On the Spectrum

So... Where have I been?

2011-07-06T21:01:00.002-04:00

Well, it's been about five months since I last updated, and given that so many people are still reading this, and commenting, and sending me messages, I think it's long overdue that I filled everyone in on what's going on and give some kind of explanation for the extended hiatus.

Short version? I was really busy for a while, and it's gotten very difficult to find the time to get back into the habit.

Long version...

From January through March of this year, I was actually taking an art class. The idea being that I would learn some new techniques and improve my drawing here. Unfortunately, the class was on Monday nights. That was unfortunate because, being that I'm the way I am, I always put off doing the homework until Sunday night. Which was usually when I would otherwise be drawing the comic. So... for three months there was like... What? Two updates? Anyway, that's how it started.

So class ended in at the end of March, but we took a cruise the first week in April. GREAT Vacation. Western Caribbean. We really needed it too. BUT... that was two more weekends with no comic.

A couple of weeks later I went to Germany on business. (One more weekend away.) And a couple weeks after that (in June) I was in Boston for my Grandmother's 90th Birthday. (Another weekend down.)

Now, I'm not trying to make any excuses here, there were still a lot of free weekends left (and I'm sorry, but I just can not do these during the week. This is definitely a week-end thing.) But for the first six months of the year, we're really only talking about 7 or 8 that we really free. And I'll be honest: I just fell out of the habit. And I truly apologize for that, especially in light of all the comments you've all been leaving during that time.

Moving forward, I do NOT plan to stop the comic permanently. There are still a few strips I'd like to do, although the list of ideas is not as long as it once was and as the kids get older the stories that I have resemble our current lives less and less. Which is a good thing, even thought it a bit of an inspiration-killer for the comic. Add to that that the new material does seem to come as quickly (which is both a good thing and a bad one, at times) and it's been very difficult for me to get back in the groove.

The real tell-tale for me that I had gotten so far removed from this came a few weeks back when I pencilled and inked the next comic... and then never scanned, colored and posted it. And that was over a month ago! And it was part one of two, so the next one was pretty much already written!

So... I DO intend to put those up, and I would like to get the rest of the strips drawn and posted. I can't say when that will be, and I don't want to make any promises that I can't keep, but I'm not ready to call it's quits, for good, just yet.

In anycase, we're all doing fine. And I appreciate everyone's comments and notes and words of support. I hope that everything is OK with all of you, and that we'll be able to share a few more stories in the near future.

Thanks so much for all of your support,
Scott

On the Spectrum #101: Go ask Daddy

2011-02-06T19:35:00.005-05:00

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Wiseguy.

On the Spectrum #100!: Sharing

2011-01-16T20:00:00.004-05:00

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Oh, my god! I've made it to 100! I never thought I'd make it this far! (Yay!)

OK, back to the strip...

Believe it or not, Jacob really is every bit as cute as I draw him here; much more so actually. That being said, he can still be a real brat sometimes! LOL.

The above story actually came from his teacher, during a Paerent-Teacher conference, late last year. She told me what happened, and I immediately thought, "I've got to use that!

On the Spectrum #99: He gets that from you!

2011-01-09T17:28:00.001-05:00

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Welcome back! I hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday. This is a bit of a "breaking the fourth wall" strip. There were rather a few people who left comments, sent me messages or upon reading #98, looked at me and said, "Huh?" So this was just a (paraphrased) converstaion that DW and I had about it.

One thing about Michael and Jacob (Jacob to a much greater extent): If they're not paying attention, or don't feel like talking to you, they'll answer, "Yes," or "Yeah," to pretty much any question. So before we make that snack he said he wanted, or whatever, I usually ask a really absurd question like, "Do you want me to put eels in your underpants?" of "Do you want to be fed to a wild honey badger?" And if they say, "Yes," then I know they probably haven't been listening for at least a few questions now.

Also while we do occasionally play the "He gets that from you" game (always playfully, mind you) usually it's a lot more specific than this. In all honesty, I'll admit that this comes off as a wee bit mean-spirited. But hey, what can I say? She was frustrating me! (And I LIKE #98! LOL) But there are plenty of traits, both typical and autistic, in both of our boys, where we know which one of us they got them from! (I'm a collector myself, and earlier today Michael was showing me a set of toys from a catalog and said, "I want to get the whole set!" And I was like... *sniff* You ARE my son!) LOL

Thanks, Papa!

