SR 1 PAGE ONE-HUNDRED AND ONE

This page is maybe 99% Sharpie, with a little bit of mechanical pencil texture, a white gel pen for the stars, and some white pencil for the “moon” glow. It all works pretty well, I think. Nice “lonely country road” vibe. It feels like those bright headlights could fall on a splattered deer at any moment.

I mentioned a few posts back that I’ve spent a lot of time on lonely roads like this, mostly driving out to visit my partner Ami’s family in Tucson, AZ. But the first time I sent my VW Beetle hurtling through the desolate California/Arizona borderlands was a year before I met Ami, when I attended the Invader ZIM “DEATH OF FUN” party in Mesa.

This was in October of 2002. ZIM was well and truly and completely dead at this point. The final edit of the final episode (the Christmas one) had been locked, and the crew decided to celebrate with a big signing/screening event in… the Phoenix suburbs? Not sure why that happened? The signing was at a cool comic shop called Atomic Comics, so maybe Jhonen was friends with the owner or something? Or maybe everyone just felt like getting out of Los Angeles after having their hearts torn apart by that place so often? Not sure and too lazy to text anybody!

I wasn’t going to go to the event because it seemed like I’d have to interact with other humans and that is always gross. Besides, I had important comic books to draw!

At the last second, however, FOMO descended. Surely I would regret not going to Invader ZIM’s funeral. My friends needed me theoretically! So on the day of the event I got in my Bug, drove six hours to Mesa, AZ just in time to totally miss the signing portion. I was there for the screening and Q&A panel, though! I maybe said five words during the panel because I’d never done one of those before and was trembling like a tiny deer in front of a mack truck. Afterwards I immediately drove back to California, arriving home around five AM, FOMO fully defeated, brain ablaze with “Why did I do that?”

The thing I’ll remember most about ZIM’s funeral service is what didn’t happen there. The “DEATH OF FUN” party will live forever in my mind as the event where I could have met my Arizona-native sweetie, Ami, but didn’t. She attended both the signing and the screening, and even has photos of me trembling on the panel. Here’s her event flyer, distinctly unsigned by me.

Should I sign it now? “TO AMI! It’s been nice being your spouse for the past twenty years! See you in the living room!” 

Why is the moon shaped into Vicious Whisper’s “scar heart” icon? I guess it’s a sign of where Sera needs to go next. She needs to take all of the angst from the previous page and bring it to the one person who might be able to help her find direction.

SR 1 PAGE ONE-HUNDRED AND TWO

Struggling to think of anything to say about this one… It’s pretty nicely paced, I guess. Large, elongated panels tend to slow down readers, so hopefully you’re feeling Sera’s long, slow, silent shuffle to the restroom. These days I would actually draw the restroom hallway instead of leaving it a black void, but it’s fine.

That “Pokeman” box in panel three reminds me I barely knew what Pokémon was in 2004. I was too old for Pikachu and his buds when they first showed up. Although… the rest of the ZIM crew seemed to know all about Pokémon, and they’re all slightly older than me, so I dunno what was going on there? Younger at heart than me, I guess?

Things have changed, though! I seem to be one of the last human beings on earth still playing Pokémon GO. If you, too, are still clinging to 2016’s only fun thing, my trainer code is: 7446 2975 4924. Name: POKUNGULUS.

BACK TO THE PRESENT!

NEXT WEEK: LIGHTEN UP, SERENITY ROSE.