Suichi is a ridiculously heavy sleeper who does not conform to normal notions about when sleep should take place. And he really did have like two or three alarm clocks at one point, back when he cared about waking up on time.
One of the ways my art evolved over time was that I started doing underdrawings in blue pencil, since you can remove those by messing with channels in Photoshop. This was before that, and I spent a bunch of extra time digitally erasing unnecessary lines.
At the time I was also friends with a guy who went by A-sama (from “Aaron”), who was kind enough to put together software to handle posting the comic and such. This was before stuff like WordPress existed (it was 2002 after all) and webcomic stuff was still pretty primitive by today’s standards, so in hindsight it was kind of kludgey in some ways, but still. It was also a variant of the software he made for Nekobox, a webcomic by another artist we knew at the time. It didn’t have a comment system per se, but a “rant” system where a set of people whose accounts were hard-coded, so my friends and I would post about stuff and everyone else had to comment by emailing me. I made a couple attempts at having a forum though.
The title is a reminder that Azumanga Daioh was a huge influence on me, though it got more explicit later on (when I switched to a 4-koma format). Here apparently Death is standing in for Chiyo’s father.
And more Azumanga Daioh with Kami-Sylvia. Also, I apparently had a habit of putting in Japanese text with no explanation.
Bonus Stuff
And I guess because it was the first couple weeks, I really did go crazy with bonus stuff.
Needless to say Suichi and I weren’t big fans of Valentine’s Day at the time.
My friend Jenny decided to do a side comic thing called “Daisy’s Dose of Wisdom.” She didn’t do more than a handful, but it was a nice gesture.
Japan is not great when it comes to being sensitive about other cultures. In anime, Chinese girls tend to wear a cheongsam, know kung fu, talk weird, and run a restaurant that sells steam buns.
I also did some extra Neko Machi comics that didn’t really fit anywhere in particular. This wound up being the first one posted with Jezebel, featuring my friend Dora, who did in fact crack her joints like crazy. Weirdly, I’m ending up typing this a little over a week after she moved back into the area after going to Texas for a while.
Another Daisy’s Dose of Wisdom, on the subject of mosh pits. I once went to a Nine Inch Nails concert, and lasted in the mosh pit part for like a minute or so before I retreated into the stands. Daisy is indeed wise.