ISSUE 56

Well, this isn't exactly the first issue where I went off the script, but it is the first one where I didn't even have something written at all. I sort of went completely off the cuff here as well as not precisely knowing what I wanted to say until the strip was scanned, laid out, and speech balloons were added. It was fun and slightly cathartic. Anyway, hope ya like it. See ya tomorrow with an all new story line...

S-

PS- A big THANKS BUDDY goes out to my pal, Neil Bryer who illustrates and writes the side-splitting WOMBAT (see his link down on the left) for posting up a piece of art I did for him a while back. It's in his 'Guest Art' section. Follow the aforementioned link, you'll find it. Thanks again, Neil! You RAWK!

ISSUE 55

It's a sad day here at Swimming Upstream. My partner and BFF (sorry) Doug is taking an extended hiatus from the strip to work on other projects. Now, I'm only hoping it's for a month, but the time of absence remains to be seen. So, this brings me to my next conundrum: since I'll be the only one doing both the writing and the artwork, I would be more than happy to accept any scripts, story lines, or simple one-shots for the next 30 days or so. Just drop them into the comment box and I'll consider each and every one. Okay, so for now, have a great Monday.

ISSUE 54

Somehow we just kinda skipped right over it...

Yes, those are our real wives!

See ya Monday!

S-

ISSUE 53

So my gears are a little torqued today, forgive me, but at least allow me to explain: I was supposed to accompany my partner, Doug, here and our mutual friend, Josh, to Cinema Wasteland "The Convention" a week from this Saturday. However, due to powers beyond my control (ie: $, $, and, oh yeah, $) I am unable to attend. This is catastrophically suck-tastic. Now, I do have one outside possibility that I might explore and I should know something this weekend. Until then, I'm a tad bit cranky.

See ya tomorrow.

Blah. 

ISSUE 52

This might be the first time I actually made one of us in a state of emotional distress. It was fun and slightly melancholy at the same time.  Also, I kinda had to sacrifice background for really detailed images of us. Oh, and to answer directly why Doug's T-shirt switches images in the previous issue (see comment) and will likely do so in the future, is because of one or more of the following:

A) It's an homage to the old 80's Saturday Morning toon, "Shirt Tales", or

B) I like to include as many references to kooky films as possible on Doug's shirts, or

C) Shut up

Okay, I hope that helps! Thanks for the question! See ya next time!

S-

PS- I just fixed the really odd grammatical and spelling errors (9:30) Wow, they were really bizarre!

S-

ISSUE 51

Well, who's SKELETON is that? Is the squirrel involved? Who painted that lovely picture in Stew's family room? Oh, fear not: all of these questions and MORE will be answered. Eventually!

S-

ISSUE 50

NEW DESIGN (KINDA) AND THE CONTINUATION OF OUR FABULOUS SQUIRREL STORY! JUMP AROUND FOR JOY EVERYONE!

PS- Our regularly scheduled "scripted" strips return tomorrow! BLISS!

ISSUE 49

CONFESSION: I have managed to acquire myself a nice, little Spring Cold. Oh no, it's nothing tragic, but the coughing has begun to wreak havoc on me a bit. Basically, what I'm saying is, I've been in no mood to draw. Anything. So, as the luck of the current story would have it, I really haven't needed to. I'm glad. Anyway, this morning (after a night chock-full of meds) I feel the best I've felt in a few days with -here's the best part- NO COUGHING! So, with that, enjoy the last of the BLACK POETRY STRIPS and we'll see ya Monday with ISSUE 50!

S- 

ISSUE 48

I sincerely hope that the poetry speaks for itself. It's very, um, full-ish of image-y. Neat!

ISSUE 47

THE SQUIRREL'S REVENGE: PART 1 - DEATH BECOMES THEM

After a few posts of the the two of us torturing, belittling, and otherwise killing the poor squirrel, he has risen from the cinders and is abut to exact his revenge... he's sort of like Jason or Michael Meyers in that respect, and since we're both enormous and ridiculous horror movie fans, it's just that much more appropriate. It's just gonna get worse from here, folks... maybe he'll get his name soon... hmm...

