Tuesday - January 11, 2005:

The last strip was nearly the last HB strip. I had hit some sort of wall, a wall of futility. Why am I doing this? Of course there were those three reviews left to do and a bit of a story to wrap up, but I'd lost the will.

This morning, in my inbox, was one more request for a review, a good one too. I have to thank everyone who's participated in this little experiment. I think we're closing in on twenty reviews. I do need to say they're a pain in the ass to write, but there's something noble about the attempt. I mean, tricking something funny out of someone else's strip that may or may not be funny, all the while making sure one doesn't have to have read the strip under scrutiny to get the joke, That's the pain in the ass of it all. The challenge is also what got me off my ass (there's a theme here somewhere) and getting about the business of creating again.

And that, my friends is why Today's strip is finally ready, just an hour and a half before time ran out on my little streak (I haven't missed a MWF post in almost four months).

I'll be honest, No Frailty, by Greg Carter is not my kind of strip. I'm not into vampire, secret agents, sword-play or Manga. I used to be into Manga. On it's first go-around in the states, back in the mid-eighties, I read Kamui, Lone Wolf and Cub, Xenon, Mai Saga of the Psychic Girl, Nausicca, Akira, Area 88, Appleseed, Dominion, Justy, Horrobi, even something called Lum. Holy shmokes, I guess I've read my share. The art on No Frailty isn't up to par with any of them and the story-telling is immature, at best. On the other hand, it's a start, an ambitious start and I wouldn't want a reviewette from a hack such as myself be the end of it. it's not fair for me to compare a new internet strip to established Manga anyway but it's my only frame of reference for this kind of work.
I'm assuming Greg is a young cartoonist, so I'll dish out a little advice and it can be taken or left with impunity: Write and draw what you know along with the fantasy stuff. Weave in your surroundings and friends and things that will bring life to the work. Also, go through drafts. Put away your script for a couple of days and come back to it to make sure it still works. Even with these HB strips, I go through about three script drafts, maybe a fourth if you count the changes I make during the lettering. Most of us are working without editors and while That's liberating, it also means subpar stuff gets through. We owe it to each other to make sure every piece of work we put up is the best we can manage. Ok, I'll get off my pulpit for now. I don't like it up there and I probably don't belong so feel free to ignore most of that. Thanks for the submission Greg. I look forward to watching this one grow. HB looks forward to more sword deaths.

And thanks folks for getting me back on the horse to do a few more of these strips. I scripted and drew eight today. Now there's all that coloring and lettering to be done. Eww.

After these eight strips run, the HB Comic-Blog will be going through some big changes. I'll still have the boys do some reviewing from time to time so keep those submissions coming.

-Bob Stevenson