So, what is the excuse for the delay this time? Well, I'm trying to lower my personal stress levels. So far, it has only resulted in me fretting about letting my readership down, replacing one kind of stress with another.
Due to circumstances somewhat beyond my control, the strip will only update on Wednesday and Friday next week as well. This means there will be no strip on Monday, May 19, since I'll be far away from my computer, celebrating my grandmother's birthday. There will, however, be a strip this Friday. I can state this with some degree of inner conviction since I just finished drawing it.
Back-handed compliment of the month: A personal friend stated he liked the Hidden Subtext strip "even though it featured Andrew". I have decided to interpret this as the first discernable sign of grudging acceptance of one of my more problematic characters.
Since I'm on the topic: Beansprout is getting cautiously positive feedback. Keeping in tune with my blatantly unrealistic optimism, I've decided to interpret this as a raging success. However, one reader wondered what's wrong with Beansprout's ears. Nothing, they're just drawn badly. I was trying to stylize and overshot my target by a mile.