YDN_Scene.WPSIATWIN

And now the big coming out announcement: I am a hipster.

Sigh.

You see, I did a three piece gig for Scene. Yes, Scene. I feel like I should feel guilty...I am the enemy of all things hipster, right? Yet here I am not only contributing, but doing the cover, right in the thick of enemy territory! AND as a result I couldn't bring the final Herald comic of my life to its full potential for print. Sounds all around horrific, but turns out this was a highlight of my Yale/life and a heck of a way to wind my year down (not that we're done yet!)

It was a lot of fun, the early reviews were quite positive, and the Scene crew is comprised of some of the best people at Yale, and thus by extension, on Earth. So everything's coming up Milhouse. The only real downside is that I was/am exhausted from squeezing this cover plus two interiors into my regular schedule...more on why being exhausted is bad when the Herald Comic post pops up later today...

So the cover is the Woolsey-esque Radcliffe Camera at Oxford. I got into this foreign entanglement after a couple of the Scene editors stopped me in the YDN office and tag-team proposed I do a cover. They mentioned there was some sort of British one in the works, so I thought it would be good times since that first Scene editor is British...or Greek...or Switzerlandese...or something.

Anyway, both eds were ridiculously nice people and I had a lot of fun marathoning this after sprinting to get my Friday comic turned in a record 24 hours earlier and then immediately gunning the cover (huge thanks to Stavros for the insanely nice paper!!) and as a result, my entire arm was shot with piercing pain, and that was just after finishing the cover! I still had these two interiors to do as well and then my Herald finale, and I was already an hour behind the YDN deadline!

Anyway it all seemed to work out in the end, and I cannot believe I pulled off this YDN assignment! Unfortunately I had to rely on Monster, which is something I really, really, really don't like to do cuz it jacks up your sleep pattern.

Final Art Coming Soon. Also, Fun Facts: this is the biggest drawing I've ever done for publication--I had to scan it in pieces, but since it was just the pencils and time was of the ess, I rushed the stitching. And I also had to fight my OCD desires and not use a ruler...ugh. Well, ok, I used it on the guitar.

So huge thanks to Nicolas (Easter Egg'd "thx Stavros" in grass, plus random Britishisms), Jay, and Harrison for all their support and/or patience during this endeavor and thanks to the Paul for the hall pass from Wednesday's activities and the extension. And big bonus thanks to Scene for the absolutely heartwarming salute on page 2! Gosh...!

Baa: I'm trying to be more accessible before graduation, so if you'd like a drawing, please contact me and I would prolly be happy to do it. My Good-Will Slash Dining Hall Farewell World tour continues with Saybrook for dinner, where I will be drawing the final regular edition of Zero Like Me (the big finale is a bit specialer in format and will run Thursday).

Reuxben

YDN_zlm.Caroline

I'd hack that.

Zero Like Me #108:
Caroline
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-First Comic-
Easter Eggs: "Yale" in panel 1.

Fun Facts: Today's setting is Trumbull, because some of my favorite humans are from there.

Baa: There actually is such a thing as a less than appealing British Yalie...but there's no such thing as a dumb-sounding one. And from an overheard conversation between two Texan Yalies, there's no way Southern accents can get around sounding like idiots. And I can't stand it when y'all write the word "y'all" out...please stop. Also stop saying "shoot me an email," I don't know why it's so ridiculously annoying hearing that phrase, but it is.

Anyway, almost time for the coming out party. Aren't you excited?

Also, if y'all are interested in a drawing after my schedule clears up, shoot me an email.

Reuxben

YDN_zlm.BillBurr

 

Maybe if it was from smoking, it would be easier on Mom.

Zero Like Me #107:
Bill Burr
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Easter Eggs: DF, "Yale" in panel 4.

Fun Facts: Today's setting is just outside of 'Nam. It's named for a comedian I admire who likes to do stuff just to annoy people and who can talk about suicide like nobody else can. I wrote this comic back in February, as a bit of a sequel to this comic, spurred by the unimaginative, concerned citizen here. I get the impression that people think I just write stuff on the fly (I at times do write close to press, but even when it's "timely," sometimes it's only because I update an old script, which I already had ready, with a contemporary reference. But I sometimes use scripts I literally wrote a full year ago. And even if I'm writing close to press, chances are the concept has been in storage a while.

