Side-by-Side

Things have calmed down a bit. I called Artie for advice after the morning beat down, and he told me to quit. It’s not the advice I expected from someone who’s clearly decided to stick it out, despite the institutionalized assault on his creative process. All he wanted to talk about tho was the progress he’s making on ‘Ms. Fourth of July’. You may recall this is his side project about the girl who gets a paper cut from a radioactive calendar and develops the ability to time-travel, subject to some restrictions. He’s now basing the character on Syd, so she’s a fifty-eight year old woman w bursitis instead of a kid. He said he was just thinking Felicity Huffman would be a good choice for the movie, but that’s out the window now. He’s still beyond excited about the potential. While we were on the phone, Slothrop stopped by so I hung up. It occurred to me this was the moment to drop my brilliant one-liner and storm out, but I still didn’t have one. Routine tasks are good for freeing up the mind, and I’d been collating the panels and alternative captions, so I had a few options. But no real zingers yet. But then Slothrop began a long awkward apology. He said he was sorry for “putting me on the spot” this morning. That’s despite the fact that the whole meeting was exactly designed as a spot to put me on. I don’t know what to make of this guy. He’s obviously stressed that his victory on the algorithm fix ran into a brick wall and his strategic vision didn’t go over w the sponsors. The conversation was brief, but I accepted his apology & took the opportunity to tell him before he decides we don’t need Inky, I’d like to run some side-by-sides and see what feedback we get. He said fine, what else could he say to getting some data to inform his strategy? So that’s the state of things at the moment. Here’s #168 before and after Inky cleaned it up. Swipe back and forth a few times for the full effect. Let the data collection begin. -Ed.