I love writing strips like this because the punchline plays off of the serious poetic-ness of the first three panels, but yet the first three panels aren’t written to BE poetic, they were written as my earnest feelings.
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I remember as a kid being in awe of hypnosis. And I still was for a long time, but now it’s a bit more in theory. I tried going to a hypnotist several years ago to try to quit biting my nails, but I wasn’t very suggestable/receptive.
This was written from experience. When playing catch, if a dog can, they will catch the ball as you throw it rather than running after it. And even if it appears painfully caught, they want you to throw it again.
And enthusiasm for which endears me greatly to dogs. <3
One of the details which still strikes me about this strip is the little heart breaking above Dee’s head. Ted never yells at her any more. She’s so sad!
I also like how this is a total induction for Ted into road trip parenting.
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This is one of the strips which made me worry. It would’ve been so easy to slip into a mode where every gag was based around Vachel being snarky/sarcastic/mean. But I was constantly afraid of this happening and actively made myself steer clear of this pitfall.
Of course, it was REALLY fun to use it in excess on occasion such as in this strip. :)
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She’s one resilient kid.
Blake in the background reminds me of something that happened when I was a kid. My brother, my cousin, and I were in a canoe on a pond. We were only maybe 40 feet from the dock, and our parents and our dog were on the dock. We pulled in our oars and started laughing and yelling “we have no oars, save us, help help!,” which our parents seemed to find amusing (as an adult now — i wonder). But our dog, Wiggles, leaped from the dock and swam to the boat. In his mouth he grabbed a rope which was attached to the front of the boat and began swimming back towards shore. We all felt bad right away and put the oars in and paddled back in. What a sweet, strange, loving, guilty memory!
If the previous week and this week look a little different or read a little different than normal, it’s because they were “backup strips” I’d done ages ago in case one day I needed them. Apparently at this point I needed them :)
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I remember having a tough one with this, about the seriousness of it, the over-the-top talking by Kendra, and then coming up with something funny. but it all kinda pulled together.
The second and third panel are my favorite in today’s strip. It’s that accidental perfect balance of sad-yet-funny.














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