Last week I mentioned some things people wanted to see more of in Ben & Winslow. One of the top three was “people getting mauled by bears.” I hadn’t really intended to draw a comic about bears–that was just a joke answer in the poll I was conducting. But what the hell, you know? Let’s get some bears up in this joint.

The assignment was a simple one: consolidate the email subscriber lists into a single spreadsheet. Or at least it seemed simple. Three tabs of blotter acid and a fifth of Jack later, and it became clear that the swarming birds would never allow it. They were all over the keyboard, shitting and clack-clack-clacking away on the IBM Selectric typewriter I’d brought from home. Liz said to use Excel, but a laptop is the establishment’s computer—the machine’s machine. You gotta feel the ink on your fingers, suck down the fumes if you wanna stay free and connected to your craft.

Welcome to 2013, fools! I decided to start things out right this year by drawing a comic with unexpected subject matter. So today we have a Ben & Winslow strip all about menstruation. If you were keeping a list of all the potential subjects I could have written about, go ahead and mark that one off. I can wait.

Ask anyone who’s in business. One of the keys to success is a good firm handshake. It’s the difference between a boy and a man. A boy is weak and limp. A man is strong and firm. Here’s the problem: A lot of people know this, and thus a lot of people have a firm handshake. How do you distinguish yourself? What’s the difference between guy with a firm handshake #1 and guy with a firm handshake #2? How do you go from being just another guy who knows how to shake someone’s hand to THE guy that knows how to shake someone’s hand?

We actually had our first real snowfall of winter the other day. Things looked promising, but then it started to rain and turned everything into mush. I can still dream about proper winters with proper snows, with snowmen and snow angels and snow demonologists–all the trappings of a winter wonderland. And I’ll live out those dreams in comic form. And maybe with a urine joke.