Allright,

I'm sure I'll get some people wondering what the big deals with the warnings was for this weeks strips. Yes, I dropped 2 F-bombs. Whoopity friggin do right.

I look at it this way...

Anywhere But Here is a sitcom. If week in and week out you present something that people are familiar with, something that they are comfortable with. They call ma and pa over, and the next thing you know you've got a naked Jim Beluchi analy raping Rosanne Barr on a Bible, well you're going to shock people.

At LEAST give them the warning to NOT tune in.

I don't USE excessive language in the strip. It's not NECESSARY to tell this story. Not that I'm opposed to it, good lord I use it all the time, but that for ME it's uncessary for this strip.

This week has been an exception to that.

I don't know how many of you have ever created characters. It's a truely unique experience. These characters, especially Chris in particular, have begun to have a life of their own. To me, it would have COMPLETLY CHEATED HER to water down her language. I tried numerous ways to approach it, and I came to the same conclusion. This chick is pissed, and she's had enough. Anything LESS then that would be her holding back, and Chris, in this frame of mind, DOES NOT HOLD BACK on ANYTHING.

Now some of you may be saying "GOOD. Why not drop MORE F-Bombs. Make it MORE edgy, more "real".

Anywhere But Here doesn't need it.

And there are all sorts who read this strip. Young and old. I think part of why I like writing this strip is I can write a story where I don't have to resort to swearing to get my point across.

Good lord I sound like a fucking prude don't I.

Some people use swearing to bring "realism" or "edgyness" to their work. More power to them.

Me, it's not necessary. The STORY is what I hope brings people to this work. The JOKES, the characters, the situations. I want THAT to be what pulls people in far more then anything "EDGY" and "HIP".

So this is my solution. If I'm going to resort to language that move this from a PG-13 strip to an R strip, I'm going to warn people. This is NOT going to be consistantly an R or a PG strip. It will deal with some mature themes, it will contain mature language from time to time. But for the most part it's going to be a PG-13 strip.

For those times that it IS rated R, I'll put a warning up in advance so those who MAY be offended can take it in stride.

WOW, WOW!!!

I've been reviewed.

http://tangents.keenspace.com/

A few of the more flattering things

The first thing I thought of when I read the comic was "Hey, that guy looks like he's out of Doonesbury!" closely followed by "I see we have another Bloom
County fanatic on our hands." And the delightful thing is, it feels remarkably
like something we would have seen in Bloom County. Only... better than much of
that comic.

That made my eyes pop out of my head. As did this...

The thing is, Breathed was good once. And Jason Siebels (who creates ABH) seems to have captured the genie in the bottle and released it into his comic. This thing is funny! It takes the elements that makes a comic funny and uses them... and does so in a comic that is deceptively a gag strip, but actually has an ongoing storyline that's interesting.

All before things got REALLY interesting with this weeks strips. Personaly I'm feeling strangely giddy and likewise I want to cry...so this is what recognition feels like. People LIKE it...they really LIKE it.

Monday, May 30th Is one of those days

when you realize that your work is wearing the hell out of you. I finished up this weeks of strips last night, and I'm completly exhausted. Fridays strip feels so emotionaly draining to me that I was pretty worn out drawing the friggin thing.

Now, here are my thoughts.

I like the four pannel format. I like the limitations of keeping a very short gag strip. It's like...haiku. There's a pattern, a rhythm that I truely enjoy. But some times you need to switch into free verse to really do your work justice.

This weeks strips are definatly free verse. Friday's in particular.

Fridays strip is a weeks worth of art. Twenty pannels, and I'm very proud of what I was able to do in it. It just feels...right.

So You want to get inside my head...

The reason I created this blog is because I can feel the strip pulling away from the simple Gag format that I created it under. Just as when I created the FORUM for a place for people to vent or praise the strip, I've created THIS as a place to understand a little more behind the thoughts that went into the strip.

And this past week I have a feeling that I'll have a lot of thoughts to defend.

Enjoy the ride

-Jason