It’s been about four months since I’ve drawn a comic and this one is to get my poor rusty feet wet again. Hopefully I will soon regain my comic-weblogging voice and start posting regularly again.

One note-if you missed the announcement last July, the character Tom will now be going by his true name, Tony, since legal complications have been cleared up (he’s promised not to sue me).

You can click it twice to make it bigger

I’m proud to be part of the Fine Prints line at Los Angeles’ excellent Skylight Books this month. Here’s how it works: for every 40$ spent (in store or online), each customer receives a raffle ticket for a chance to win one of the nine (and one on facebook) signed and numbered prints of this comic, ‘The Way Some People Live.’

The comic, originally drawn for Smoke Signal, is also the very first one to appear on this blog, almost exactly two years ago. It’s a favorite of mine and I’m happy for the excuse to rerun it in full color today for you (you can click on it twice to make it bigger):

This is the last comic in Julys month of daily comics. As promised, I’ve taken it all down. After all the enthusiastic feedback I received from this experiment, it hurt to do it. Especially since I’ve been nominated for an Ignatz Award for the Best Online Comic! But something tells me I have to keep my word on this, just as I kept my word that I’d stick to it in the first place. However, I’m leaving this very last page, not so much for the comic itself but for all the beautiful comments on it. I just can’t throw that away.

I will do this again in the future, or maybe some variation of it, perhaps in a year, if I’ll have the time. I’ve already forgotten how hard it is. And hopefully at some point there will be a 32 page printed comic.  In the meantime, I’m taking some time away from this blog to finish up some projects. I will be back in the fall with new comics for you to read. Which is, in fact, just around the corner.

I really want to thank all of you who commented or emailed encouraging words, or clicked “like” or retweeted or even read it at all. Sorry for not replying most of the time, but they were immensely helpful, it felt like being cheered on.

The original comic, complete with dialogue and prose, was published in my first book-When I’m Old and Other Stories, and is pretty much unavailable anywhere, until now: For $15.00  including shipping & paypal expenses (Inside the U.S.) you can BUY IT HERE  and I will send you a dedicated copy.  For anywhere outside the U.S, it’s $22.00. Air mail is pricey! You can BUY THAT HERE. Thank you!

Edited by Tony Groutsis

Music by Mogwai

Music by Kurt Vile

Love sonnet by Pablo Neruda

Edited by Tony Groutsis