Happy New Year! I thought I’d begin 2010 with a funny realization that came to me this morning while coloring strips.

Occasionally, I get called out for grammatical or illogical (writing) errors. In fact, my husband caught one the other day while reading my strip in the paper (by the way, this was after both of us proof-read it prior to publication…argh). In case you’re wondering, it was from 12/30: Jill mentions Amy getting sick in school; technically, the kids are supposed to be on winter break. Oops. Still, a relatively minor infraction.

What most people probably don’t realize is that there are many more artistic inconsistencies in the strip. Oh, sure, sometimes I may forget to shade in part of a shirt or maybe there’s the occasional problem with a color translating into print. But I’m talking about inconsistencies that are intentional.

Just for funsies, let’s play a game. Try to pick out what’s inconsistent in the two strips below. Bet it’s easy:

Yep – the furniture and cabinetry placement. Also, color – although in the top one, I intentionally muted the cabinetry color so it would recede into the background.

Normally, I try and keep the general color scheme and styles consistent, but sometimes the scenery changes for the sake of composition. Also, evolution. In the “early” days, the kitchen – like in the top strip — contained a jutting cabinet “peninsula.” That became compositionally problematic, so I took it out. The cabinetry now hugs two walls. One thing that changes constantly: refrigerator placement. I rarely even include one unless needed. Don’t ask me why. I use the same back door, but that placement changes in relation to the kitchen table. Again, for artistic purposes.

The family room layout changes, too. The same couch is always there, but sometimes there’s a table in front of it, sometimes not. The lamp changes from the left-hand side to the right. And rarely, I’ll add a window behind the couch. I justify it by pretending the Kaplans are restless and like to move furniture around.

As I said, part of it is for composition, part of it is evolution. But much of it goes unnoticed. Most people don’t read the comics fastidiously and aren’t aware of artistic details as much as they are of the written ones. I’d include myself there. When reading other comics, I mean.

Anyway, just a fun fact to remember as you continue to (hopefully) read Pajama Diaries. In fact, try and catch this in other cartoons. Bet it’s more common than you think.

Have a great 2010!

As some readers nicely pointed out yesterday, I made a mistake in my 7/18 strip. I accidentally wrote “adverse” instead of “averse.” Got a little confused there, sorry. I do proofread my strips several times beforehand, and they go through editors as well, but this one got past all of us. I must’ve confused the meanings.
Anyway, thanks to those readers who caught it. Damn, it had to be in the punchline!

Is there a term for a lazy blogger (lager??)? Well, that’s me. Guilty as charged. Part of it is because I’m writing about a strip which is about a woman who keeps a journal. Therefore, I’m blogging about a blogger. That wears me out psychologically.

The other excuse (at least, this month’s) is that I’ve got summer fever. In fact, I’m watching my kids play on our neighbor’s giant inflatable waterparkamathingamadoozy (an intricate series of water chutes and slides that costs more than all our furniture combined). They’re enjoying themselves, shouting, “Watch this, Mom!!” every 3.2 seconds as they hurl their lithe bodies on top of a dozen other lithe bodies (there are 15 kids total just within our four adjacent homes).

The shouting, fighting and pure glee makes me realize how as adults, we really do live vicariously through our kids. I have absolutely no urge to throw my half-naked self down a bouncy chute (although the image of all those bodies does weirdly make me think of ancient Grecian orgies)…yet, watching them experience this summer joy gives me such a “boring-adult” thrill.

Brings to mind a strip I did about 3 years ago. Our old neighbors had an inflatable bouncy castle they set up in their front yard. My kids would spy it as we pulled in our drive after a long day of preschool. This was the witching hour – that time of day the girls were tired and hungry…and so was I. I had to get home and start cooking. But all the kids wanted to do was raid the jumpy castle. My mistake was muttering, “Well, just for a few minutes.” Yeah, right. Enough said. Check out the product of that inspiration:
 

These days I’m thankful my girls are old enough to go on bouncy castles and watermathingies without constant supervision. I’m also thankful for portable laptops. And, of course, I’m thankful for the ability to relax and live vicariously through the young.

Peace out from one happy lager.

It’s been a while since I’ve written a blog entry. I was caught up in presentation preparations during the past few months. So let’s see, where were we? Oh yeah. Poor Rob got canned.

Yes, harsh economic times have caught up with the Kaplans. As I said, I wanted the strip to reflect a certain reality to the current climate. Originally, I thought of making one of the side characters lose their job, but I realized the story line would be more poignant if it affected the main family.

Now here’s the strange life-imitating-art-imitating-life thing that’s come out of this: so many people have asked me if my husband (my real hubby, not the inked & scanned version) was laid off. I wasn’t too surprised at this questioning. However, I was surprised by the sheer volume of it. Actually, I’m pretty touched by the concern.

To answer this question…no, luckily my husband is still employed — although he’s taken quite a lot of ribbing at work because of the strip. I did suggest to him a “Stranger Than Fiction” scenario, where I can control his life just by writing it (new furniture, anyone?). He wasn’t amused.

Occasionally, I’m asked the question, “Do you have these story lines all mapped out, like, say, a year in advance?” My answer: usually no. In this case, I’d like to explore the job loss situation as it progresses in real time. So I guess we’ll all wait and see how this pans out.

(Note: new sample strips will be posted soon, including the reader favorite “Libido-meter”…so don’t forget to check back)