Reduce, reduce, reduce. It's a mantra I mutter as I go over these cartoons again and again, editing down, finessing the dialogue to fit the space allotted. I totally rewrote this cartoon at the inking stage (from the second row, third panel on) because it got bogged down in clever dialogue that didn't move the story or characters forward, didn't have the right rhythm or punchline.

I have no idea how I am going to edit down next week's cartoon to 8-10 panels. It follows Celia and Cindy to the hospital to visit Donya, who is bedsitting her comatose husband. It relies on some repetition and minimal dialogue (a rarity for me, I know), but requires multiple panels. I'm debating having three rows, which I've only done once before. The dialogue riffs I'm into these days keep wanting to extend beyond my format. Is it time to try other, longer forms? Or does the discipline involved in fitting each week's episode to the same format result in tighter, better writing?

I'm curious how my next post will look, what form that cartoon will be in a week from now. After that, we'll go back to Horst, at a support group for sufferers of Phantom Girlfriend Syndrome.

A rarity: I've got a lot of strips written in advance. I just need more time to flesh them out, pencil, ink and colour them.