Hey, all, next comic’s a big one, won’t be able to finish it today.  it’ll go up tomorrow but won’ disrupt the update schedule.

yaaaaaaaaaay

Hey, guys, fyi there will be a comic tonight but I forgot about some plans I had so it won’t be till late.  It’ll be there, though so don’t fret.

I said don’t.

Stop fretiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnngggg….

NOTE: The following post is EXTREMELY LONG.  You’re welcome to read all of it, but if you just want the gist, you can peruse the first paragraph and the last two.

Where to begin…

I guess the first thing I should do is answer the many questions some of you are bound to have about the strip I just posted, and what it means for the development of Out At Home going forward.  I know this is probably surprising to some of you who’ve followed me for a long time, so let me tell you right now that this is something I’ve thought about and considered doing for a long time now- hell, maybe half the time I’ve been doing this- and I am absolutely certain that this change will not only make for an easier time for me, as far as writing’s concerned, but’ll also make for a better, funnier, and more substantive comic for you to read.

Herman Beckett (Or Barfbukett, as I called him as a kid) was the first cartoon character I ever created.  Until age 9, I’d drawn a ton, certainly, but it was always other creators’ stuff- cartoons from TV, the newspaper, even myself and my little friends as quasi-Simpson-Garfield mutant derivatives.  He was a simple character at first, as one would expect from a fourth-grade child.  He was stupid.  And… well, that was it.  For about five or seven years, that was it, actually.  He was a stupid-looking, stupid person that I’d draw on any scrap of paper I could get my hands on, especially if I had to do something more important, like learning or listening in church or paying attention to the Scoutmaster who won’t shut up about the importance of the half hitch oh my god we get it will you SHUT IT ALREADY I WANT TO GO HOME AND WATCH ANIMANIACS.

Anyway, around the time high school wound down and I realized I was, in fact, pretty good at this whole “Art” deal, I started to flesh out Herman’s character more- First, he was given a job.  He was a science teacher.  I don’t know why I decided to give him that particular profession, but I’m willing to bet it had something to do with disliking school and sticking it to the faculty in the lamest way imaginable. (You think you’re smart, huh? Well I MADE UP a guy with your job! And he’s a DUMB! Ha HA!!!! Point: Alex.)  Eventually, I changed this to baseball star, for two reasons.  One, I like baseball.  I’m a tremendous dork and it’s the sport most readily adaptable to dweebitude with it’s abundance of statistical rigmarole.  Two, it provided the perfect situation in which to place him: Successful in a way that has nothing to do with his brain, and with the financial freedom to do literally whatever the hell he wants, whenever he wants.

I’ll spare the details, but from then I created several more characters to surround him with and he’s been my main character through all of it.  When Out At Home started as a newspaper submission package, he was, by all accounts, the star of the strip.  Almost every joke was some variation of “Look how dumb this guy is.”  It was toned down by the time I put it up on the website, but the main problems I’ve had with him as a main character is both his one-dimensionality as a character, and the inherent banality of the premise of the strip.  Let’s face it, on the surface, Out at Home seems a LOT like a standard family sitcom. Herman himself presents a problem, too.  He represents a character type that’s been done to DEATH.  Not only in media with similar premises to OAH, like, say, The Simpsons, Family Guy, any other of Seth MacFarlane’s 37 shows, but in webcomics as well.  How many successful (And unsuccessful) comics have revolved around the concept of an inconceivably stupid person wreaking havoc on the world around him?  I honestly feel as if I’m treading ground so worn it’s hitting bedrock.

What’s the point, you ask?  At this point in my life, Herman is the main character basically out of habit.  I feel like Kate and Penny are just better, more well-rounded characters, and that by viewing the world I’ve created through their eyes, I can make a product of higher quality.  They’re so much easier and more natural for me to write for, and by giving them the limelight, I’ll be giving you guys what I think is the best work I can do.  That’s not to say Herman, Thurman, et al.  won’t be around, or even that they won’t star in their own strips.  I’m not abandoning any of my main characters, I like my cast, and just because I don’t think Herman is the best character to base a franchise around doesn’t mean he can’t still be pretty damn funny.

One of the most common writing adages is “Write what you know.” I’ve been a teenager.  I’ve never been a professional athlete in his mid-40s with a subpar intellect and a host of ex-girlfriends seeking revenge.  It’s been hard for me to create stories that I find compelling and interesting revolving around that premise, and I don’t think I’ve always succeeded, in my own eyes.  I want to make something that is MINE, and instead I feel as if most of the work I’ve done so far is not representative of that.  That’s not to say I think everything I’ve written sucks, by no means, and you, my fans, are awesome for liking it so much.  Seriously, like, so awesome.  I just think I can do even better.

So what does this mean?  Well, my sense of humor hasn’t changed.  My commitment to the strip hasn’t changed.  And I feel like this new direction I’m taking will both re-energize me creatively, and provide you guys with the best content I can give.  So what do you say?  Let’s stick around and see where this takes us.  And in the words of Michael Jackson, “This is Thriller/Thriller night/And I can thrill you more than any ghoul could ever dare try.”

That had nothing do do with this, I just really like that song.

Stay Tuned,

Alex