BOHICA Blues Downrange! (Patreon)

This is about the point where two things started to happen in my Iraq War comics: I began committing specific names to specific character images (although I think ranks were sill a free-for-all), and I also began splitting my comics into two distinct streams of comic format: one comic would be the "gag-a-day" format, in which there is no real story or character or ongoing plot-- just a humorous situation that stood alone. Gary Larsen's "The Far Side" is an excellent example.

The other format was the "Long-Form Storytelling" style. In the long-form story, there are definitive recurring characters in recurring roles, with consistent personalities and roles, and there are ongoing stories that unfold, anywhere from two or three strips to several strips long. 

My natural inclination, my instinct, is for long-form storytelling. I like building characters, building worlds, and putting new things that fit into existing foundations; I get to know the characters and invest in them.  I guess as far as comics go, I am an architect. 

But long-form, ongoing stories aren't always popular. You have to pay attention, stay engaged, and if you miss an episode or chapter, you've lost something. Also, my audience that regularly went outside the wire had other things on their mind to fill their attention during their days. Of course, there was the audience that stayed in the confines of the post, as well. So I split the difference, since I was already doing two comics a day, and devoted one to an ongoing story with characters being built, and the other was left to drift free of any preconceptions.  

Above we see a continuation of the earlier comic, in which Joe tells Junior Ric that he'd use the Force not for heroics, but to pick up girls. Now we meet Sergeant June Ransom, who is something of the local stern feminist, confronting him over his perceived sexism. But then, of course, we find that Ransom herself has her own tendencies, and they run towards the Sith end of the scale.

While I established running characters for the long-form storytelling, that didn't mean I couldn't use them for the daily stand-alone joke. Now Joe and Ric are riffing on a joke that went around at the time about sending sandpaper home as "photos of Iraq". 

Both these comics got used for color versions in the webcomic. 

Until next time!