Whistling.

I was glad to get to this point in the (then) new version of the strip because so much of it has been set up and I just wanted to get to a point where I could play a little with Tad and his slightly hysterical view of the world. The college version had Tad moving out of the gay dorm because he was about to go through repairative therapy, a pretty dark storyline that I didn't attempt to recreate in the Big City paper because I thought it would be offensive. Who knew that praying away the gay would be an issue well into 2013.

Tad whistling: that's called a "gotcha," and it refers to the fact that there's really no punchline - the joke was all about them realizing that Tad had sold out his momentary beliefs for the hot guy who moved in across the hall, and Tad's response was basically "yep." You've already seen a couple of these - they're the sign of a beginning cartoonist; what I'd do these days is give Tad some sort of response. Although "I will light you on fire," which I use on Facebook quite often, isn't really much better.

I started using computer fonts around this time, and Photoshop to make the dialogue lines (pointing to who is saying what) - I'm using the dreaded Comic Sans, the font everybody hates, but as it's being used in a comic strip this seems all right. (In 2014's version, I won't use it) My hand lettering had gotten bad, and computer text was easier to manipulate. I still see some things I'd never do today - in the frame composition, that open door is causing me all kinds of fits - the dialogue lines have to go over it, so I have to white out part of the door, and the other two are in the hallway for some reason - it's just a mess. Protip: doorways in cartoon are for transitions, not to stand inside of - it just creates problems with ceiling and wall lines, not to mention perspective. I suggest a nice spanish archway instead.

(as I reread this strip, panel two comes across to me like Zen assumes that Frank and Tad just had sex - which makes the entire strip completely weird, and Zen sort of a pervert, and Tad even more shallow: none of that was my intention)