Comic #800: In Real Life - Part 3 (Patreon)

I had an outline for this mini arc from the beginning, and several small things changed along the way, but the final panel is identical to how I pictured it from the start. I liked the wholesome quality of it.

Throughout this arc some readers assumed this version of myself in the comic was the real me. The real me is a married father of two, so it's not a real representation.

Also, some people actually took this arc to mean I was depressed in some way, and/or that I was completely done with the game and quitting the comics. I kind of leaned into that a bit with the 4th panel. In reality, it's more of a joke on the fact that the game is in a lull right now, and Keydar has to go outside for a change. I've made jokes about inter expansion lulls before, it's not really that new.

The depression arc took me by surprise, as I always thought of this arc as light hearted and silly. Maybe it's because I knew how it would end. I think 100 comics from now those people might see it in a different way.

I wanted readers to actually think I was quitting the comic for a second when they read panel 4. I thought it would make the punchline that much better.

The third panel looks fancy, but it didn't take as long as you might think. It's basically just a bunch of layers and a tree brush. You might think I put the sunset there to make it pretty, but in reality I just wanted myself to be backlit so I could do a silhouette and not actually have to draw anything.