There were a myriad of ways I could have handled this comic. But I went with the more direct approach of having Chris actually say the question, which may kind of throw people off, but the fact of the mater is Chris is starting to…well…shift. It’s hard to explain without spoiling things for you, but I’m curious who may guess what’s going on before I explain it, because I’ve already started to leave hints and ideas…as well as a few distractions.

Because that’s the way I roll.

But you’re also getting some of Chris’s deeper personality, he’s quite the fan of the dramatic (if you didn’t guess from the way he toyed with Roto).

I notice that I’m talking about Chris a little too much…So I’ll try to tone that down a little. Haha…so fear not I’ll talk about other things next time.

Edit:

It occurred to me that I DO have something to talk about! The teachers of The PKF! Typically I base some of the locations of the comic on places I’ve been and I also do the same for the teachers as well.

Remember this guy? Yeah, him too. Mr. Ogle is based off a teacher I knew in Jr. High with a similar name, he was a good guy who just couldn’t convince me to stop doodling in the back of the class. And he took my stress reliver ball and never gave it back. Haha.

What about the poor Principal? Mr. Fleshman was based on my Elementary school Principal. He actually looked a hell of a lot like this. But he didn’t try the half assed combover. Lol. I always liked the real him…good guy.

Today’s teacher? Mr. Iseden. Based after an English Teacher I had back in Jr. High. He was a good guy who really wanted to help. He just rubbed me the wrong way for some reason. I was never really a jerk to him or anything…I just wasn’t nearly as talkative as I could have been. I always just sat quietly and never answered his questions.

Which I wasn’t fair of me…

/EDIT

Don’t forget, Hunter updates this Friday. I know a few of you have joined me over there, but it’s a fun little romp though the other part of the world. Remember, I can say @#$% over there now, so be warned. Haha

-Peace

…of old memories…thought I was going to say alcohol, didn’t cha?

But first things First. Tom’s escalating, isn’t he? The poor boys nuttier than a fruit cake…wow…I’m too sleep to think of a good analogy. Bah.

But things are starting to move quickly…Tom’s beginning to delve deeper into the otherworldly aspects of the comic, slowly he’s heading towards the slippery slope that will lead ultimately to a dramatic change in his actions and mental state…yeah, mull that over.

And yes, I got the ‘words coming from his mouth, but he’s not speaking’ bubbles from Bone, by Jeff Smith which may be my all time favorite comic. Ever. Seriously.

EVER.

Anyhow, like I said in the notice box I’m updating the WordPress (which runs my updates and other stuff) tomorrow, rather than over the weekend. I spent the last three days (from 7:00am to 9:00pm) heaving the heaviest @#$%ing crap I could imagine. How one man could accumulate so much crap is beyond me…

Oh, wait, he’s got seven other @#$%ing people leaving there and accumulating crap as well.

@#$%.

But aside from pulling a muscle in my back, nearly breaking my knee (dropped a REFRIDGERATOR on the @#$%ing thing) and a freakish amount of calluses, bruises and @#$% knows what else it was a good three days.

But it was weird, I’ve moved a few times since I was little, I’m by no means a stationary human being (moved three times in the last four years) but leaving that house made me a little sad. There was so much that happened there (not the least of which was the birth of The PKF…well…The PKF you know) so leaving was odd. I wandered around a little and saw all the things I did there while I was growing up, it was just weird knowing that that was likely the last time I was going to be in there.

So I thought I’d just say that I was all sore hearted this weekend, as well as simply sore. Which was fun.

Moral: If there are down times this Tuesday sorry…it’ll be up soon…

Sleep now.

Sore.

‘nighty night.

-Peace

EDIT (6:30pm): Upgrade is done…that was quick and painless, eh? Let me know if there’s anything wrong…I doubt it, but you never know./EDIT

Now you totally get the last chapter’s title, don’t you? I’m  a title ninja.

Anyhoo…Classes start today, they may or may not be harder than the last semester…all I know is I’ve got class…I haven’t actually attended any of them as of writing this (I’ll update later to let you all know what I think, if you care) but I figure I won’t test my luck.

