OK, so I just story-boarded six pages of the script, and except for a couple of long paragraphs that needed editing, it all fit beautifully!

The pacing of "... in Stitches" works pretty dang well, too. Fast and clippy but not disjointed. I'm sort of aiming for screwball here. People were able to understand it even without the characters penciled in or otherwise specially identified, which is usually a good sign.

Now I just have to decide my production method. Should I draw all six panels on one sheet of paper? Should it be done on a letter sized sheet, or should I spring for tabloid or larger? Or should I draw each panel separately?

I'm leaning toward giving each panel its own sheet of paper. It'll keep the quality up and I can mat them together for shows. But it'll slow down my process, because I'll have to scan each panel separately as well.

The kids names will be Molly Wolliker and Thommy Tinkerton. I think.

Do they sound like names that have been used together before?

click to view larger image



*Note: I'm not calling the strip "Character Interaction" even though that really is the theme of the whole thing. I was just naming this one file as an example.


Also, I like how the character names roll: Winston, Moe, Tillie, Otto & Reg

Occasionally (like once every five or so years), I'll dream that I'm a girl or a woman. Three of those dreams involved looking into a mirror and seeing myself as such, and my reaction to it. Almost always, the change of gender is part of the dream. Once, it was one of those really embarrassing dreams where you've gone to school in your underwear, only on top of that, I found myself sitting on a bench telling one of my old friends why I had gotten the operation.

Usually these dreams are weird, enlightening or kind of fun, though one was disturbing to the extreme and I only tell it when I'm expected to tell something embarrassing. It doesn't go in print. I do sort of feel like I'm expected be socially embarrassed about these dreams, but they're just dreams. I'm ultimately comfortable with where they are coming from, and more and more with how I present myself to the world (which is to say, honestly). Anyway, most of my friends would probably be just as amused and interested in them as I am. But as you can tell by my extra long introduction, I'm not really sure about that.

People really do like to read between the lines of all sorts of things and ascribe motives to people that are often completely opposite of the truth. They do this for politics, sex, and just about every other minute social interaction in between. And frankly, I'm really tired of it.

However, when I dream something very clearly, with amazingly strong visual detail, I often take that as a challenge to remember it and draw it. I can usually get pretty close, I think. As an artist, I've got to share this! Also, this whole train of thought as spawned an idea for a story.

Anyway, last night I dreamt that I had shaved the evening before, and when I got up in the morning, I saw this in the mirror:



I have to say, I was nonplussed. In both the traditional and in my sense of the word. While I've been curious what it would be like to pass as a girl, that image represents one of the phenotypes I find least sexy to me (pretty, but not my type or what I admire). Also, I was still clearly a guy and definitely married to the extremely sexy woman I call my wife. I thought this new situation would cause problems, but Julie didn't seem to care or even notice. Which kind of made me feel worse. But I also somehow knew this would happen, hence that expression.

Anyway, thinking about how and why my brain came up with this situation and visualized it so strongly got me to thinking about dreams and their apparent purposes.

( story idea behind a cut )

OK, don't have a heart attack over this.

Tentative title for the sequel to "Nothing Harmless" could be "To Wear the Hat of Freedom."

It will most likely be broken up into three chapters: Sophmore, Junio & Senior years.

More hints than that are not yet warranted.

People who are intimate with the history of my Dragon People should be having a sharp intake of breath concerning that title.

I had an idea.

This also indicates that "Nothing Harmless" is rapidly nearing the production phase.

I'm at that wonderful spot in scripting "Nothing Harmless" where I get to decide between the following lines:

"I've got a rabid dragon and I'm not afraid to use him."

or

"I just pulled an angry Gnargrim off you. I can put him back."

or

"This little guy calls me 'boss.' Do you really want to find out what kind of diseases he's carrying?"

or

"There's a larger one of these inside. Wanna see him?"

Normally, I post these to private posts until I get around to drawing the comic, but I just gotta share this. To me, it feels like my version of an upbeat but cynical "How to be Happy" comic. If anybody wants to draw the comic instead of me, go for it! I mean, go ahead and steal the script. You just have to get to it before I do. I've got two or three comics to go before I attempt this one:


Panel 1:

Two people run up to each other all happy and waving arms, almost panting, each holding a to-go coffee cup.


Panel 2:

They each sniff the other's coffee, totally engrossed in the smell.


Panel 3:

person A: You smell like a friend!

person B: Let's go play!


Panel 4:

Both people go running off with their cups of coffee with goofy, carefree expressions, waving their arms and looking at each other expectantly.