Teenage Sith Apprentice

Just to be clear - the screwups included in these panels are not mine. These comics chronicle some of Anne's sillier actions, not my drawing failures. Really not sure where I originally got the idea for a Sith character who couldn't even hold a lightsaber without causing serious damage. Wish I did. . . I'd go back for some more good character ideas. Like father, like daughter. . .

I think Dec 2018's were the last few one-panelers I wrote. Over the first few months, my comic style settled out as three-paneled, although I'm thinking of changing that number to four soon. Are the words legible enough? I may be remembering wrong, but I'm pretty sure I wrote this one because, in 2018, we didn't have a white Christmas. (I live in Idaho, so a white Christmas is totally possible.) And I'm still not sure how I managed to draw that wampa so good. I think I was reading "Revenge of the Sith" when I wrote this. It's the way of the Sith to trade in your apprentice for a better one as soon as the opportunity arises, but Anne might beat the Emperor to the punch line. (By the way, Anne's name literally means "full of grace. . ." taking that literally, did you ever hear a less suited name?) These two were both me being a goof and spoofing off of my earlier "I will finish what you started" comics. (Ha - I w...

The following comics are all from Anne's Christmas Day. They mostly detail gag gifts: Pretty much everyone Anne knows has some good reason to want to do this. ' Anne in panel two: "ALL RIGHT, WHO GAVE ME A LEECH ?!?" Just in case my handwriting was illegible :) Apparently, Anne has a science-freak, fairly stingy cousin. . . . and, the Revenge of the Sith! (Against the Emperor, probably.) I'm not quite sure  where I got this idea from. It's a take on Sith arm wrestling, apparently.

I wrote this one immediately after reading the ingredient list on a thing of salami on a lark. The ingredient I took the punchline from: beef hearts. (Yes, really.) Ava in Panel Three: "Now that's a mighty dumb question!" Siiigh. . . that should probably read "silly question." This is a good example of Ava acting like Anne. Other than that, I have nothing to say about it.

This comic and others like it set up a major chord of a lot of Ava's future performances: Ava is really, really athletic. There are some future comics where Ava and Anne are on the school sports team, and the only time the team actually wins is when everyone on it is out sick. . . except Ava. This was probably my first joke (and my worst one) about cartoon swearing. Anne would later campaign to be allowed to cuss within the strip (thus implying that that's the way she talks in real life. . . go figure.). The line wasn't originally " flu bombs," but I wasn't trying to joke about cuss slang -  I was trying to joke about dud bombs not actually being duds. At the time, the original line was getting in my way. Kylo Ren's eventual destiny would be to become Anne's much-disliked boyfriend. She acts awful in front of him but is fiercely loyal behind his back. This is the point where he graduates from "sequel gag cardboard character" to ...

Ava didn't used to be much of a character in her own right. She was more of an extra in the beginning. I wanted the Jewish character, but I had no personality or story role in mind for her, so she just said the lines Anne would have said in her place. Kinda funny, considering that, extra or no, Ava ended up being the most successful character in the strip. Not in terms or in-world success of course. . . but Ava repeatedly stole center stage from Anne once her personality kicked in. This is a prime example of Ava acting as Anne until something else came along. Ava was devious and pushy in the beginning. You'd never think she would end up. . . well, her big problem now is that she isn't assertive enough . BTW, "kosh, mapleck, magog" actually means "buy something or die." I got it from the Merchant NPC in Terraria.

November 2018. This is the first comic I wrote that month: Just in case you can't read it. . . Man, this isn't too legible either. Sorry about that. Either way, as the post title implies, welcome to the TSA comic strip, Ava. I wrote this on the first Sunday of November 2018, but it's a Hanukkah joke. Call me impatient. . . It was close enough to December for the stores to "have plastic Christmas trees," and I really wanted a Jewish character. This was the best way I could think of to introduce her. At the time, this joke was just an amusing whim, but now, I think it shows a lot about who Ava is - kind of cool considering that Ava didn't really have  a personality for a while (it took a few weeks to develop.). In that third panel - Ava is smart enough to know that's not a good idea. (Who wouldn't be, really? Other than Anne.) But she doesn't say a word. Later on, Ava got herself in a lot of trouble by not speaking up for herself. I...

