The latest remastered-in-color Politically InQueerect is up on Tapastic! The party is back together, Dee meets Rand, and Archer continues to be Archer.

I have a nagging feeling there was something else I was supposed to mention in my update today, but WHAT. The coming invasion of the Chickenbears and the world’s subsequent plunge into darkness? No, you already knew about that and have long since prepared, clever reader that you are. Welp, I guess if it comes back to me I’ll just update this here post.

Until whenever,

Dylan

Onward with our freshly colorized story. I think this part of the story in particular benefits from being in color, since otherwise the club sequence is a lot of dark in front of a lot of other dark. Also, we get to see more clearly that Todd is at least trying to play along by wearing a black outfit, whereas Archer is having none of it and is going in civilian clothes as a form of protest. View the results at this very link.

Meanwhile, I’m coloring away on my TransTransformers short story for QU33R. Haven’t scanned anything yet, so I don’t have anything to show you at this very moment, but I’m hoping to finish it up by the weekend. So. With any luck, next week I can give you a little sneak preview of a finished page.

I also just yesterday was interviewed about Transposes for the Comic Book Queers podcast. The episode isn’t up yet, but when it is I shall let you know. Now, back to work!

Cheers,

Dylan

The Politically InQueerect remastering project proceeds apace! Longtime readers will note that I changed a tiny bit of dialogue in this one: the Hip-Top is now an iDrone.

I have decided it’s a mistake to mention any kind of specific, real-life technology in your story if your goal is to convey the state-of-the-artness of said tech. Unless you’re trying to recreate a bygone era, e.g., “Whoa, check out the awesome graphics on this Amiga!” to emphasize that a story is set in the mid-1980s. Of course, in due time even the iDrone will seem dated, as the tech it references is replaced by newer and shinier. It’s possible that for the eventual book collection I’ll revert to the original Hip-Top; the main reason I changed the name of the device at all is because many people are discovering this comic for the first time via the Tapastic postings, and there are probably readers who were born after the Hip-Top became obsolete. But I think most people will get what an “iDrone” is supposed to be even after its referents fade into oblivion, whereas the Hip-Top/Sidekick never really had that level of name recognition, so its mention in the story will just draw a befuddled, “Huh?”

Even so, the fact that Todd does not already have an iDrone 5 (to replace his 12 previous iterations of iDrone and his brief fling with the Windoze phone) is out of character for him, and thus far I have not managed to fabricate a decent explanation for the inconsistency. Maybe if I just don’t tell anyone, no one will notice!

Yes indeed, time for a remastered-in-color PIQue strip, in which Todd introduces Dee to Archer, and absolutely nothing goes wrong. Read it here on Tapastic.

[SLIGHTLY SPOILERY COMMENTARY]

As I go back through these, I find myself giving some additional thought to the psychology of the various characters. I don’t think Archer is generally actively hostile to every new person he meets. I’d kind of like to do a prequel strip for this episode (not soon, mind you; more like for the eventual book collection) that gives a little more insight. Todd, the extrovert, springs on Archer that morning, “Oh, by the way, my cousin’s coming to visit. I guess she’ll maybe stay with us? Oh yeah, and she’s pretty liberal, so maybe don’t talk about politics. Welp, see ya later, bye!” And Archer, who is totally not an extrovert, is mad at Todd for not discussing this first, and ends up transferring that irritation to Dee. This doesn’t make Archer’s reaction justifiable, but not entirely out-of-the-blue, either.