Here we go. Hopefully some happier music will help Sandy’s art not be quite so dark and violent. If you don’t recognize the song, it’s “Sell Out,” the smash hit from ska-geniuses “Reel Big Fish.” If you were cognizant of the mainstream music scene in the late 90’s, you probably heard it all over the place.

It’d be easy to say that this strip is really self indulgent, and it kindof is, and it’s partly that I’m excited that RBF is finally coming to my town for a show (ska shows are legendary in awesomitude) but this is actually more than that — it’s setup for a storyline! Imagine that! See, there’s a (sortof) spoiler for this story, aren’t you glad you read the blog today?

In the meantime, Happy Birthday America! (It’s pronounced ‘MERICA!!!) I do so love this country and I’m gonna celebrate it real hard. I hope you do the same, and if so, be sure to enjoy it, and maybe throw on some ska. Nothing says “America” like some very danceable ska tunes. Except maybe… lots of other, much more American things… but still, it’s fun.

Happy Independence Day!

Thats right, this is the start of a new storyline… which may surprise you, since right now we’re just in some one-off art gags, but we’re going somewhere interesting. This storyline is actually going to end up to be pretty long, we might break it into chapters or something… I’m not sure. I tend to fly by the seat of my pants with these plotlines…

I realized that although we established that Sandy was an art major a long time ago, I’d never showed her really dealing with it, and actually doing anything artistic. And seeing as how my art classes were always ridiculous, I realized the humor potential.

I think this point in today’s strip is pretty accurate. Sketchbooks show a lot of things, but sometimes they can be a window into your emotional state. I remember some days in High School where I just had horrible, terrible days, and filled like 5 pages with harsh, angular lines and angry abstract designs. In this way, sketchbooks are not only an emotional tracking system, but they can be a great therapy device as well.

A big and hefty thanks to all the readers who commented and/or emailed me right away, letting me know that the term for a lack of smelling is “asnomia.” I had no idea there was such a thing! And apparently, neither does spellcheck, which is telling me it’s not a word (ironically, “spellcheck” is also getting red-lined, even though I think it should be a real word by now).

So, can you say that if you can’t smell, you’re “asnomic”? Luckily, I think the strip still holds up, because, while the punchline is another chance for Bob to take a jab at society, this was more a joke about our boy’s ignorance than anything else. Which in a way is also my own…. oh well, I stand by it!

But seriously, I love that I have awesome readers that will write in and tell me stuff like this, awesome job guys!

Everyone, be sure to come back on Monday for the start of something interesting, we’ll be kicking off a new storyline that will probably be pretty long, I might actually break it into chapters or something, but it’s something I’ve been wanting to do for a while, and I’m pretty excited about it. I hope you’ll enjoy it — till then, have a great weekend everybody!

EDIT: So, I should have said this before, but this joke originated when I drove past a place that actually had this sign — there was a real building that just said, “Alternative Veterinary.” And I racked my brain trying to figure out what in the world that could possibly mean… I thought this was a funny interpretation for what it could be. So yeah, this is real. But the real one is probably something more like the holistic healing thing. I certainly wasn’t brave enough to walk in there and find out. –End Edit

I’ve gotta admit, my first instinct for today’s joke was to make Chuck’s comment be about cats. But actually, I kind of like cats. I like that they’re independent, and don’t feel like they need you. A dog is like a mindless slave robot that loves you no matter what, but a cat is like, “meh… I could take it or leave it.” When a cat does show affection, it means a lot.

But none of that was part of my thought process. I went straight from, “no, cats are kinda cool,” to “man I’m not a dog fan. Whats the worst kind of dog? A tiny yipping dog that never shuts up — it’s so tempting to kick it hard, ’cause it’s small, and would travel so far, but I can’t kick it, ’cause thats like, inhumane or something…”

By the way, no animals were harmed in the making of this comic strip.

We can blame faithful reader Chris B. for this one, I think. The idea spawned out of a previous comment thread, and I figured it’d be fun.

Also, it gives me a chance to try out some more of the caricature style. This isn’t a full-fledged example, but caricatures are something I’ve just started dabbling with, you can see a lot of examples on my Deviant Art page. It’s something I want to develop, but it’s rare that it’ll show up in the comic, because the styles are so different. They are a lot of fun, though. I bet I’m the only person I know who will go to theme parks, and just watch the caricature artists work, rather than going on the roller coasters, which I’m sure annoys all my friends. Such is the price of being my friend, I guess. (insert wicked evil laughter and flashing lightning).

I think the term “sleeping together” is way too loaded. I mean, it is POSSIBLE to just literally sleep with someone without the sex, it’s just difficult to get that point across in conversation.

And who didn’t realize this is what Ray and Frizz were up to? I mean, REALLY…

On a completely unrelated note, I’m fascinated with the form of the Rock Opera. There’s not very many good ones, and the stereotyped stuff like “Tommy” I think is kinda silly… but I just got an EP by a band called “Ludo” called “Broken Bride.” It’s a rock opera about a guy who goes back in time to save the life of his girlfriend who died in a firey autocrash. He ends up going to prehistoric times and fighitng dinosaurs, then overshooting the time and ends up at the end of the world fighting zombies and dragons. It’s pretty much the best thing you’ve never listened to. I highly recommend it.

I hope to write my own Rock Opera one day, and of course, it will probably be about space. Because everything is better in space!

Whew, last night was crazy! If you’ve been following my Twitter, you may have noticed that there was a tornado a few blocks from my house. It was real weird to be watching the coverage on TV, seeing lightning in the windows and on the tv at the same time. Hearing them say, “lets zoom in on the worst of it,” and watch them zoom in on my neighborhood.

I love thunderstorms, especially these ridiculous raging ones we get in Texas. It doesn’t rain a whole lot in this state, but when it does, it’s not a simple kind of rain, it’s always some monster of mother nature whose entire goal is to kill you. I’m from here, though, and this was hardly the first Tornado experience I’ve had. The only real problem was that the power went out, and was out for pretty much the whole night. Didn’t come back on until about 1 am, and I couldn’t sleep until after that, then a second wave of storms came through this morning and was awesome, although I couldn’t sleep through them… I’m on about 4 hours and I’ve got a full day ahead.

But, it was all worth it, I love a good storm, and this one did not dissapoint. Well done, nature…. well done….