Well, here it is, the page that took forever. What is with the PEOPLE? Sheesh. I have something I need to tell you all about how I felt while working on this page:

I should quit making comic strips, comics, whatever it is I do here. I should just stop.

I felt BAD putting drawing on this page. It wasn’t coming out how it looked in my head. Most things don’t. I barely have the ambition that looks better than what comes out, seriously. I think we all know that. But, SHEESH. Nothing was coming out right. And it just sat there. I got about five panels in, this strip and half the next, before i just let it sit for like two weeks. I felt AWFUL about it. What am I doing? Why am I doing this?

I have a few projects that haven’t moved at all. The Sad Vigilante comic, 12 or 13 pages, I don’t think I’ve touched since 2016. An outline for the 2nd coloring book that I wrote up on the flight back from NYCC in Oct 2022. The sequel to Spiders Are Helpful!, which I need to write. I do have things I’ve completed. I put together RwC 6 in a couple days, including the cover. I have albums I’ve worked on! Scripts I’ve written including a play that was produced. So maybe I DO get a few things done. I don’t know what it is here. The work is the same, there were more challenging pages to draw. Was it that I have to draw “normal” “people” now? Did I expect different angles that didn’t turn out the way they did? I don’t know. The Mayor is pretty deformed. He looks like a giant baby. Few of the rest of the people on this page will look like anything resembling people. My characters are rarely on model.

Well, I FINISHED THE PAGE. I drew the “easier” remaining panels and worked backwards. I added people in panels to make it a little busier – if I was failing at drawing people, at least now the panel would have more of them so I wouldn’t be skimping out on detail. I had a lot of mistakes and I spent a good amount of time on the computer fixing them. So, it’s here. And page 14 will be a doozy. On the plus side, we’re past the halfway point where I want to be. The next two parts of this page will appear Wednesday and Friday.

I hope you’re enjoying Mal & Dee. This post is not intended to generate responses of support, I promise you. And if you think I should stop, let me hear you! I don’t know why I feel the way I do but it’s a genuine feeling and though I’m NOT stopping I’m considering that maybe this isn’t for me anymore.

…Happy Labor Day.