2010-12-19T21:48:00.002-05:00

Well... Looks as though I can't sign off for the year (or even the evening) just yet...

Papa Bear has nominated OTS for a "Stylish Blogger Award." (Now proudly added on the Right.) I would like to extend my sincere thanks, as well as execute my duties as a recipient.

In accordance with the rules, one must state seven things about themselves, and then nominate three other blogs for the award. So here goes:

1) I write a comic strip about my two sons, who have autsim. XP
2) I have a love of baseball that borders on mental illness. (Go Red Sox!)
3) My favorite filmmaker is Akira Kurosawa, though admittedly this is a very recent development. (And I'm close to being torn between him and Masaki Kobayashi.)
4) I have a Border Collie-Cattle Dog mix named Haley who didn't make it into the strip for almost two years.
5) I'm an engineer. (Which some people seem to think might explain a thing or two...)
6) I don't watch televison, but couldn't live without movies and anime. (And, of course, the occasional baseball game!)
7) I'm much older, balder and fatter than the "Dad" character who's drawn here!

And for the blogs I would like to nominate:

1) Kicking Kittens

Autismherd, has already been picked, in the exact same post as OTS was as a matter of fact, but I want to strongly "second" that well deserved nomination by nominating Kathleen's other Blog. (The one with the deliciously evil name!) It's probably worth mentioning that Autsimherd was the first blog that started syndicating this one, AND that she put me in touch with the good folks over at Autisable, so I owe her for a lot publicity. But personal gratitude aside, Kathleen is a really cool blogger and both her personal blog ('herd) and her compilation blog ('kittens) are totally worth checking out. (And I agree 110% with PapaBear: I can't imagine having four kids, let alone three on the Spectrum. So, yeah: She deserves an award... So here's a second one!)

2) Squidilicious

Was is it with these awesome names? I can't believe I actually thought "On the Spectrum" was somehow clever at one point! And what adorable kids! If it weren't for my Michael and Jacob, I could SO see those two in a comic strip! The love and affection in that family really comes through in their blog in a way that I can only hope ours does in mine.

3) A Life Less Ordinary

I hate to admit it, but I'm usually not a huge fan of reading people's personal blogs. And that's rather a bit hypcritical, seeing as how I want people to read mine! LOL. But sometimes I read people's anecdotes and take on things and think, "They just... get it." (And surprisingly, NO, that doesn't happen just because someone else happns to have autism in their life!) This is one of those blogs.

So congratulations! Make sure to keep the chain going, or I'm sure something terrible will happen! LOL

Merry Early Christmas Everyone!

2010-12-19T20:08:00.001-05:00

Unfortunately, due to our travel schedule, and preperations, yesterday was the only day I had to do an update. And I had really planned on doing one! (Really!) What I didn't plan on was getting sick as a dog, falling asleep at 6:00 PM Friday evening and waking up at 6:00 AM this morning, with only one break in between to see the Doctor... who charged me a $20 co-pay for the timeless advice of "rest and stay hydrated." (Um... You don't really need to tell a guy who just slept for 16 hours strait to "get some rest." *roll eyes*) In any case, the 36 hours I lost kind of shot up my weekend schedule a bit.

And, since we will be out of town for the hollidays, OTS will not be updated until we get back. I might be able to sneak one in mid-week, before the new year, (and I'd really like to,) otherwise, the next update will be on the Second of Januray, 2011.

And since it's more than likely this this post will close out the year here at OTS, I just want to make sure I give a sincere and heartfelt thank-you to everyone who has left coments, not only here, but over on Autisable and at the Autspot as well, and I wish that you all take care, and have a safe and happy holiday!

So give your kids a hug from me, and I'll make sure to pass on all of the kind words, good feelings and warm wishes that you've sent our way over the past year to Michael and Jacob.

On the Spectrum #98: A Subtle Difference

2010-12-12T16:16:00.006-05:00

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Sorry it's just a 2-panel one this week. I didn't update last week as I'd originally planned and we had a family outing planned today as well, so I was still short on time. In any case I didn't want to miss yet another week, especialy with Christamas coming up (which will also mean a missed update or two) so here you go!