Update schedule returns to TWICE A WEEK in February (02/02…my birthday oddly enough) and will stay as such until I can decide how I want to handle this. After I see how rough the semester is going to be maybe I’ll start updating every other Friday or something…we’ll see if I can get a buffer going.

This break resulted in my gaining a VERY TINY buffer of comics…Previously I could boast of a three week buffer…right now? Only three days (or one week), which is all kinds of suck. BUT I’m going to get you guys though the month on Three-A-Week because that SHOULD bring us right into the meat of this story arc! So that’s my plan.

Bust my ass to rock three comics for the next two weeks. @#$% sleep.

In comic related things I REALLY, REALLY need to draw a layout of the ZPF HQ, it would make it so much easier to visualize things…maybe I’ll do a rough one later. I have a layout of the HOLD and Tom’s house is really simple, but the ZPF HQ is a rather large and complex location…

That’s it really, enjoy the comic. I’ll report in when I’ve had my first classes…cross your fingers they only want one two-page-paper this whole semester…

-Peace

EDIT Post Class: Yeah…This semester is going to be…interesting. Well…I’m sticking to my ‘Three-a-Week’ through January…maybe it’ll be better after a few days of knowing what to expect…/EDIT

I don’t usually say anything ‘bloggy’ on my blog, usually a few snippets on the comic, maybe an anime reference (gone horrible wrong at the death of Roto >_>) or two but not much in the way of ‘blog’. Well, I’m going to start to try saying something other than ‘comic’ down here, starting with this post here.

Books.

I LOVE my books. I love my comic books. But I really, really love regular old books. I’ve got a small library of things ranging from fantasy to suspense to horror, and a smattering of non-fiction for good measure. Sadly during the school semester I hardly have time to read (Or when I do it’s school related, or very short lived) but at the end of winter break I opted to finally sit down a read an author I’ve heard nothing but good thins about: Neil Gaiman.

I picked up ‘Neverwhere’, and devoured it, despite a few complaints it was fantastic, but a few days ago I picked up the book I was looking for when I walked out with ‘Neverwhere’. ‘American Gods‘.

I’m sure I’m not the first person to tell you this, but READ. THIS. BOOK. @#$%. I haven’t finished it yet (It’s only been a few days, give me another week since school’s started) but I have to say that it’s absolutely amazingly well written.

It follows the story of ‘Shadow’, a recently released convict who get’s hired by a man calling himself ‘Wednesday’…from there his life falls apart and he ends up involved in something that he’s fairly certain is out of his league…yet he’s not a whiny little @#$%er.

This is something that bugs me with books, and movies, and comics (even my own…which I’m trying to fix): The main character ends up in an impossible situation and spends the whole time doing nothing but bitching and moaning about how unlikely the whole thing is until the end when they start bitching and moaning about how they hate their old life.

Thus far Shadow hasn’t complained (expressed confusion and disbelief, sure) and he’s taken the whole thing in a combination of amusement and ’sure what the hell’edness. I’ve gotten to really like Shadow (don’t spoiler it for me if he goes bitch towards the end) and the way each character is written is amazingly fantastic and unique.

Neil Gaiman may be my new favorite author.

I was worried that he would follow the same formula every time, as ‘Stardust’ and ‘Neverwhere’ were the same basic story: Boy falls into shit, boy climbs out of shit, boy learns life lesson and everything works out…and no this isn’t a spoiler as you don’t know how it works out and that’s the lesson. At first I was worried that ‘American Gods’ would follow this same formula, which would have made me sad. But so far Shadow hasn’t started to do this…and I’ve only got a few more chapters to go, so I don’t see this happening.

Because I got mighty sick of Dan Brown’s: Open with murder, have series of plot twists (that after two of his books you could guess the whole thing), then end with a big reveal that is ultimately covered up and the main character getting laid.

I read four (is that all he’s done?) of his books; ‘Angels and Demons’, ‘The Da Vinci Code’, ‘Deception Point’, and ‘Digital Fortress’…all very good but all the same damned thing. I should have given up after ‘Deception Point’ but I just started on the last and I hate to give up mid-stride.

