Cats in the Kitchen

To everyone waiting for Cats in the Kitchen to return I would like to say “Thank you for you for being so patient!”. And to everyone who discovered the comic during this little hiatus, I want you to know that things are going to start happening again really soon.

I got halfway through the rough draft of the script I was trying to write before I realized it was basically Scott Pilgrim, but without a love story. While I WAS trying to write a larger-than-life, comic-booky story, it just didn’t feel like my comic anymore. And it introduced way too many characters, AND had Midnight’s mom “acting strangely” when we’ve only really seen her two or three times before. In short, the comic isn’t ready for the story I was trying to tell with it, and I put said story on the back burner.

The good news is that I’ve switched my focus to a story that is a little more natural in this context. (The first script took me all of June and July to half-finish the first draft. The current one has taken three days to get to the same place)

Here are some sketches from the story I was working on before:

Hey everyone. Work’s been crazy this week and my time management [lack of] skills have failed me. Monday’s comic may be a little late, but it should be up by the afternoon, or at the latest, Tuesday.

While you’re waiting though, I’ll point you in the direction of some other comics that are awesome:

Manly Guys doing Manly Things (PG-13 for Cussins and Stabbins) is a pretty self-explanatory comic by Kelly Turnbull (Who is Canadian, yay!) It takes place in a rehab center for exceedingly macho guys, specifically those living in video games. It’s also about relationships, time travel, cute kids and geeky pokemon trainers.

Strewth (G) is a funny animals adventure comic, reminiscent of “The Raccoons” or “Duck Tales”. It focuses on Conrad, the dimwitted vulture, Johnathan, his sensible-yet-spineless Vulpine friend, and Booth, a sarcastic ne’r-do-well Frog whose sandwich-nabbing ways land all three of them into a heap of trouble. Resulting in a Community Service sentence.

Bug (PG… 13 sometimes?) is a somewhat random gag comic that reminds me of xkcd, except it’s funny (Oooooooooooooooooh!*). Each panel of every four-panel strip is it’s own punchline, which is an odd choice, but well played. The topics of the jokes can be pretty random too, but in a good way.

* I love xkcd by the way. How could you not love xkcd?

Wow, total fluke, just looked back to see when the first Cats in the Kitchen strip went up and it turns out it was a year ago today! To everyone who has read the comic since then, thanks for being here. It’s really only half a comic if nobody reads it.

There’s a couple pieces of news I want to share. The first is that following the direction of comics like Jackie Rose, I’m going to be taking a break over the summer, beginning at the end of June, and going until the start of September.

I have three reasons for this: One is that summer is a crazy time in the restaurant business, and I can basically guarantee that I won’t have the time I need to do the strip justice. Also, once I start up again, I’d like to do more story-arcs and less gag-a-day strips, but that requires some planning and actual script writing, rather than sitting down at the drawing table on Sunday night and trying to come up with a gag. I hope to have the script for four months of comics done by the end of the summer.

But the most exciting reason (for me anyway) is that I’m going to compile the first Cats in the Kitchen book. It won’t be an exhaustive collection, (I’d like to make those too eventually) but rather a “Primer” containing any important story points, and some of the best gag strips, that can serve as a starting point for people who have never read the comic. The idea is that I honestly don’t think I have a large enough audience that a book that includes all of the sucky early strips would be worthwhile at this point. But a book with all the best strips in it I think would have more value on its own, and, (I think anyway) will do better at a Convention table.

So, enjoy the next month and a half. Over the summer I’ll be posting artwork and other samples of what I’ve been working on. And come September, Cats in the Kitchen will be back in full force. Thanks again for a great year, I can’t wait to see what comes next!