Anyway, my editors wanted to kill this comic, thinking the worst after recent events (fun fact, the paper I drew this comic on had the beginnings of another, similarly themed comic that was given the editorial verdict "absolutely not" and thus that comic was abandoned in the middle of my drawing the Women's Center...). But in any case, today's comic's script hasn't been touched since February. So I'm not preemptively apologizing for this comic since I firmly believe in it, but I do want to acknowledge that people may misconstrue it (don't let me down, guyz!).

Baa: The takeaway here is to stop tolerating smoking. Like, now.

And as hinted earlier, Friday's gonna get freaky...and I just might blow your mind when I drop some fresh knowledge on you. Just sayin'.

Reuxben

YDN_zlm.Election

Be grateful you didn't make a Freudian slip, son.

Zero Like Me 106: Election

Super busy.

Final Art Coming Soon, plus update...?

I think I'm officially coming out on Friday. Cuz...y'know...why not, right? College is almost over.

I organized a Master's Tea for TODAY, 4pm @Pierson. It's comedy writer/journalist Mike Sacks!

And if you're a 2014 here for Bulldog Days, esp. you are my pre-frosh, prepare for the most depressing 48 hours of your lives or your money back...I'm tellin' you right now...

Reuxben

Herald_zlm.FakeTales

And yeah,
I'd love to tell you
all my problem.

Zero Like Me #105:
Zero Romance #21:
Fake Tales of New Haven
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Easter Eggs: Romance 21 in Tale 3. A wacky haircut and Motion City in Tale 1. A Wii and Triforce in Tale 2.

Fun Facts: Tale 1's setting is the OC. Tale 3's setting is based on Fair Haven Elementary School. Garry is proud to live in New Haven for some reason...

This comic came about because I have too many scripts but not enough time...so we are literally cramming it all in there, aren't we? Curtain closes forever next week, on the Herald theatre at least.
They say he changes when the sun goes down...

And I can't get it started on my own.
When are you arriving?
The Herald version actually came out pretty all right.

I wanted to do more with music in my comic. I had this musical character named Justin, but since I was running out of opportunities for comics, I didn't think I'd get to use him again.

But then I thought to do multiple comics in one, like that incredible episode of Avatar, "The Tales of Ba Sing Se," so I lifted that script and plugged it in as the headliner.

It also gave me a chance to say goodbye to my first supporting character, Garry McGruder, someone who I really wanted to use more...the worst part about comicsing during college is you can concretely see what you didn't accomplish in your "life."

Baa: I've been trying to revisit every dining hall for the full dinner shift before I bite the bullet, but I'm running out of time...

TD's Saturday night, SY next Friday night, TC next Saturday, and PC...squeezed in next Wednesday? Anything to complete the world tour, even endure...ugh...college dining halls...

Gosh.

In more upbeat news, that wise latino Gerardo Manera returns in his groundbreaking Herald series, Kill All Your Friends, to salsa and sombrero his way into your heart, with another avant garbage piece, arguably not even a comic, which he entitles, "River," for some strange reason:

Quite frankly...

That hombre really creeps me out.

Or for our Canadian visitors:

That guy really creeps me oot.

Eh?

Reuxben

YDN_zlm.Woulda

You know you ain't be gettin' any friend requests since fiff gray.

Zero Like Me #104:
Woulda
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Theeesizzle due in <17 hours! Let's poo this!
Hey, Rocky, watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat!

Update:
Homie got it did, and with an hour to boot. Even got one last slightly-uncomfortable encounter for the road with my favorite fellow dark-skinned lit major!

Easter Eggs: "Yale" in panel 4. Inside jokes for the OCD in panel 4...perhaps people will see why they are hilarious in a couple weeks. Should be obvious that Scene is for smokers, though. Facebox is a ref to a Conan monologue, where he kept saying "Facebox" rather than "Facebook" because he had "X-Box" on the brain from the previous joke.

Fun Facts: I use facebook as a really clunky Twitter to hype new comics, but other than that...meh kinda a glorified birthday-reminder service. Funny, cuz when Twitter starting storming Yale, I thought it was just a really lame Facebook. Still is, for the most part.

