We wrapped up The Churchians: Shadow Saints, and to celebrate, I let Codex out of the basement and set her in the front yard. “Get a little sun”, I said. “Hop about. Frolic on a decaying stump. Go! Be a mushroom.”

Now? She’s gone. Presumed reading someplace nearby. Thank goodness she showed me how to use the cartoon-making gizmo I normally keep her chained to. There must be more to it though, because I pushed all the doohickeys, dialed in the dials, made sure the fuel reservoir was filled with coffee, and double-checked the paper-retaining chamber.

I got this:

Yeah. This is not the quality entertainment you all stop by for.

So seeing as we’re between books, it’s a good time to take a break. We have two special comics next week, and then the splash page for The Churchians: Night Veg running the following Monday. That will be our third book if anyone can still do math. We suspect most of you can, since our comics are numbered sequentially… and they are now conveniently arranged in our soon-to-be-out-of-date Archives!

In the meantime, you can continue to search for fuel. Please do so carefully. The beloved worker-bees at the Department of Transportation Twittered out some good, practical advice about the crisis. “Do not put gasoline in plastic bags.” We needed to hear that. Or at least, the Tribal Peoples of the Blue Checkmark did. Here are some other safety tips:

• Do not store gasoline in paper bags, either.
• Do not drink any gasoline you find.
• If you do drink the gasoline, do not attempt to light your burps on fire.
• If you find any gasoline, do not put it in a federally-mandated gas can.
• If you manage to get any gasoline into a federally-mandated gas can, you will not be able to get it out again. I know. I’ve tried.
• Do not pump gasoline directly into your glove box or other storage compartment in your vehicle.
• Do not inject yourself with a used Covid needle, whether it contains gasoline or not.
• Do not store gasoline in a five-gallon bucket, even if you have it covered in tin foil.
• Do not try to fill your vehicle with propane.
• Do not drink the propane.

I could add more, but thinking “How else could a moron possibly screw this up” makes my head hurt. The list is endless. Feel free to contribute in the comments, and have a great weekend!

–> Codex & Quizzer

*I’m looking for a little reader feedback here, so suggestions, affirmations, or criticisms are welcome in the comments.

In putting together the first book of The Churchians, I realized that ‘Arrival’ is a terrible name. Here’s the original comic. It’s okay for what it is, but we can do better.

‘Crashlander’, ‘Crashlanders’, ‘Story Crashers’, and ‘StoryCrashers’ are all on the table. Many of you are long-time readers and know the history of Rory and The Professor. We’ll be doing a better transition comic – introducing Rory and the Prof – for the book. I’m partial to the first two because Old Hick referred to Rory as ‘Rory Crashlander’ here:

However… Continue reading →