Wow I haven't seen that shrink reaction in AGES! XD

Ah, Kathy. You should have said, "Well, why didn't you tell me you were going to be doing that?" Even if you had said it sheepishly. Of course, Kathy's right, Sandy. You have been saying that you didn't intend to stay the entire time you've been in Africa. (Although she seems to be taken with the orphans.)

it's hard to not like kids, even if you don't meet them very orphan...

*eyeroll and groan...*

*bows*

I know of some kids on my street I don't like. And I'd definitely love seeing them orphaned!

... no comment

but I keep a list...

Perfesser, it looks like you, me, and marmel have got a bit of competition from straycat.

That's just turrble. (I wish I'd thought of it first.)

Well, probably Sandy didn't realize she would be roped into giving wellness exams. She probably noticed one or two of the pups didn't look so well, asked for a stethescope and tongue depressors, then decided to check over the lot of them, with the grateful agreement of the den fathers.

I never thought about that possibility but, it makes sense especially once it got out that she's an EMT in New Yak City.

In that case why wasn't that shown? I swear there seems to be a pattern here where events are more implied than shown which I honestly can't say is a good thing, especially for this comic.

Part of the reason is that the way I write and draw this, I can't be showing what's happening to every character, every moment, all at the same time. While I do have an outline for the story, which I follow, sometimes I think of something too late to fit it into the linear progression of the story, and have to either refer back to it, like would happen if you bump into a friend who tells you what they've been up to recently, or I have to do a flashback sequence to show what was going on elsewhere. I find flashbacks to be confusing to the readers since they break the forward continuity of the story.

It has been established since very early in the comic strip's history that Sandy works as an EMT. She also told a backstory about how she met Dave and his family when her ambulance crew tried to revive Dave's wife.

Sandy, at the moment, doesn't have much to do in the story. I was originally going to have Songween take Kathy to tour the orphanage, and decided to give that job to Sandy instead, in order to give her a plotline. Becoming enamoured of the little orphans shows a tender and caring side of her that I felt she was lacking, and wanting to help the orphan pups gives her a purpose to be here. I could just as easily have sent her back to New Yak City once they got to Kiyanti, but I have other plans for her later in the story, so for the time being, I need to justify her continued presence by giving her off-camera things to be doing.

And if I had shown her going to the orphanage and then deciding to give wellness exams, would it have been interesting? And would the punch line of this strip have been so powerful if the audience knew about it already? No. Because it comes as a surprise to the reader that Sandy was being altruistic, when Kathy was accusing her of goofing off and not supporting her. It adds an extra dimension to Sandy's character, and changes the dynamic between the sisters.

Going to be honest, that's starting to sound like a moot point when this whole saga has been going on for over a decade now. Plus not to mention this is an overly linear for an adventure story to begin with. But thanks for this as it confirms why Sandy feels so much like an afterthought of character left out of the story so much regardless on what her personal story/struggle is from the beginning. Moments like this doesn't leave me surprised or displaying second thoughts of her. It leaves me thinking we would've had a better idea of knowing what you even do with those orphans if you had a little better focus on than only showing up after the fact/when Kathy is trying to be alone from everyone taking up her time and energy.

This story evolved over time from a rather simple parody of the Hope and Crosby "Road" pictures into something that really would be much better off written out as a novel, where one can have changing points of view and follow minor characters. In its present form I'm having to dole a saga out with a teaspoon three times a week.

I look at it this way. The guy who drives the UPS truck that delivers to your house may have an up-and-coming indie rock band, and his girlfriend is an ex-Navy SEAL, and they have a time share in Belize that they've rented out on Air BNB to David Geldof. Does any of that make a damn bit of difference to your own personal story? No. It doesn't. So we don't need to follow him. He shows up, hands you your package, and drives away, and you never even learn his name. (True story, my history teacher in freshman high school married Bruce Springsteen's drummer and hung out with Ringo Starr. She will not be appearing in my story, either.)

So I put in side characters to serve a narrative purpose. They may come back later on if I need them, they probably won't. I really don't have the time or the space, in six three-panel strips a week (or here in two six-panel pages a week) to develop anything beyond a linear adventure story.

looks like Sandy is the bigger person in the last panel...

Ouch! Again?

She's got a little list...

To be honest, Sandy has pretty much said she wanted to go back home since the beginning. But I also think the place is growing on her the longer she stays.

I love that Sandy has to look downward at little mini-Kathy. X3

I think Sandy’s cool!

Vix