To make up for it, here's something that I haven't shared before: Pictures of the kids! These are from out trip to DC over the Thanksgiving holiday - the reason that two of the last three updates were missed. (Last week I was just being lazy!)

Here's Michael in front of the Capitol Building:

Here's one of Jacob, in the Air and Space Museam, in front of the plane he tried to touch last year, as depicted in #88:

Just around the corner from where we were standing is the opening in the fence that he went into the exhibit though. (Which is how we were able to be sure that this was in fact the correct plane! LOL)

And yeah, fair enough, I didn't draw the plane quite right, or the fence. But hey: I was going from memory! One thing to add, in addition to the fact that the opening is still there...

It's a CANVAS plane. Fairly delicate, I'd wager, as least as compared to pretty much any of their other exhibits, which are typically constructed from either Aluminum or Steel.

Anyway, I hope this make up for just getting a 2-panel after three weeks without an update.

See you next week!

Happy Thanksgiving Everybody!

2010-11-20T20:43:00.000-05:00

There will not be an update this week or next , as we will be travelling, visiting family and friends over the Thanksgiving holiday. OTS should be back in business on December 5th. Until then, I hope everyone has a happy Thanksgiving!

On the Spectrum #97: Daylight Savings Time

2010-11-14T18:41:00.001-05:00

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So... Einstein was right: time is relative... just not always in the way he suggested!

Are anyone else's kids' schedule thrown off really badly when the clocks change?

It's seems especially bad in Michigan too because in the fall we down get much sun anyway, so by 6:00 it's pitch black out. But becuase we're a flat state, on the westen edge of our time zone (or so I surmise,) in the summertime it's lik broad daylight out until about 9:30 at night. It's crazy!

And yeah... they really don't care what time it is, do they? LOL

(And I have no idea where they get their 'morning-person' genes from!)

On the Spectrum #96: The Wonder-Michael!

2010-11-07T17:47:00.002-05:00

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There was supposed to be a joke about him being "impervious to cold" in there as well, but I couldn't fit it in. Oh well. ;)

On the Spectrum #95: The Wonder-Jake!

2010-10-31T15:36:00.002-04:00

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I had a lot of fun drawing this. : )

Hopefully I'm not dating myself too much with this one. I assume most people with grade-school aged kids remember the Super-Friends growing up, right? And the Wonder-Twins, Zann and Jaina? Well, if not, you can Google it. ; )

In any case, Jacob has a tendency to go into what we call "puddle mode," usually when when we're walking in a public places, parking lots, malls, etc... Very frustrating, and sometimes not very safe. Anyone else get this sort of thing?

Oh, and... HAPPY HALLOWEEN, everyone! Hope everyone has a fun and safe time trick-or-treating!

Comic delayed due to pink-eye

2010-10-24T18:56:00.001-04:00

Ugh. This is awful! Michael got it first (presumably brought it home from school), then DW got it and now it's my turn.

BTW... Why on earth do they even give you eye-drops to use on an Autistic Child when there are oral antibiotics you can take instead? What the heck? Has anyone else had trouble administering eye-drops to their child? Autistic or otherwise I guess, but come on! They may as well hand me two sticks and some duct tape and ask me to build an airplane.

Wikio / Autism Blog Ranking

2010-10-22T11:37:00.000-04:00

Whoever sent me the Wikio / Autism Blog Ranking email, can you PLEASE re-send it?

It tripped the spam filter in my e-mail and and when I hit the "Not Spam" button, the program went and deleted it anyway!

So if you're seeing this, I'm not ignoring you. Just having software issues!

On the Spectrum #94: Issue #1 / #1 Issue Redux

2010-10-17T15:21:00.002-04:00

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This is a updated version of issue #1 of "On the Spectrum" because the final push is on, in Michigan anyway, to address one of "On the Spectrum's" #1 issues: Autism Insruance Reform!

As readers in Michigan may already know, autism insurance reform legislation passed the Michigan House last year and for the past several months, the legislation has had seveal hearings before the Michigan State Senate. Compelling testimony has been provided by those who attended, describing the incredible burden placed on families trying to provide treatment for their loved ones on the specturm. In addition, a strong case has been made that the state of Michigan’s economic health and recovery depends on this much needed reform.

