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October 31, 2012 - Happy Halloween!
Honestly I didn't plan this comic to end up on Halloween and I probably would have rewritten it if it had fallen on any other day. I generally dislike the association that having an abortion will send you to Hell. It's a completely irrational idea to think an abortion could carry such consequences, but I don't think that stops people from having such an idea or fear.
I don't, however, think it unreasonable that a part of Jennifer may think going to Hell could be a consequence of having an abortion. She's obviously rationalized this a lot in her work, but she comes from a religious background and has encountered protestors that suggest having an abortion as well as aiding others to have one is a sin. I don't want to ignore these thoughts, but I do want to point out that the specifics of the afterlife are mostly speculative and uncertain. I think that one should live his or her life to the best of one's ability and not worry about the hereafter but rather about how to live as a community. If one feels a belief in an afterlife makes him or her a better person, that's great, but I don't think ignoring such thoughts necessarily makes someone a bad person.
Anyway, on a day dedicated to irrational fears, I find it someone appropriate to run a comic prominently featuring one (though as I said I would have likely rewritten this should this comic have fallen on a different day). I do like exploring the religious implications of abortion and plan to in a bit more depth in the future, but despite the depiction of Hell, today's comic is really about the introduction of Theresa.
Jennifer's mom has not altered Theresa's room since Theresa died and that's supposed to be dust Jennifer is running her finger through on the dresser. I also put Theresa in a soccer uniform as I wanted to have her wear something formal yet not dreary. I felt a black dress or something she might have worn to a funeral or at her funeral was a little too dark and wanted something that suggested youth. Intially I considered a school uniform, but I thought those have been a bit fetishized and that's not the statement I want to make about Theresa, so I think the soccer uniform does a lot to suggest her interests, avoids the problems of a school uniform, and still retains a certain formality that makes her appear as part of something larger while Jennifer is on the outside. Plus the lime green straddles the line between warm and cool colors making the first two panels feel safe and the third panel less so.
Since this is already pretty long, I should also add that I initially wanted to give Jennifer more dialogue at the end questioning whether God darns socks and making the distinction that she should say "Thou" instead of "You." But I think I ended on the best punchline and it was best to end there and then ramble on like I usually do in this post about what could have been.
-D
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