Baa: I don't get how people can spend so much time on Facebook...and why do people randomly add people? What is the point of a swelled number if you don't actually know those people? I'm going to go cut some people...

Reuxben

YDN_zlm.IdentityCrisis

Brace for lawsuits...
[Update: Final Art at top]
Zero Like Me #103:
Identity Crisis
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Easter Eggs: Zach in panel 1, Jinjin and "Yale" in panel 2, jack kelly in panel 3. The Trudeau in panel 4. A tribute of sorts cuz I herd u liek yale comicz (I know I do).

Fun Facts: Lot of fun researching this one. Totally coincidentally, the homaged comicsers (minus the Trudeau, of course) all started at the Herald...Also, Doonesbury is frustratingly deadpan, man, you don't understand...and everybody looks like everybody...


Baa: In high school I was "the smart guy." In college I was "the comics guy." But...what next?

Final Art Coming Soon; this one deserves true color, but no time right now!

Reuxben

YDN_zlm.BSComics

Take that, Harold Bloom!

Zero Like Me #102:
Stella Theory Pt.2: B.S. Comics [Pt.1 here]
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Easter Eggs: "Yale" and "Go Jeff!" in panel 1. "FB01" in Panel 3. "Choose Science at Yale" is an inside joke with my editor(s) re: a comic they aborted. Title's a ref to someone perhaps even more passive-aggressive than me. ...Moving on!

Fun Facts: Today's setting is the Comp Lit Department, where I must go on Friday to drop off my stupid, stupid theeesizzle.

Quick Note: Removal Rule Numbah One is we don't name names, but exception's made for today cuz first: only losers read the text on this site, and second: kinda need to for today's stories to make sense, and besides they're all public figures. Back to euphemisms and pronounage mode starting Wednesday.

In a Lit300 lecture last year, Professor Fry commented on one of the critics were were supposed to have read--skimmed it--and in regards to the critic's over the top, belligerent diction, Professor Fry chuckled to the class about how unnecessarily violent the guy's tone was, noting that the critic should have relaxed because literary criticism "doesn't really matter." BAM! Straight from the man himself.

Baa: This comic goes out to all them gangstas at 451 College Street, holdin' it down and keepin' it as far from real as possible. To be fair, Science Hillians will someday be learning how to augment humans so they can do things they naturally should have stopped doing a long time ago, and then innovating fun and tastier ways to abort babies. Which is the greater evil--not helping your fellow human, or helping too much?

But seriously...people are suffering, dying, etc. out there, and we're studying words? I feel like scum for being a literature major and having to sit through so much garbage with a straight face. I wouldn't have a problem with it if they were all as up front as Professor Fry about how literally meaningless and immaterial literary theory is, but so many of them try to act like this stuff matters. NOBODY is concretely benefiting from it. Period. Stop deluding yourself. It's a self-congratulatory mechanism devised by humans to admire their own stupid little human creations. It's studying entertainment. You are not saving somebody's life by teaching about signs and signifiers. It's a luxury. Granted, I enjoy fiction and hate reality, but still, at least share some guilt about your field and admit that when someone faints and they ask "Is there a doctor in the house?!" you keep your PhD on the DL.

I couldn't stand being in Lit300. Credit/D'd that spit. Literally fell asleep in nearly every single lecture. I avoid Professor Fry cuz he must surely remember the non-white guy who fell asleep every lecture (there were never more than like two dark-skinned people in the entire lecture hall at a time--where you at, Theo?).

So anyway, for those keeping score at home, my self-hatred exists socially, racially, institutionally, and now even academically, just to name a few.

Special Note on the YCC Election:

I despise the YCC, especially after working directly with them on this past Fall/Winter Show and seeing their cliquish, selfish, phony, uninformed, and lazy work style. But looking at the debate videos, and assuming the Presidency can actually execute as hyped, I'd have to say 8:00 of Part 3 (plus 2:47 of Part 4) kinda seals it that this guy knows what he's doing and has concrete, practical aims. He also comes off as having just enough insider knowledge of the YCC to know how to deal with them effectively, but balanced with a clear degree of cut-the-cute-talk mentality.