PS- On a little aside here, I was watching Sports Center this morning and it showed President Obama making his bracket picks for the NCAA March Madness Tourney... JUST LIKE ME! I feel just that much closer to him. I think I'll call him and ask him out for a beer...

S-

PPS- Umm, the number on the comic should be 47. Sorry. Really.

ISSUE 46

So, a few weeks ago, on President's Day, I some how forgot to make a Holiday-related strip and, well, I was called out on it. NOT AGAIN! So sit back and tilt a pint to the fella who scared all those damn snakes out of Ireland. Cheers! Oh, and pinch a pal who forgets to sport green for me!

S-

ISSUE 45

Tick Tock... Tick Tock... Tick Tock

S-

HEY, GUESS WHAT??

My routine for the comic is pretty simple. I think about the strip all week then on Sunday I write down a week's worth of funny and send it to Stew via the magical Interweb. Saturday was a fun filled day with a trip to the art museum and doing things with the family.
Saturday afternoon Dan told me he watered his tree.
Okay.
Sunday after church, Dennis went down in the basement to play his guitar.
The basement was flooded.
Seems that Dan forgot to turn off the spigot outside.
A hundred gallons of water later and the basement is still a little damp. I've got a few more hours to get it done.
Sheesh!
What this means is that I will be writing the strips tonight.
Stew has a couple of strips left from last week to hold him over.
Pray for me.

ISSUE 44

Okay. I've had it. Look, I KNOW we have readers, shoot, the numbers are rising somehow. But still, as it sits right now, there are STILL ONLY 4 ENTRIES FOR NAMES FOR THIS *#$*!#$ SQUIRREL!  So, to that end, I have taken it upon myself, as the artist, to formally - possibly - put an abrupt end to his little, insignificant life. Oh, and look! He can only hold his breath for so much longer - TICK TOCK! Let's see, I'll bet he can do this till I don't know, MONDAY! You all know what you have to do... TICK TOCK.

PS- Pretty in color, though, right?

S-

ISSUE 43

Wow. Seven shy of fifty. I'm feelin' good, feelin' poised and... well, not too sure where this is headed over the next week. Ya see, here's the secret: I don't know what's going on for the week until Saturday or Sunday when Doug sends me the script. And, even then I don't look ahead after the day I'm currently working on so it becomes more of a surprise to me and makes my artwork that much more spontaneous. Cool, right? Okay, that's enough behind the scene for now! O, and KEEP POSTING THOSE NAMES!

S-

ISSUE 42

Okay. Well. I guess I have nothing left to say. Ya know it really does make my job that much easier when my cohort does half the work for me... finally. HA!

S-

HOWDY READERS!!!

Hello, my name is Doug and I am addicted to.....oops! Wrong meeting. Heh, my mistake. Anyway, I'll bet that three of you are uber excited as to how the contest for naming the squirrel is going. Let me be the first to say that they are going. I have already picked the winning name, sort of. The whole contest has given me an idea in where to take the strip from here. Even Stew doesn't know so, don't bother him asking for details. Of course he will know on Friday when I hand in more scripts, but even then you should just wait and see. All I can reveal is that there will be multiple winners because of this little idea of mine.

I leave you with a trailer for what may be the most politically incorrect flick coming down the pipe. I can not wait. (insert giggle of glee here)

ISSUE 41

Well, I'll be! We hit our goal of 2500 right around 12 last night/this morning and I couldn't be more happy! If whomever thinks they made the 'winning' hit wants to come forth with a name, we'll find a nice prize to pass along. Speaking of prizes, even with the posting of yesterday's comic and the contest rules from Friday, we still only have three entries. Come on people, we can do better than that! It's really simple: just comment a name. That's it! Oh, you want a hint as to what the prize will be? Well, maybe Doug will stipulate. Can't say for sure what that cat has up his sleeve. Until then, you're just gonna have to trust us that it's cool. Say that name!

