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Once again, Belt Boy's thinking just a liiiiiiiiiiittle too hard about Gelatin Boy's legs (or lack thereof). The first panel was me trying to challenge myself with perspective a bit; the weird angle of the wall was new, but my giving thicker outlines to things in the foreground is something I've done before quite often. By the way, he's totally reading his DNA Sequencing for Pinheads book that we saw earlier. I played around with the positioning of Belt Boy's mouth in the last panel; his expression changes quite a bit depending on whether his mouth is moved up, down, left, or right. It's amazing how elastic his face is.

After a few weeks of celebrating my birthday and the comic's 10th anniversary, the story comics are back, baby! :-) In case you're new to my comic, I want to make it clear that this gag is poking fun at the fact that Gelatin Boy is, in fact, made of gelatin, and is a legless blob from the waist down. This is NOT making fun of transpersons, who TOTALLY deserve the right to use whatever bathroom matches their gender identity. On a related note, some of you may have noticed this bathroom sign resembling that from the "Ally Need is Love" storyline, except that was a unisex bathroom and this is a boys only bathroom. I decided that C.R.A.S.H. would have both gender-specific AND unisex bathrooms. Because why not? If they can afford exercise rooms with laser jai-alai courts, they can afford a few extra plumbing fixtures. The signs for both bathrooms were my own attempt at making a somewhat original-looking bathroom sign. Believe it or not, back in high school I actually met graphic designer Roger Cook - the man who designed many of the signs we see every day... including the stick figure men and women on bathroom signs. I felt that it would be respectful to a fellow artist to acknowledge his art without ripping off of it, so I did my own, more superhero-y take on bathroom symbols. One last thing... When I wrote Belt Boy's first line in this strip, there was a certain rhythm to it, so that he was rhyming the words "negatory" and "lavatory". I wish I could have made that fact obvious, short of seperated his lines into stanzas like in a song or poem (which I thought was overdoing it a bit). Did you catch that rhyme, by any chance...?

It's hard to believe it, but this is the tenth anniversary of The Heroes of C.R.A.S.H. (Well, technically, it turned ten sometime in January or February, but I'm not sure what day my site actually went online, so I just celebrate it alongside my birthday. But I digress.)! It's been an amazing ten years. While I may not have made any money or gained the notoriety of many of my peers, I can say that it's been fun challenging my brain's creativity lobe to come up with loveable characters, cool stories, and funny jokes on a regular basis. As you can see from my filler, my art and characters have evolved quite a bit in that time. Who knows how they will look ten years from now...? Here's to finding out! I want to thank everyone who's supported me during this time: my family (especially my Mom, whom I got my artistic genes from), my girlfriend Melissa, my friends (Including my computer-fixer Chris and my #1 commenter Gill, who also inspired Cannon and Sugar Rush respectively), all the cool comic artists I've met and chatted with over the years (There's way too many to list - go see my Links page and read their amazing work!), the folks at the 910CMX forums for hosting my own forum (and subsequently helping me to start growing a readership!), many of my teachers (Particularly my patient Junior High and High School art teachers, Mrs. Eichelberger and Pam Grumbach... as well as one IMpatient 5th grade teacher who told me I was too creative. I not only showed her wrong, but I based Battle-Axe Beatrix on her. Heh heh heh...!), and the many cartoonists who inspired me (Once again, too many to list, but I do want to give extra kudos to Kevin Eastman, Peter Laird, Tom Warburton, Butch Hartman, Chuck Jones, Charles Schulz, and Walt Disney). And of course, I couldn't have done it without Belt Boy, Cannon, and Titanium Maiden. Thanks for everything, guys! :-) Anyway, if you want to help me celebrate my comic's tenth anniversary AND my birthday, then you should enter my fan art contest or my fan avatar contest by May 19th! You don't have much time left, so do it A-S-A-Now! Oh, and to all my friends who follow me on social media, here's some bonus factoids about today's tribute: - In case it's not obvious, my characters on the left are drawn in a style meant to emulate that which I used when I first started the comic. Back then I drew with a mouse! I was going to use a mouse once again, but Manga Studio lacks the auto-smoothing capabilities of Flash, so I still used a stylus - Retro Belt Boy lacks a "mullet" in the back, TM's got different eyes, shoes, hair, and abs, and Cannon's got stripes on his shoes. And of course, they have thick, sloppy outlines and diamond-shaped muscles. - I wasn't sure how to fit Cannon in with Belt Boy and TM on the sides of the big number 10 without blocking them, and I wasn't sure how excited he'd get over this milestone... so I just had him sitting in front of the lettering and reading comics obnoxiously. - Cannon's having a greater interest in his comic books than the world around him is largely inspired by Jason Grey from the webcomic The Wotch. Cannon's comic cover resemble's Jason's shirt, which was also used as the logo of the 910CMX forums, which hosts my forum, of course!) - The background is gray, just like in the first HoC desktop and the 5th anniversary picture, albeit with a different gradient look to it. - I still want more fan art, folks! Okay, that may not qualify as a "bonus factoid", but it's still true. Send me your entries!

