In Which Abby Uses a Laptop

When I'm working on a page or a comic, I sometimes I get a little bored. I love what I do, but there's a bit of monotony, and sometimes my mind wanders. When it does, I wind up throwing in jokes or references to things that I think are cool. It's why Abby reads books by Nick Castle and why Charlotte drinks out of a MacBreakWeekly mug.

This is panel seven from page eighteen. When I drew it, I knew I need to put something on Abby's screen. I chose The Celestial Waste of Bandwidth, written by Andy Ihnatko. Andy's a tech writer, Mac pundit, andcomics fan. I met him once in Boston at a Wizard (or whatever they're calling it these days) show. Oddly, for reading many of his columns, I didn't realize it was him until after he left, leaving only a silver booklet behind.

Seriously, he did. It was all about the Mac.

Andy's got some great ideas about the Mac tablet. One of his best is the idea that Apple's pretty good at doing That Thing That You Didn't Expect But Now Makes Perfect Sense. This happened when Apple decided to make a phone. "Why's an Apple phone going to be so special?" everyone asked. Then they revealed it and everyone copied it.

Go check him out here.

If you want to know what I would like to see in an Apple Tablet, I'll tell you. I don't for a minute think it'll happen, but I can wish. What I want is a slick, light Wacom Cintiq. Something that could be touch sensitive or use a stylus. Maybe when the stylus is activated the touch sensititivty goes away to account for my hand resting on the screen. I desperately want a Cintiq, but I'm not sold on spending as much as I would on a new laptop for something that has to tether to my computer. I want something lighter and frothier. Heck, Apple's a green company, they could use this to eliminate paper and pads. Just print out the pages I want.

I would also like a rocket and a pony.

Drobo Domo

I'm a huge fan of MacBreakWeekly. (Hey, there's a new episode recording tomorrow. Yay!) It's not just a good show for those of us Of The Mac, but it's also a good show because it's a good show with great commentators.

I've done little things before about them, too. Mark wears a TWiT sweatshirt in Love and Capes #2, and Charlotte drinks out of a MacBreakWeekly coffee mug in issue #4. I've even included Andy Ihnatko as a background character in the just-posted page one of the new issue. But I think I've hit a new level here.

Scott Bourne, photography and backup guy, has been raving about the Drobo. I think he's right to. As a backup nut myself, since my Big Crash of 2006, I really need to get one sometime this year since they make backing up so easy. Because of that, my brain just clicked a certain way and I started imagining a comic strip with Scott and his Drobo. I went ahead and did a couple of strips to get them out of my head and sent them to Scott, who liked them muchly. He's even called me out on Twitter for it, which I appreciate.

So, especially if you're a MBW fan, here's a sample strip, with links to the other two I did.

Strip 1
Strip 2
Strip 3