This strip came from (don't they all) frustration with the world at hand. Always trying, vainly, for devices that will save me in times of few ideas, I thought the idea of Blumer just kicking a wall was pretty funny.

A student of mine did a really bad job of drawing falling a la Charlie Brown, and this was my attempt at it myself.

I didn't finish this one til I emailed Shaenon and told her I was sick of writing jokes. I want to create 4 panel "Experiences" I said, or something like that. Then I took some notes and promptly lost them (they're in my sketchbook.)

Then I wrote a new ending, and it's still sorta jokey, but not entirely.

I told SG that "compassion" was the missing element in most comic strip joke writing. I know that most humor is staked in someone's pain, but like I said, I'm not interested in jokes.

We'll see where this takes me.

My attempt to use some of the dozens of lists of "4 elements" I have in my sketchbooks. This began a while ago when my wife said the four elements of childhood were "Glitter, glue, graham cracker crumbs and apple juice."

Since then, I have tons of like lists.

This one comes from the page whose headline reads "I am an alley spirit!"

I don't even like Law and Order. Just so many of my smart friends do, it seems to exist in my head as the smart person's addiction. That and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I suppose.

Alderman? Do they still have aldermen? It's like when I first heard the word "magistrate"- it sounds so much like a powerful, annoying, troublesome bureaucrat.

I liked the idea of a dunking booth spirit too much to lose the mediocre idea of an alderman that Hutch is concerned about.

Walk-on characters are so hard to draw. I want to give them the energy they deserve. I get it right about 40% of the time, maybe. I like the guys in panel 2.

This is inspired by a lot in Williamsburgh, Brooklyn that is so contaminated by lead paint that neither Starbucks or Barnes and Noble were ready to pay to have it cleaned up, though both wanted the space. So the rumor goes. It remains empty and dis-spirited, as far as fields and lots go.