Whew. What a series of days. I tell ya. I did think of a short story idea, finally. The whole damned thing just popped into my head, fully formed, and I was able to hold onto it long enough to write out an outline and some notes. I think I may get this one done! (This is a good thing, you hecklers....) I'm still kinda fleshing out the details on the setting, characters, and misc information for the comic strip I'm going to be attempting. It's not easy, really, because you have to do a number of things to do it right. For one, you have to start with a set (and small) number of characters; second, you have to have a lot of backstory on all of them, whether you plan to use it or not; third, you have to have a semi-believable setting, premise, and what I like to call "reality level". This last one is rather interesting. You have strips with little to no set reality, which are well suited to humour, but more difficult to maintain storyline with, a la Pentasmal, one of the funniest strips on the web, bar none; and you also have strips with a flexible sense of reality, where there are a few immutable rules, but even they are known to have their exceptions. Fourth wall comics, such as the slightly confusing, but still entertaining Framed, are great examples of this usually. A scheme seen more often in fantasy comics, as well as comics that don't mind being a bit silly, (never a bad thing when your purpose is humour) is one where the physical laws are fixed, be they similar to our own with only a few set exceptions, say characters that have mysterious abilities or technological prowess, as in College Roomies From Hell, or Sluggy Freelance; or different from out own but consistent, as in One over Zero, or 1/0. Of course, there is always complete realism, such as Bruno, dream sequences and an unsubstantiated ghost sighting notwithstanding. I will not be attempting this, as I do not have Christopher Baldwin's artistic talent, and am not sure if my ability to create characters is comparable or not, but doubt it is nearly as practiced. I could not possibly make Bruno, or any of the supporting characters, with the possible exception of Randall, who is still one of my favorite characters. (I think I went to school with him - actually, I think I skipped school with him...)