The first Ask Ginger! Why is it black & white? Is it to save time when making it? Is it the style for Ask Ginger!s? Is it because if you flip the image, the image would be inaccurate because various details of difference are in color? Is it to hide something? Are the last two questions bluffs? Or double bluffs? Am I just messing with your head now?

The question of Ginger’s hidden face is the most often asked question I (and she) gets. Although at the same time, some people have never noticed that half her face has never been shown until it’s pointed out like this. It’s a question I kind of don’t understand as I’m saving the reveal for the comic itself. I may joke about it (claiming it’s a sharingan eye or whatever, which in Naruto, it would be), but I’m not really going to reveal anything about it yet. Especially because expectations run the gambit from “emotionally-charged reasons” to “physical trait mask” to “just a hair style/no reason/anticlimax” and various other reasons as well.

Come back on Monday for another guest strip!

Thanks for reading!

And here’s the first guest strip for the hiatus! It comes to us from Australia by Tom Deylen who draws A Space Comic. When I first floated the of a hiatus and looking for guest strips to fill it, he submitted this strip and pretty much solidified the idea. Tom has down a great job doing something I haven’t, filling out a lot of the interior of the store. Thanks for the comic Tom!

On Thursday, we’ll have the first Ask Ginger! where she’ll be answering an oft asked question. So be sure to come back then. And I’m still taking submissions for questions that I may turn into answers. E-mail Ginger at GingersBread.com if you have something to ask her!

Buffer Update: The hiatus itself has been quite helpful from the start. Although I’m still settling in, I still managed to get over 10 scripts solidified, with less solid scripts up to the next large arc… which is loosely outlined. By the end of the week, I’m planning on having all the loose scripts solidified and start doing layouts for them. I’m feeling newly energized (maybe the mountain air) and if all goes well, there’s going to be an awesome buffer with some really good comics ready to go at the end of this hiatus.

Thanks for reading! And thanks again Tom!

There’s the end of the arc! Sorry for the added delay on it. In other news, I’ve reached California!

We all knew this arc wasn’t going to end without Johan in a Thor costume somehow. No, it’s not 100% accurate, but if I’m not losing any sleep over it. I was half tempted to put the raccoon in a Loki costume but I felt that would be too much.

So next week, we’ll be starting the Guest Strips/Ask Ginger quickies. This will give me a chance to work on a buffer so we can finally get back on a regular schedule. Mondays will be the Guest Strips, Thursdays will be the Ask Ginger. And if all goes well, after the break, those will be regular comic updates once again. I’m still taking Questions for Ginger (Ginger -at- GingersBread.com) so if you want to ask her something, go for it.

About the hiatus in general – Having checked in with the office, I can say that taking time to make a buffer is totally the move to make this summer. I’m the only archaeologist on my district at the moment, meaning I’m kind of in charge of the archaeology department. And the piles of work already waiting on my desk don’t seem like a good sign for stress levels. But I’ve got a pile of scripts that I’m going to try to work on in batches on days I’m not going crazy (which I’m going to maximize). I just might not be popping up online a lot and my response time to things will be horribly slowed.

If you’re not interested in the guest strips (you’re going to miss out on some talented folks!) and just want to know when regular comics start back up – Sorry, I don’t have a date for you yet because there are a few more guest strips I may or may not get. You can keep track, though, by following the Twitter or the RSS feed. And I’ll be putting a notice on the site when I know.

Thanks for reading, thanks for the patience!

So I’ve asked a few cartoonists for guest strips. So far, I’ve gotten one strip and some “I’ll try” and “Maybe”. I should be ask more but I’m running out of time before I leave. Hopefully more strips show up soon.

To supplement the strips (either providing more content per week or just to fill in for a lack of guest scripts), I’m going to do a handful of “Ask Ginger” pseudo-strips. I’ll basically try to knock a bunch of them out in the next week or two while I’m traveling/getting settled and then spend my focus after that on the buffer. So I’m gonna need some questions for Ginger to answer. You can e-mail her questions at Ginger-at-Gingersbread.com. I’ll do as many of the good ones as I can.

Depending on how much I have to serve as filler with guest strips and Ask Ginger, this change in programming will last at least all of May and hopefully/unhopefully into June (it’s good and bad. Bad is regular comics take longer to come back, Good is that when they do, they’ll have a stronger buffer and I’ll be able to work on strips will less stress).

So that’s what to expect as I head out west again, hopefully to end a year of chaotic updates.

Comic! One more comic for the arc which SHOULD be Monday, otherwise I’ll figure out a way to finish it on the road. Expect another blog post soon explaining what’s happening after that. That post is here.