We're almost done with the last of the Sept-Oct 2018 TSA comics. ( T eenage S ith A pprentice - no, it wasn't intentional.) These are the comics I just couldn't categorize as either real life satire or sequel gag. I have no idea where I  got this one from. I guess I thought getting stuck in a yoga pose at a bad time would be a hilarious premise. Note how Anne's skirt and hair seem to be defying gravity. . .? This one should've been in the reals category, I think. It was probably inspired by my younger siblings. Either that or a Foxtrot comic about babysitting. This was a one-shot gag that turned into one of Anne's major character traits. Anne just cannot handle a lightsaber. My favorite one of these is the last one. The  background for it is, Kylo is flat broke but he doesn't wasn't to lose face in front of Anne. . . I don't think he succeeded, though. #1 is pretty bad. That's why it's supposed to be funny. . . Anne s...

I live in a Northern state now, with far less pesky mosquitoes, but I used to live in the American South, and I don't know if you find them uniformly in that region, but there were tons of mosquitoes where I lived. And I was their personal favorite. I always had two or three bloodsucking bugs following me during the summer. Special note - pyrethins are a type of insecticide made from. . . chrysanthemums, I think? It's some sort of flower.  I can look pretty crazy when I first roll out of bed in the morning. Then again,  that's probably true of any girl with a lot of hair. It's been the basis of a lot of my jokes, including a pretty silly story involving a Medusa play. Anne was the over-enthusiastic Medusa. I once deliberately moved to the floor from my bed. And Anne. . . think about it. . . using a superpowerful energy field as an air mattress . . . It just cracked me up. Our house is apparently a favorite nesting ground for wasps. I suppose the oft...

So, to finish what I started yesterday. . .  heh heh. . . This one is just like the newspaper subscription gag. I kinda prefer it to the previous one, though, since it edits out the psychiatrist line. This one is probably the best joke on the page, even though it isn't particularly funny*, since I actually am sure what I'm saying is verifiable - that Kylo Ren's line really doesn't apply so well. Vader did not set out to take over the galaxy. That was the Emperor's idea. Vader just followed along. Up until Luke came along, Vader was basically just a follower. On the other hand, it was Vader's idea to corrupt Luke. . . Another Reye joke. Ah well. *If there had been room in the panel, I would have included Vader's punchline: "So I guess you're finishing what I followed along with." Just imagine it's there; that's one of my best sequels-jokes punchlines.

About half my October 2018 comics were sequel gags. This is a good example. I'll admit to not knowing much about the Star Wars sequels, and that all I do know is what I read online and what my parents have said about it, so if I'm wrong feel free to say so. . . This comic is based on a scene where someone tells Reye that her parents aren't coming back and she just says, I know. No other reaction by what I heard. I kinda regret the last Anne line - just, well, bear in mind that it's a joke. . . and if you need a substitute meaning to the line, call it foreshadowing because Anne later becomes a psychologist herself. By that time I was no longer writing about Reye. This one isn't really a sequel joke, but I included it here because it has Kylo Ren in it. It's a pretty good foreshadowing of their entire relationship - they can't stand each other! What if Vader also started on something really embarrassing before Kylo picked up his mission? (...

Wow. . . I'm sorry if you can't read some of these. I know the spacing between words just isn't there. . . sorry. I edited some of the worst ones, but not all of them. I wanted to show what my drawing style was like back then. Here goes. . . This one's less than great. It was one of my earliest. Perhaps I should explain something here I didn't in my previous post - Anne, the girl, is fourteen at the time of this comic. Later (a few comics later), I jumped her to sixteen, and by November 2018, she was 18 years old. This is a Reye joke. The closest I ever got to watching the Star Wars sequels was to read snippets of a book version of The Last Jedi. When I found out Luke died, I was enraged. . . he was my favorite character. So this is a Mary Sue joke. If you liked the sequels, basically skip over any with Reye in them. I don't do sequel gags anymore, but some recent ones joke about Anne and Kylo Ren's dysfunctional girlfriend/boyfriend relationship....

Hi there. . . Welcome to the Teenage Sith Apprentice comic strip. I guess there's probably only two people reading this post. . . specifically my parents. That. . . might not be a bad thing. I wrote these comics over a year ago and I wasn't a good drawer  pencil artist back then. . . not that I am now. I guess I should explain. I have a good 18 months of comics backed up. I used to write them for fun; then, a few months ago, I decided to publish them online. I only recently finished getting most of them into such a form that they were actually legible. . . they looked pretty messy and I didn't think people could read them*. I didn't edit some of the earlier comics though, so reading the ones below might be tricky. . . Well, the text is a bit small. . . Perhaps I should add captions explaining what the characters are saying. In comic three, panel three, Anne's line (which I can barely read even knowing what it is) is: "Sh! I'm texting!" ...