Before I did my Daily Drawings, I would upload and announce my Saturday morning comic late Friday night. Now I wait until after midnight to make it official. I know to some of you it may seem dumb, but given how late at night some of my Friday Daily Drawings are, and the fact that I resolved to upload new pictures DAILY - be it my comic or my sketches or whatever - posting both in the same night seemed like a bit of a cop-out. Anyway, I fell asleep last night, so instead of a midnight post, you get a wee-small-hours-of-the-morning post. Hopefully, none of you are awake by the time I've posted this; I don't want anyone to think I skipped an update! Anyway, Gelatin BOY talks with Belt BOY here, hence the title of today's comic. I'm not sure if they'll change their names to Gelatin Man and Belt Man when they get older; it admittedly doesn't have the same ring (And let's face it, "Barnacle Man" never stuck on SpongeBob...). Gelatin Boy may be altering his shape in panel 2, but I assure you, his gelatinous form does not grant him super-shape-shifting powers. His appearance in this panel owes as much to him being a toony character as it does to him being made of gelatin. He can't stretch or morph himself at will to a significant (or at least not a helpful) degree with one exception: he can reform himself if something squashes him. GB's powers are pretty much defensive (although he sees them as pretty much useless). Also, PLEASE ENTER MY FAN ART CONTEST! TIME’S ALMOST UP AND I WANT MORE ENTRIES

For the record, Sugar Rush actually DID try to eat Gelatin Boy once. However, as he is part gelatin and part boy, he tastes like a mix of orange flavoring and sweat. Not appetizing at all. The title of today's comic references an old interactive "Clickamajig" from Nickelodeon's website, back in the day (not sure if it's still around), in which you got to click on treats to give to adorable costumed children. Giving them caramels was always appreciated, but if you gave them black licorice, their eyes would grow large, and they'd sprout fangs or horns as they said - in demonic-sounding voices, I might add - "I don't like black licorice!" The title for this comic is also for my best bud, Chris. He knows why. Hee hee...! Anyway, have you entered my contest yet? You've got less than 3 weeks left!

Cannon respects Belt Boy... but his definition of "respect" still allows for a few practical jokes like this. And getting free food is the most practical application of practical jokes in his book! By the way, I'm reminding you that there's LESS THAN A MONTH LEFT in my fan art contest! I'm also reminding you that if you're not so great at art, that there's an avatar contest to see who makes the best avatar using a video game or online character generator (Like Miis, Sims, etc.). Remember, you must enter by or before my birthday on May 19th! Check out the rules on my main page and get to it!

In panel #3, Enticia's referring to what took place in comics #305 and #306 (During the storyline "Even a Rose Has its Thorns"). I like the background for that panel, even though it's similar to something I did once for Comic #423 (Fight at the Museum), but my favorite panel has got to be the last one. I had fun playing with Manga Studio's tools to make a blur effect, and I think I pulled it off well. What do you think? P.S.: HAVE YOU ENTERED MY ART CONTEST YET?!

I'm having trouble connecting to my websites server, so I wasn't able to upload my comic to the website, but I can still post it on social media. I'll letcha know if anything changes. [EDIT: I've managed to connect to the server and update my website again! Yay!] Sorry for such a late update! Anyway, today's comic was a fun one. If you're reading this comic on a phone or something where the letters on the safe are too small to read, they say "Max's Fears and Insecurities". My initial idea was to have some sort of metaphorical machine in Belt Boy's head, and I would show that Beatrix was literally "pushing his buttons". However, I liked the imagery of something being unleashed in the dark corners of his mind a bit better. I was going to even have some cloud of ominous negativity pouring out from the safe in the last panel, but it just didn't look right, so I decided to go with a simpler layout. Don't forget, there are exactly TWO MONTHS LEFT in my FAN ART/AVATAR CONTEST! Click the button on my main page to read the rules so that you can submit your artwork or generated avatar and win my prize!

If you thought that my comic was gonna be less toony when I adjusted my artistic style, I hope that panel 3 has convinced you otherwise. If panel 4 seems uncharacteristically obnoxious for Belt Boy, this strip's title should explain where he picked up this "negotiation technique". I felt it necessary to explain this in the title - which is the only reason I didn't go with the much catchier alternative title: "Drop, Pop, and Roll". Don't forget, you still have two weeks and one month to enter my totally awesome fan art contest! The contest ends on my birthday - May 19th - so be sure to enter by then. Fan art is one of my favorite presents to get! :-)