Random Coyote Productions
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Circus of Responsibility
🕑 Added 2023-02-17 16:59:01 +0000 UTCTake a step up and enter a whole new world... of previously unforeseen burdens! Everyone looks forward to a promotion because they see the typically associated pay rise... but with each step up in pay, title, and access comes a corresponding increase in expectations, duties, and responsibilities.
Soon, you realize you're just a different type of peon in a higher tax bracket.
Joe Rock is promoted to E-7 and takes command of the Platoon, stepping into the position that used to belong to First-Sergeant Dawg when Joe first showed up at the unit. The year 2023 is the 20-year anniversary of the initial Iraq War invasion, and Joe --as a young Specialist-- was sent with the rest of the unit in 2004. I've paid some attention to the passage of time as the comic progressed, with Joe and others climbing in rank and changing their points of view and attitudes about some things in small ways. I like to show some level of character growth.
Still, I don't get too stuck on the passage of time, and BOHICA Blues sometimes has a "casual" relationship with time. Technically, their daughter Josefina should be older by now; she should in fact be approaching her teens even though I still draw her as roughly around 6-ish or so. And the Military Working Dogs, Sadie and Butter, would be long since passed after 20+ years, but they still thrive.
There's a long-running classic comic strip called "Gasoline Alley" which was famous for following characters as they age-progress in real time. This wasn't 100% universal; there were times when another artist took over and the age progression stopped, then it was resumed when yet another artist took up the pen from that, and there are some characters that never aged. I always admired that and I typically like to show time passing at some pace, even if it is not consistent.
Does that mean that we'll eventually see Joe and Juni retire, and adventures continue with their offspring? Perhaps; I don't rule it out but I also make no promises. The characters are pretty well established, but then I think we've all had times in our lives that seemed to be set in stone, only to realize later just how fluid everything truly turned out to be.
Until later!
