Back in strip #38, I drew a background character that I liked the design on so much, I decided to bring him back 20 strips later in #058 as Howard’s friend, James.

At first, I didn’t really know what to do with him and then I decided to take everything about his first appearance in #58 and go from there. I think what I, personally like about James, is his “normalness”. When applied correctly, I think he’s a very useful character, which is why I’ll be adding him to the cast page, along with a couple of others, in my upcoming update.

New strips starting next week!! See you then.

Don’t ask me why, but I always wanted to have a conservative character in “Abel Boddy”, so in strip #27, I introduced Scott and Linda. At the time, I literally cherry picked features from the straight couples that I knew (her attitude, his beard, her height, his job, her eyes, his voice – in my head, etc).

They have appeared the least out of any of the supporting cast, which I would like to remedy. One thing I began to focus on to open up the possibilities was Howard’s longtime friendship with Scott. They met in undergrad before Scott met and married Linda, and when S&L started a family, Howard came out and started his life.

Back when I introduced him in strip #8, Kurt represented what all of what I considered “gay evil”. Born primarily from the frustration of trying to navigate gay bars for the first time, all I needed to squeeze him into a storyline is for Howard to leave the house.

But, Kurt not remembering Howard’s name was getting old and my perspective on gay culture has changed so much since strip #8, I made a point to change Kurt’s direction to something more relevant to me now. Which certainly doesn’t make him any easier to write but who doesn’t love a challenge.

I’ve always had a lot of female friends, so when I came up with the idea for Bonnie, Howard’s best gal pal, in strip #35 I was trying to find something that honored those relationships instead of the usual “fag hag” character.

My closest female friends are usually a little more conservative than I would’ve thought them to be, and while I am always baffled by our inherent differences in male-female communication, they generally offer a pretty practical perspective when asked their opinion. And there is always some concept about LGBT life that they cannot wrap their heads around — which is why I chose the above strip.

Since Errol, Howard’s closest gay friend, first appeared in strip #15 he has gone on to have the most appearances out of the entire supporting cast.

I originally started with the idea of a sassy, minority friend, because it was a very prevalent trend in television and movies. He also works in a very general form of event planning (also chosen for it’s popular use in entertainment) which gives Howard a view into a social world to which a person like him would not have access.

As my plans for the strip change, so has my vision for Errol, so I’m always looking for new ways to present him. The trick is coming up with something new without contradicting 345 strips worth of character development.

I’m on vacation this week, so starting Wednesday, May 7, I’ll be channeling some 2009 realness and running everybody’s favorite: “Classic Abel Boddy”. In honor of my updated cast page, this year’s reruns will each showcase a member of ‘Abel Boddy’s’ supporting cast along with some thoughts on the featured character.

It’ll be entertaining, informative and life changing, and, it’ll give me plenty of more time to plan my next stories!

Oh, and you should follow me on:

Click here.

I’ve begun setting up a page for “Abel Boddy” on Facebook. If you’re a Facebooker, I would really appreciate a “like” from you. If you’d like to see anything special there, I would love to hear it.

I look forward to seeing you there!

This years haul included: “Garbage Pail Kids“, Michel Rabagliati’s “Paul ala Campagne“, Meredith Gran’s “Listen at Home with Octopus Pie“, Justin Peterson’s “Very Near Mint 2” and “Manta-Man” and “30 Queens” by Chad Sell.