UPDATING OCCASIONALLY (FOR NOW)

6 thoughts on “542 – Catching Up”

  1. Keith

    Some friction, but yeah. IRL, I’d like these two…they should have kids. 😉

    1. Dawn

      I might have to draw out what their kid would look like. First thought is that their kid would look like Ongo Gablogian from “It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia”

    2. Scarsdale

      He’s pushing 60, she’s maybe 30, more likely less. Chuck is most likely shooting blanks, and besides, he’s talking to her like a baby sister than a love interest.

  2. ConcordBob

    It is really hard to have a favorite character, as there are so many good ones. But I think Rosa is my favorite. Chuck is a good accomplice in sneaking work, but not much for romance. Uugh.

  3. Otaku

    I mean, if they don’t have at least an inkling of what’s going down, I’m actually disappointed in Clearstream. If anything, I’m starting to wonder if they caught on and realized “Wait, we can use this.”

    Because of course they can. 😉

  4. Dr. Norman (not a real doctor)

    I’m way ahead of you – I’ve been waiting for you to catch up. From November 2020:
    I would hope for nothing less – her and Chuck have the potential for a great deal of positive mischief.
    Speaking of which, I received the email notifying me that my order for the NSFW “Chuck and Rosa Finally Do It” (age verification required) limited edition hardcover is going to be delayed due to the pandemic. I think it’s really cool that you’ll be adding some additional stretch goal goodies when it ships – thanks for all your story and art.
    As for the inscription, ” We owe it all to you ” will be sufficient.

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542 – Catching Up
Posted on April 9, 2025 by Dawn

Finding harmony in feedback…

Posted on May 1, 2019 by Clint
“I don’t know if I like that…” When you’re a writer, sometimes you’re going to hear this or a variation on it from people you’ve asked for feedback. And you may instinctively get defensive. After all, we tend to be our own worst critics, right? You’re not sure if you like “that” either, or maybe you wouldn’t have had anyone else look at it in the first place. But on the other hand, you feel like you had good reasons to write what you did, and feedback that something doesn’t feel right is maddeningly vague and tempts you to just ignore it and bull on ahead. This happens occasionally in the Wolf household because Dawn functions as my first reader. Most of the time any feedback is more along the lines of figuring out how to draw a given panel or asking me to please alter it because she doesn’t think it’s going to work visually, but occasionally the critique goes deeper than that. The original draft of this week’s page was one of those times where I could tell she felt uncomfortable. “I don’t know if I like that she doesn’t know how to use the rifle.” Ah. I explained that I didn’t want Suzie to come off as an expert in everything, all the time. She’s not used to automatic fire, but she corrects shortly and nails two Huachucas. “Yeah, but, Suzie’s supposed to be a Clint Eastwood type. You wouldn’t see Clint Eastwood have that loss of control moment.” This gave me pause, because I couldn’t readily think of an example to refute her. Dirty Harry is a master of all weaponry from revolvers to bazookas. The Man With No Name can handle small arms and artillery alike with unquestioned, sometimes even nonchalant competence, and I never asked myself where he learned to shoot a cannon with pinpoint accuracy. And certainly no supporting character was nearby cannonsplaining to him. The closest I could think of was William Munny’s shotgun misfiring in Unforgiven, and that was the hardware at fault rather than him. But still, Zombie Ranch is meant to be a deconstruction of such fare as much as it is a celebration of it. It felt right to me to acknowledge that moment of uncertainty, even if just for a second. And Oscar’s advice isn’t meant to be mean-spirited. On Dawn’s end, though, she still felt something was off. At these times when you’re at impasse, both feeling strongly but struggling to express that in more precise terms, it can help to take a break, so I called for one. Let’s have some dinner and watch some TV and then revisit. When we came back to it a couple of hours later, Dawn still wasn’t feeling in agreement, but she was able to articulate, “I don’t like that they’re ganging up on her.” You see, in the original draft, just after Oscar shouts advice, I cut to Frank grumbling about a “goddamn waste o’ ammo” — I meant that to be him grumbling about Oscar’s insistence on carrying and using an automatic rifle, but I had to admit the timing of it seemed more like a critique of Suzie, especially since Frank had been snarking at Suzie in their last interaction. Completely not what I intended, and for that matter not really necessary to the moment… so I snipped it. And thus was balance achieved. Dawn’s not the best at articulating her critiques, but I’ve learned over the years that if she feels strongly about something, it’s worth examining that and sussing out what’s giving her pause. Then we can figure out a solution together, and more often than not the end result is the better for it.