Writer's NotesNot much to say here. I didn't have an overall plot or theme going on in this one, except that of resigned detatchment. The Monica episode pretty much happened as written. I thought I made the end pretty clear in that regard, but I still get people asking if he got together with Monica. The answer: No. She never returned another phone call after that.
I stopped here because it was just getting too hard to continue. I had a scenerio in a bar planned, and I had it completely written, but I couldn't find the images in my head necessary to begin it. Simply, it was just another missed chance episode, which in retrospect I didn't need because I already made it pretty clear in the Monica epsiode that he was missing chances just because he was living in his own head and not seeing the world around him.
So the story ends here, on a down note. Unfortunately, it HAS to end there, with the last page going up over three years ago, with me having changed my drawing style (I RARELY use crosshatching anymore) as well as the materials I used.
A note on the materials I used. I was planning to print these books, so I used all professional quality materials. I used blue Staedler pencils, the kind that don't show up in the photocopying process. For lettering and panels, I used Rapidoliners. They were fun to use, but a big pain in the ass when the local store ran out of the sizes I needed and I had to wait for a shipment. I inked with India ink and Hunt 102 nibs. The paper I used was Bainbridge board I cut myself, the drawing area was 10" x 15". Since I made the jump to webcomics, I stop using these kinds of materials because all I needed to worry about was black lines -- the quality of paper or ink didn't quite matter much anymore. One thing is for sure, though it was interesting to do, I don't miss drawing on those big boards.
November, 9, 2001.