HOBARKEN (Corgi Press) — I can personally vouch for the hellacious quality of the drive from the NYC metro area to Chicago that Kiara is facing in this comic. I found the journey strenuous, even without being harassed by the police as Kiara is in this comic. By the time, you reach the middle of Ohio, you start to imagine things. The land flattens out and the day seems to stretch on forever since you are driving towards the central time zone. As the day wraps up, the sun sets into the now flat horizon. You find yourself driving straight at the sun, and you wonder, is this real? Am I dead? Am I driving into the face of God? Your experience, or is it just me?

This strip introduces Kiara’s family for the first time to the comic strip, and I’m excited to show some more of them in the next strip as well (spoilers?). As Kiara’s background, from the cast page explains, she’s from an affluent suburb of Chicago called Elmwood Park. Don’t worry, despite the location, I don’t plan to write the rest of the strip in dialect (da Bears) or have characters pontificate about the validity of deep-dish pizza. Should be fun though. See you next week!