S-

ISSUE 40

THIS IS A PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT, AND, POSSIBLY A MESSAGE FROM THE EMERGENCY BROADCAST SYSTEM, AND, MAYBE AN ORANGE ALERT. PLEASE PAY ATTENTION!

ISSUE 39

Well, after witnessing one of filmdom's most amazing spectacles on the majestic IMAX yesterday, I have to honestly say: THE WATCHMEN was better than TDK. So there. See ya tomorrow!

S-

THE CONTEST

Okay, to make it simple here it is in a nutshell (yes, that was a pun). We are having a name the squirrel contest. See, for you observant types out there you may have noticed that he has no name. Now you, the readers, must give us your best suggestions here in the comments portion of the blog. I will pick three winners; Firest prize which is what we will call the squirrel for all time from here on outm and two runners up.
What will the prizes be? You'll find out after you win. Think I'm giving it up that easy, grumble, grumble, why I oughta!
So, the contest runs until next Friday. Good luck and have fun.
One last caveat. If, for some reason, we get zero suggestions or everyone of the names given just suck on ice, the contest is null and void and we will be keeping the aforementioned prizes. Just throwing that out there.

I leave you with this;

ISSUE 38

THE SQUIRREL SUPREMACY: THE CNCLUSION. Yep, I finally get mine in this issue. Now, in the script, Doug wrote in me getting hit by an anvil. See, that was already played out. So instead, I get nailed by something else entirely. And it's big and it's funny. Okay, following this will be Doug's contest rules and his vast plethora of prizes. Have a great weekend and stop back Sunday for a little color WATCHMEN tribute. See ya!

ISSUE 37

THE SQUIRREL SUPREMACY CONTINUES!  There's just something so satisfying about hurting Doug each and every issue. Perhaps it's childhood giddiness, or maybe just a maniacal side that I don't often get to explore. Or maybe I'm just looking too much into this and I just like the way he looks drawn in agony. Oh well, either way, have fun!

WHAT TO EXPECT

The concept is simple. We are doing a storyline this week that will culminate in a contest on Friday. What will the contest be? You'll have to wait and see on Friday. What will the prizes be? Once again, you are gonna have to wait. Sound mysterious? Not really, just don't feel like giving anything away until it's time to do so. Thanks to all our regular readers out there and thanks for getting those numbers up there for us in such a short period of time.
Seeya Friday!

ISSUE 36

THE SQUIRREL SUPREMACY III - It's just gonna get funnier folks! We just had to harken back to the good old days of Toon Town with helpings of unnecessary violence and suspended disbelief... It's Classic! Okay, since it is Wednesday, a mere 3 days from or NEW CONTEST, mahaps Doug will elaborate on the prize we'll be offering and TOMORROW we'll set up the rules and such. Go on sir, the floor is yours:

S-

ISSUE 35

The 'Squirrel Supremacy' continues! For the first time in the history of this comic, I am doing everything possible to stick to Doug's script, with very, very few 'cosmetic' changes, as it were. So, with that, this has become a bit more of an enjoyable challenge to draw, since Doug has thrown in a few curve balls for me to it this week. It's cool! Anyway, I might do a WATCHMEN strip for Friday since, well, you all know and we're going to be seeing it in IMAX on Saturday! Whee! Okay, enjoy! 

ISSUE 34

Good Morrow, fair comic readers! How go'st thou? Well, that's just peachy. Welcome to March and issue 34 of our lovely Swimming Upstream comic strip! As we dive head first into a brand new story line, keep in the collective backs of your heads that: *ahem* WE WILL BE HAVING A CONTEST AT THE END OF THE WEEK WITH HONEST AND ACTUAL FABULOUS PRIZES! Yes, it's true! And no, this time it has nothing to do with just showing up here to read, oh no. This time, were going to actually ask you to physically (see: verbally) do something! Keep coming back all week for hints. It'll be a gas!

S-