Dave: (dave-deleteme[at]-deleteme-squishycomics [dot] com) 2009-10-12 09:23:15

It's My Fault

I hope I didn't seriously offend any L.A. readers who bus around. I DO have to say that the difference between using public transportation and being a motorist is HUGE. I should know; I was busing until I was twenty. I was fortunate enough to have James drive me to and from school, as we both went to Cal State LA and lived close to each other. As for work, I was fortunate enough to work no more than a quick ten minute bus ride from home. The key here is I was fortunate.

At that time, I was saving up to buy a car and, as luck would have it, I got one as the need for it became critical. My new place of employment was two cities away from where I lived and my school schedule no longer made it convenient for James and me to carpool.

My point is, Los Angeles is a city that all but requires one to have a car. Los Angeles was designed around motorists. Those of you who manage without one are either kidding themselves or are very fortunate.

Today's strips, especially Direman, suffer from poor panel composition. All that unused space to the right of the panels makes it obvious that poor decisions were made regarding panel composition. Still, this is leaps and bounds visually better than the wide panels I was using and WAY better than the old 4x4 grid that I used when I started doing webcomics. Hey Dee, you were 100% correct in your statements regarding the visuals of the strips. You did, in fact, point this out to me time and time again. I did, in fact, stubbornly stick to my way of doing things. I do, in fact, realize just how terrible the visuals are in older strips almost immediately after I begin doing them the right way (man, but those black borders are hideous ;) ). I am, in fact, putting this in public view to serve as comedy for our readers as our pain (in this case, yours) seems to amuse others, and because I believe your sentiment that one should own up to their mistakes as it lessens the punch when others use them against you. Joel brought up Mark Twain's take on it, which is "Always acknowledge a fault. This will throw those in authority off their guard and give you an opportunity to commit more." With all that said, "MAN but this looks so much better than before!" (<3 Dee).

I've been receiving a lot of feedback from readers regarding the most recent strips. I wanted to take a moment to thank all of you for the compliments regarding the visuals. Also, you have made it CLEAR to me that scantily clad Bianca is the way to go whenever I wish to generate feedback.

Enjoy the strips.