I think that in some ways Alex is uniquely qualified to handle Reggie’s sass because she’s something of an old school netizen. Reggie at his absolute worst isn’t as grating as a forum from ten years ago or more. Although he’s never really been allowed to be as freely expressive as he might have been if I were more capable of dealing with the internet as it exists today.

I started this comic almost 17 years ago, or there abouts, right as the internet began to gentrify to a degree where the users of that time wouldn’t recognize it now. Of course those very users have watched it happen, but if they were suddenly transported from then to now it would be very jarring. I came in just as the transgressive content was being pushed back against by the new crop of busybodies who eventually browbeat most of the internet into submission. I wasn’t in a place mentally that could put up a fight against that kind of thing since before then everyone tended to keep to themselves, but around that time everyone started making everyone else’s business theirs and the whole internet started fighting with each other for dominance. This is primarily why I hate almost every other webcomic creator I’ve ever dealt with. People started changing their ethical standards to suit the wind rather than because they believed in what they were doing, and that isn’t the kind of thing that sits well with me. Remaining true to myself, as best I could, caused no end of trouble for me though. That problem has only escalated over time to the point where I have a handful of creators left who I actually trust in any meaningful way. Sometimes I feel like I have so many back problems because of all the knives stuck in it. (Also the fat) No matter what arena I have entered in my life I have always been cast into the camp of the cast out and then cast out a second time after that. So I end up with the most unloved of even the unloved. In recent years I’ve even been cast out from there and left in a sort of professional limbo.
Ironically the only time I wasn’t ejected from all things was when I was in retail. Of course I couldn’t enjoy it since everything else was so miserable, so I guess I was doomed never to achieve whatever balance of happiness and misery regular people seem to get to eventually. Now I exist here, in my strange little corner of the internet with my weirdly loyal readers. Honestly I think this is the best outcome I could hope for since I seem completely incompatible with any other part of the world at large.
Anyway, if memory serves the 20th is the 17th anniversary of the comic’s birth. Officially at any rate. If you’d like to see more returns of the day I encourage you to support my work via the links above. I’ve got a lot of story left to tell before I can call this one finished. Your help would be very much appreciated.

For now though I wish you the best and hope to see you here on Friday.

Posts authored by Jackie

2487 Shrubbery.