Monday, June 11, 2007

44UA Book?

After some prodding by family members, friends, and peers, I've decided to embark on the task of putting together a 44 Union Avenue collection in book form. I'm still working out the logistics and content but I've at least decided that I want to go ahead with it. I've been at 44UA for over three years now. Some of you have been hanging on since the beginning and a large portion of my readers came on board after I was picked up by GoComics.

That being said, there is a LARGE archive of strips from the time before GoComics. Here's the weird part...Right around the time of web syndication, I decided to redesign my characters a bit. Some of them even got new names in the shake-up. Mikie became Jasper and Bubba became Clancy. At that point the mood and feel of the strip changed. I was almost positive the change would be greeted with a tar and feathering of sorts. Luckily, that wasn't the case. BUT, that change basically severed the ties between today's 44 Union Avenue and original version.

At first I thought I could just let them go off into oblivion but there were some really fun things that happened during those couple years: Jessie and the Jock Strap, The Stuffed Animal Grim Reaper (who just might be returning), Jack's Illegitimate Son, The Abominable Snowman, Jack's Stupidology Booth, Sigmund the Detention Hamster...to name a few.

So, after some advice from a few folks, I've decided to put a collection of these older strips together with a running commentary of sorts that will point out design changes, new tricks, odd characters, etc. I have no clue how long this venture will take but I can promise you that when it's done, it will be available to anyone with an internet connection.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You're just not going to let the jock strap thing die are you? I can't seem to live it down here.

Wit's Junk Blog said...

I'm gonna assume this is jessie. You love the attention and you know it. hahaha. That was one of the most popular series I ever ran.

sidenote: I think that, when posting comments here, if you click on "Other" you can actually put a name in. Not sure