Before anyone points out a lack of Mountain Loins in Michigan, they didn’t always live in Michigan. Nor was the summer camp necessarily in Michigan. I’m sure Heather tried to argue that at least she didn’t swear in front of the kids.

That fourth panel makes me really want to explore some adventures of when Johan and Heather were younger. Something tells me those were quite fun times. The raccoon really only gave her trouble because she’s out of practice and wasn’t expecting it to be armed. Back then? She would have kicked its ass, no problem.

Thanks for reading!

Blarghablough, comic is up.

There’s really no doubt that Ginger is her daughter. But really, it figured out how to use weapons and attacked you. Come on Heather, you’re smarter than to think throwing something at it would scare it off. If anything, you’re just escalating the fight.

Thanks for reading.

This page is ridiculous and I love it. This Goddamn raccoon is a menace. It should be noted that both Steven and Ginger have some battle wounds from this thing. (No, Ginger’s hair has nothing to do with them.) Next time: How do they escape!?

Still prepping for the trip. I plan to have a proper news post about that stuff soon. It will basically be about the month of May, which will be freshly hectic.

Thanks for reading!

Well, so much about leaning some of Ginger’s metails. I guess we learned a little bit about her going to school, but we’ve learned more about Lynn today. Or at least can infer a lot. I understand her rage to an extent – cost for college and university in the U.S. is outrageous and when you’re working so hard to go to school, hearing about someone getting free school and wasting it can piss you off.

Aside from being mentioned, we haven’t had any insight into Lynn’s second job. That might be something for another time. She’d much rather be going to the university, however it’s cheaper to do two years first at a community college, and at least in Michigan, some community colleges have a deal with in-state universities where various requirements for a Bachelor’s degree are waived if you get your Associate’s degree – which can save you some more money. She’s trying very hard to have as minimal debt as possible upon graduating.

The free tuition for immediate family of employees thing will very from university to university and general refers to full-time staff and faculty, not so much student employees. The living on campus thing might be silly to some, but Ginger is like that sometimes. Her parents made her pay for it, so it was her choice. Whether Johan is referring to living on campus or trying for a “normal” experience not turning out well, we’ll leave that open for now.

And of course we need to wait for the next comic to see who is yelling to whom and about what.

I apologize about the comic being late this week, especially after last week seemed like we were finally getting back on schedule. I received word at the end of last week that I would be working in California again this summer and that I’d be leaving at the end of the month for the drive. I’ve been frantically doing car repairs and time sensitive paperwork the past few days in response. I still need to get new tires, or at least one, which is great because I can’t really afford that at the moment. However one of them has worn in a way that it now rhythmically goes wub-wub-wub-wub as I drive. I have a dubstep car. The other problem with the tire is the massive seizure the car has at highway speeds because of the unevenness.

I will finish this arc before my trip, meaning we’ll be doing two comics a week again soon enough for a spell. More on what happens after the arc soon, I need to send some e-mails.

Thanks for reading!

Yeah, of course the college professor would try to talk his college drop-out daughter into going back to school. We’re not going to get into why she dropped out right now – those two don’t really have a need to discuss, in fact Ginger is against doing so – but we’ll get to it. Now, I know a lot of you THINK you know the reasons, but no, you’re wrong. If I did the most obvious reason, I know someone who would beat me to death. Especially if I did it poorly. What I’m doing is different and I’d still like to get it as right as possible so I’m still working on researching and making the story clear, unlike the second half of this paragraph.

Looking at the backgrounds today compared to the previous comic… oi. One day I’ll do the actual backgrounds for the bakery, but I kind of like allowing people a level of imaginative freedom there for the time being.

Meanwhile: Finally getting out of this late season slump, the Red Wings have locked their 21st consecutive season going to the playoffs. Let’s keep this upswing going! Let’s go, Red Wings!

Alright, back to work.

Thanks for reading!

Finally. Comic. Ended up changing it a little from the original idea. I’d talk more about it but I just want to be move on because it took too long.

Those following me on Twitter know there was a breakdown. Again, let’s move on.

I have the scripts for the rest of the arc written. They might get some small tweaks, but that will happen during the drawing process. I’m going to try to knock this out before officially taking a small break to get us back on a proper schedule. I’m going to try to gather some guest strips for that break. There are rumblings on the job front, we’ll see how those plays out. With any luck, I can bundle that chaos into the break and emerge from it ready to go. I’ll keep you posted over the next couple weeks.

Thanks for reading!