Tailipoe

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Settling In

One thing I find interesting about comic strips is how the characters transform during the early days of their run, as they find their "reality" and settle into their true look. It's a natural development, I think, as the artist gets into the mindset of living with the characters on a regular basis and they reveal their subtleties to him. Even though I've been turning this strip out on a weekly, not daily basis, I already see that development happening. Tailipoe himself is becoming thinner and taller than he was in the earliest strips, when he fluctuated quite a bit. The shock of hair that grows out of his temple had decided to be a consistent three hairs instead of a random patch. Armand's nose is getting to be less brick-shaped. Hamilton's nose is all over the place, but heading somewhere. As this introductory story wraps up, I'm considering giving the cast the full set of five fingers, instead of the cartoon standard of four, since the rendering has occasionally been a shade more true-to-life than I originally envisioned, and four fingers sometimes looks weird. Props have been inconsistent in their look from strip to strip (Hamilton's bedposts, for instance), and it's time to standardize those set pieces, and maybe even go back and redo early strips to bring them into line.

At this writing I'm remodeling the site, the relaunch to coincide with the first week of Tailipoe story number two, tentatively titled "ID." It should all make its debut on April 12, I think.