Hopefully, the delays are over for the most part. The next strip should be the big reveal that only a few people have been privy to. Relax, it’s not a Crying Game type of reveal or anything.

Now, because I just don’t wan this to be another “the strip is late” entry, I want to turn you on to one of the inspirations for the current incarnation of Jet-Pack Jenny. Peter O’Donnell’s strip Modesty Blaise has the tone and attitude that I’d love to emulate here. Granted Modesty isn’t the type of character that I’d want Jenny to be, but in almost every storyline I’ve read thus far, the hints of Modesty’s past are always intriguing enough to keep me reading looking for something new that’s revealed. I know that it’s all known by now, and I don’t yet have a complete collection of the stories, but it always comes into play in the story. The current story owes a lot to O’Donnell’s character, even though Jenny’s role in her world owes more to Ian Fleming’s spy than to Modesty, but the more I read of Peter O’Donnell’s adventurer, the more that character places her hooks in Jet-Pack Jenny.

Jenny’s age is insinuated in this strip, but instead of pinning her down, lets just assume she’s “around thirty.” That worked for Superman for the most part. Again, we’ve got reference to Jenny’s physical rehab and now, we hear it’s due to a shuttle crash. Back in Flight of the Virginia Dare, there was mention of reconstructive surgery, so hopefully, you’re getting some sense of Jenny’s origin. It’s nothing so hackneyed as she’s got bionic inserts and soon we’ll see her using “laser-vision” or breathing underwater. She was rebuilt, and in true futuristic fashion, her synthetic replacements are in many ways an improvement on nature, but not what you’d expect from from a comic heroine. She’s not super-strong, just as strong as years of constant training have made her. She’s not ultra-fast, just as skilled as her training and experience have made her. The only thing that could be considered a serious improvement is her body’s ability to endure the harsh effects of a vacuum a few seconds longer than a person normally can, but she’s not going out into space in a swimsuit.

Yes, I know it’s been a while but since I last posted a new strip, I’ve been looking for a new day job, preparing to move, all the while working my current full time job and spending time with the newest people in my life. This is also the reason there will not be a new strip for at least two weeks. In case you missed the post last week, Next Friday, I’m getting married. The weekend is going to be spent celebrating newly wedded bliss.

The last few days had me puttering around the house, fixing the dryer, cleaning up a little, and taking my future stepdaughter on a trip to buy Copic markers. It felt really nice to have M come home and seeing her with the relief of having less to do.

As I mentioned, I refer to her as M because she currently enjoys a level of Internet privacy that is almost unheard of. I’ve seen other cartoonists refer to loved ones by pseudonyms, as well. Because I care deeply for her and recently realized how much of my personal life was online, I’m finally and formally adopting a pseudonym for professional work, including here. As far as Internet privacy for me goes, the genie is out of the bottle, and there’s no getting him back in, but for M and my new family, I can make efforts to keep things regarding them much more private.

I’m really looking forward to being married again. M is very different from my first wife, but in the good ways, very similar. I’m going to spend every day of the rest of my life being worthy of her.

This strip breaks the 180 degree rule, where the “camera” rotates 180 degrees from one shot to the next. Generally, it’s very disconcerting, but it can be broken if it’s done right. I hope that I pulled it off.

Before anyone asks, yeah I have a girlfriend, and no, she has a level of Internet privacy that’s practically unheard of for someone that spends as much time online as she does, so even on Facebook, I refer to her only as “M,” in an effort to maintain that privacy. And before anyone assumes anything, the job is the primary reason that the strip has fallen behind. I have an hour round trip commute, and 40+ hours a week of mentally draining work. The schedule I worked so carefully on with my prior job schedules just don’t work with this one, so I have to find a new schedule.

That has got me thinking post Factor of 01, and I am completely open to collaborating with another artist on the next story. If anyone is interested, just email me at carpaltunnelpress (at) gmail.com

The day job hours are a little rough, and on top of that, I’m trying to work on the side to earn some extra cash needed to do things like oh, get a driver’s license, and eat.

In the next week, also look for a little shameful plugging and shilling as things progress here in the wonderfully productive world we call Carpal Tunnel Press.

Sorry it’s late.

If you’re following the comic on Facebook, you already know that I’m trying to match the demands of a new day job with the schedule I used to have for drawing the comic. Now that schedule is out the window, and I’m working on the comic whenever and wherever I get the chance, which meant in this case for some interesting adjustments.

The lettering is an amalgamation of previous lettering that I’ve done. Not quite a font, but still with the aesthetic of being hand drawn. The balloons are done in Photoshop and are the only area where I wish I could’ve hand drawn, but with the hand lettering, not that much of a distraction, I think. It would have been faster to hand letter, but that really wasn’t an option.

Storywise, the testimony that the defense is going to offer will be a really pivotal aspect to this part of the story. The ending is currently being fleshed out and there’ll be some foreshadowing starting in the next few strips to prepare you for the end.