Panel 500

Here’s my latest comic: https://inhumaneresourcescomic.com/#/panel/497.

A little note first. With all the Covid-19 worry, I completely forgot to post this comic. I have no particular hardship, and it’s a one-line command to post. The days just blurred together.

I’ve put out 500 panels! Whew! The 500th panel is the last line. Have you read the comic yet? No? Wait and come back when you have. Spoilers await.

So Julius’s criminal record is spousal abuse. It’s referred to waaay back. Green skull brings it up in panel 16. In a web page on panel 51, a co-worker of Julius’ reacts to news of his apparent death with “one down, 38 million to go.” I Googled and got that 38 million men in the US have committed physical abuse.

I am, I promise, going to blog about this a lot as this conversation unfolds. I can understand that this can seem like a slap in the face to have for a point-of-view character. I take this turn very seriously.

This one thing, this conversation and this part of Julius’s past, are why I drew this comic in a realistic style that I’m not really qualified to do. I have a very cartoonish style that I can whip out pretty fast and am better suited to. However, I didn’t want to have this conversation with unshaded charicatures.

I have to retcon some early stuff while I was researching this piece of Julius’ past. In panel 16, Green Skull said, “Your felony conviction isn’t a problem for me.” To get a felony conviction from spousal abuse, you have to commit aggravated battery, which involves using a weapon ro having intent to wound or some other things Julius wouldn’t do.

Why did I do this? I needed Julius to have nowhere to go. I wanted a crime that brings universal contempt, but I also wanted a crime that’s familiar. I didn’t want Julius to have committed espionage. That left drunk driving and spousal abuse. They’re both crimes people commit and then get to go about their lives, but they can really screw up your life (as is perfectly just) if you handle your defense wrong.

If you want to comment, you can send me mail samguyjones on the biggest mail server, or you can post to the Inhumane Resources Facebook page.