Hope I’m doing this right… [EDIT: I wasn't. Am now. Sorry for double-posts where they appear.] it’s been forever since I uploaded a post. More info after the jump.

I’m so very sorry about the length of this hiatus. Recognizing that I’m never going to find an artist who’ll work for free, and no longer being able to barter lovin’ for art, I’ve taken it upon myself to learn to do the job. It’s tough; I’m learning to see and interpret things in a totally new way and my pinkie hurts right now so I’m probably not even holding the pencil right. But it’ll all be worth it if I can continue this damned story. It’s never left my head, not for a minute, since we stopped posting.
Holly is still on board as a creative consultant and co-writer, but due to her injury she’s probably never going to be able to take up the pen again.
With any luck, I should soon be able to do some character sketches and maybe clumsily re-draw some of the early pages that were slated to be replaced.
Of course, the offer is open, if anyone wants to do this comic – or another one, I have a couple ideas that could work well as sequential art, one of which is set in spaaace – please contact me. james@close-to-the-chest.com or jreinsch@gmail.com or just drop a note in the comments.

PS: Stupid daylight savings time, messing with my post’s visibility. *grumble*

So, that’s the state of things. Close to the Chest is on indefinite hiatus until another artist can be found. I still have all the character info, undrawn scripts and long-term plans – those aren’t going anywhere.

If you are an artist of at least some skill, can commit to regular updates, and are willing to accept my criticisms and corrections, please contact me at jreinsch(at)gmail(dot)com. Include a few samples of your work if possible. I still want to replace all the older strips, and this story is FAR from over. Hell, it was just getting good.

And no, I’m afraid I cannot pay you yet. All revenue from adbars goes toward site hosting and outgoing advertising.

I have scripts written for the next plot arc, just waiting for art. As frustrating as it is for you, the reader, it is doubly so for us, having this story we so desperately want to tell and being unable to move forward. We will move forward. It just might take a little while, depending on whether or not eye surgery happens.

Meanwhile, here’s all the comics I read, via google reader:

Comics (PG-13 and lower) – may contain fighting or blood
Comics (R) – will contain boobies and some porn or extreme violence

and the only comic I read without an RSS (well he has one but it seems not to work for me):
Polkout (Rated R for being extremely freaking offensive to everyone ever. Also, brilliant.)

By way of apology for the long wait, here is a two-page epic!

Action! Adventure! Mysterious voyeuristic women in luxury cars! We’ve got it all!

…Admit it. You all just come round for the boobies.

This is what happens when a Science Villain makes a miscalculation.

I looked up a real Tesla gun to try to find more sciencey words to use, and found out the real words aren’t much different. but the are pretty cool!

And we’re back! Betcha thought that, what with all the stuff that went on, we weren’t gonna be prepared for January! Hell, it’s not every December that your artist loses part of her vision. (At least I sure hope it isn’t!) Our regularly scheduled updates will now resume. I’m sorry we didn’t have time to do any of the bonus materials we promised, although I did start a blog. It’s very pretty. I’m sorry, but you need a capital “J” in the URL because I created it stupidly and cannot fix it now.

Anyone who read Narbonic will be familiar with the concepts I’m introducing here. Narbonic is my all-time favorite Mad Science comic, one which I am trying hard to lovingly tribute to and not directly steal from, but Science Fiction is such a collective-consciousness field ever since Asimov introduced the Three Laws of Robotics and recognized that other artists would of necessity have to include them in their works. His rule was that you could freely use the concept but you had to paraphrase the wording. I feel that “Mad Science in the Real World” settings suffer the same necessity – if the “common” people lack a Perception Filter, the world swiftly becomes something dissimilar to our own.

Shaenon, if you’re reading this, please feel flattered and not angry!