I think you will all
immediately understand what a difficult decision I had to make
here. I agonised over this strip for nearly half a year
before I finally drew it; it was, in many ways, inevitable, but I
really wished it hadn't been. I actually had to force myself
to draw that final panel. Now, however, I just want to get
this plot twist over with so I can move on in the radical new
direction the strip is obviously going to have to take now. I
have therefore chosen to publish the comic a day early. The
next one will follow immediately on Wednesday.
Though West of
Bathursthas been a
combination gag/story strip from the beginning, it is now clearly
going to have to undergo some changes. Starting next Monday,
I will be moving to a full-page, comic-book-style format. The
artwork will become more detailed and closer to manga in its
provenance, and there will be a great deal of exposition and no
jokes. I feel that the "comical" aspects of the strip, as
well as the bits involving grad school, have had their day.
They were fun while they lasted, but I need to get serious
about this whole comic-strip thing so that I can be discovered
accidentally by some prestigious reviewer who happens upon the
strip by googling "manga," "breasts," and "sci-fi plot involving
immortals with blue hair." I am aiming to make several
thousand dollars via merchandising in the first year
alone.
As will be evident from the
strip above, the focus of the comic is about to shift from Marie
and her friends to Frankie and hers. I don't want to give too
much away, but I will
say that I am rather excited about a coming plot-line focusing on
Frankie's alien ancestry and her connection to the hereditary
gatekeepers of a mystic portal called Zoog. I like Marie, but
in the end, Frankie is simply a more dynamic character with far
more potential for fan service. I have already designed
several new outfits for her and mulled over the creation of a
sequence in which she is tastefully nude for at least seven pages
in a row.
I trust that you will stick
with WoBduring this difficult transitional phase.
If the new direction upsets you, I apologise.
Unfortunately, the public has spoken, and the public wants
scantily clad aliens, huge explosions, characters with improbably
huge eyes, and the sort of dialogue that would make George Lucas
wet his pants with entirely unfounded excitement. Quirky
comics about grad colleges are just not the thing any
more.
I won't see you in the funny
papers, but I will, with luck, see you in my store, which will soon
feature a round of new products involving Pokemon rip-offs and
characters screaming, "LOL!"
Sincerely
yours,
Kari.