This doesn’t look awful. It’s not perfect, but it has wheels. And I think Pepper looks really, really good in the first panel. Pep is rapidly becoming my most drawable (that is a word, now) character. I think it’s the hair and hats, I don’t know. I do know that I actually look forward to putting her in panels. Pepper is expressive and fun, and even for a very bad artist, it helps the process.

Somewhere, Bob Dahlstrom is looking at that cat and saying, “He stole our cat!”. Yes, Bob, I stole our cat. Bob and I were going to collaborate on a strip at one point, and I floundered on it horribly (I take full blame here, I could never find the time to put a second site together). He did some very cool character sketches and one great strip that makes me laugh still, just thinking about it. One of the features was the overweight pet cat of the main characters, named Skateboard.

Skateboard is ironically one of the few characters I have ever used who is rooted in reality. At some point in my childhood (in the forties), we took a trip with a local church group to visit with some other church associated people on a nearby island (I live on the coast here). I don’t remember the exact details of the trip, but I do recall I and my friends spotted this cat whom apparently belonged to these residents. This cat, as Aikida put it so eloquently, was really fucking fat. Walking was an effort for this behemoth and we were amazed he could even do that as his feet barely touched the ground.

We dubbed him Skateboard because we surmised that the only efficient means of locomotion for this porky fuck would be to crawl onto a skateboard and drag himself around, or be pulled by a team of Olympians. It turned out to be a serendipitous encounter though, as I think he will be an awesome character, half pathos, half cute, all marketable.

Anyway, thanks to Bob for being the first person to welcome me back and not hold a grudge. Thanks to everyone in fact, you’ve all been pretty supportive, much to my relief. I know it will take time to rebuild this miniature empire, but I think we’re off to a very good start.

I have updated the Cast page, the About page, and added an Email page. If these are things you think you need to know. Also, since I have your ear (or eye… either is kind of gross, really), what other sorts of pages do you clamor for? Links? Forums? Some sort of FAQ? Something I haven’t thought of? Let me know in the comments and I will offer fairly decent odds, maybe 15 – 1, that it will actually happen

TWC seems to be down right now, so we’re just going to stick with Buzz for the time being. Vote, sirs and madams, vote!

Heyyy, JAM is back. Awesome.

This sort of thing will reoccur on Friday.

EDIT: I bring you banners and link buttons! Rejoice?

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