What all of my readers in Michigan need to do now is contact Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop's office at (517) 373-2417, ask him to move the Insurance Reform Legislation forward now, and ask at least ten of your friends to do the same! Remember to be courteous when you call, and ask for his leadership on this issue. Let him know that autism insurance coverage means a great deal to your family and is the fiscally responsible thing to do for Michigan.

There are 23 States down, and 17 to go. To anyone reading this in one of those 17 States: If you send me the info on the appropriate State Legislators, I will gladly run this again for your state once the time comes to step up the effort. And,m as always you are more than welcome to download the image above and use it in your own campaigns of mailings, if you wish to.

It's been a long road to get this far in Michigan, but progress is finally being made, both here in my home state and all over the country. Let's keep up the presure!

For more infomration, go to AustimVotes.org

On the Spectrum #93: Who's Your Alpha, con't

2010-10-10T16:14:00.000-04:00

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You know how I mention last week that Michael had learned not to leave his food unattended where the dog could get it?

This was how he learned. LOL. (And yes, that's exactly what he said afterwards.)

Tried a little mock-impressionism with the emotional panels. Might do that some more, might not, we'll see. Let me know what you think. (Be gentle though - first time! LOL)

On the Spectrum #92: Who's Your Alpha?

2010-10-03T23:19:00.004-04:00

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I assume we're not the only ones with a wanderer at meal time?

Jacob has a habit of getting up about fifty-seven times a meal. So he's always the last one finished. He's also the ONLY one who ever leaves food unattended (Michael's learned) so Haley pretty much knows who to camp out near at dinner time.

You'd be surprised how often this still happens. LOL

Oh, and... first appearance of Haley, our dog. We've had her since Michael was about one and a half, before we knew he was autistic, and just after Jacob was born. She's a Border Collie - Australian Cattle Dog mix. She's a good dog (apart from her table manners) but she hasn't really figured into any of the stories so far, so I've never drawn her in. (Also because she's kind of hard to draw! LOL)

On the Spectrum #91: A Woman's Work...

2010-09-26T16:08:00.000-04:00

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No, I'm sure he didn't understand the irony in what he'd said. He is pretty good at making vacuums though!

As for me, I'vs still got a lot way to go before I'm used to this new software. For one thing, I don't know how Michael ended up so much darkwer in the right hand panels. I'm pretty sure I was using teh same colors. Oh well. I'll keep practicing! LOL

2010-09-19T19:30:00.003-04:00

Yep. Finally took the plunge and got a tablet and some decent drawing software! Unfortunately, while there are some amazing tools available, figuring them out and getting the hang of the tablet itself isn't as easy as I thought it looked. Oh well. So I don't have a full comic this week, but once I get a few things figured out, regular updates will resume.

Oh yeah... and just so you know, I didn't realize that Blogger was moderating everyone's comments. So yesterday I stumbled (purely by accident) across about two dozen comments (not including the spam) that were pending approval. It should be back to unmoderated commenting now, with a spam filter, so we'll see how that goes. In any case, if you've left a comment in the past month or so it's now been posted, along with my responses. I really appreciate everyone's feedback and stories, so thanks a bunch for your support.

On the Spectrum #90: Family Geography

2010-09-12T23:20:00.001-04:00

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Just in case it's unclear... No, we're not related to Barack Obama. :) Oh, and my apologies to anyone who doesn't think what I drew looks much like them. This is harder than it looks. LOL. ;)

Needless to say, we end up doing a LOT of traveling on the holidays. Luckily the kids are really good in the car and on the plane. Getting through security... not so much, but they are really good considering how far we go. (We live in Michigan, and this doesn't even mention anyone up in Massachusetts!)

First apperance of Nana, Grandad, Uncle Mike, Aunt Lorie, Baby Cousin Paige, Auntie Lauren and Uncle Dave. (And Barack Obama.)

On the Spectrum #89: Jurassic Lark

2010-09-06T00:04:00.000-04:00

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Poor Jacob!

This is the last of our trip to D.C. (Natural History Museam, if you couldn't tell!)

On the Spectrum #88: National Treasures

2010-08-30T19:43:00.001-04:00

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A word of advice to the curators at the Smithsonian: If you’re going to secure a National Treasure with a fence that has an opening in it large enough for a small child to fit through, at some point a small child is going to cram himself through that opening!