The best part of the book is probably the ‘coming to America’ side stories, where Gaiman discusses how the gods found their way to the new world…they range from funny, to spooky, to outright @#$%ed up. And they’re fantastic.

Ok, That’s it. I’m done. It’s nearly a @#$%ing paper here.

Comic on Monday will explain a little about the green guy’s reappearance. As will the blog.

I don’t think I can think of something interesting to say all the time.

I don’t roll like that.

-Peace

PS: Anybody have any suggestions on what I should get of his next? I know there’s a seaqual to ‘American Gods’ but I’m open for anything…

That’s…the sound of one of those party noise makers thingys. Obviously.

Heh heh

I’m not going to say much, other than enjoy the filler and be here on Wednesday for a proper comic.

It’s been a while since I’ve put up some random, middle of the story arc, filler…so I figure I’m able to get away with it.

Plus I’m using this to get a little more of a buffer going…blarg…schools not leaving much extra time. But hey, I can still find time to draw. So we’ll be at twice a week for a little bit. But I hope to do three a week again sometime. School can’t ALWAYS eat my face, right?

Enjoy the pic, and have a good Groundhog’s day. Yes. I was born on Groundhogs day.

Wanna fight about it?/End Family Guy refence.

-Peace

But what can I say, I’ve always like the whole ‘the test is to see if you’d do it’ test.

That…and it saved me a whole comic. I had originally had Pat getting smacked in the face, but I decided that that would have had the same effect AND it would have added another page to an already elongated arc.

So there you go.

Also, this is the first application of the speed lines that I’m actually totally happy with. They look good don’t they? Damn right they do.

And yes, Pat’s the first to get the gem…go figure.

And in the news that you really don’t like to hear, there won’t be any updates next week. I know, I know, sorry, sorry. But I’ve been working down to the wire for the last…well…this whole arc. So I’m going to try and use next week to get ahead…since it’s spring break (and I’ll have finished all my school work)…I think I can get ahead a fair bit…

Maybe not a lot, but enough to make sure I don’t have to work right down to the update day, which results in sloppy comics. Something I don’t like.

Oddly enough today’s comic looks awesome, but I had all day to work on the whole thing…sometimes free time is nice. But next week promises to be a horrible, horrible week for free time.

Two papers due soon.

Anyhow, enjoy the comic.

-Peace

I’d have liked to have some smart ass picture of Tom freaking out or something, but I really didn’t have the time.

But the comic’ll be up tommorrow, so come on back.

And I’m sorry for the delay, but school comes first.

Sadly.

-Peace

EDIT: Don’t forget, no comics next week, I’m working to get ahead. But next week I plan to have a few little things to keep you busy. No image filler, but maybe a few additions to the minor cast page. I’ll let you know on Monday./EDIT

Sorry for the delay…and the extra hour it took to get the damned thing done.

I ended up doing all sorts of non-comic related stuff today (mostly school). But hey, it’s up.

And yes, Hana reached the Gem…just in case you feel like I’m leaving it up to question.

I’ll make a proper post later. Or not. I haven’t decided yet.

-Peace

Sorry for the delay folks…but it was all for the best, I’m a little ahead and I had a pretty nice week of relaxation and comickery. I’m not going to tell you how far in advance I’ve gotten…mostly because it’s not as far as I was hoping…but I’m more than a week ahead (I guess that’s telling you something…). So I’m in better shape than I was last week…

Anyhow, I’m oddly happy with this comic…it’s just too goofy…but I think it rounds out the first part of this arc nicely.

Wednesday will have the agent’s back at the HOLD (save Tom) and we’ll be moving on pretty quickly. In fact, I know I keep saying, but this arc is speeding along compared to how I thought it would go down.

I’ve completely reworked this arc and managed to remove a fair number of comics…AND I improved the story.

I don’t do that too often…it’s either one or the other with me…sadly.

Enjoy the comic.

-Peace