Sometimes the key to writing a comic is location, location, location. The first iteration of this week's strip took place at Frank's apartment, where Horst has been taking refuge since being kicked out by Celia. But the dialogue was dry and a little expository. It didn't have the right flow.
So I sat down again with a blank sheet and sketched the first frame of Horst walking home through the snow from his disastrous meeting of Insomniacs with Phantom Girlfriend Syndrome. I drew him thinking of Celia in the next frame, and he started talking to himself. But one person thinking isn't that visually interesting, so suddenly Celia landed on Horst's shoulders. Once I found the right place and characters (Celia of Horst's mind's eye instead of Frank), the cartoon wrote itself.

I usually try to work some kind of punch line into the last panel. But in this case, Horst's final sad (yet freeing) realization that "she's gone" seemed to work. Voila, no more phantom girlfriend.
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