Blue Milk Special

Yarna d’al’ Gargan, or perhaps more commonly known as the Six-Boobed woman, finally makes an appearance at Jabba’s palace. Observant readers will no doubt be aware that Yarna is Jabba’s main squeeze, after Oola that is. There’s also another woman in the original film at the palace, nicknamed Jess. At least, I think she’s in the original film. With the obscurity of the original film, and the character in question, its so hard to remember what was originally there and what was added for one of the Special Editions. But let’s not get off on a tangent about how wrong it is for the original theatrical releases to have almost completely vanished from the public consciousness. Instead, let’s focus of Yarna’s overabundant cleavage(s).

Actually, that’s not our focus at all with this strip, nor is it the punchline of her next planned appearance either. Instead, Leanne’s art for Yarna really captured an adorable side that I think adds a lot of personality without me having to do anything.

I’m sure a lot of us have had friends who like to play matchmaker, though anyone familiar with Mara Jade will realize just how portentous her hunch is. The six boobed prophetess just wants Mara to be happy and stop brooding in dark corners, oozing sexual tension toward her future husband. We didn’t have to include Mara Jade in Blue Milk Special, or even her brief cameo during the Expanded Universe fiction set during Return of the Jedi, but I think she does promise to be a lot of fun as a character in the parody so I hope readers will appreciate it.

Meanwhile, on Earth… Leanne and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary on Wednesday. You know, the usual. We watched Batman the Animated Series, Silence of the Lambs, watched the Orioles duke it our with the Pirates — and lose, and finished up re-watching the classic British sci-fi weird tale / ghost show Sapphire & Steel. Just a typical day that involved a two hour scalp and forehead massage to try and alleviate the migraine that came with Leanne’s cold. She seems to have picked it up in the theater while watching Winter Soldier last weekend. The guy next to us had some sort of breathing problem… probably SARS by the sound of it. I’m joking. Anyway, it has killed any plans to really go anywhere or do anything “special” to mark our anniversary. But we’ll take a raincheck on the romantic dinner for two, or trip anywhere. We’re thinking of making the most of our trip to Germany in October as a belated celebration of our decade of marriage.

On the other side of life, we’re in a little bit of a struggle with my health and finances. I’m trying to decide what to do with Blue Milk Special. I’ve been so bad lately with the neck and arm pain that I find it difficult even to read a book during my time off work. I’ve been able to do very little with all the spare time I’ve had on temporary disability. Holding a book while lying on my back hurts too much, and sitting in a chair, looking down at a book hurts my neck. I slept very little last night. My back hurt so bad. I don’t feel like I’m getting any better with the physical therapy.

And I don’t know what it is, but my enthusiasm for a lot of things is suffering. I really want to move forwards with original creative projects, beyond this Star Wars parody webcomic, but getting strips done eats up most of our available spare time. The question is, do enough readers want BMS to keep going, and how badly do you want that?

Can we raise some money? If we set a goal of say $3000 and can hit it by June 30th, then BMS continues. A SAVE BMS FUNDRAISING CAMPAIGN. Otherwise we just drop back to a very sporadic and protracted rate of publishing which could take years to complete Return of the Jedi. I’m not just talking about throwing out the update schedule, I’m talking about BMS slowing to a crawl. It’s not what I want, but the only way I can think to justify the level of commitment and intensity producing more BMS would be with an investment of love from you guys, the readers. The future, financially, is looking very shaky for us, so having a little boost as insurance would be about the only way I can see how we can continue to pour our most precious resource of time into this webcomic and not other ventures.

Please comment or email me and let me know your thoughts. If there is enough support for the SAVE BMS CAMPAIGN then I will announce the fundraising project with next Monday’s update. In the short term, expect Blue Milk Special on a regular schedule until June 30th.