Major Apologies and Changes

Yeah, so if I still have any readers, you may have noticed that I haven't updated in a while. There's a reason for that. Several reasons.

Last summer, my sister and brother-in-law kinda-sorta hired me as a babysitter/housekeeper/groundskeeper/animal handler with a little graphic designer/consultant on the side. So I moved from my apartment near my folks to my sister's basement up in Middle-of-Nowhere, North Dakota. I like it, usually, but moving in and getting settled was (is) a bit of a process.

Once I got things arranged so I could start drawing more often, woops! My drawing computer starts acting up. Or, perhaps more accurately, not starting up. That's what I thought, anyway. Something turned on, but as of a couple months ago, it wasn't communicating at all with the Wacom tablet.

Finally got the entire rig down to my brother and the first thing he does is open the converter box between the tablet and the computer. It looked like bird poop and melted chocolate. Or like something exploded.

Apparently, these sort of components aren't supposed to do that.

Yay.

Welp, my brother takes a look around and finding a quality replacement would not only be difficult but also expensive. I've also been thinking about saving up for an actual tablet computer for a while so I can do what I wanted to in the first place, see something interesting and just whip out the tablet for some drawing.

Which would run somewhere between 1,100 and 3,000 bucks.

So I haven't been working on Mary Quite Contrary or much of anything else art-wise for the better part of a year. I'm sorry. Really. I don't know if anyone is still reading this, but I do want you to know that I haven't abandoned this comic.

In fact, as soon as I can get a drawing rig up again, I plan on rebooting the story. There are a few things I ended up skipping over because I was trying have the comic's time run in 'real time.' I think I've also learned a few things about pacing and layout since the early strips. Not to mention I'd like to give a bit more focus to Mary's family.

MQC will return, eventually, and I'm hoping it comes back better than before. Cross your fingers.

Chapter 15, Page 14 Anesthesia

Sorry for the long wait. First I had trouble just working on the comic (technical issues with the computer and various demands on my time). Then I heard about Blogger having some issues with posting images because of a new security protocol. I'm hoping things have settled down enough so everything shows up the way it's supposed to.

Not the greatest strip to end a hiatus with, I know. It's what I had.

Chapter 15, Page 13 Waiting Room

I've never done any kind of fasting well. Doesn't matter if it's medical or spiritual, I go more than two or three hours without eating and my body starts complaining. Which is probably why I have such a ridiculously hard time losing weight. (That, and I'm a little lackadaisical about the whole thing. Now that I'm having trouble fitting into most of my pants I may, possibly, actually put in an effort.)

I'm not sure if Dad realizes how close I was to gnawing on his arm (or the arm of my chair) while waiting for surgery.

Reason for the delay.

Okay, there are a number of things contributing to the current delay in a new comic coming out. One of them is that my drawing computer is refusing to talk with my drawing tablet and vice versa. As soon as I can arrange some couple's counseling for them I'll try to get back to the comic.

Chapter 15, Page 12 No food before surgery.

Some members of my family don't particularly enjoy eating. They do so only because it is necessary for survival but otherwise see it as either unpleasant or a waste of time. I am not like that. I love to eat. Food is wonderful. The ironic thing is that the two people in my family who enjoy eating the most are also the two people without a functioning sense of smell.

Chapter 15, Page 11 Problem exposed.

Well, I feel silly. Should've had this up months ago. Sorry. Life's been... interesting, interspersed with moments of intense boredom. Being the on-call babysitter for my sister who lives three hours away doesn't help.

I also never want to reproduce x-rays in the comic ever again.

Chapter 15, Page 10 Waiting Room

It's Wednesday! (dur)

Sorry I missed last week, and almost missed this week.

Anyway, Mary's at the dentist. Is anyone else able to resist playing with the toddler toys they have in waiting rooms? 'Cause I can't. Especially anything that involves large beads on a track.

Chapter 15, Page 9 Gumache

Nearly forgot about this subplot! I'm pretty sure most of my audience (if I have one other than Dad) can guess what Mary's problem is.

Chapter 15, Page 8 Schedule flubbed

I'm back! Has anyone else who's worked in fast food run into this? Or food service in general. One of the big reasons why I'm never working in food service ever again is because the schedules not only change every week, but more often than not the schedule isn't even finalized until the last minute. This makes planning ahead next to impossible for me.

