Well, here’s part three in the quasi-crossover I’m having with Brian Carroll and his strip, Instant Classic. Brian wrapped up his arc yesterday placing his version of Tom at the transformative genesis of one of his lead characters in her past. Pretty cool. Kind of hard to live up to. Sincere thanks to Brian for including me.

I like the version of Brian that I’ve created for my story arc, but I have a nagging feeling like I could have pushed it further or been a little more incendiary. It’s hard for me, though, because it goes against my nature to be outwardly mean when it comes to my contemporaries – even if they invite the onslaught as Brian has. Brian has been a great sport and has actively encouraged me to go for the jugular. I’m just saying it’s difficult to slip into that headspace. It’s actually one of the reasons I don’t draw more guest strips. I have a pathological fear of misrepresenting what someone else has invested their lives into creating.

I know that I have no problem being mean about certain actors, directors or movie franchises featuring 30 foot tall transforming robots. So there is a little bit of hypocrisy at work here. But it’s a lot easier to make fun of something you don’t respect as opposed to something you do.

At this point in the storyline, I kind of feel like I would be telling the same joke over and over again by demonstrating the ways in which TH-Brian is annoying to Tom. I would kind of like to see their confrontation spill over into violence for the catharsis alone. But right now, things are pretty one-sided. If I decide these two should come to blows, the focus shouldn’t exclusively be about how Tom finds him irritating. That’s assault. But if there has always been something about Tom that TH-Brian has hated as well… then we might have something.

Sorry. I feel like I’m working this out in front of you guys and not leaving very much mystery to the proceedings. I guess I don’t know what else to write about. Things might pick up a little next week, though. I have a joke for From Paris With Love that I’ve been dying to use for two weeks.

Not much more for me to talk about. I hope you guys have enjoyed the comics this week – and the peek inside my head, apparently. See you here on Monday!