Everybody Wants To Be A Cat (Until They Are A Cat)

I'm so sorry to anyone waiting on Hyperspace Bunny #6...it's been sidetracked ever since I started to prepare Cinderelliot for republishing, and then it got pushed back further by the sudden appearance of Westbury Detectives. I think since this chapter lingered more on Dr. Hatcher and Dr. Scar, it drained my will to write, since Bunny is really the character I have the most fun drawing. This isn't to say I don't love the hell out of Hatcher, though.

In other news, I turn eighteen on March 1st. It's really startling to hit this age all of a sudden...it's made me think, "When was the last time I just sat down and drew a picture for fun? What would Thirteen-Year-Old Me think of my comics today? Am I going down the right path to get to animation direction?" About two years ago at this time, I first designed all the Cinderelliot characters. It's really startling, to say the least.

On the plus side, my birthday always means my friends who can draw give me pictures. Here's the first one, of the Fairy Godfather as a purple cat, by Jackie Regnier (my oldest high school friend).

Furries scare me, but getting this picture supplied me with some comfort...I have the theory that when a series has reached a certain level of fame, anthro artwork starts coming out of nowhere. I've just cracked up through the floor of this level (if that makes any sense aloud), so all my efforts in getting my work out there haven't been for nothing.

I am in a good mood, internet! On the eve of my birthday, we shall have insane partying-- no, wait, I have a meeting. And it's a school night.

Westbury Detectives Now Online

It's taken me nearly six years to do something with this story...first it was "Jack the Space Detective", then it was "Tales of the Earth Federation", then it was grounded and became something with furries, and now it's my four-part detective adventure. Each page is done with meticulous care, so pages come out maybe once a week, and randomly at best. The first issue cover and three pages are now available...

"It was such a haunting and comforting memory, though..."

Detective Jack Arthur is temporarily transferred to the village of Westbury for his own safety, following a shoot-out that wounded his girlfriend. While adapting to the laidback mood of his new agency, Jack is pulled into a rivalry with an up-and-coming mob boss, and struggles with a haunting memory from when he was five years old.

It was a strange process cutting up Westbury Detectives to resemble something more realistic than it used to be. I've never done more research on Nassau County than I've done in this last two months. I cut a subplot about a female character dressing as a male thief with a robot face, because that sort of doesn't fit in anywhere. I turned Westbury from this insane techno-metropolis to what it really is: a simple little village in New York state, but in this case, there's a crime syndicate passing through it. Anybody following the characters since 2005/2006 will recognize them all over the place and the drastic changes they've gone through.

I really love this story at the moment, and I hope you all will too. I almost wish I could talk to my thirteen-year-old self and compare versions closely with her...