Well, this is it! The final strip! Hard to believe this is the last time I’ll be spending my Tuesday nights trying to craft a new adventure for these little guys, but it looks like they don’t need me anymore anyways.

I do sincerely appreciate the time you’ve chosen to spend here. If you don’t want the magic to end, then please consider following my work at Cowboy Jedi and Eye-Level Entertainment.

And remember moving on isn’t always a bad thing. (Language warning on that link there.)

Ok, I didn’t get the last strip done yet. I was working on the dialogue and it was getting late so instead of rushing it, I decided to call it a night. Tune in tomorrow… it’ll be ready then!

Rat Tangent’s Top Ten… #2:

December 9th, 2009 – “A Bad Year For Swine”

I’ll be the first to admit, I don’t have the skill sets necessary to be a successful comic strip creator. However, if I could pull a strip off like this every day, then that would be another story. If my number one strip wasn’t so epic, then this would be a serious contender for the best one. As I stated yesterday, when Rat Tangent was successful, it was equal parts funny, poignant, and well-drawn. I humbly submit this as a classic.

Rat Tangent’s Top Ten… #1:

September 15th, 2010 – “We Are All Conserved”

Even at the beginning of the Lab Rats, I had this strip in mind. In fact, Feynman was introduced so that I could get to a place where this strip made sense. When I made the decision to wrap up Rat Tangent, getting this strip in was priority #1. The law of conservation of mass has always been one of my favorite laws of nature. I think it is downright mind-blowing when you think about it. Hopefully, I did it a little justice here.

Well, that’s it! Thank you for taking a look at this retrospective of my top ten strips. Enjoy the last strip tomorrow. Thanks for sharing some of your time with the rats and me.

Rat Tangent’s Top Ten… #4:

January 14th, 2009 – “Local Boy Done Good”

The time-traveling Future Dalton was a tricky character to deal with. How to milk the humor of time travel without getting bogged down in the ethics and mechanics. Again, I think I got lucky coming up with some great dialogue and one of my favorite punchlines of all time. In fact, “An apocalypse is a great motivator.” even wound up on a shirt that a few of you may have picked up at some random convention I was at.

Rat Tangent’s Top Ten… #4:

June 25th, 2008 – “Copper Skies”

I liked this strip for a lot of reasons. It was part of the epic Jokebot story arc. It broke out of my typical, two people facing each other panel style. Plus it had a good punchline and just a dash of poignant. I think you’ll find this pattern of success follows into my two favorite strips. See you tomorrow!

Rat Tangent’s Top Ten… #6:

February 24th, 2010 – “Back In The Day”

This strip was inspired by Winsor McCay, an early cartoonist. This strip came together very quickly and was the first one I completely did on my Wacom drawing pad. Maybe the content was a little obscure, but I liked the way it came together. I should’ve pushed myself to emulate more artists like this, but if this was the only one I ended up doing, I’m OK with it.

Rat Tangent’s Top Ten… #5:

June 26th, 2009 – “Hail To The King Of Pop”

Another strip that came together very quickly. In fact it wasn’t even a regular post; I created it the night that Michael Jackson died. I think each frame stands on its own. One of my favorites, no doubt.

Rat Tangent’s Top Ten… #8:

May 6th, 2009 – “Buggy Whip, Anyone?”

I did a little story arc around newspapers’ uncertain future in the digital world. This was one of my favorites of that arc for a couple reasons. It was a pretty creative layout (for me) and the dialogue worked well. I think this was also my way of letting go of any fantasy that Rat Tangent would ever break out into syndication. We would be a niche webcomic and that was good enough for the rats and me.

Rat Tangent’s Top Ten… #7:

August 26th, 2009 – “The Heart of the Matter”

The cloning story arc was another one of those that I had simmering on the back burner for a looooong time. Originally, I intended to get back to one Tesla very quickly, probably through a murder committed by the Vegetable Mariachi Band. But VMB ended up being a bit of a dud and I was having too much fun doubling my Tesla shenanigans. The art is good, the writing is clean, and the punchline is genuinely funny. To me at least.

Rat Tangent’s Top Ten… #10:

August 25th, 2010 – “Darth Provider”

The most recently posted strip in the top ten, squeaks in at #10. It was quite a challenge trying to cover most of the big points of net neutrality in a three panel comic. Somewhere out there, some activist has this comic pinned on their cubical wall. I just know it.

Rat Tangent’s Top Ten… #9:

October 28th, 2009 – “Night of the Living Brain-Dead”

Halloween strips were always some of my favorite to draw, so I am glad one of those made it into the best of the best. Again, I got my rant on here. I still think a rambling tirade can clever and almost poetic if the right words are chosen (ala Dennis Miller, for example). I hope the audience didn’t mind indulging my occasional editorial venting.

The mathematically inclined among you will notice that leaves an extra day, so I guess I can tell you about a few strips that almost made the cut. Believe me… I wanted to put about 20 strips here, but I’ve narrowed it to just three worth a tip of the hat…

Honorable Mention #1:

September 26th, 2007 – “Epiphany-esque”

My first “Sunday Format” six-panel strip deserves some notice. Though certainly not the best I did, I think it was artistically ambitious. Dalton cemented his role as the conscience of the strip and occasional ranter-in-residence.  I cemented my role as a writer who sometimes cannot resist saying in 20 words what someone else could say in 5.

Honorable Mention #2:

October 10th, 2007 – “At Least It Wasn’t Prince Valiant”

Not my best artistically, but I loved how Dalton broke the 4th wall and examined his surroundings, as if really on the funny pages. I also started to realize that a good comic title could serve as a set-up/second punch line. This is also the only strip for which I wrote a second dialogue.  It ended up on a Zazzle mug.

Honorable Mention #3:

October 24th, 2007 – “Alma Matters”

October of 2007 must have been a good month for me. Just two weeks later I referenced Cal the Fightin’ Calorimeter, who would become a regular character. Lab Rats had always intended to be science heavy.  It didn’t quite happen as much as I thought (hence the new strip title, Rat TANGENT), but I hope the strip remained intelligent, even if it wasn’t always about science.

So which strips made my top ten?  Tune in tomorrow for #9 and #10!

Next stop… strip 200… the final strip!

To celebrate the ending of Rat Tangent, I’ll be posting a bit of a self-indulgent retrospective. I’ve culled the entire run down to ten of my favorite strips and will be posting one a day for the next ten days. It wasn’t easy picking out only ten, so I’ll let you know why these ones really stick out as the best of the best.

Only two strips left after this one. Time to get some reminiscing on soon…