Sorry this week's strip is a day late. I tried to get it pulled together in time, but the MSU con this past weekend threw me off a little. So the Isle of Terror is winding to a close as we make a drastic time jump forward following CM's epic skeleton punch last episode. Thanks to everyone who contacted me about getting "I punched a skeleton" t-shirts, etc. They are in the works. Stay tuned!

TOACM TRIVIA:

• Dougy's coffee mug in panel 2 and 9 sport a piece of the logo of the excellent webcomic Superfogeys by Brock Heasley (and currently drawn by Marc Lapierre). Thanks to Brock for use of the logo!
• Note that in panel 2 CM is enjoying his favorite breakfast cereal, Righty-O's!
• The Squid-Girl poster we see in panel 4 and 9 was first seen back in TOACM #122 "Subtle" on 5/31/2011
• The artwork for the Squid-Girl poster is by the uncanny, Jay P. Fosgitt. You should go check out his webcomic Dead Duck, if you're not reading it already.
• GOOF: In panel 2 Dougy's shirt has bands on the ends of the sleeves, but in later panels it does not. Whoops! =o)

I hope you enjoyed this comic! If you did, please tell your friends via email, text, Facebook, Google+, Twitter or any social media outlet. If you didn't like this comic, I'd love to know why. What didn't appeal to you? What would you like to see improved?

Thanks everyone! See you next week! Same checkered time, same checkered blog!

-Denver

Great Gatsby! We're so close to winding down The Isle of Terror and moving forward into the Checkered Man's next big adventure! Tune in next week for the action packed finale!

Also, if you haven't already, please click on over to the webcomic WOODY AFTER HOURS to see your favorite plaid protector in the beginning of a reoccurring guest spot over the next few weeks. Click on the first panel above to read the whole thing!

I'd also like to mention that I am working on a limited edition TOACM print for the upcoming MSU Comics Forum in a couple weeks. This print will be exclusive to the show and only a small run will be produced. I'm hoping to unveil the artwork soon! Stay tuned!

Finally, enjoy the following work-in-progress artwork during the early stages of the production of this strip:

Well friends here we are again back on The Isle of Terror after a couple weeks off over the holidays. I hope you liked the Joey-centric intermission. There is a very interesting footnote to be mentioned about this particular strip, it is the first one I digitally toned using my new Wacom tablet. Yup, that's right I finally joined "the now" and got one. Well, the credit all goes to Jillian, she found an awesome deal and made it happen. So the credit is entirely hers.

My hope for the tablet is to speed up the coloring/toning step of the process (which seem's the most laborious IMHO). It's pretty obvious that there's a learning curve but being able to test the waters some with this week's strip gave me hope that this new tool will indeed cut down the production time without sacrificing the quality I want to put into it.

I drew the Checkered Man sketch above in my newly evolving "sketchcard" style over the Christmas holiday and chose it to be the first thing I colored with the tablet. The "sketch" below is my attempt to doodle my layout thumbnails digitally as well. Egad! The sketch below is evidence of such an attempt. Enjoy!

Until next week...