There comes a time when a young webcomic grows up and becomes a man(webcomic). And all good things must come to an end. But whenever the chips are down, and the stakes are high, you can call out my name, and I’ll be there with you.

…Or something like that.

Today marks the 600th strip in this humble comic’s existence. Fade Resistant’s genesis dates back to the summer of 2002, where on vacation with my family I began to sketch out some characters to pass the time. Little did I know that the adventures of a redneck and a smarmy repo man (and many, many others) would turn into a 600-part epic. On that fateful vacation, I drew the first 14 strips in the series, and tried my hand at Photoshopping them into existence when I got back home. Needless to say, there’s been marked improvement in the technical aspects of the comic, as I have grown and matured as an artist. I hope the same can be said about my skill as a writer. Sometimes I’m not so sure.

The site went live on my university webpage in the fall of 2002, and then I later bought the domain name “gnomic.net” (“adj. Marked by aphorisms; aphoristic: gnomic verse; a gnomic style.” Clearly, I had delusions of grandeur.) when I first migrated to a dedicated server. It wasn’t until the summer of 2003 that Fade Resistant came into existence, and the name has stuck ever since.

Reading the comic from the beginning, I’m often amazed at how, considering the absolute lack of planning on my part, the story actually has (some) cohesion, and some legitimately funny parts. Lately, I have foregone strictly “humorous” comics in favor of developing the story more, and hopefully creating more tension, and more fulfilling punchlines. Unfortunately, as a result of a dearth of time to make the website all that I wanted it to be, I haven’t been able to appropriately install features that allow my (meager) audience to give me constructive feedback (past the occasional email, that is).

Much of the evolution of the comic has been natural, though a large amount has also been deliberate, as I have learned more about myself as an artist and writer, and also about the basics of storytelling, and what is possible in the comic medium. I make no claims to be anything special, but I content myself in knowing that Fade Resistant is a truly organic part of myself. Without such a cathartic expression, I could not function.

Friday will mark the 601st Fade Resistant comic, and also the last… at least, in the current format. I will begin a new chapter in my private life, and as such I will be unable to continue delivering three comics per week, as I have done nearly without interruption since the fall of 2002. However, Fade Resistant will never truly die; I will work on the occasional update, and will likely migrate to a different style of comic-making than the current 3-panels-of-glory, and with that change also comes the less frequent updates. The new site redesign here has an RSS feed; if you are interested in keeping up to date whenever I post anything new, I suggest you subscribe to/bookmark this link. Until we meet again….

Fade Resistant is dead. Long live Fade Resistant!

“Jump the shark”? We jumped the shark here at Fade Resistant loooong ago, my friend.

Come back on Wednesday for an “explosive” 600th comic extravaganza!

And suddenly this comic makes a lot more sense.

This one too.  All right, all right, that one doesn’t make any sense.

So, saw Equus
Harry Potter and the SomethingSomething last night. Was a’ite. The creepy girl who looked a lot like that jerky, preppy kid who’s always antagonizing Harry, and then in clichéd terms gets his comeuppance was good. And creepy. Aside from that, the movie lacked urgency, which is ironic because it’s the only one of the movies so far that actually tries to achieve any urgency. They spent too much time on Jackie Kennedy Hitler the Ministry lady who jerks everyone around, and not enough time showing how the forces of darkness and eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeevil are actually dark and eeeeeeeeeeeeeevil. “Oh no. The woman in pink is being mean. We’re doomed.” Doesn’t exactly strike fear in the hearts of men, but I suppose this ain’t high literature either.

Oh yeah. I went there.