I briefly played around with the idea of actually showing the shelf disaster, but decided against it for a number of reasons. Firstly, my ability to draw such a thing will ever pale in comparison to the reader’s mind to imagine it. Also, cutting away from the main story for page upon page of Reggie and Mike seemed like it might have been a bit much for a chapter that has already taken over 117 pages. That said, what little I did actually write was funny and showed off a lot that I like about Reggie and Mike. Now, however, the important stuff will just be mentioned in passing.

From the start I said that this was part of the story I wasn’t looking forward to. A long time ago I decided to give my characters real flaws that could potentially sour people on them forever. I’ve lost readers from sticking to that, but I don’t regret it. Ultimately as new people discover the comic they will be able to read through this chapter at the correct pace and not have to suffer through its creation the way some people had to. Believe me, there have been enough cranky comments to let me know that people didn’t like watching Thomas actually deal with some of his issues. I still maintain that a story where characters don’t change and grow is boring. Sometimes people are big babies about stuff, and sometimes it takes a lifetime to get over being that way. It’s so comforting to hold on to hate. It gives you direction and certainty. It’s addictive and hard to let go of. If my little story helps someone let go faster than I did then it’s been worth the unpleasantness that came with it.