Last September, I made a commitment to slowly work both my own character and Janna’s out of the strip by the end of the school year, which is rapidly approaching right now.
There were two main reasons that I came to this decision: first of all, while it’s fun to put a person that you know in a comic, and they almost always get a kick out it, it leaves every other reader out in the cold, alienating them, because in a big way, they aren’t in on the joke.
The second reason, which I feel is the more important one, is that it’s easier to write for fictional characters. You can’t have a real person say something that conflicts with who they are both as a comic strip character and a real person, and you can’t put the character in a situation that the person finds distasteful, uncomfortable, and so on.
Writing for fictional characters can be a challenge, naturally, but you get to develop the characters; avatars for real people, on the other hand tend to stagnate, or be very one-note. The comic actually started, and ran for the first two years, as nothing but characters based on real people, and it was kind of really horrible for that.
So, say your goodbyes to Kyle and Janna, who I’m sure will still show up now and then, but are basically done for as cast members. To commemorate their leaving, we’re going to be featuring some amazing guest strips for this week and the next, seeing what it’s like when the artist who is a character becomes neither. Four awesome comics, then a goodbye, and then Dan and Yvette get to make some new friends!
