Happy Dailies Day! Do you like love stories? (Patreon)

Happy Friday to ya! I just noticed that most of this week's comics have to do with love.

We had a farewell dinner for my friend Josie the other day. You've met her before (and also here); I wanted to make more comics featuring her this year, but I've only eked out a few because they require so much context, or fact-checking.

Josie is moving to Europe in a month. I'm both sad that she's leaving and relieved she won't be in this country while we ride the wave of gender chaos (among other chaoses). If you'd like to toss a few bucks her way to help her with the move, you can pitch in here! (She's already gotten the surgery mentioned in the Gofundme.) Thank y'all for caring about my friend. <3

It's easy to be sappy with your friends when you know they're leaving, and we said a lot of sappy things to each other on our pre-dinner walk.

I've learned way more about womanhood from her than I have from anyone in my life. (She's a science nerd, so she has to dumb down the technical stuff for me!)

This happened on my way to the farmers market:

Whitney's the only human I know who is so captivating she upstages her own dog.

This is in my wallet now.

This next one is a concept that felt like an epiphany when I realized it a few months ago. A painfully obvious one, but it took me 40 years to figure it out. (Apologies to anyone who doesn't wanna watch me make out with someone; this was a really awkward concept to draw!)

It starts with my favorite romance from Girls With Slingshots.

I was thinking about all the ideal romances I’ve read/seen in fiction over the years, and thought about Clarice and Joshua, and then realized… that’s just one writer writing a romance story. Whenever two characters are completely in sync, it’s because it’s the writer, writing to the writer.

This goes for friendships, too (Hazel & Jamie included). It’s so obvious, I can’t believe I never thought about it before. Whatever you do, don't idealize the almost telepathic communication between fictional characters, because they are LITERALLY inside each other's head: the head of the author.

(Here are links to the two GWS strips this is based on, in case you'd like to relive that moment!)

The original's for sale here if you really wanna sully that sweet memory of Joshua and Clarice kissing with an image of me kissing myself! Remember to scroll down for the half-off Patreon Exclusive discount code!

You're kinda seeing "how the sausage is made" here; I needed to get that comic out of my system before I could manipulate the same concept into something more accessible for the general public:

I'm still working on this concept, but I think this succinct version works. :)

Here's the link to the original if you'd like it!

And, by popular demand*, here's the last step in the How To Make a Bamboo Wattle Fence tutorial!

*all three of you who were interested, ty.

Just like inking a comics page, my favorite part of the process is always too short!

I'm putting all three of these ones up for the price of two, in case you'd like the originals! Don't forget to use DAILYSMILE50 at checkout for 50% off, my beloved patrons!

I put together a little photo tutorial of how to make these wattle fences, so if you'd like to see 'em, keep scrolling! If you're like "wow you are REALLY into this and I am NOT," stop right here, and have a beautiful weekend!

HERE WE GO, let's split some bamboo babyyyyy!

I came up with a few different solutions for how to finish the ends of these, all of which were uhhh... adequate.

Really they just needed to be sturdy enough to lean some brown packing paper against (the step I forgot to take photos of!) so that the soil won't seep out between the slats.

Here's the frontmost bed, which will be PACKED with flowers!

And here's the whole garden, nearly naked, so you can compare it in June when it's grown in a bit!

I LOVE sugar snap peas but I only got 3 or 4 plants last year! This year I bought some Johnny's Seeds for the bed on the left, and ALL 40 SEEDS (100%!!) sprouted, which never happens!

Let's hope the slugs don't find out...

Happy weekend to y'all! I hope you find time to get outdoors for a bit.