“It is possible, however unlikely, that they might find a weakness… and exploit it.”
~ General Taage

Now how my wife got through that same ‘small, thermal exhaust shaft’ I’ll never know.

One more thing... To better understand the little joke in the first panel, please see #71.

On the Spectrum #87 - The Washington Rocketship

2010-08-22T16:52:00.000-04:00

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Well, I'm back. This is probably the longest it's been between updates. (Sorry!) I don't have any plans to stop anytime soon, it's just been an incredibly busy summer, so it'sbeen hard ot find the time (and energy) to do these.

This is the first of at least three strips from our trip to Washington D.C. D.C.'s a great city for the kids, because there's a lot to see, pretty much everything's free (except parking) and, after all the walking around, by the end of the day they're pretty well worn out.

Oh yeah... and I did a little experiment, trying out doing it in color. Im not sure if I like it, or if I'll stick with it, but we'll see how it goes.

On the Spectrum #86: Neologism

2010-07-25T21:20:00.000-04:00

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On the Spectrum #85: Following Directions... EXACTLY

2010-07-18T23:12:00.002-04:00

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Well... I didn't say to PUT IT ON upstairs! It's about a month early for a 'Michael's Birthday' one. In any case, this is from his Birthday Party LAST year. (Boy how time flies!)

BTW... If anyone didn't get what was gonig to happen here, check out #29. Basically, Michael HATES being wet. One drop of water on his the cuff of his sleeve and he'll take off ALL his clothes, down to his socks and underwear. He'd take off his HAT if he'd been wearing one! And he doens't really care where he is either. No inhibitions, that one.

Also, that being the case, I'm curious to see if PhotoBucket censors this one like they did the last one that had Moonie's naked back-side in it. If they do, I'll re-post it ASAP from another host. (I just realized... We seem to have a LOT of naked butts in this strip! Yeah... there's a lot of naked in our life. LOL)

And I'm sorry it was so long in between udpates.
One more thing... In case their Mom's or Dad's see this, this marks the first appearance of Michael's friends Caleb and Dylan as well as Caleb's Dad, Mike. (Hopefully they can figure out which one's are thier kids! LOL) (And Sorry Ty, Trent, Caden, Nicholas and eveyone else. There's only so much room in one panel and so many people I'm willing to draw in one night! Maybe next time! LOL)

We had a really great 4th

2010-07-04T23:08:00.000-04:00

I hope everyone out there had a fun and safe 4th of July. We're down in Flordia visiting my folks. We were having a cookout on the beach when a really strong rain came in off the coast. Between that and the strong wind, we were absolutely soaked. But we stuck it out, and the rain passed and we had a nice cook out despite. Afterwards we took the boys swimming. The gulf was really rough after the storm, and Michael and Jacob (and us) had a wonderful time swimming, and getting bowled over by the waves as they crashed on the beach as the sun went down. It was a profoundly normal, and wonderfully blissful time. And unlike last year, they were OK with the fireworks after sunset.

I hope everone else had a great time.

A note to my readers

2010-07-03T10:15:00.001-04:00

As I mentioned last week, we’re out of town, so there won’t be an update this week. I did have a story I wanted to share with you though. Last week I was cleaning up my desktop, moving files into archive and deleting ones I no longer need. And I happened to have my jump drive plugged in at the time, and I didn’t notice that all of THOSE files were still highlighted – including the file where I keep all my ideas and notes for this comic strip. And as I hit delete, nothing goes away from my desktop, but my jump-drive got completely erased. And if you don’t know, unlike on hard drives, when you delete a file from a jump-drive, it’s gone forever, instantly, with no possibility to “undo” or “restore.” I figure I lost about the next eight months worth of strips (about 32, pretty much completely scripted out, IIRC.) I seriously thought I was going to cry. LOL

So I frantically set about writing down SOMETHING, from as many as I could remember, so I could recreate the file. I think managed to remember about 29 or so, so in the end I guess I only lost 2 or 3, but wow… Lesson learned: MAKE REGULAR BACKUPS OF YOUR IMPORTANT FILES! (I actually HAD a backup of this particular file, but it was at least 6 months old, and only went up to about issue #60 or so and I’d long since posted all of the strips that were in it.)

