The idea behind today’s strip is pretty simple: When in doubt, add monkeys. It’s a time-honored device that only the most highly skilled comedy writers bust loose when in a pinch. All you gotta do is watch the first season of Friends for proof. The writing wasn’t strong, so they hit this scene pushing the monkey to the fore. Smart move. Once the writing started to tighten up by the third season, no more monkey. Coincidence?

Not like I… watch Friends, or anything.

I read a report yesterday that said last weekend was the lowest-grossing movie weekend in 4 years. Considering that movie prices seem to keep going up, that’s quite impressive.

You see, this is what happens when studios front-load their summer schedules with blockbusters in a bid to outdo each other. Come the end of the season, we’re left to wallow in the immense crapitude of Serving Sara.

I look at the slate of new releases for the next few weeks – City by the Sea, Swimfan, Barbershop, The Four Feathers, Stealing Harvard, Moonlight Mile, The Transporter – Is anyone going to see these movies? Besides Moonlight Mile and maybe Stealing Harvard, I’m gonna say no for myself.

I hate to be down on the scene, but maybe August wasn’t the best month to start a movie strip, eh?

Good news is in the works, however. I recently raided my parents basement and found a box of really old comics I drew back in junior high. If any of you have been reading the forums, you’ll know that these doodles depicted earth-shattering battles between myself and Jared in toon-form.

I’m working on a way to get these posted to the site. Many of them are in poor shape and will probably need some sort of “commentary track” so you can understand the dialogue scrawled across the page by a manic 13 year-old. This stuff lays kind of close to the vest, so I want to give it a good treatment.

I haven’t decided if access to these forgotten gems will be contingent on a donation but it may happen. How open are the rest of you to a “Members Only Club”? If you want to give me some feedback, you can always e-mail me – also, the forums are always open.