It was always hard for me to read Tintin comics because his author managed to draw him the same, frame after frame. Every time.

I have some trouble with this. The comics I did as a teenager were plagued with the typical problems: confusing plot, too much text crammed into too small a space, the required self-deprecating remarks about my artistic talent written in the margins. But I did one thing that most of my friends didn't: I made my main character look different in every frame.

This pushed my comics from the understandable realm of "confusing" to "downright bewildering". And however hard I tried, I never was able to get very much better. But then I started doing this comic and realized I could cheat! I could draw something once and cut and paste it!

It makes me feel guilty because I want to be able to hand-draw these all individually. I'm reading early Peanuts and they said in the introduction that Schultz hand-inked every single pane from the first to the last, many decades later. More guilt.

But I'm getting better. I have pages and pages where I try to get Kai's chin right. Pages and pages where I get Dick's angry brow furrowed at the right angle. And most importantly, I'm forcing myself to scan new strips even when I have perfectly servicable scans I can re-use.

But I like having something change over time, so currently Kai is showing off different shapes on his shirt. A little shout-out to teenage me, but hopefully without the staggering amount of reader confusion.