It was a long time coming, and nobody was more eager to see it end than the author. But finally the end of this chapter of SFH has arrived. I am more than aware of the inordinate amount of time it took to reach completion - it came as a shock exactly what kind of impact on my life that my career would have. It was hard enough attempting to make even a once-weekly deadline, feeling compelled to do more with backgrounds and monochrome coloring didn't help much at all either.

If nothing else, I've come to respect people pulling a regular 9-to-5 and still maintaining and pursuing their interests. It is unfortunate that I cannot often work on my comic during the work day - I sorely miss being able to illustrate during lectures and class like I did back at the university. Not only my understanding, but admiration, goes out to those who can keep up such a production schedule, be it comic related or not. Lord knows I am envious of their abilities - or perhaps their chances to work on such pursuits during the workday. And if I could, don't get me wrong - I'd jump at the first chance I got.

Certainly, it is obvious that this chapter served as catharsis for many issues. One of the problems about getting one's degree and working in a field so closely associated with human stupidity is that there's a litany of things that you wish could be done to rectify a situation, and yet cannot. Incidentally, I've had this storyline planned since my days of Gender Issues in Criminal Justice class with Prof. Bejarano. Not the class you wanna take if you have a chipper disposition in general, even worse if you already have a dire outlook on society.

In addition, my job has provided a plethora of examples to support all that which I have studied, not only through my entire education experience but especially giving credence to the material covered in my GICJ class. It was sad, and hard enough, going to the battered women's shelter to learn what it was like, how they serve their clientele, to see the victimized women, and see one crucial stage of the cycle of violence - but it gets even worse when you can only recommend people seek victim's assistance and all the services they provide.

I still very much have to suppress a kind of karmic retribution - that the fuckers who beat the shit out of their otherwise hapless significant others should be beaten twice as hard before being thrown in the pen. Too often I've had to swallow an urge to stop the car, rip the pathetic sack of shit out of the back seat, handcuffed and all to mimic how she felt in not fighting back, and stomping his head until there's nothing left but individual teeth, skull fragments, and a mushy pulp.

Alas, I keep driving, and pray to God that there IS a Hell in which that fucker may find unparalleled agony for eternity. And don't get me wrong - I know it goes both ways, it does. But I find the thought of doing the same to a woman abuser somehow abhorrent. But I'm NOT good enough of a person to wish that on the guy in the back of my car. Double standard, yes, but that's life; it isn't fair, get used to it.

As such, I was privy to a bevy of feedback in reference to this chapter. Now, as a general rule - which, up to now, has been a strict and unyielding regulation - I try not to address much of the feedback, even in this newsbox, as it's my belief that a comic site should stay with the comic and not venture into what could be perceived to be the author addressing personal vendettas.

That is not my intent, but no doubt it may be interpreted as such. But - as my banner ad says in reference to the comic sporting a so-called "wall of text" - if you don't like it, you are entitled to bite my ass.

As mentioned before, having a job kinda cuts into your free time. As such, I was not always able to upload a full, canon comic every time, and did produce something described universally as "filler." I'm of the comic philosophy that if you can't put up a full, regular comic, upload SOMETHING, anything, for the readers, let them know you haven't abandoned them. And believe me - even my weekends are quite subject to my doing something work related, from something that will take a few hours to pulling an entire shift, leaving me with far less time than anticipated. As such, I put up filler to say, "Hi guys! Didn't forget! Just incredibly busy!" Apparently there are those who disagree with this. To my understanding, they are either upset that I am time-consumingly employed and should NOT be, or that everything should be canon and delivered on-time and under budget. Better, faster artists can do that. I am not one of them. It is my comic, I'm gonna take it at the pace for which MY life can function, and those that don't like it are entitled, as before, to bite my ass. As for those who complain that the protagonists deal with stupidity outside the realm of the plot in these filler comics, I assure you that it is their policy to address stupidity wherever it may rear its ugly head.

Another area of contention for me is that some people are not agreeing with the way Arc and Hunter dealt with the female of this chapter. The complaints I heard were along the lines of "they're such terrible people because they didn't get her help / take her to a shelter / move her away to an island" etc. It was also amusing seeing these people insist that Arcturus and Hunter are terrible people because they would try to get the client to kill her husband (which, ironically, solved the problem and breaks the cycle for either party when either the abuser or the victim dies), or that they wouldn't help her when she cut him loose and he unleashed on her. I would like to examine that argument, for just a bit.
1. During the course of the story, it is revealed that the female, Rosaline, sought such measures for herself. Anyone who has studied such things would be able to tell you that quite often, the victims will pursue these avenues themselves, only to go back and have it repeat. Thus, the coining of the term the Cycle of Domestic Violence. People who've studied can also tell you there is a magic number for which acute incidents occur before definitive action takes place. That number of incidents averages out to seven - if they haven't left or done something drastic by the seventh incident, they never will. It was at the latest 2006 when I learned that statistic - I am unsure as to whether that has changed with further study. Regardless, I attempted to illustrate that the client pursued these avenues but still returned to her abusive husband. I assure you, Arcturus and Hunter are not in the business of pursuing futile efforts and wasting energy - if they wanted that, they'd offer their services for free and work at the women's shelter. They make their money helping people off themselves - clearly if a client winds up at their door there's already a massive failure which has occured. Their counseling is of a different sort, and to attempt to get her to kill her husband was their way of trying to help her out. No, it doesn't make sense in a rational, "there's got to be another way" kind of world. These guys do not live in that world.
2. Arcturus and Hunter are terrible characters, for trying to get the client to kill her husband? Um... how do I put this?... SUICIDE. FOR. HIRE. No fucking SHIT they're terrible people. They take logic and reason to an extreme, and use that to justify what amounts to homicide. Those making this argument, the most generous assessment I can afford them is to suggest that they haven't been paying attention and hope that they go about their regular lives with more care.
3. Of COURSE they wouldn't help her out. They're not there to play the heroes. They have a job to do, it's unfortunate that the client did not keep up her end. Hunter is most definitely not going to place his own hide on the line and expose himself for a client, and he'd be damned to let Arcturus do it for the both of them. That, I believe, comes back to my philosophy on writing for characters. Though I most certainly have a critical, life-altering point for the duo, this certainly would not be that story. The characters are selfish and egocentric, and would not try to play hero in a situation that could expose them for the murderers they are. It is my view that the characters continue to be the same characters during these situations, and it's like people are finding out for the first time how despicable they can be. I think selfish characters need to have their selves affected before they can change - and this was strictly business for the two. And as such, sociopathic characters will act the same until the time at which is appropriate. And I assure those complainants that this client did not affect the boys themselves, and because of this has no positive influence over their behavior for that particular client or clientele going forward. But that's just my philosophy. Those who think that psychotic murderers would suddenly drop everything out of a sudden sense of altruism, more power to you. I just happen to think it's totally uncharacteristic in a character-centric comic like this one.

Anyhow, that rambling mess off my chest, certain to be subject to many edits when I'm far less tired, I'm gonna get the archives up and running, and post some long-old fanart that's been sitting in my inbox. I know, I'm not supposed to take pride in fixing something I shouldn't have let slip in the first place. But it did and now it shall be rectified.

Before we end, just links to some old interviews I've given:
Kittysneezes.com
Frumph.net
The Webcomic Review (a copy of the Frumph interview, but came beforehand)

As always, thank you for your patronage of Suicide-For-Hire.

DON'T FORGET TO VOTE!