And so, that wraps up our Guest Fortnight. What have we learned about ourselves? Well, I've learned that I'm such a control freak that my "vacation" from the strip ended up being more work than a regular work week. Okay, less about control and more about wanting to not be left out with all the fun. So, I made sure I colored every strip and lettered most of them, too. And you know what? I made the right decision. These strips were a lot of fun, and turned out great. I'm glad I could be a part of it.
Thanks to Leo Burke, Zach Trover, Travis Fox, Chris Fenoglio, Raul Rodarte and Kat Cahill for helping out. And double thanks to Scott Arnold and Nick Brandt for starting the fortnight off, and now ending it. Aw crap, not Nick Brandt. Vaughn Mason. Why do I always confuse Nick Brandt and Vaughn Mason? All you guys did a great job, and it was fun to see all those other interpretations. Thanks so much.
Thanks also goes out to Daniel C. Ramos for writing a script that was just too long to fit into the time alloted; To Drew Blood, Seth Walker, and the Klute for volunteering, but the deadline was just too short for them to make. Thank you, guys. Sorry, I only gave you two days. We'll get you in there next time.
Next week, it's back to our regular scheduled programming with me writing the strips again on the regular schedule. So, come back next Wednesday for the continuing adventures of The Li'l Depressed Boy.
Raul Rodarte doesn't like to be called "Magic Man," anymore. He told me to not credit him as that on the strip. So I won't. But Magic Man was his stage name when I met him. We like to call him Abracrodarte now to tease him. He hates being called Abracrodarte. Call him it. He'll hulk out. If you tell him that you want him to come over and play Rock Band, he'll speed all the way to your house. He is a stand-up commedian, a magician and a poet. We went as part of the 2009 Slamarillo Team to the National Poetry Slam in West Palm Beach, FL this summer. Here he and I are performing a poem together:
I've been working with Zach since we were both in diapers. We weren't babies, we just both didn't want to get up. Yes, this is the way Zach and I think when we're together. It's dangerous. Zach is the creator of An Ordinary Day, which was supposed to start it's own weekly webcomic that we've totally forgotten about. We really need to get on that, Zach. Why are we slacking? Let's get on this before we forget again. It's not like we have to get up to the bathroom.
I'll be honest with you guys. I don't know Leo Burke well enough to make fun of him in this bio. If I knew him better, I'd say mean despicable things that would make you laugh. He might have had to make fun of me in return. However, I don't know him that well. He is cool, though. He got me into papercraft when he linked a site with cool templates on it. He wrote and drew todays strip. He likes things. He does stuff. He has a Deviant Art page, you can check it out here: http://hellojed.deviantart.com/
Travis Fox is psychic. I mean this. He knows the future. He wrote and drew today's strip 8 years, 4 months and 16 days ago. I opened my mailbox one morning to find the strip with a note that I'd be needing this in the future and to keep it. I laughed, and filed it away. Then came the Guest Fortnight, and suddenly I knew. Travis had seen this coming. Travis knows. He also knows that you will visit http://comicstripjoint.blogspot.com. He knows you will visit it. And he knows you will like it.
He scares me, to be honest.
(Fair warning, his website tends to have swear words)
Today's strip is written by Kat Cahill. Kat wrote I Hate Gallant Girl for Image/Shadowline. Kat and I also met through messageboards, and later she was subjected to being my con-best friend. She came out alive, surprisingly. She is a musician and is in a band, unfortunatley as I'm typing this I have no clue what the band is called. This is where we learn that Struble is a bad friend who will never remember the name of your band. Seriously, what a jerk. Anyway, you should pick up the I Hate Gallant Girl trade paperback from Amazon. You can find it here.
On drawing chores... you know him... you love him... It's the Chris Fenoglio. In fact, I'm starting a petition that from now on his name has "the" in front of it. It makes him more awesome. I met Fenoglio not from a messageboard, but rather from an e-mail list! The Chris is pretty cool. He's also a musician, but doesn't have a band name for me to forget. He likes to kick. He watches UFC. I promise he doesn't wear anything from Tap Out. He has drawn the second highest number of LDB strips, just behind Sina. He has a blog where he posts all kinds of cool things. Check it out: http://chrisfenoglio.com/blog/
Thanks you two. You are awesome.
(and to connect things a bit: Kat's comic I Hate Gallant Girl was colored by our friend Kanila Tripp -- who has drawn one of our strips! And the mailing list that I met Fenoglio on was for fans of Sam Kieth -- who has also drawn a Li'l Depresed Boy strip! It's all one big happy family, folks)
I have no clue who Vaughn Mason is. He is an enigma, wrapped in a cypher, boxed in a conundrum and covered in secret sauce. He's apparently 6'3" and I know he doesn't do a good Texan accent. However, he wrote today's strip for me. Also, I suspect he may not even exist. Which is good, because he can't claim to have created Little LDB. Bwahahahaha.
Scott Arnold and I used to frequent the same messageboards in the past. To the best of my knowledge, we never connected back in those days. A while back, I happened upon his blog when he posted a really great drawing he did of LDB. Since then, I've been trying to find an excuse to use him on the strip. You can check out his blog over at: http://industri-studios.blogspot.com
Starting Monday the 18th, Sina and I will be taking a brief break to catch our bearings. In our place, the strip will be going to three times weekly. It will feature writing and art from our best friends and some random strangers!
So, please check in on Monday, Wednesday & Friday for the next two weeks to see other people's takes on the strip.
Also, I still have a couple slots to fill up. If you're interested, please hit me up on the twitter.
This will be the first time ever since anyone but me has written the strip. I'm biting my fingernails here. I can't wait to see what they do.
