To George Lucas

For all those who weren't keeping track, it's Star Wars's 30th birthday this year. I just had to do something to celebrate it, since all the LEGO products and magazines have "Star Wars 30 Anniversary" on it. This is what came into mind. I almost settled on doing something from Return of the Jedi, but I thought, "Star Wars 4 came out 30 years ago." So I stuck with this. Not counting my Sunday panel layout, I needed three guides to draw this strip: a how-to-draw book for the closeup of the Millennium Falcon, some sketches I did of Star Wars explosions, and my rough-out I did in my sketchbook. I liked trying to mix my yellow and orange and red to get this good explosion-color. Giving it a Star Wars feeling in the last panel was kind of tough. But since I did it before, making it dark but still light, it was kind of easy too. Because of the 30th anniversary, I just came up with it this year. It does not have the long-lost index title.

Why on Earth did she Do That?!

Have you ever heard of Hammerspace? If not, click on the link over ← there. It links you to the Wikipedia article for Hammerspace. Apparently, it exists right behind Moe's head. There have been many other instances of Hammerspace on the blog, too...

What the Heck Is A...

The title is a repeated title of "What the Heck Is..." So, this is like a sneak preview of what may happen in #2. I'm going to have to remember that.

Buggy Eyes, Huh?

There's going to be twenty of them?!? Wow, I'm not sure if I'm going to find time to do all those photos! In fact, I haven't even photographed the photos for #1 yet!

Moe Attention. VERY Accurate Fourth Wall Break.

In the original, the person at the store (that's like, his official name) looked WAY different, and the license plate said "Here I Am".

Look How Big Her Eyes Are!

The middle panel wasn't in the original strip.

That's Not Very Nice, You Know, Mrs. Moe!

The original strip was exactly the same, except Mom was always smiling. By the way, have you ever wondered how the characters started out when I first made them? Well, I'm going to post that soon.

Under Construction

Wow. I wonder where the mailbox learned to sing? So, "say goodbye to just Moe." What do you think he means by that? The original was two dailies:

1
PANEL 1: Like drop panel, only we can see mailbox. MOE: It's 1:00. I want to spend today with Mom.
PANEL 2: Same as panel 3 expect Mom is running to door.
PANEL 3: Same as panel 4 current
PANEL 4: Mailbox wasn't alive and Moe was kinda smiling.

2
PANEL 1: Like panel 6 current, except Mom was facing Moe all the way, mailbox wasn't alive and Moe said, "Open it up and see!"

Happy Birthday, I Want Moe Attention!

Seems kinda strange to celebrate IWMA's birthday with a crash, doesn't it? I hope they didn't get hurt. Can you believe I've been doing this for a year?! So, we got the whole gang together to get a big party. By the way, how do you like the new look? That's part of the birthday celebration. Check out the "Welcome" posts and the profile. I updated those too!

Ohh, I Bet That Hurt Again. Are You Okay?

The headline is a repeated title of "Ohh, I Bet That Hurt. Are You Okay?"

Moe's Ridiculous Pose

Moe's phone number is really an inside joke. 555 is the traditional cartoon phone-number-starter, and one of the translations of 4962 is IWMA, which are the initials for I Want Moe Attention, which is where Moe lives, and his phone number is 555-4962, blah blah blah blah. It just goes in circles.

Uh-Oh! It's the Landfill!

I liked drawing Moe's silly pose. There's the cell phone Moe "met" in the garbage truck yesterday! It's in the landfill! Boy, I bet Moe's going to have some trouble getting out of that silly pose! I like to call the guy in panel 2 "Alex." Mostly because there was a character in an old comic strip I collaborated with some nice guy guy called The Master. He looked a lot like this, and his name was Alex. So I thought I'd bring him back.

"Automatic Strip Flashback"
The "landfill" was just a 1½-foot-deep hole, and the driver looked a lot like Thidwick.

That's a crazy face! Who drew it, a two-year-old?

That's a lot of items! I like the box on Moe's head. If you look closely in panel 2, you can see it fall. And that's a teddy bear, a stuffed bear, not a real bear. And what is that black thing sticking out of the dirt in panels 1 and 2? Oh, look in panel 3...it's a cell phone! I put it there because it has an importance to the story. (Whoops! Did I say that? Someone else must have.)

Um, Don't You Mean "Get Your Hands Offa Moe?" Oh, Wait...it Doesn't Have Hands. Never Mind.

Man, every company here is just labeled I Want Moe Attention! There's the IWMA Trash Dept. There's iWantMoeAttentionCo. And there's even I Want Moe Attention Fire Dept.!

Why did she need a mattress? The grass is soft, too!

I like this joke. IWMA will be 1 year old in 6 days.

Thidwick Replaces Moe From his Own Punishment!

The headline is a repeated title of "Thidwick Throws Moe Into his Own Closet!" Remember Mom's "no standing on the roof" rule? It was previously mentioned in "This Dad is 100% Rubber". The original strip went something like this. It was divided into four panels, and it went something like this:

Panel 1 (view like panels 1 and 3): MOM: Moe! Get down from there! MOE: I can't!
Panel 2 (view from in front of Moe): MOE: If I jump, I'll break!* If I climb down...what AM I supposed to climb down? If I...
Panel 3 (same view as panel 2): MOE: I have a sudden urge to movie** this!
Panel 4 (same view as panels 2 and 3): MOE: HEY, MOM! WILL YOU RENT ME A VIDEO CAMERA?? MOM: Ugh...

