And another never-published one I dug up, dating back to November 2010. I don’t remember why I decided against putting it online at the time. Did it sound too pathetic, or didn’t I want to give the impression fans can sometimes be too demanding?

In the first few weeks after I stopped the Happysad series, the number of visitors to my site remained remarkably stable. But as reality started to sink in, these numbers have been shrinking to a “mere” few hundreds a day. It’s only logical of course, and yet, it makes me feel a bit melancholic. I think I will have to admit that I’m no stranger to a bit of attention whoring… You may miss Happysad, but I miss the loooooove!

So for those very loyal fans who keep paying me a visit every now and then, have I got a treat for you! I have a few Happysad cartoons which I never published, because once they were finished, I didn’t very much like the final result. For instance because it sounded more serious than I anticipated, or just wasn’t funny at all. Here’s one of these, which I made in April of last year. It still feels strangely relevant, in a way. Enjoy!

I’m quite amused with the controversy about the Happysad girl not actually being a blonde. I can perfectly understand why, but people who have paid attention could / should have known. Firstly, as Pantelis pointed out in the comments, those of you who have joined the Happysad fan group on Facebook must have seen this picture before:

But even if you’re not on Facebook, you might have spotted her charicature in the “Experiment” comic I published in November. Here’s the full picture, “published with permission”:

Direct quote: “I probably just say a lot of blonde things.”

Jeroen

Now the Happysad series has ended, it doesn’t mean it’s gone from my life entirely. I still get reminded of it often, and sometimes in unexpected ways. Like the e-mail I recently received from a Presbyterian church in Georgia, US, with a polite  request to use one of my cartoons for a seminar on Women’s Enrichment (!). Oh, the stuff my comics can be used for… Of course, I didn’t object. We all know that anyone can just copy (/steal) anything from the internet, so I think it’s nice when people have the common decency to come and ask for permission. As long as my comics aren’t used for commercial purposes and proper reference is given, I don’t mind.

Today I’ve been doing a lot of Happysad post-production work too. As requested, I’ve updated the zip-files which you can download under the tab ‘The complete Happysad series’ above. I’ve also added links to the pdf-files, for those people who can’t read the iBooks that my fan Coral made. And speaking of books, I still get these questions when a real Happysad book will be made. I can now show you what that would take, thanks to my Greek fan Pantelis, who made one last summer for another “superfan”. Here are some pictures he sent me:

Pretty cool huh?

Jeroen