The strip’s title comes from a Larry Norman song from 1972.  Bonus points if you can identify the tune the Devil is playing.

I had Charlie Brown in mind when I rendered the final panel with Jesus walking away sadly.  In my mind, I had Vince Guaraldi’s piano theme from A Charlie Brown Christmas in my head, as that played in Arrested Development when the male characters were sad.  I didn’t tell Dan that’s what I was going for and he picked up on it.  How about you, reader, did you think of the same thing?

A little strip that I got the idea for a few months ago.  I thought this was the best place for it as Min and company ascend from the depths of Hell.  I got to make that cat which will hopefully make more appearances.  It’s harder to make a cat than you imagine.  When I started out, the models I was creating kept looking like dogs.  The trick seems to be rounder for cats and more angular for dogs.  I am really happy with how the set came out here.  It may make a comeback real soon.

The strip was also a chance to experiment with the concept of the infinite canvas.  Unlike a newspaper or book strip, I have as much horizontal and vertical space as I want for strips.  So I have freedom with strips like this to divide up the action this way.  It’s certainly liberating to be able to do so, although it means more render time and mucking about with render resolutions to make sure things line up correctly with panels of different size.

This is one of those strips that proves the utility of having someone else working with you on a comic.  Dan was able to help me make sure the strip would make sense to someone who hadn’t worked on it and didn’t know what was supposed to happen.  He also often keeps me from getting too esoteric with some of the jokes.