The other two either stumble over their words or aren't as set in concrete plans...they literally just want to "talk about" or "approach" stuff. I have nothing against the YDNer running aside from her lack luster performance in the debate, but I do know I'm sure as heck not voting for a guy who pats himself on the back for this, citing MGMT as a "great band that appeals to a lot of different types of people," or this, claiming in effect that the Ying Yang Twins, who "should get that late-night push," are not “particularly alienating," and contribute a "happy, upbeat feel." Yeah. Right.

My name is Reuxben, and I approve of abstaining from voting. But if you have to vote for someone, make it the guy who actually seems like he's not putting on a show. From personal experience, the least electrifying personality can be the most capable, especially when personality doesn't matter for the job. This isn't about personalities, this is about who can get stuff done, so don't be afraid to vote for the guy who isn't a caricature.

Good bye, Alexis Blight, you finally got your Revenge.

Reuxben

Herald_zlm.HisWords

Based on a true story.
Zero Like Me #101:
Zero Romance #20:
His Words Destroyed My Planet
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Easter Eggs: Romance 20 on shirt. jack kelly is even worse than Jack Wills.

Fun Facts: Today's setting is jolly old JE, where many tragedies occur. Today's target is based on a composite of people.

Baa: In commemoration of the event that triggered this comic, every year around this time I update my status to say I'm "Cute Without the E," which is an obvious reference to being Cut From the Team. So this comic goes out not to any one person in particular.

Man, the Herald version isn't too flashy (I knew from the get go I was going to be pressed for time...)

Anyway, back to behind the scenes stuff... I was so thrilled when Motion City Soundtrack did a song called "Her Words Destroyed My Planet." I think I was in WLH waiting for Harold Bloom's class to start when they unveiled it on their website, actually. The reason I love that song is because it perfectly articulated what I've been struggling with for the past few years. So I was determined to do a comic after finally, clearly understanding the concept beyond an instinctual level.

If it weren't for certain happenings, I would not have had this push to do comics, and I have no idea what would have happened to me if I didn't have this outlet in the thick of it.

So although I may come off as a cynical turd, I'm actually pretty optimistic, and can see the bright side (and dark side) of most situations. For creative reasons I dwell on the parenthetical latter, but at heart I'm all about the former.

Anyway, to help celebrate the 100th/101st Zero Like Mes, I rallied up a lily-livered little fart named jack kelly to bust out some Herald action.

Hilariously, the little dork got cut because we needed another ad in the paper, but what makes me more furious than seeing him in print is seeing him online against his will.

So despite jack kelly's insistence that I not publish his comic on my site, just to tick him off, here is his comic, a Removal online exclusive called "conan twins," which looks like this:

Wow, wasn't that hilarious?

I didn't think so. Now beat it, kid, you bother me.

Reuxben

YDN_zlm.YouKnowHowIDo

Not to be confused with this.

Zero Like Me Number One Hundred:
You Know How I Do
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Easter Eggs: "Yale" in panel 1.

Fun Facts: Today's setting is not SML after hours, inside a secret society's tomb, nor a naked party, it is the YDN's 2room (same diff, amirite?). Man, I kept smiling after I turned this one (hundredth) in. 100. Kind of ridiculous. I had no idea when I started this I'd hit anywhere near 100! I'm so incredulous right now. One hundred...that's at LEAST around 800 hours of my Yale/life! I only wish it could be a purely happy moment, but it's shadowed by something quite grim.

Baa: I'm actually starting to get a little emotional while working on these comics now...I've defined my Yale life with comics, and this series in particular has become a part of me, my very identity, especially to strangers--the other day someone spotted me working on this in the JE dining hall (how appropriate a studio site for the 100th gig) and immediately asked if it was for the next day's paper. This series is just so close to me. And it really disturbs me that it's all going to end soon, which then means Yale will end by extension, of course.

I was in the YDN building earlier Thursday and I found myself angry at the idea of soon never coming back in for work, being forever off the beat, meanwhile everyone I work for gets at least a couple more months of action next year before the board swaps again, as it invariably does. Even all my fellow practicing comicsers are all coming back--I'm the only senior still comicsing. So it's with sadness that I must quit but also with a hint of jealousy that everybody else still gets to throw down. They get to go back into battle.