On an unrelated note… Some of you may have noticed that a certain troll using the handle 于庭 has been regularly leaving comments with links to sites that are a bit *ahem* inappropriate. Since I’d prefer to continue let everyone else comment as they wish, I do not plan to start moderating comments, or limit who can comment. (And THANK YOU for all of your comments, BTW!) So instead I’ll be looking in Google to try and find out how to ban just that one profile from commenting. In the meantime, hopefully he’ll take the hint and just knock it off. I apologize to anyone who followed any of his links and came accross any objectionable content.

Again, I hope everyone has a happy, safe and fun 4th of July, and I'll see you next week!

On the Spectrum #84: Fun with Pronoun Reversal

2010-06-27T20:04:00.001-04:00

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Ok, so... file this one in the "I'm going to hell for it" folder. :)

BTW, sorry about missing the udpate last week. And also sorry to say that there will not be a comic next week either as we will be out of town.

Hope everyone has a happy and safe 4th of July! See you again on the 11th!

Amazign story on ABC News last night

2010-06-17T19:55:00.000-04:00

For anyone who missed it Diane Sawyer had a really inspirational story on ABC News last night. Pretty powerful stuff. Check it out:

2010-06-13T23:10:00.000-04:00

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How do you get dirty even when you don't GO anywhere?!

On the Spectrum #82: Careful...

2010-06-06T22:45:00.003-04:00

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Yeah... Of course that's not what she meant... LOL.

Most of the time the kids write this stuff, but occasionally we do as well. ;)

BTW: THANK YOU to the folks over at Autisable for pickling up the strip and agreeing to syndicate it. Anyone who hasn't checked them out should do so, they run a lot of different blogs and get posts from a wide range of people within the autism communtiy. There's always something new and interesting being put up from somewhere. So take a look!

On the Spectrum #81: Two Brothers, family-friendly version

2010-06-06T19:49:00.004-04:00

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I got a response back from photobucket, but it was just thier standard form letter - the type of generic replay that would be vaguely appropriate for just about any question.

I did take a look at their 'terms of use,' however, and as far as I can tell this particular comic must have set off someone's 'kiddie-porn' alert or something. Which is funny, sicne the first and third panels were recycled from earlier strips that didn't have any problems! :)

So I've modified the strip, using Photobucket's own red-sticker to censor out the offending image.

I don't know... somehow it almost looks worse now! LOL

On the Spectrum #81: Two Brothers (re-posted)

2010-06-01T22:04:00.007-04:00

For some reaosn the wise folks over at photobucket decided there was something offensive about my last comic, and the blocked it out. I'm going to wait for their official explanation as to why - or for the image to be reinstated - before speculating about it here, but I think I've got a pretty shrewd idea what the problem is.

Moonie's naked butt, perhaps?

Funny thing though - even as I was writing this reply, it seems that the image was reinstated in my blog, below, even though it's still red-lined over on their site.

Well whatever, we'll see. Despite any "terms of use" my edgy, controversial artwork might have violated, they do not have the authority to censor my blog. So just in case the offending image ends up going in and out intemittently, or if anyone still can't see it, I linked it in again, this time from a different source. Hopefully this will all work itself out, and I'll just take this second post down. Shouldn't really be necessary - you know, FREE SPEECH and all. Hilariously, this is actually the SECOND time I've run afoul of some organization's censoprhip. Can you believe it? THIS STUFF?! Seriously?

(The other time involved issue one, which a Michigan-sponsored Mental Health community newsletter had agreed to run, sans the tag at the bottom, only to have their editor axe it at the last minute saying it was 'too controversial.' Ah, politics.)

Well, whatever. I'll send them an email. Depending on how amusing their reply is I may post it here. LOL. We'll see.

On the Spectrum #81: Two Brothers

2010-05-30T23:05:00.002-04:00

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Sorry, no snappy punchline with this one. I just felt like contrasting Michael and Jacob and drawing (and recycling) some cute stuff. This IS sort of a part 1 of 2, as it kind of leads into next week's. It's not the same joke or theme, just that the last panel of this one is the first panel of the next one. (But can you see the posts on the trampoline this time? Yeah, still not sure what happened to them last time! LOL)

I'd like to say something about last week's... As with everything here, it's autobiograophical, and based on things as they happen in our lives. But I decided to run THAT ONE, as it was, as kind of a nod to another strip I'd read YEARS ago, from what I consider to be the greatest comic strip of all time. (Hopefully Mr. Watterston won't mind me sharing it with you here):

And while I was searching for a copy of that...

