Production has begun on the parents prequel arc! I have four weeks to get this stuff produced and uploaded to the archives before my buffer runs out! This is my dedication! I could have five weeks of strips to add to the buffer, but I'm sacrificing it all for the good of my INCREDIBLY SHRINKING fan base. By the time March arrives, I doubt I'll have anyone reading at all. THEIR LOSS! I shall remain quietly awesome and all of you can regret life when you realize what you missed.
There has already been one casualty with this arc. No, it's not my sanity. That's long gone. This time it was the unlucky strip #
Why was it cut? For one thing, the punchline depends on knowing the coloring of my characters. While color would certainly help connect dots for this arc, that's a boatload of effort for a mere archive booster. If I went with color, I would have to regain my sanity just so I could LOSE IT AGAIN! Color aside, the strip just isn't strong enough to justify its addition. It doesn't add any new plot elements and its deletion has zero impact on the story. In a group of strips more expository than humorous, we don't need any extra clunkers gumming up the works.
Anyway, I now have the first 18 strips scripted - and the last 9 strips scripted. The strips in between? I dunno. I've never been good at the brief connective tissue stuff. I prefer to leisurely play in tangents and let the plot slowly creep back into frame. I hope the missing strips number less than 10, but I have a lot of not-that-interesting stuff to cover in that space.
Update: The full arc has now been scripted! It will run a total of 35 strips, and those strips should manage to offend just about everyone! I have a bad habit of showing my characters at their very worst, don't I? All my early strips make Autumn look like a petty she-demon. Bud has done some pretty petty taunting (as in the first two strips next week). Sky is either shown stressed to her limit or never far from a bottle of wine. (She also threatens violence in future strips!) As for Bud's mom, Sydney... holy cow! There needs to be a note at the top of her strips that reads, "WARNING! This is a DEEPLY sarcastic woman." This is the stuff that *I* find funny, but I fear losing the few readers I have! My soul is DARK. Now no self-respecting syndicate would have me!
I've also started scripting what looks to be the next in-continuity story, which ties in nicely with the parents arc. It starts with a PTA meeting about a bake sale, before quickly devolving into a situation where Bud puts a curse on everyone and the aforementioned Sky violence is threatened. It also introduces a new classmate in Kaitlyn! Awesome! She wasn't supposed to appear for another month or so, but this brief cameo doesn't spoil anything for the future.
Sleeping all day and staying up all night turned out to be a good idea! Not only have I been writing well, but this Federer/Nadal tennis Australian Open final has been unbelievably awesome to watch. I think Federer is an unearthly demon. No human being could be that skilled. Nadal is like a human miraculously putting in constant superhuman effort, but Federer's skill can only come from dark forces. He's like that Lugia in Pokemon Battle Revolution that has infinite PP. He doesn't play with human limitations or rules! I don't trust him!
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