"I Just Work Here" presents: Rewind

Changing tack with "I Just Work Here"... instead of the usual stand-alone jokes, I'm going to start delving into the character's lives and backgrounds and how they relate to the job, starting with Javiera.

IJWH's most enjoyed aspect, the office jokes, is also by far the most challenging for me. It's not that I have a hard time coming up with ideas on the whole, what's hard is coming up with un-related moments and situations from one strip to the next and then giving them a common feel. I am, by nature, a writer, and the pictures are my substitute for prose. Telling such short, one-page stories is part of what forced me to transition to a 2-week release schedule; I much prefer writing a continuous, well-told story, not bits and snatches of this and that, which means spending more time coming up with something as close to a quality idea as I possibly can.

I was very lucky to meet some of IJWH's readers quite recently, and while discussing the story topics, one had the brilliant idea of going back and looking at the characters' backgrounds. Does this mean the humor is going to change? No, not really. That is to say, nothing outside the usual context of an author's natural maturation (or de-maturation as the case may be; I'm aiming for the former). No, what's going to change is the story-telling style. Up to this point, it's been a fun challenge to see how long I can keep going with the stand-alone jokes, but the truth of the matter is it's easy to get into a recycled, been-here-done-this groove with stand-alone jokes (Dennis the Menace, it's time to retire!!!). What I'm hoping is that by looking a little harder at the characters, IJWH will start to develop heart, something I feel it is almost completely devoid of compared to my other works and many others besides. If there's one thing I think is crucial to a comic, it's good character development, and in going backwards on the timeline I hope to move forward with that as best I can.

I hope you, the reader, find this a pleasing turn of events, and I hope bringing the characters to life a little more will make the strip more fun, and even meaningful, for you. In order for me to put forth my best work, I really have to believe in my characters, to have them feel real, and I hope to accomplish this as Javiera takes center stage to tell her story.