I would say that this is on time, but the original end date for Same Apartment was Halloween. That makes the final arc the longest one of them all. I learned a lot from Same Apartment. When I first started work on it I was still working on the Super Mario Bros comics and each one would take me about a month to do. At my best on this comic, I got down to two updates a week. I told myself that this is just a learning experience and if it were ever no fun to do, then I’d stop. I had some weeks where it was a hassle, but then at the end it was nice to read that joke. I’m glad you guys stuck with me for this long.

My biggest concern on this was to leave it open ended. I didn’t want to have them move away, or separate or something that would force me to do an arc of them getting back together if I ever wanted to do more Same Apartment. When I thought about the destruction of the house, I thought that hey, maybe they can end up in Mac’s tiny apartment. And so, Same Apartment ended just how it started. By breaking the fourth wall in a stupid way.

In a way, I feel like it’s the end of the school year. Not high school or college, but like it felt at the end of ninth or tenth grade. Sure it feels like I’m leaving this place, but soon, sooner than I’d like probably, I’ll be right back in this stupid desk.

It’s been too long. Scratch that. A whole month between comics is waaaaaayyy too long. But here are the final days of Same Apartment. The reason I’ve been slacking so is that I went north to meet someone very special in the beginning of the month. I had a great time and a couple of weeks ago was the earliest I could get back to the comic. Those post vacation blues sure can kill your motivation, so with a little effort, I got past it back to my normal (slow but not MONTH long) schedule for the last two.

Now who here really thought I was going to kill Posey raise your hands. Those of you with your hands raised hate joy. The fish on the other hand (affectionately referred to as the Same Aquarium) weren’t so lucky. RIP fish. John (affectionately referred to as the Official Writer of Same Apartment) wrote out this long eulogy for the fish and I hid it behind Mort and Mac. Sorry John (not really, no word bubbles to have to worry about.. tee hee).

All this destruction is killing my working time on these comics. But weirdly enough, I’m not getting sick of the arc yet. Usually I’m getting arc fatigue at this point.

I know it’s just a model, but my heart broke a little bit to add the Enterprise D in panel three. Originally the word bubble was up there but the bubble was a little too small. I thought it would add a little more to show that this part came from Mort’s room (along with his uncle’s photo first seen here). The Next Generation’s Enterprise D was always my favorite incarnation of the ship, which is why I had Posey give it to him in the first place, and to have it lying in the dirt was ripping my fanboy heart out.

The only other really interesting bit is that I forgot that Mort lost his glasses for one panel. I’m sure you can figure out which one.

This is probably the most detail I’ve put into a comic since.. last week..

I think I made the furthest call back on this one. That WIII, comes from Same Apartment 021. That has to count for something. And no, Gar really isn’t that shallow, but let’s just give him a break. He did just get knocked on his ass back there. Someone had to lighten the mood, and Gar is the best man for the job.

I figure Mort has some kind of contingency plan in his lab. Something like a bubble that will encase him if say, an explosion breaks out. And if that is a raging fireball, I’m sure it would deposit him in the backyard by some means. Maybe a pea shooter or something. Thing is, I’m sure you’d rather not go into all that here but I’m sure you wanted to know. Maybe I’ll draw it someday.

]]> http://tomcatltd.com/sameapartment/?feed=rss2&p=889 2 http://tomcatltd.com/sameapartment/?p=883 http://tomcatltd.com/sameapartment/?p=883#comments Wed, 17 Nov 2010 03:52:50 +0000 tomcat52897 http://tomcatltd.com/wordpress/?p=883

Better late than never. It’s been a long week and a half hasn’t it?

It had to happen. Mort wasn’t going to leave his sanctum sanctorum, without a push. In the back of his mind he knew that, and his muse knew that. I think, given the choice, he wouldn’t have preferred that push not being a fiery explosion (Gar too probably), but we don’t always get to choose the changes in our lives, even if our actions cause those changes.

About the updates, they’ve been coming pretty slow, since these comics have a level of detail I haven’t really used for much of the entire run and the upcoming ones until the end are all double sized pages. I hope to get it done before the end of the year. I just hope you guys have the patience to deal with this slow comicker. We’re really close now. Just four more to go!

