I know you guys were probably planning on a new comic from me today since that what I’ve been promoting since last week. But the move to our new house took more out of me than I anticipated and I have the Web Comic List incentive sketch to prove it!

Basically after five days of picking up heavy things and putting them down again, my hands are totally wrecked – not to mention the rest of my body.

It wasn’t just the physical move that screwed me up, but all of the little things you need to take care of as soon as you walk in the door. Installing the mailbox. Hooking up the washer and dryer. Reassembling furniture. Let me tell you – If I don’t see another cardboard box, hammer, screwdriver or flight of stairs in the next two weeks, it’ll be too soon!

My hands are in really weird shape at the moment because I think all the gripping I’ve done has screwed up the tendons in my thumbs. They’re very tight. It’s like my thumbs want to fold in and lay flush against my palm. Nevermind the inch-long blister on the underside of my index finger I got from using a lousy mallet to pound a stake. Or the dozen or so gashes across my knuckles from scraping them across door frames while carrying furniture…

Not to sound like a big crybaby, but holding a pencil isn’t the most comfortable feeling for me right now. Plus, just getting things set up in the house so we can find them when we need to go back to work on Monday… guys, I’m just drained.

Anyway, the plan is to go back to work on Monday and hopefully start to slip back into a groove. I would like to have a new comic ready for you on Wednesday. Partially because – as a means to escape, Cami and I saw both Charlie and The Chocolate Factory and Wedding Crashers this weekend and I have ideas. The other half of this ambition is to get back into the habit of drawing so I don’t get rusty.

Switching gears, someone who certainly ISN’T rusty is Dave Buist, the nice gentleman who provided today’s guest strip!

Dave is actually the first person to do a guest strip for Theater Hopper ever! Normally that kind of thing would reside in the Bonus Materials thing – but lazy me, I haven’t set it up since I redesigned the site back in April. It never ends, folks.

At any rate, I thought Dave’s guest strip was very timely considering Charlie’s $50+ take at the box office this weekend. It would be a shame to waste it. Extra points for getting Jared into an Oompa-Loompa costume!

Dave has a comic called Taking the Bi-Pass that you guys should check out. It’s really great and has only gotten better with age. It’s been a lot of fun for me personally to watch Dave develop as an artist and storyteller. As I recall, Dave didn’t even have a full-time web comic until after he did his guest strip for me. So we kind of have a cool link that way. Check out his site!

Another site you should check out it is Farawayistan, our newest advertiser. The comic is kind of hard to explain, but they’re kind of single-panel non sequiturs. Fans of White Ninja Comics will probably find something to appreciate here. Tell ’em Tom sentcha!

A quick note of apology to all of the creators who had guest strips running last week without blogs telling everyone where to check out their regular strips! I had a bunch of pre-written blogs in the database, but an incorrect timecode (my fault!) prevented them from displaying. The blogs have since been re-instated and the links to the individual creators sites are functional. I suggest everyone click back a few comics in the archive and read up on these talented blokes!

I think I’m going to close for now because I need to get to bed. But I wanted to remind everyone that I will be at Wizard World Chicago this year August 4 – 7 hanging out with a bunch of my web comic buddies on Artist’s Alley. Click here for more information. I plan on promoting this pretty much every time I write a new blog, so I’m trying to get into the habit now. ;D

Talk to you all again soon!