My notes reveal this to have originally been planned as the penultimate strip in the series, but I had to shuffle the running order due to San Diego Comic Con somehow getting in the way. I’m guessing maybe I was still struggling with the writing on next week’s strip, so shuffled this one forward so I’d have something to illustrate before I hopped off on exciting Comic Con adventures.

Looking at my notes for this strip reveals little of use, as I was mostly busy talking about getting ready for this or that comic convention which was just around the corner. Man… I haven’t been to a convention in years! I was just thinking about getting some new books ready to make my return to the convention circuit when this pesky little pandemic wandered along. “To be continued…” on that front, I guess.

Past me didn’t have much very enlightening to say about this one, but a read of the comments of a previous strip reveals this week to at least be someone’s favourite. So Jesse, this one’s for you.

As is swiftly becoming standard operating procedure for the final seven, let’s see what Past me has to say about this one:

“This week is the Hallucinogenist’s turn to take his bow under the spot light. I never succeeded in developing a decent drug habit myself, but where I failed the Hallucinogenist excelled. And excelled and excelled. I feel rather bad for the poor fellow, really.”

Past me was quite a fan of the hyperlink, it seems.

Let’s hear what Past me had to say about this one:

“The thing I didn’t realise about doing a strip that’s twice as long, is that it actually takes twice as long to make. I’m stupid like that when it comes to the really obvious practical considerations of comicing. Anyway, this is the Bad Kitty’s farewell. Cats are difficult to write, since so many of the jokes have already been told. But for a character that grew out of a single New York subway punch line, I’m quite pleased with how he turned out.

Hmm… what’s that about a New York Subway punchline? Oh right – here’s Past me again from a couple of years previously:

“Hey look, a talking cat in a comic strip. Who’d ever think we’d live to see such a day? This strip arrived pretty much fully formed in my head while I was riding the subway in New York. That’s enough for me to justify a holiday in NY as tax-deductible for research purposes, right? Right?”

Oh what a scamp Past me was! He also didn’t actually have any pet cats when we was wrote Brain Fist. This is a flaw I have since somewhat over-corrected and I’ve had several of the little angels over the years, the largest and most demanding of which is currently lying on my keyboard “helping” me while I try and type these words.