#nitpickers

Yep, there's still one last Far Out There page to fill out the holiday season... and hopefully it really WILL be the "one last page" I have to post like this before the last of the old comics are finally re-posted to the new site.  Here's hoping the mess you have to clean up is less bad than theirs!

I’d try to make some kind of clever remark about all the in-universe pop cultural references on this page, but I’ve been up for about twenty hours drawing,editing, printing, and wrapping some coloring books for my sister’s kids and I reeeaaally need to get some sleep.

Now THAT'S what Christmas is all about: starting fights and threatening others, or at least sitting in the back and watching while others do so.  (Also throwing references that other people don't recognize)

Here's a fun little story for you all: These Christmas comic aren't the first time I've tried to flesh out Far Out There's Nitpicker's Guild a bit.  Way back in 2016, I'd already done a page that dropped some random names of other nitpickers. That's all it was, though, just names.  In the comments, I actually apologized to Future Me for not bothering to work out what those names would look like when we actually saw them.  Well, joke's on Past Me, because when the time to draw some new Nitpickers DID come, I totally forgot that page existed and made up all these new characters completely from scratch.  Here's the thing though, one of those random names was "The Xafri Twins" ...and here we have a pair of Nitpicker twins, who were absolutely NOT intended to be a callback to that.  I mean, the second I actually DID remember that previous dialog, I renamed the new characters to fit it, it's too perfect not to, and if I claimed to have planed it out from the beginning there'd be no evidence to the contrary.  But no, you all deserve to know the truth.  All you aspiring writers out there need to appreciate just how much "foreshadowing" and "planning" is really just flailing around at random, then desperately trying to pull it all together like you MEANT to do that.

And now, quite possibly the biggest hair I've ever drawn on a Far Out There character, and we've had some crazy hair over the years.

Also, hasn't Far Out There kind of already HAD a Deadly Killer Zombie Santa?

"Helmut Von Cannon" is the greatest name I've ever come up with, and I will hear no arguments to the contrary. So, here's a fun little look into how the creative process works: Anyone who's followed Far Out There closely knows that I LOVE creating soundtrack/playlists for the characters.  Just look at my Patreon if you don't believe me, it's FULL of 'em.  In fact, I enjoy it SO much that, when the time came to making all these new Nitpicker characters, I decided try and experiment and invert the process.  I actually STARTED by putting together a bunch of short playlists based around various styles or musical themes, then drew up characters who would listen to them.  It will surprise absolutely no one that Helmut's playlist features Meat Loaf very prominently.