Here’s the bookend to last Tuesday’s strip. I had so many little throwaway lines for this, but I chucked them out for the sake of flow. The hardest trick in comics is to make the words and pictures work together, and toning down one or the other when necessary. I find a lot of stuff on the cutting-room floor, but I squirrel it away in case I can use it again.

I said everything I wanted to about vampire romances in my last post.

Again, blame the suggestive joke at the end entirely on my wife.

When I first planned Hex Libris, I knew I wanted to tell a story. But I also wanted to step aside and look at the world of books on occasion. Hey, it’s a huge library… I mean, you have no idea! Not yet, anyway. And so things are likely going on in the dark and dusty back stacks; things our heroes aren’t privy to.

What they are fortunately not privy to right now is vampires. If you go to the bookstore, you’ll find there is a glut of vampires. Vampires a-go-go. What I call “velvet vampires.” You know, dark, brooding, non-human-blood-drinking sorts who are just waiting for the right human girl to help bring their humanity back to them. There are other cash-ins, as well… pirates are big and so you might wish to check out Vampirates (no, I’m not kidding).

Now if you want good vampire stuff, you’re going to have to dig deep into the cemetery loam. I recommend Let the Right One In. It was also an awesome movie, out on DVD soon. It’s upsetting stuff and is miles away from the fanged Harlequin romances most current vampire novels aspire to be. Rant over. Come back Friday as I take on the distaff side of this particular literary fad.

Next week, we’re back to Connie. But first, come back on Friday for the bookend strip to today’s entry. I mean it, folks, Hex Libris is now a Tuesday/Friday strip.

Finally, I’m oddly proud of the last panel in this one: there’s something sort of Mad Magazine about the boy wizard (I like boy wizards, but there was a glut of them recently jumping on a certain bandwagon). And I think this is the first suggestive joke I’ve made in this strip. I won’t use them often, but there’s a doozy coming on Friday. Blame my wife when you read that one, I give her full credit.

Okay, so I left the last episode of Hex Libris with the “gates of hell” comment. And it’s why I’ll soon be updating twice weekly: I didn’t want that line to hang out there that long for regular readers. For some reason, it made me uncomfortable thinking people would believe this. Go figure: I can’t.

The next strip will (unless I have some different brainwave) jump us into Chapter 7. Connie Carter, Watson, and Freddie will all be here to solve the mystery, so stay tuned.

I would say that finding your property sits at the gates of hell might allow you to break a lease. Still you never know.

It’s nice to see Kirby finally lose his temper. It’s just a pity that the target seems not to care in the least. Stay tuned for the next strip when we hear more about that last bombshell. It may not be what you’re thinking.