Friday's comic wraps up the current storyline. Check it out BEFORE reading the post below (which contains spoilers). If you want to start from the beginning, you can do so here.

The Wed. comic is now up. Don't miss Friday's conclusion to the storyline.

George Carlin died last night. He is the only comic I can think of with such a long career who REMAINED at the top of his game and actually got better with age. Wow. That's two surprising deaths of people who I admired for different reasons (the other being Tim Russert). I will miss the work of both men.

Friday's comic is up, in case you are catching this via a blog feed and not on the site.

You won't want to miss next week's comics.

You might not want to turn on the news for the foreseeable future. Apparently, the world is going to hell in a handbasket. Oil prices are skyrocketing, the real estate market is dead, unemployment and foreclosures are at record highs and now flooding has damaged corn crops which will further increase the price of food.

I made the mistake of watching the news while I was home cleaning today. Holy crap what a mistake! While I was looking to take my mind off of my recent job loss (as detailed in my prior post) the news did nothing to help my mood.

I lost my job this week.

My job as a reporter and editorial cartoonist has come to a surprising end after nearly three years. I was informed that due to the economy (real estate and auto sellers, who are the biggest advertisers for papers, happen to be among the most hurting industries with oil prices and the housing market), the paper simply can’t afford to pay me anymore. I am still in a state of shock.

I saw the movie The Strangers and found myself rather depressed by the whole affair. Without spoiling the movie, it centers around boyfriend and girlfriend, James Hoyt and Kristin McKay, who are staying at a summer house following a friend's wedding. At 4 a.m., there is a knock at the door. What follows (and the commercials pretty much give this much away) is essentially an hour of three masked strangers tormenting the couple. Liv Tyler's performance was good and Scott Speedman's performance okay.

First words...

Every now and then I wonder if my time would be better spent pursuing something with a better chance of success than comics. If I spent half the time I spend on comic strips on freelance writing for magazines or even finishing one of my unfinished (and in many cases, unstarted) books, my odds of finding success would seem a bit better.

James Turner of the wonderful Beaver and Steve recently held a contest to find a guest artist for 5 or so comics. I, as well as SEVERAL others, entered, drawing a comic based on a script which he provided. Somehow, my work of genius was overlooked and this one chosen the winner.