Slither and Friends

I’m actually rather excited about this next couple of strips.  There’s something captivating about the idea of walking through the lonely woods only to discover that you’ve arrived at some strange bazaar where faeries, trolls, and spirits of mysterious origin hark their wares.

I am reminded, of course, of the infamous Vanity Fair in John Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress” and the haunting poetry of Christina Rossetti’s “Goblin Market“.  Both texts speak in some capacity about the universal onslaught of the strange and often spiritually dangerous sensations of the world.  Here’s one of my favorite sections of Rossetti’s piece:

Laugh’d every goblin

When they spied her peeping:

Came towards her hobbling,

Flying, running, leaping,

Puffing and blowing,

Chuckling, clapping, crowing,

Clucking and gobbling,

Mopping and mowing,

Full of airs and graces,

Pulling wry faces,

Demure grimaces,

Cat-like and rat-like,

Ratel- and wombat-like,

Snail-paced in a hurry,

Parrot-voiced and whistler,

Helter skelter, hurry skurry,

Chattering like magpies,

Fluttering like pigeons,

Gliding like fishes, -

Only imagination can translate the flurry of wild shapes and animalistic action of the lines.  But it’s such a fun description.  Is it terrifying?  Delightful?  A… delightful terror?

I don’t want to make too much of my own version, especially in light of what has already been done, but I thought it would be fun to point out some of the literary inspiration for a few goofy drawings.  Hope you enjoy!

Hey everyone who might still be dropping by for just the sheer hope of something new popping up.  I thought I’d hop online just to give a bit of an update on my situation, and perhaps sow some seeds of encouragement for those dedicated readers out there who made drawing this comic so much fun.

I recently started my first year in an English Doctoral program, which is awesome, but has me pretty dang busy with responsibilities I did not have when I was just getting my Master’s Degree.  And while I love drawing and publishing my comics online, a part of me is very fearful of restarting the comic for fear that it will rob me of precious time and resources.  My financial situation is tight, my time even more so, and I’m worried of burning out in the program.

But to be frank, I truly, truly miss the lovely refuge this comic often was for me.  Sometimes things in Academia would get way too serious, and Slither was always there when that happened.  Which is why I think I may need this strip now more than ever.

I want to come back.  I want to start updating again.  However, I need to confess that sometimes there might be lags in the updates.  Sometimes things will just be a little too crazy on this end to manage it.  Hopefully, I’ll be able to work through those times.

Anyway, the short version of this all-too-whiney post is that Slither will be coming back.  Sooner than later.  And I hope you will be celebrating alongside me when it happens.

So what I thought was merely a symptom of my connectivity issue from the weekend is actually something (somewhat) worse in that my file for Monday’s comic is corrupt meaning all of my clean up and coloring work is pretty much a wash.  Not sure how it happened, but I am loathe to give up the time I spent on it.

Sadly, this has happened once before in the history of my webcartooning and there’s really no fix than going back and doing the work over.  Rest assured, all attempts will be made to make up for this setback.