Not kidding about the 'in pencil' part, either. And I'm certain the schedule got changed after it was posted on several occasions with no one bothering to let me know.

Anyway, my original plan for Mary Quite Contrary was that the comic would proceed in real time along the lines of For Better Or For Worse and Gasoline Alley. Obviously, that isn't going to happen now. MQC's comic time will proceed at whatever pace fits the story and how often I'm able to update. Hopefully I'll be updating at least semi-regularly now.

Chapter 15, Page 7 No spoken de Doich?

Really happened. I was half humming, half singing a Norwegian song and an old man started speaking German to me. I had a bit of a time trying to explain that I couldn't understand him.

Sorry for the long delay again! I forgot which thumb drive I was using. ^^;

Chapter 15, Page 6 Smile

I'm baaaaack!

You know, I'm still not sure exactly what happened there. Was the cowboy flirting with me? I may never know.

Delay again... still...

Well, I'm almost done with moving. That is, I'm within a day or so of having my stuff out of the old apartment and into the new one. Not sure when the chaos of boxes and furniture will turn into something livable.

My initial plan for Mary Quite Contrary was to have Mary and her family age in more-or-less real time, like Gasoline Alley and For Better Or For Worse. The way things are going right now I'll either have to change that plan or skip a lot of stuff I had planned to draw. I think I'll go with the former. Not that I don't also plan on adding a lot of stuff to the earlier chapters. That will probably wait until I get these into 'dead tree' format. If I ever manage to.

Just wanted to let everyone who's still reading this know. I will be back eventually.

Chapter 15, Page 5 Sandwich line

Sorry for the long delay. Again. Life has struck with unusual severity the last couple months. First allergies then moving (which I'm still in the process of) and then my dear little bunny died. More details on that in one of my dad's blogs. So Drawing has been kind of a low priority for a while. The weather isn't helping, either. Drawing in the summer isn't pleasant when your drawing surface is a heat source or when you start sweating all over your work.

As for the comic itself... I really should have realized sooner that fast food and I don't mix. Actually, I pretty much stink at any kind of assembly line work.

Chapter 15, Page 4 Special Order

There's a reason I don't like eating out. Okay, several reasons, but one of them is that I don't like doing this to whoever has to take my order. Some people do special orders out of preference. As a kid, I ordered my hamburgers plain out of preference. Now, I make special orders because of allergies. There's some preference, too, since I probably could eat the cheese, but I really don't want to.

Chapter 15, Page 3 Legal age

What actually happened was somewhat different. After getting hired I was walking to work in my uniform and an old lady stopped me and asked where I was going. I said, "To work," and she gave me an odd look and asked for my age. "Seventeen." Her eyes widened and she said she would have guessed fourteen at the most.

I felt that would take too long to set up in the comic and so I did this.

Chapter 15, Page 2 'Sis'perception

As an adult I can see that I was kinda stupid as a teenager. My excuse is that my brain chemicals were out of whack (even more so than normal for a teen) and there was a general failure to communicate between myself and my little sisters. The age gap probably didn't help. So most of the strips involving Mary's little sisters come from what my little sisters have told me years after the fact. If I had known at the time that they pretended to snipe passing cars on their way to school I may have had a different opinion of them.

Ch 15, Page 01 Title Page

Finally updated again! Been kinda busy being sick. Yuck. So, anyway, I'm working on the next strip, so I'm hoping I'll be able to update again soon.

Chapter 14, Page 20 Distracted

Plasma globes are made of pure, concentrated awesome. Appropriately enough, they were also invented by real life mad scientist Nikola Tesla. He seemed to specialize in making things with limited practical applications, but, man, do they look cool!

Also a little shout out to the Headwaters Science Center in Bemidji. I'd go back to Bemidji just to visit that place again. (Well, that and the the mini-golf course with the 3-foot metal sculpture of a mosquito.)

Chapter 14, Page 19 Relativity rodent

I maybe shouldn't be quite so amused by this, but honestly, the little thing was maybe the size of your average hamster. Might have even made a good pet. Why is it I always seem to be the only one who finds these surprise guests to be cute?

Chapter 14, Page 18 Rodent Revenge

Sorry about the quality and the wait, the flu stinks.

This really happened. This squirrel had the best revenge ever. I laughed and laughed.

I didn't make any human friends at camp.