It's like in Major Payne, where they take the guy out of the military, but he's just the same psycho in the cadet academy minus proper outlets for his way of life.

Anyway, to celebrate Zero Like Me's centennial (-_-) please enjoy some Root Beer I loaded up on from Uncommon (two varieties), which I will leave just outside of the JE dining hall on the nagging table before dinner starts (please try to limit yourself to just one). If the table's in use, plan B is the staircase leading to Branford's dining hall.

Stay tuned later today for a very unspecial guest from today's Herald post. Plus some bonus sketches this weekend as we party my dinosaur life away.

Reuxben

YDN_zlm.WhereToBegin

He's got it all.

Zero Like Me #99:
Where to Begin (The Dan Song)
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Easter Eggs: "Yale" in panel 1. "Dan's Got It All" or "Isn't Times Square Beautiful" scored to the best of my ability...Yale's very own master of pathos as I saw him at Yale-a-Palooza. Ref "The Future Freaks Me Out" and "DB" in panel 2.

Fun Facts: Today's setting is Branford, where the squirrels roam. I got a copy of "Dan's Got It All," one of his best unreleased tracks. I heard him play it live once. Incredible. Why doesn't he put this stuff online? Even if it's his version of doodles, it's still absolutely killer.

Baa: I sketched him as he played at Yale-A-Palooza and I was an instant fan, but I could barely remember what he looked like after he left the stage, oddly enough. So a bit later it was the Fall Show (starring Dat Phony) and I noticed the guy a few seats to my right had a mouth that looked just like the mouth I had been trying to draw back at Yale-A-Palooza. So I mustered my courage and went up to him and asked him about his music. I was so ridiculously nervous I was shaking and everything.

There are a few Yalies I get "star"struck around. One is obvious--I'm a huge fan. Another is more of a silly sort of starstruck, not so much a fan as an imagine-that sort of thing. A third is like I-can't-believe-he-knows-who-I-am. There's a fourth, but I haven't had an opportunity to draw her (plus I feel that might kill the aura).

Sometimes it weirds me out that I'm on a first name basis with certain megatalents. I was also a big fan of hers even before we became colleagues (her work got me into comics, really), and I remember being thrilled when she responded to my email four years ago inquiring about how to start a comic. I was so nervous when I met her at Comics Club, and now it's like she's just another human. Funny how celebrity and humanization quarrel.

Ok, Zero Like Me Number One Hundred is coming Friday! I can't believe it. It's sinking in that this is all going to end soon. I almost fell apart earlier today thinking about it. It's bittersweet. Maybe just bitter. But to celebrate 100 (and 1 with the Herald) trips into the abyss I'm going to hold another Rootbeeraganza. I'll dump a bunch of rootbeerios outside the JE Dining Hall, I guess, in time for dinner.

Reuxben

YDN_zlm.Eww

I just grossed myself out with this one.

Zero Like Me #98:
Eww
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Easter Eggs: "Yale" in panel 1. You cannot spell "Float On" without "Flo a ton," teehee. This comic's signature misrepresented the date the comic was drawn. The comicser drew this on the 4th, not the 5th, and doesn't feel like correcting it. The YDN regrets this error.

Fun Facts: I remember the Trudeau did a run on the iPad unveiling, plus the YDN held a design talk that spent a lot of time about newspapers' necessary future tablet capabilities, but the other day I randomly saw this Stephen Colbert clip (Jimmy?) and I figured this would be something of interest to a lot of people to read about in a comic. Some JEsters spotted me working on it, saw the word "iPad" and asked for a preview. The early reviews are positive...

Baa: I hate macs. But ever since I started using them nigh exclusively for the past week or so in the JE computer cluster, after my laptop went into the shop, I still hate macs. But they're not so bad. But they still suck.

Also, man, do you guys really...bleed like that? Dude, that's rough. That makes me wonder how there can really be...y'know...female tough guys...I mean...eventually...won't they just...y'know...just kinda...just bleed everywhere? I don't mean anything insulting by it, I just...it kinda makes adventure/fantasy series a bit harder to believe...you know? You know, like, is it believable to have strong female characters doin'-it-their-way before they had pads? Oh gosh, I just grossed myself out again. I'm going to stop writing now. Good day.

