect I would've drawn Maybel with a different posture.)

May 21, 2002 - Odd Man Out

May 21, 2002 - click to embiggen

I discovered I didn’t have as much for the convention story as I’d imagined, so I was eager to wrap it up. I learned this truth myself during a solo convention outing, but had a better time than Jake did.

May 14, 2002 - Getting Meta

May 14, 2002 - click to embiggen

One of the things I liked about this storyline was that things were happening to Gentle while things were happening with Jake. For consistency and brevity I stayed with Jake’s point of view, but tried to show that Gentle was not exactly having the time of his life.