Lucky Numbers

Friday the 13th's comic marks the 400th Crooked Halo comic on Dim Bulb's Keenspace/Comic Genesis site. That's a heckuva mess of comics, if I do say so myself. Most webcomics have a life expectancy of about 10 updates. Maybe fifty, if the artist is industrious and really committed. But all too often, webcomic artists just sort of...give up. They lose interest, it gets too complicated, they run out of time, etc. All sorts of real life comes up.

There've been times I've considered giving up or at least going on a hiatus to recharge the batteries. There've been comics I haven't been happy with, storylines I wish I'd executed differently, art I wish I could erase and do over. But I'm glad I've done the comics, I really am. I'm proud that I've gone this long with it. I think I'm starting to develop some halfway compelling characters, even (there's probably room for debate there), and I think some of the jokes have been drop-dead funny (again, probably plenty of room for debate).

The premise remains simple, though: what if a young man were the focus of the battle between good and evil? What if forces he couldn't understand were fighting over his very soul? What if he was aware of their existence, aware they were fighting over him, and still had to get a term paper written before the end of the week? Then you'd have poor Simon, and you'd have Crooked Halo.

The college comic about a guy and his wacky, sarcastic friends/roommates/whatever may be an oft-used setting, but that's because it's fun and there's room for variation in it. The possibilities are nigh endless, especially when you throw in a smite-happy archangel, a mediocre temptor, a PhD-toting hillbilly ten year old, and a whole bunch of others besides. The whole point to me has always been to take cliches and common situations/characters and twist them, make them unique. Maybe I've succeeded, maybe I haven't, but I've enjoyed it the whole way, and I'm glad you folks have been along for the ride. Crooked Halo is just getting started. I could foresee doing this comic for years, letting the characters grow and develop and change and move on in their lives, not just staying in college and dealing with childhood things. There are really lots of things to do with the characters, when you think about it.

So yeah, thanks for reading. Here's to 400 more.