My, but Hazel knew how to wear a suit!

I drew in the barely-there background of this scene to match that of the Martinsburg Journal, where I was working at the time when I made this strip. It was my first big job out of college, and my last place of employment; I quit a few months in, opting instead for unpredictable work doing caricatures and freelance illustration for a living.

I admit, the Journal was a hard place to leave. I literally arrived every day to a collection of surprise requests by my awesome boss Ron to drive out to Wherever, WV to photograph some person or event I'd never heard of, spent the entire day driving to said requests (after getting directions from MapQuest, because it was 2004 and phones weren't smart yet), and then drove back to the newsroom to process my photos, as well as all of the other photos that'd been sent in that day, in the small room that resembled the computer-laden room in the background of this strip. I worked overtime almost every day. There were no benefits, other than the ones listed here.

I remember telling the editor-in-chief that I would probably leave soon because my comic was "really taking off." I must've been four strips in (and full of shit). I didn't actually start making my living 100% off GWS until three years later, but I guess I had a pretty strong hunch back then!