*This was later changed to "If I jump, I'll cut myself!
**This word was later changed to "record."

Whoops, Mom says "What happened to my 'no standing on the rule' rule?! I must have forgotten to white it out.

Two Moes in One Panel?

Hmmm, if Moe has a huge house, then Thidwick must have a huge house. Then we don't know why Mama said it was "pretty stupid" for them to have a huge house.

"Automatic Strip Flashback"

Panel 1: We could only see one Moe, the one on the left, and his last sentence wasn't in the panel.
Panel 2: The last sentence portion of the first panel, except we could only see the Moe on the right, but he was on the other side and was getting up.
Panel 3: Literally the same as the current, except the background wasn't there and neither were the stairs in Moe's house.

Just One of Thidwick's Average Tricks, I Guess

The title is a repeated title of "Just One of Moe's Average Tricks, I Guess". I started doing the daily strip for my family January 30, 2006. Considering I never took any sabbaticals, this is the 500^th one I have done for the family. This is the 336^th one I have done on the blog. This is my 350^th post, so I have done 15 non-strip posts: the "Welcome" posts, the "Quickest Post on the Blog", and "Notice the Teacup-Like Sketch."

Hop, Hop...

Wow, his sneeze was so powerful, it blew the talk bubble away! But it didn't blow the food bowl away. Strange. That kinda makes it look like I forgot to draw it, doesn't it? The original strip was the first appearance of Bob, yet he looked totally different.

Again, Don't Try This At Home, Kids

The title is a repeated title of "Don't Try This At Home, Kids". My original idea was to have a long needle-like thing on the front of their car, but as soon as I finished the original strip, I abandoned it. Did you know that the original version of this strip was the first time I drew Thidwick? It was the first time I drew Mama, too. But her hair was different, and she didn't have dark skin. Thidwick didn't have his blanket and his nose was shaped differently.

Arka Arka Ooo?

All moms should be like this.

I Glued It to my Hand

This was originally going to be a section of the first Moe movie, Moe and Thidwick, but I decided not to do that, and this joke became useless. But when it came time to draw it, I couldn't think of a good name and so I flipped through my sketchbook to find a good sketch and make a strip out of it. Luckily, I found this joke and I wanted to use it. So here it is. Oh, wait...you already read it, didn't you? Well, then...Here it was.

Stop Shouting, Moe!!!

Do you think it will be a set? The original joke was for Moe to have everything he brought in the car on or open. That meant Julia couldn't hear Mom, and Moe couldn't hear Julia.

Is It Exciting, or Is It Just Her?

I like the design of the "AAAAA!" in panel 2. The description on the calendar pretty much sums up the whole strip:

Asks Mom to cover eyes, tells Moe to look, screams, discusses with Julia whether it was a good idea to bring Moe.

How Could He Forget All That Stuff if It was On His Lap?

Finally, we've got a break from a repeated title!! Hey, did you notice the first two movie titles? Well...

They're out on DVD now!! Consequences of Nail in the Morning will appear in December, on that NITM, and "Silly Putty Adventures?" That will be in a few months.

Many Items 2

The title is, of course, a repeated title of "Many Items". Do I have this thing for repeated titles, or what? In the original pile, Moe's pile included a blocking-screen thing that sent out a black ray of darkness so Moe couldn't see what was scary, so Julia's "Well...hear, mostly" line wasn't in there. Panel 2 wasn't in there, and at the beginning of Moe's line was "This?" Julia's line in the last panel was, "With a radio, duck and blocking-screen thing, other people can't see or hear!"

Blanket Keep-Under? Never Heard of It!

The title is a repeated title of "Blanket Keep-Away? Never Heard of It!" How do you think Moe got the blanket? Did he take it from Thidwick or something? :D The dialogue is exactly the same as it was with the original strip.

Whoa... Six Panels in a Daily Strip Again??

The title is a repeated title of "Whoa... Six Panels in a Daily Strip??" Moe is reading "The Magician's Nephew," the first book in the Chronicles of Narnia series. The original strip went something like this: panels 1 and 2 were combined, and so were 3 and 4. Panels 5 and 6 were also combined.

PANEL 1: MOM: Let's go, Moe. MOE: Me? Go where?
PANEL 2: MOM: To the scary movie! (The panel was just like panel 2, except she didn't look mad.
PANEL 3: (same as panel 6)

And guess what?

Our latest product is Moe's pajamas! Actually, they're our first product that is free! All our other products were $3.50, but currently we're working on taking the cost out.

Free On This Blog-Traption! (What?)

The title is a repeated title of "Free On This Blog-Interaction!" An original idea was to have the rope go around Bob's neck, but many people would not allow it on the blog (including Bob). And the shades of Merlin are done in different ways. The first two are done with my Sharpie permanent marker. The third was done with my black colored pencil, hence the lighter shade of black. The fourth was done with my main pen. I was originally thinking of doing one in Photoshop, but then I figured that would just waste my time. I wasn't sure how to make it look like he was still holding the remote control, pressing the button, and raising his fist at the same time right. But I eventually figured it out. These silhouettes are kind of like the ones on "Introducing The Enemy," aren't they?

Nail In The Morning 3

How deep do you think that trapdoor is? Oooooooops...I forgot to add the hurt effect in panel 5. It was fun to make sure that the camera is a different angle in every panel.