7/20/09: Don't mind me, I'm just setting a record for inactivity. Wow! Three years since my last update! During some of that time, I've been unable to update, but most of that was just sheer X-treme procrastination. That's how the pros do it, baby.

Anyhow, I'm not going to pretend that I'll be continuing Fabulous Clem anytime soon. I would still like to create this strip, but it's a low priority for me at this point. I knew where the strip was going and could easily write new scripts and even dash off very rough drafts...but sadly, I'm just not good enough either at drawing or at using graphics programs, and while both of those are skills I'd like to hone, I'm going to be focusing on writing for the forseeable future.

I am planning to separate the four Seven of Hearts strips I drew into their own page. After that, I'll probably just leave this section the way it is. I hope a few people are able to enjoy the thirty-six admittedly not very polished strips I created.

6/25/06: Obviously, Fabulous Clem and Seven of Hearts have both been inactive for a few months. Higher priorities and all. If I'd actually been getting significant amounts of traffic I might feel guilty and apologetic, and all right, I do feel that way a little, but really, I think I'm still very much in the practice phase of wecomicry. So they're going to be down a while yet. Just the same, I hope to put of one more page for each in the next not-too-long, and more importantly, the two comics are going to be separated into different but similiar-looking sections. I'm on that now.

In the meantime, you can stare at this god-awful doodle for a while.

3/31/06 (SoH 4) - Here's an update! At last!

Well the crisis that had me worried before is not so bad as it could have been. But I'm still going through a transitional period...and I'm about to take a trip to visit an internet friend of mine, lasting six days! And after that is a science fiction convention I'm involved with...and after that comes...yeah. With no reason to cancel either of these strips, I won't do so, but I am now somewhat embarrassed to have registered Clem with those webcomic sites. People may see it and expect it to be regulrly updating every Thursday (or at least for there to be something here every Thursday) and that hasn't been happening for a few months. On the other hand, there's no harm keepig it registered, I think--it's not like many people are finding it that way, anyway. :\

THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY:

Is something or someone fun by virtue simply of the fact that it itself is having fun? Perhaps to some extent? If so, does the same hold true for other emotional experiences?

Can a simple natural organism ever really be happy or have any other emotional state? Is happiness the default state for healthy organisms living life the way nature intended?

Can it mean anything at all for a pinball machine to be "having fun"?

3/17/06 - I'm sad to say that updates will be even more erratic than usual for a while. Something's come up in my life that needs attention, and it'll leave me with less time to work on my comics. I do have a Seven of Hearts drafted, but...I don't know when I'll find the time to draw and color it. I'm rather worried right now, so...I guess the future is uncertain. That's all there is to it.

3/10/06 (Page 36) - Well over a month ago, I spent a few hours scribbling out a few rough drafts for Fabulous Clem, which eventually became pages 33 through 36. It's insane to me, the discrepancy between how quickly I put out those rough drafts and how long it took me to eventually get them finished and posted. Now, for the first time in many weeks, I am finally out of rough drafts to work from.

Not that that bothers me. I could easily create another four in another two or three hours. It's all the steps from rough to not-so-rough that bother me.

My friend Tom gave me several graphics programs that I ought to find useful for this. I'm excited about learning them--problem is, it looks like I'm finally going to have to upgrade my operating system. So that's the next ordeal.

As to the strip. Most red foxes have a familiar distinctive coloration--whitish blaze on the belly and throat, black socks, white tailtip. Amber's one of those freaks with only the tailtip. This was originally just laziness on my part, but now it becomes part of a rich treatment on vulpine color discrimination. ;-)

Deirdre is apparently either too cool or too retarded to have speech balloons that link together like normal people do.

3/2/06 (SoH 3) - I'm a few minutes after midnight this time, although really I'd like to be updating on the midnight that comes before Thursday.

This strip took less time to do than the last Seven of Hearts, but not nearly enough less. I'm finding myself increasingly frustrated with the number os teps needed to do a simple cut and paste in Ultimate Paint--it's much easier, as far as I can tell, to do it in MS Paint. I'm going to have to use very simple figures, and at the same time continue learning Photoshop. (This week, with the patient guidance of an internet friend, I was able to make a picture consisting of several concentric hearts in Photoshop in only...two hours!)

Why is the heart so important? Because I've decided it's going to be the motif of Seven of Hearts. Most (if not all) of the SoH strips will feature an iconic heart in them, just as this one does. :) It means love, of course, and it means that I have a common thread for Seven of Hearts--the strip is all about love! Not in the traditional way by any measure, though.

Why have I mentioned the echidna, a relatively obscure animal species, in two out of my first three strips? I dunno, sometimes it just works out that way. <3.

Oh, one other little note--for some time I've had a link to Ozfoxes.com in the archive bar, stating that Fabulous Clem is listed on that site. Well, due to e-mail mishaps, it wasn't really, but it is now! Way down a long page of nondescript links, but still, it's a start for me. :-) Anyhow, check out Robert and Margaret Carspecken's Faux Pas--it's the only other comic strip I know of to feature naturalistic talking foxes, and the art is so much more refined than mine. Good stuff.

THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY:

What, if anything, is the real symbology of an egg? What is the merit of surrounding oneself with objects from one's heritage or culture? How much does it matter if these objects are authentic? Can their enjoyment be shared with outsiders in order to bring people closer together?

The Clem Log continues here.

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