You might think I’m reaching for the sake of a joke setup but, no, this is based on an actual comment overheard during a homeward commute a few weeks ago.

In other news, this week’s comics were made with the aid of a hot pixel removal tool and a RAW extractor. I’ve been shooting JPG format in the camera up to this point, which makes it harder to deal with one particular prominent red pixel that you may have noticed, especially in some of the Quackvent posters. The downside is that, for some reason, the camera is more finicky now. It took two entire passes to get workable shots for these four frames because the focus mechanism didn’t get anywhere near the two ducks the first time through. I’m not sure what I broke while messing around in the menus, but this whole new way of doing things is difficult enough without the camera making things worse…

Are you kidding? I’m sure that he loved pie.

…What?

These are the things I think about.

Often.

Yes, my mind is a very strange place. Not that this is news to you, dear reader.

Never let the fact that you have serious concept issues with your idea get in the way of making a bad pun, I figure.

…

It’s vastly easier to find information about “The Swan Princess” than it is about “The Swan Prince,” by the way. In the eyes of Google, at least, Disney trumps the classics of old…

Time was when I’d have tried to stretch this into a several-comic “arc.” I’ve learned better, thank goodness…

I doubt I’ll ever be up to the challenge of doing a “rolling punchline” or “joke barrage” like Shamus Young is so fond of, but I love working extra jokes into a comic wherever I can…

Admit it: You’ve missed this sort of thing.

At least a little bit.

(Right?)

Okay, it’s like this:

I was torn, when I decided to play with this particular meme, between what became Thursday’s comic and the seed of what I used for today’s. Last week I chose the more accessible rendition because sometimes you need to play to your audience.

I then decided to go with this rendition as well… because sometimes you need to do what you find entertaining. Since the “Venus Prime” books have been staring at me from the new bookshelf for a while now, I was inevitably going to end up doing this anyway… so here you are. I think it worked out rather well, especially since I got to turn Neil’s confusion into a running joke.

(Sorry, Neil.)

Here’s the thing, though: I successfully strung three comics together, two of them using the same meme. Can I manage to transition from this to yet another riff…?

It’s the least I could do for one of my biggest, best fans.

Okay, don’t you all go clamoring at once for similar treatment, now…!

I need to keep my head in the game; I put this comic together Monday night, finished it up… then forgot to upload it to the website until late on Tuesday.

At least I remembered eventually, eh? So far I’ve not missed and update and I’d like to keep it that way!