Reuxben

Herald_zlm.NinjaYouCrazy

Everybody get down.
Zero Like Me #97:
Zero Romance #19:
Ninja, You Crazy!
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Easter Eggs: "Yale" in panel 6. Romance 19 in panel 2. Ibuki style. Umezawa's Jitte. Dan's Squareman! Cobra Kai never die. 1988.

Fun Facts: Today's setting is the Wimmin's Taybull area of Cross Campus. More importantly, this is how the Herald does April Fools, fools. We were trying to figure out what to do this year and I mentioned I was planning a comic about ninja, and then it ended up being our team theme--this is the first year we've had a unified theme.

I am thrilled we've been able to continue the April Fools specials I started at both the YDN (2nd year) and the Herald (3rd year)--I wasn't sure the Herald would be on board this year, but we ended up getting it together literally at the last minute! I'm also happy that all the YDN regulars joined in, too.

The keen eye can spot a jack kellyian getting murdered, as right he should be, but the keener eye can spot a Squareman, the signature character from my original Herald Comics editor, Dan. He was the first one to print a comic by me and was really encouraging, and thus remains a crucial human being in my existence.

The other key player, Mr. Chittenden, is still involved with comics. He was my Herald editor after Dan, and he helped teach me the basics of incorporating computers into my work--including helping teach me how to make the first Herald Fools Special possible, techniques I used again this year.

Baa: Freshman Year, I met this black guy who loved rap but hated the N-word--predicament! But the kid said rather than N-bomb, he uses the word "ninja," and that nugget of trivia has been bouncing around in my head ever since.

I also drew a ninja for Zach's comic, which is visible here.

The character on the get-up says Rei, which is Japanese for "Zero" and the pose is Ralph Macchio.

I was in Japan when I saw a Zero fighter, the Pearl-Harboring kamikaze plane, in a naval museum. I was planning my next Herald series at the time, so I wrote "Zero" down as a cool possible villain's name.

But then I ended up creating a YDN comic, and I needed a name for a severely depressed guy. And I thought Zero was perfect for multiple reasons, one of which is it's about valuelessness, but also the kamikaze connotation.

I wasn't sure how the color might get screwed up on this (as it tends to whenever I use color for printed comics), so I went overboard with precautions, including using CMKY and stuff, which kinda really impaired the lines.

Coloring can be fun...but lines are so much more interesting...

So basically, what I'm trying to say is I wanna be just like you.

Reuxben

YDN_zlm.Pretty

What kind of emotionally insecure idiot can't even stay serious for one minute when talking about his feelings?

Zero Like Me #96:
Fools March In Pt.3: Pretty
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Easter Eggs: "Yale" in panel 4. My main man, Harkeness Tower in the beegee.

Fun Facts: Thus concludes this year's YDN Comics April Fools' Week special--"Christmas in March." I hope you enjoyed everyone's Christmas-themed comics! And I hope YDN comicsers continue the tradition after I leave for a worse place. In case you missed the Yalebration, here is Day One, Day Two, Day Three, Day Four, and Day Five.

Baa: Did I ever tell you about my first kiss? Course I did...Hum...Oh, here's a story: In elementary school, I found out a couple girls liked me. They were the two most annoying girls in the class. Does that count as a story? Oh! Hey, there was this one time in like fourth grade when my school had its annual trip to CalSkate, the local rollerskating rink in my NorCal hometown, and a certain girl asked me to coupleskate with her, but I was too embarrassed, so I ran away...err, skated away.

You've Got Mail is so my favorite romantic comedy that it inspired my first proper Herald series, Darling Find. That series haunted me for a while because I thought I'd be a one hit wonder (it was received pretty well--I was working in Swing Space at like 3am when I first read that thread and I literally started jumping and shouting for joy--but nothing seemed to match its success). Fortunately ZLM (and SLS)'s doing pretty well--I went to a psych study the other day and it turned out the guy running it's a big fan! Hilarious!

Reuxben