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The first part of the contest is to answer this question: Tell me what the titles of the comics mean in this arc. I’m sure you’ve noticed that since Same Apartment #46, there have been titles on the upper right corner of the comic along with the number. Since the Reporter’s demise, they’ve all had something in common. If you can tell me what that is, I’ll give you something nice. I’ll say it again:

What do all of the comic titles in the upper right corner (from #192 onward) have in common?

This first part is a simple one, so I’ll give the prize to whoever gets it right first. The prize will be a picture of your choosing, anything you want (although, let’s try to keep it clean guys..) . The contest starts tomorrow November 04th (that way everybody has time to see this), and ends either when the first person answers or when the comic ends (whichever comes first).

If you have any questions, you can note me on deviantArt here, or you can send me a message on Twitter here. I really don’t have a way to check the messages here for most of the day (really crappy I know..) so you may get a slow answer.

The second part goes up in a few days (hopefully after someone gets the first part)

I’ve always put a little bit of thought into the relationship between Mort and his muse, The Embodiment of Science. I’ve always known that she was in his head and would never come in contact with the other characters. She was special to Mort. I haven’t had her in the comic for awhile, but you see her influence here and there (that’s basically her he’s talking about in the start of the Mosey On arc).

One thing I wish I fleshed out more over the years was Mort’s safety net. This house is his safe haven. He got that from his uncle, both figuratively in his reclusive behavior and in the case of the house, literally. Mort’s muse knows that. If you look at all her appearances, you’ll see that she always had Mort’s well being in mind.

If you look closely here though, you may be surprised.

]]> http://tomcatltd.com/sameapartment/?feed=rss2&p=871 2 http://tomcatltd.com/sameapartment/?p=865 http://tomcatltd.com/sameapartment/?p=865#comments Wed, 27 Oct 2010 21:15:12 +0000 tomcat52897 http://tomcatltd.com/wordpress/?p=865

What? You didn’t think that I’d end the comic without touching on this did you? Posey’s imagination is a little overactive, but she’s excited about moving. But enough about that, what about the random ranty speech she’s making. Is she serious? Is she just fucking with his feeble man-monkey brain? Mort seems to be at a loss for words. Unless those words are “Oo” and “Ook.” How will he react? You’ll see next time!

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Before we go into the comic, there’s some BIG news down below (or here).

Did you read it? Good. Someone asked if Posey and Mac were changing jobs back when I did this one. I told him that they were still working at Bookington’s, but back then I hadn’t thought of this arc. I wanted to end the comic on a good note, and something had to change for that. It was strange that Posey stayed in a barista job for four years. John wanted to do an arc where she found other places to work. Like the actual book store portion of Bookington’s.

The problem I had is that we didn’t know what we wanted to do with it. We had this vague notion that we wanted to end the thing because of reasons that I want to go into soon. Soon. But how to end it we didn’t know. I thought of the Dreamers arc (which was too long and I hated) and the Mosey On arc (which was too long and I loved) and I wanted to do an arc to close Same Apartment. Something to give closure and have the characters go to the door, look at the empty house, and turn off the lights before walking out and closing the door. But I didn’t want to do just that. I didn’t want to go out on a cheesy reference. But I also didn’t want it to just end.

It’s going to be over quick, because if I went too long on another arc, I don’t think it would be as good. It’s like a band aid. We also want to leave the door open. If the new project gets too long or droning, or for whatever reason I need a break, you could get a Same Apartment comic here or there. What all this is about is that as a weekly comic, Same Apartment is at an end. Posey, Mort, Mac and Gar will still be around, but the regular glimpse into their lives will finish.

Same Apartment is the most fun of anything I’ve worked on. I’ve gotten hundreds of wonderful comments from people, friends and strangers alike. We’ve been through ups and down, some false starts and some blank spots, but I think it was good more often than not. I hope you guys agree. I just wanted to let you guys know this before #200 and the credits start to roll.

Do you have any questions, protests, or even anything to look back on in the last four and a half years? Let me know in the comments, I would love to hear what you think.

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