The logo, one of the first things designed and the only thing that hasn't changed

Instead of the typical page preview today, I’m going to talk about something a little different…

One or two of you may remember that quite some time back (probably about a year ago, now), I started work on a comic strip featuring a bunch of talking animals. Why? Well, it’s partially because I love comic strips and, like most artists my age, I absolutely worship at the altar of Bill Watterson. The other reason is that I loathe talking animals. I hate furry comics. I think they’re one of the dumbest ideas pervading every corner of webcomicdom with their unfunny, bland, and annoying strips. All over the web, you see comics chock full of talking animals where they’re basically… humans… with fur. If the animals don’t act differently than humans, why not just make a human-based comic strip? On the other side of things, you have the “wacky animal madness!” comic strips where the animals are always up to zany things to befuddle their obtuse owners! Yow-zah! (side note: as much as I despise them, talking animal strips are still better than the “four bros and a chick” comics that populate about 25% of webcomics, but that complaint is for another day).

Initially, I wanted to do a straightforward strip. I started out with sketches of the characters, started compiling ideas for plot points and comic strips, and felt pretty good about the entire idea.

An abbreviated progression of how the characters evolved. Note the horrendous style in which they started. Then promptly forget it. Thank you.

Then I stalled out. Lost interest. Went back to plugging away at Variables. A few months ago, the desire to start this strip started gnawing at me again so before I wrote anything, I just thought about the concept for a few weeks. I decided that I’m not Bill Watterson. I’m never going to be Bill Watterson. As much as I love the guy’s work, that just isn’t my cup of tea. Watterson told stories, had great linear jokes, and was the master of writing hilarious dialogue that appealed to everyone. If anything, my work should be more of a mix of Charles Schultz (a guy whose work is often ridiculed today by people who don’t understand how important that strip was at the time), Walt Kelly (Pogo, yay), and Gary Larson. If I want to tell a story, I’ll do it in Variables. If I want to pour over every detail in world-building, I’ll work on Variables or start up work on two other ideas I have burning in the background. To keep my interest, this strip had to make no sense whatsoever. It couldn’t be meticulously rendered. It should be fast and loose with a fluid writing style. I’d want it to hit the occasional social satire in an abstract way and I’d want it to be slightly depressing at times, like if Eeyore co-wrote Springtime for Hitler. This strip won’t be ha-ha funny and will probably generate as many “awwww, sad face” moments as it does laughs.

So I started thinking about the concept of this strip and why I’m working on it. The animals are basically captives in a testing facility for chemicals. That’s not funny. That’s pretty terrible, actually. And they’re animals, in most cases they won’t understand what was going on. So my anthropomorphism of the animals should be limited. They’re kinda dumb (in some cases, basically brain-dead). Funny, right? Yeah, I wondered how I’m going to make this funny as well. The only way I could think to do it is to go as abstract as possible with the dialogue. I also needed the proper visuals to go along with the feeling of the comic…

The main character, a cat named Trip, in what is probably close to her final look and feel

With that in mind, I went back and started sketching characters. I refused to spend more than 5-6 minutes per sketch. I started writing a general outline. Later, I started writing strips as a stream-of-consciousness exercise. A lot of what I turned out was pure crap but here and there, it gave me ideas to keep plugging away with a better, newer concept. I’m still really early in this exercise and I doubt anyone will see a comic for at least another 2-3 months. But this time, I think it will stick and I’ll start publishing some of my work. Right now, my plans are for the vast majority of strips to be in black and white, with every fifth or tenth strip in color but hey, that could all change. As I get more/better ideas and sketches done, I’ll post them here so you can see my progress.

It’s been a lot of fun to start work on this idea and let me tell you, it’s not like anything I’ve done before. It’s a struggle to make something feel new and interesting but also to look familiar. I’m going to have to work on the character revisions a lot to make sure the characters are recognizable but not bland. As you can see in some of these images, the characters have changed a lot already and you’re looking at less than half the characters I have in store for the strip.

By the way, those of you looking for the art preview for Variables, that should be going up Monday morning at the latest. As you can imagine, this project has consumed some of the time typically set aside for Variables work.

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