​Those familiar with the Sufficiently Remarkable pilot on Strip Search should have no fear of having been spoiled to the events in the comic. I’ve fiddled with it a bit. I won’t tell you how much, though.

Most importantly, the pilot left out a lot of setup. I couldn’t justify it given the judge’s preference towards humor. So in many ways, folks watching the show got a not-so-accurate picture of what I envisioned for the comic. Pacing and rhythm often favor a punchline. It just works better for a strip to have beats. It feels weird to be left hanging at the end of a comic. Against all my better judgment, I’m going to play around with that a bit throughout the course of the story. We’ll see how it goes.

Those who know me and my work know that I love to experiment. Too often, too much weight is put upon the result. But there is a thrill in the chase, and there is joy in the experiment. I wrote about this in my post-Strip Search farewell back in June, but I’ll put a little bit of it here:

On the day after the Final Challenge, I had a wonderful lunch with Robert where we discussed my business plan, the show, relationships, expectations, and results. On the ride back to the hotel he mused, “We’re going to be stuck together for a long time.” I’m clearly getting the better end of the deal there, but the point was that Strip Search was an experiment for everybody involved, down to every last fan and detractor of the show, and nobody expected that lives would become irrevocably intertwined, uprooted, and changed—all for the good. Nobody can argue against Strip Search’s overwhelming success.

But 98% of the fun is in the experiment itself. The result is just icing.