If it helps explain my antipathy to this story, I don’t remember any of the plot points you describe here: the names of the chapters, the various staff movements, the surnames of the new characters, any of it. I was writing two monthly series for Boom Studios at the same time and struggling very badly with a crushing workload. I think The Great Unboxing could have been a great story if it had been all I was working on at the time.
I love this new character. I hope that like Nancy in Fritzi Ritz, eventually she becomes the whole comic. Luann had a good run but Stress Mom is a breakout.
Find out more about my work at scarygoround dot com and badmachinery dot com or look for my series Giant Days, Steeple, Wicked Things or Great British Bump-Off in bookstores and comic shops.
I’m always amazed by how cruel reader comments are on guest strips, even when they’re as well drawn as this one. It’s like punishment for an artist. I stopped having guest artists fill in, it was easier, and kinder, just to publish nothing, than have good friends and gifted colleagues hauled over the coals for helping me out. If you don’t like it, and of course it’s not the same as usual, it’s not permanent. I think it’s a little kinder just to say nothing and come back in a couple of weeks.
It’s Blackpool Tower. “Inspired by the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France, it is 518 feet (158 metres) tall and is the 125th-tallest freestanding tower in the world.”
I have no memory of this at all.