Far Out There

So, as I mentioned Tuesday, I totally forgot that Far Out There turned 4 years old this month until over a week too late. I still wanted to do some kind of special page, but how could I incorporate the whole “forgotten birthday” element into it? Well, if any character in Far Out There were going to suffer the indignity of a forgotten birthday, it’d be the doormat of the universe: Jenna. Right?

But SWEET MERCIFUL CRAP, THAT’S THE SADDEST THING I’VE EVER DRAWN. Heck, it’s so sad that, as soon as I finished it, I had to go and draw THIS to make myself feel better. And, in case you were wondering, no. This page is not canon. Jenna endures a lot of crud in her daily life, but I refuse to believe that even her own mother wouldn’t remember her birthday.

(Also, if that wasn’t bad enough, my original idea for this page was even WORSE. Instead of a big, empty room, I toyed with having the whole place decked out with elaborate party decorations. The idea being that Jenna had invited a whole bunch of people to a big birthday party and nobody showed – which I find even more heartbreaking than straight-up forgetfulness. Thankfully, there wasn’t time to do anything so elaborate, and it’s a good thing. I’d have needed to draw, like, TEN happy pictures to feel better after something like that…)

(Historical Notes: Oh man, this was a STRONGLY disliked page.  Disliked in a good way, since it meant I’d succeeded in making Jenna really likable and sympathetic, but still, I’m not cut out for actively antagonizing my own reader base.  Well, not deliberately, at least…)