I like how Big D’s expression turned out in the last panel. It perfectly captures his mood.

Back to traditionallly drawn. Didn’t have a lot of time this week so this method is much quicker, and I’ve gotten to a point where you can’t really tell whether it’s regular or tablet-drawn.

True story.

It’s another fully digital strip! It was nice to have two days off this week so I could spend a few hours straight putting these together. I can imagine how much fun it must be to be able to do this every day when you’re a pro.

The update schedule has been a little wonky lately. I’m thinking of moving the Wednesday back to the Thursday, so it’s a little more spread-out across the week. And I’ll start inking again soon.

I noticed wrapping up this strip that I had forgotten to make gutters for like the last four strips. Oops.

My hobo caricature catalog is a little limited.

I’m liking these sketch editions. They may not be that flashy, but I can cheat a little bit on details by just scribbling a bit, and it still looks good.

Get your minds out of the gutter people!

Another sketch edition. For some reason I thought I’d be funny to give Big D a baseball cap. He seems like the sort of person who would wear that on his spare time.

A lot of text, I know. I really had to edit every line down to it’s bare minimum to fit it all in.

The gang stumbles upon the raccoon hideout. Will they be able to escape them?

The panel lines on this one were a little washed out, and while I was testing out what looks best, I found actual ‘gutters’, as they’re called, work best for this strip. Scott Kurtz once said you cannot make gutterless comics work, so I will be using them more in the future, but I like to think they work most of the time for dinerdate, or no?

The gang is closing in on the raccoon hideout, hidden deep in the tunnel system.

I had some issues with this strip, the final one from the 24-hour comic day batch, so it was laying around for a while before I added the last 2 panels. The conclusion is nearing, and it better, because this storyline is running a bit long. I think I’ll finish it up in another 8 to 10 comics or so, and I want to finish it before New Year’s, so that means one extra update every week from now on.

This strip was not originally drawn during the 24-hour comic day extravaganza. It was interjected later to connect the previous and the next strip properly.

Tom joins the other patrons who have been banished to the eerie cellar of the diner.
I realized when I drew the comic where Bruce throws the gang in the cellar, I didn’t include any of the other patrons, so I felt it was nescessary to include them in this scene. I drew their word balloons in right away, letting them be overlapped as if they were actual objects, so as to signify that it is backgroundspeech, chatter of no relevance to the strip. I like how it looks.

Finally Bruce’s evil plan is revealed. Will the gang be able to stop him?
I was struggling for a while to come up with a way to include this exposé and show how Bruce and his mysterious friend kept control of the situation (via their kitchen staff, as hinted in this strip). Then it occured to me I should just skip that and move the action along a bit. That’s one of the most important things I learned from art class: if you’re stuck on an idea, just throw it away and start anew, however much you like the original idea.

Oh noes! Is this the end for our alcoholic fellowship, or will Kat be able to sober Gavin up enough to share his escape plan? Some interesting action coming next, now that we’ve cleared most of the plot setup!

Alex joins the good cause. But will Gavin’s plan succeed?
Lot of text in this one, but I needed to get some exposé out of the way. Sometimes it feels like I’m writing for animation instead of comics.

Looks like everyone is settling in nicely at Bruce’s bar. Well ok maybe not everyone. But are they aware of the looming danger? Sinister forces seem to be at work here…

The gang prepares for their journey into the unknown. What will they find on their path? Stay tuned.

The kickoff of the Dinerdate Vendetta storyline. This is gonna be a pretty long one. I plan on releasing an episode every week. Although I haven’t drawn episode 2 yet, and I have a podcast to edit so that’s probably not gonna happen this week. This page was a bitch to draw. I blame it on the camera angles. I’m too cinematic for my own good. A clear testimony to why you should ALWAYS sketch everything out in detail before inking. Remember that kids.