I was having a little bit of fun with my readership here, dressing the zombie like Ben. Because I do live peeks of the comic as its progresses, I was hoping to spark a little bit of wild speculation despite the cover ;) My readers know me too well by now, though, they didn't bite.

I tried out some new effects here, with reasonable success. I love how easy it is to do things like the windshield effect. I wasn't happy with the glass distortion in the flare frame, but it was the best I could do from the perspective I chose. Live and learn.

I'm pleased I didn't get any 'who's talking? who's being talked to!' grief this time around-- I used to get that a lot in the first couple of years, before people realized that waiting a strip or two (or reading back a strip or two) would make it more or less clear. I think it's a sign that my general pool of readers is growing up and/or getting smarter, which makes me /very/ happy. Either that, or they're just not emailing as much, which is fine too because it leaves me more time for the interesting/clever/cool people who do write in.

Oh and in case you're wondering why the gloves? I have mild scleroderma that occasionally makes the surfaces of a few fingers go all hard and dead. It gets hard to grip things. Even with a lot of strength applied, surface and contour makes a difference. Gloves have helped. So, when zombies are sent out to do the heavy lifting, once in a while their keepers put gloves on them. They may not be willing to go so far as to dress a stinky dead corpse, but slipping a pair of gloves on once in a while, whenever they wear out, is not a hardship.