Alas, my annual summer slump is here and in full force, which has why there hasn’t been much from me for the past month or two. Every year at this time, I am hit by my peculiar inverse seasonal affective disorder, and spend several weeks feeling like something the cat dragged in. As you might expect, this has a negative impact on my creative output, whether it be fiction, comics, Brigid and Greg, or even just my usual daily ramblings.

That’s not to say that I’m not doing anything productive, even if it’s all quietly bubbling away in the background. For instance, I’ve been putting a lot of thought into the story referred to here, and ways I can take it beyond “Variations on a Theme by Tolkien” and make it its own work. (To that end, I’ve also been going through the lectures of The Tolkien Professor, which boils down to a free college-level course put out there simply because Corey Olsen loves his work. I highly recommend it!)

There is also movement on the NeverNever front, which I’m extremely jazzed about. Really at this stage it’s mostly a matter of Sue and I actually putting our heads together and getting stuff done — which is often harder than it sounds!

Finally, I’ve recently been increasingly struck with random little Suburban Jungle “bits” — mostly in the form of silly little three-panel gags. Obviously, some part of my brain is still bouncing around New San Angeles! I haven’t decided whether I should toss these ideas together as quickie sketches and post them as “bonus strips,” write them down for eventual inclusion into the long-discussed comic-book format new series, or what.

I’m still getting fan mail about SJ, which is always gratifying, including one that recently asked me about my “policy on fanfic.” I’m glad that people are still discovering it and enjoying it! And I don’t want to let that go to waste.

-The Gneech

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