Sunday, September 10, 2017

Why the “Flush Twice” comic became “Pathos in the Plumbing”.

Back on on Monday, September 26, 2016 I officially re-titled my comic to “Pathos in the Plumbing”. While no one has ever asked me why I did what I did, I felt like I needed to explain.

Of course it’s the same comic that I started back in January of 2004. It’s the same characters, the same stories, the same everything… So why change the name? Because it signified a completely different way in which I was presenting the comic.

In the beginning, the comic was inextricably linked with the daily joke. Even though they weren’t related, I didn’t post a comic without a joke. Of course if I didn’t have time or feel like making a comic, there wasn’t going to be a joke, and vice versa.

As the comic’s art evolved, panels took longer to produce, and a daily schedule was no longer practical. Suddenly updates got very irregular. My joke suppliers started to taper off at this time, and my morale suffered too. Long hiatuses ensued, and eventually in late 2013 I decided: Let’s post jokes separate from comics!

That was all well and good, but then I realized something: The comic had only a day or two in the spotlight, then just rolled down the blog as the next joke pushed it out of the way. You may not think so, but I worked hard on that comic! Of course I tried giving the comic it’s own category, but then it was hidden from the main page entirely, and that’s no good either! I needed some way to keep the comic in a prominent position until it was superseded by a new comic.

It was my sidebar rants that gave me the solution I’d been looking for! I modified a WordPress plugin that allows posts from specified categories to appear in the sidebar. I could finally post a comic along side a JOTD without the comic scrolling out of the limelight! While I still feel the weekly schedule to be a bit challenging, it’s doable, and I’ve been hiatus free for nearly a year now!

Of course there are certain limitations. The comic cannot exceed a width of 330 pixels or it messes up on some mobile devices. If I want to do a two or three panel strip, I have to make the strip vertical, and internet critics aren’t fond of scrolling. I’ve found some workarounds, but the comic still has to render with legible text at 330 by whatever resolution. (Yes, I tried widening the sidebar. It goes deeper than that.)

And now with a new way of doing things, a new name should grace this boldly positioned panel! “Pathos in the Plumbing” was born! It’s the same comic I started back in 2004, and with over 13 years in the making, I’m more proud of my comic than ever.

Thanks for watching!

Pax,

-f2x

Avoiding the Lecture

Two married friends were out drinking. Wayne turned to Shawn and said, “You know, whenever I go home after we’ve been out drinking, I turn the headlights off before I get to the driveway, I shut off the engine and coast into the garage, take my shoes off before I go into the house, sneak up the stairs, get undressed in the bathroom, ease into bed and my wife STILL wakes up and yells at me for staying out so late.”

Shawn looked at Wayne and said, “Well, you’re obviously taking the wrong approach. I screech into the driveway, slam the door, storm up the steps, throw my shoes in the closet, undress right there in the bedroom, then jump into bed and slap her on the butt and say ‘WHO’S HORNY?!’ She acts like she’s sound asleep every time!”

Commitment

Wendy lamented, “I can’t understand why men are so afraid of commitment.”

Lynne replied, “Tell me about it! I’ve been living with a man for almost a year and a half, and I finally had to give him an ultimatum.”

“What did you say?” asked Wendy.

“I just told him, ‘Look, either you tell me your last name, or get your shit out of my house’.”

The Prescription

Janet and Bob went to the doctor to address Bob’s sexual disfunction. The doctor gave Bob a thorough exam and then brought both of them into his office for a professional consultation.

The doctor handed Janet a large bottle of pills, and explained to her that she needed to take two tablets three times a day. If she follow his instructions, their sex life would improve over time.

Janet was a bit confused. She asked, “Doctor, shouldn’t you be prescribing these to my husband?”

“No, these are for you,” he replied. “They’re diet pills.”

A Night at the Hotel with Father McFeely

Father McFeely had to spend the night in a hotel.

He asked the hat check girl to come up to his room for dinner.

After a while he started making passes, but she stopped him and reminded him he was a holy man.

“It’s OK,” he replied. “It’s written in the Bible.”

So, after a wild night of sex, the hat check girl asked to see where in the Bible it says it’s okay to have wild, passionate sex.

The priest picked up the Bible off the dresser opened to the first page. Someone had written in pencil: “The hat check girl puts out!”

Night Court

It was the usual scene in the City’s Night Court. The Police had rounded up the usual collection of street walkers and brought them before the Judge.

Three stood before him, all arrested on the same corner.

He asked the first lady what she had to say for herself.

The woman was irate, “I don’t know what all this is about your Honor. I’m a college student doing research for a term paper.”

The Judge sighed and said, “Well, Miss, I would have thought you’d done enough research’ by now. My computer sez you have two prior convictions. Thirty days and $250 fine.” He then turned to the second lady and requested her to testify.

The woman began crying softly and said, “Judge, I am just a housewife out getting a pack of cigarettes for my husband. I have no idea why I was arrested.”

This time, the Judge shook his head and said, “Well, young lady, the officer tells me that he saw you hand a stack of bills along with the cigarettes to your ‘husband’ in his new Cadillac. Thirty days and $250 fine.” He turned to the last of the trio and asked her occupation.

The woman said simply, “I’m a hooker.”

Refreshed at her honesty, the Judge laughed and said, “How’s business?”

She sneered and replied, “Terrible Judge, with all these students and housewives around, I can’t turn a single trick.”

Sunday, September 3, 2017

Steppin’ up my Game

So you might have noticed a minor design change this week. It also coincided with an updated and improved character page. I’ve already deleted the revision history, but I feel much more confident in the various backstories after the rewrite. The characters seem way better thought out now, and their lives make more sense. I just need to get better at this thing called comedy.

I’m trying to do my best to make this site the best JOTD and comic site on the net. Oh wait… I’ve been trying my best to do that for 14 years, and I’m still not ranked on Alexa. Seriously, mBlip is ranking higher than Flush Twice, and it’s not even a year old!

The updated character design templates are coming along slowly. I’m running into some old personal limitations I’ve yet to overcome when it comes to the artwork. The biggest one has to be the fact that I’m still using a bitmap editor from 1997 for the bulk of my work. Sorry, but Gimp and Photoshop aren’t very intuitive for me, so I work with what I know best… and what I know likes to crash and wipe out hours worth of work when I least expect it.

Pax,

-f2x

The Source of the Stutter

Little Johnny, while stuttering, asked his mom, “Mmmama why I tttalk like ttthis.”

She replied, “I don’t know. Go ask your father.”

Little Johnny went to his dad and asked, “Dddad why I tttalk like ttthis!”

His father said, “I don’t know. Go ask your sister.”

So Little Johnny asked his sister and like all older sisters, she kicked him out of her room and told him to go away.

Little Johnny was in the yard kicking rocks when the postman walked up. Little Johnny asked, “MMMr. why I tttalk like ttthis!”

The postman replied, “BBBoy ggget away fffrom me bbbefore I ggget in tttrouble!”