Happy Endings!
Credit for the happy ending goes to my lovely and loving wife, who in seeing the original ending, which was very close to the end of the previous strip, suggested a happier ending. A little rewriting to the courtroom scene got us to the point we have here, where Ione finds Tom and they reunite.
It is a little melancholy in that their son is still gone, but that part of the story was written way before the ending was finalized into its present form.
There is a secret to Factor of 01 that I've only revealed to a few people and if you can break the code, it's actually in the comic itself, three times. I'll give a special gift to the first person to e-mail me with the secret, or to put it into the comments.
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Now for the future plans. The detailed plot for Hanamori's Circus is still being finished. I'm still undecided on how to format it, whether to go with horizontal or vertical and if to go with a strip format like I've been doing. I'm leaning away from it, as the only thing pulling me to strip format is that I have about three pads of Bristol cut to the format.
My schedule for the debut of Hanamori's Circus is not set. I want to get five installments in the can before it debuts. My collaborator is really wanting it in color, so we may just see another full color comic. In the meantime, you never know when I may fire off a one-shot strip just to exercise those muscles.