Commentary from January 29, 2022
his one had been lingering on my computer for several months. I had an idea, and because I still haven’t learned my lesson I didn’t write it down before starting to draw it, and through the drawing process I forgot the text I was going to use. Then I looked at it and having forgotten the text thought, looks like I’m drawing erotica. I redrew it, and it made no difference.
Sometimes this happens, and when it does it gets me a place where I can’t get past it and work on another strip for the same comic. I pulled out a few depcoms in the meantime, but most of them recently seem really forced. I even did a few strips for that other comic.
I knew I had to get past this one somehow. So I redid the final panel to show more regret and played with the dialogue several times. It suffers from too much dialogue now, but I trimmed a LOT of dialogue from it. I have a nasty habit of repeating myself when I’m worried about not being understood, so I had trouble keeping it brief (I failed).
To help out, I did some research on the subject. There isn’t a lot of research unsurprisingly, because of the taboo nature of the topic. A person who uses sex as a crutch isn’t seen as a person who needs help but someone to be shamed, and it’s difficult for people to acknowledge the problem and seek help. It’s not as obviously destructive as an alcohol, drug, or gambling addiction but it can be destructive in the long run.
I feel this one really hard. It took me many years and a lot of self reflection to realize this was the biggest bandaid on a toxic marriage.
I have the opposite problem. My sex drive dried up and blew away 20 years ago, its hurt my relationship. My partner is very physical and its not fair to her. That just makes me feel guilty than for all she does for me I can’t do this simple thing back.