I really need to get caught up. Really. Maybe this new posting schedule HAS made me lazy?

Either way, enjoy. As always, feel free to comment, repost or tweet the hell out of this.

Also, you may have noticed the little “vote” icon to the left. The Utopian is now featured on Webcomicz.com. Click here to vote for it and prove people like me. Thanks, mmkay?

I thought I was going to have to issue a big ol’ apology about how late today’s strip is, but turns out I managed to get it posted within an hour-and-a-half of normal posting time (7 a.m. PST), so … no problem. It’s not like the future of democracy in Iran is resting on your reading of The Utopian anyway.

There were delays, though, and I had to scramble a bit, including waking at unpleasant hours to finish coloring/lettering today’s page. Last night, my band had a gig that ran kinda late — I think we got off stage about 11:30 — so no work got done comic-wise yesterday (aside from some preliminary lettering). And I was spending time adjusting levels on files for the printer after receiving this proof over the weekend:

That’s as much as you get to see for now. If you’re around at San Diego Comic-Con next month, you’ll definitely get to see more. Right now, I have to go back to recovering from last night. Free beer + free pizza + rock ‘n’ roll = awesome in the moment, not so awesome the next morning. Groan.

I guess this is where Praglin learns to be careful what he asks for, right?

I got word today that the proof for the Utopian SDCC sampler has been printed and is ready to ship. Hopefully, it will come back looking like magic and I can get the order for the short run placed in time for San Diego. In the meantime, get ready for a rollercoaster the next few weeks. The Utopian is going to take a much more active role to correct the injustice he perceives around him. Believe me.

I put an abnormal amount of work into this page. It may not look like it, but between this and the next page, I’ve pretty much killed myself this week.

On a semi-related note: I’m moving in about a month, so the girlfriend and I are going through the process of packing, which means cleaning out old stuff and re-boxing what we’re keeping. I found my elementary school yearbooks from fifth and six grade, both of which feature photos of the real Mr. Praglin. It is amazing that, after more than 20 years, I actually recalled his facial features almost photographically. Yipe.

You know, I try and plan word balloons when I’m laying out pages, just so there’s enough space, but sometimes it’s frustrating that I go through the trouble of drawing details in a panel only to have them obscured by my wordy-ass dialog. Take, for example, the overhead shot in panel three. Now, in all fairness, this panel was originally not supposed to be an overhead. It was drawn with Praglin from the back, facing Anderson. But it was boring, especially with so much other conversation on the page. So in the midst of digitally “inking,” I switched around the whole panel to make the page more visually interesting. Of course, by the time I finished lettering the page, the computer monitor and mouse on Anderson’s desk were covered up. And they were so lovingly rendered. Ah well. Hope you enjoy it, either way.

I’m not sure when I started this strip that I planned on drawing so many offices, classrooms and hallways. But I have. So … yeah.

Also, as I recently mentioned on Twitter, I love writing Praglin’s dialog. I guess it’s the same way actors love playing bad guys.

In other news: Sent the files for the Utopian sampler comic to the printer last night. If all goes well, I should have 50 copies of Issue Zero to hand out at San Diego Comic-Con. These will only be available there, so if you’re going and want one, you need to hit me up. I won’t have a table this year, but I will be around. Surely updating on Twitter every 20 seconds. I’ll post the cover as the con gets closer.

Do movie theaters in your town do midnight screenings of Grindhouse? No? They should.

Didja notice my use of John Workman-style panel-breaking speech balloons? No? Psh.

This comic strip in no way endorses, nor is endorsed by, Apple computers. However, that doesn’t mean if Apple wants to come on board as a sponsor, you won’t see an iPhone in EVERY PANEL. Apple? Hello?