I don’t really know what to say about this strip. I’m not sure what there is to say. I’m certainly not ready to say it here. I’ll have to say it in comics. I’ve spent the last six years struggling to say what I want through comics, it’s time to really force myself to do so. So stop reading this. It won’t explain anything.

…and the in-flight movie is “Norbit.”

And it was such a good disguise, too. He had the hair and everything.

Now that I think about it, “fuck you” really doesn’t work as a mission statement either… maybe slogan? Maxim? Rallying cry? I dunno. I do know that if you take the first letters of every fifteenth word of Atlas Shrugged, that’s what it spells. Look it up if you don’t believe me.

You looked it up? Sucker.

This may be a case of kicking someone when he’s down, as Redacted is a total flop at the box office and reviews have been, shall we say, lackluster… but it was something that was picking at me since I read about the film’s plot. I don’t fault Brian De Palma for wanting to air his views in the medium of film — I feel that’s every artist’s right and indeed responsibility. But why would you do so by treading ground you went over eighteen years ago? It seems, I dunno, cheap. De Palma’s films usually entertain the crap out of me. However, he’s never been accused of being original. Masterful with a camera, yes, but thematically his movies play more like homage (to Hitchcock, to Antonioni, etc) than actual visions. Now he’s paying homage to himself. Weak.

I’m pretty sure that phrase hasn’t been used since the Allman Brothers broke up, but then again, I’m sure that most Alien-English phrase books are pretty out of date anyway.

Since I’m not a Republican running for president, let me just say that I have nothing against aliens. I’ll even rent to them as long as they pay their rent on time, and I think Monkey Angst feels the same way. Which is why this might not be that big a deal.

Just can’t put my finger on it. Something’s not right. You what else isn’t right? The country. You know who can make that better? Ron Paul. He’s going to win all the primaries, you know. He even won last night in Iowa, but you won’t see the MSM reporting that. They’re busy reporting that he didn’t get as many votes as anyone else. It’s a conspiracy, I tell you.

New year. New storyline. New direction for Monkey Law. I hope you like it. Some of you won’t. It’s no secret that I’ve felt the strip has been stagnating for a while, and my interest in it has waned. So I’ll be trying some new things as Monkey Law enters its seventh year of existence. A lot of it won’t work at all. That’s okay. I hope you’ll stick around for the ride.

Oops. Well, sometimes these things happen. Don’t judge Steven too harshly… people do strange things when they’re vulnerable. I’d clean it with bleach, though, if you take my meaning.

OK, so perhaps I’ve been a little on the lax side at getting Monkey Law out on time the last few months. I’ve been a bit distracted by the cutest little distraction you’ve ever seen. She’s occupied a lot of my time lately, and given the choice between being with her and drawing monkeys, well, I think that’s a bit of a no-brainer.

There’s also the matter of our disparity of talent… she’s a much better artist than I am, and I must admit I’ve always been a bit embarrassed to work in front of her. Take a look at her stuff and you’ll see what I mean.

But today I think I took some steps to getting over that. I drew this strip at a coffee house while she worked on her own comic next to me, and it was wonderful. I couldn’t be happier.

Sorry about not updating the strip with regularity lately… I’ve had a lot to do. First, there was the long hours I was putting in at work. We had a new operating system release that made us a lot busier than anyone could have predicted, resulting in a lot of overtime. Basically, the Leopard ate my comic strip.

The later reason for my slacking off was substantially more pleasant, but I don’t like to dwell on my private life here…

Anyway, Monkey Law is back! Enjoy!