Hitting my stride.

Of all my early strips, I think this one captures everything I was going for: encapsulating the college experience, leveraging the personalities and chemistry of the main characters and a visual element to the punchline. I wasn't a good enough artist to produce one of those "gorgeous-but-poorly-written" strips. And I didn't want the strip to be viewed as "competently illustrated dialogue." So I strove for a balance. Note the topical reference ("State game") and eighties relic (corded phone).