...I came accross THIS, which I just thought was really cool. (They really nailed the style, no?) And yeah, it goes without saying, but this is TOTALLY not mine! LOL I think it evokes up a pretty wide range of emotions though. And while Watterson was famous for not merchandising or liscensing Clavin and Hobbes, and he never wanted to let anyone else get involved with it or use his work, for fear that they would alter the spirit and innocence of it, somehow... I think he'd approve of this one. :)

On the Spectrum #80 - Excuse you!

2010-05-24T22:36:00.000-04:00

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Sorry, this one's a bit... indulgent. Couldn't resist though. LOL

BTW - in the last one, at one point in the drawing process there were two posts holding up the safety net of the trampoline. I'm not sure where they went, or at what point they disappeared, but somehow they didn't make it into the final version, and I didn't notice tehy were missing until about Friday when someone mentioned that, from a distance, it looked like he was up against a fence. I'll have to fix that at some point. LOL

On the Spectrum #79: Elec-tricity, Elec-tricity

2010-05-16T22:49:00.000-04:00

Apparently this worked.

On the Spectrum #78 - Look before you leap...

2010-05-10T20:16:00.001-04:00

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He knows "spilled" now. :)

On the Spectrum #77 - On-a-man-a-pee-ya

2010-05-02T21:31:00.001-04:00

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This was not the comic I was planning to do this week, but we've finally had a few successes with Jacob actually USING the potty the past couple days, so it kind of jumped ahead in line.

On another note, this is the second strip I've done with the new Microsoft Paint and I HATE it. HATE HATE HATE it with a passion that only language unsuitable for a family-friendly blog can express. I seriously have no idea what these programmers at Microsoft were thinking! Let's make it really horrible? Let's make it so NO ONE will enjoy using it? Let's take everything that could be done simply in the OLD verision of Paint (and let's face it: simplicity was about all it had going for it, as it was) and make it complicated instead?! It's intolerable. So if I miss a post at some point in the next couple of weeks, it's possibly because I'm trying out new drawing software. This version is bloody AWFUL.

On the Spectrum #76 - Steppin' Out...

2010-04-25T20:42:00.004-04:00

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It might be worth mentioning that he practically LIVES in his underpants.

BTW, got a new computer, which means a enw version of Windows (7) and a new version of PAINT. And while there're some thing sI like about it, you can only set the line width on the auto-shapes to 1 pixel and, like, 4 pixels thick. And I'm think those thick-lined speech balloons are just intolerable! So, yeah... maybe time to invest is some better drawings software. LOL.

On the Spectrum #75: The History Channel

2010-04-19T06:41:00.000-04:00

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Never can tell when they're really paying attention, can you?

THANK YOU!

2010-04-16T12:04:00.000-04:00

I would like to extend a heart felt THANK YOU to Kathleen over on Kicking Kittens and Autisherd for her really positive feedback and endorsment of "On the Spectrum" and the addition of my blog to hers.

For anyone who hasn't checked it out yet, Kicking Kittens is really neat. It's a collection of stories that people have submitted with the same kind of positive, optimistic and joyful message that I try to convey with this comic. I think she sums it up best in her intro: "One of the misconceptions that I have run into is that because I have children with disabilities-I am not allowed to have joy-nor are my children allowed to be joyful. Some of the comments I have received after relaying a funny story or anecdote...well you would think I had been kicking kittens."

There's certainly no shortage of grief and stress and frustration that we can all share, and it's definitley important to do so. But I've always felt that it's just as important to sieze upon those positive moments, those rare times when everything just works and that make us smile. We must remember to take the time to enjoy and celebrate those moments, and hang onto them. And there are some really great stories there, so check them out, and submit one or two of your own!

On the Spectrum #73 - Can't fix everything...

2010-04-11T23:03:00.000-04:00

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This was pretty much how it happened. You see... he's always bringing me toys that aren't really broken, they just need to be re-assembled. So I didn't think much of it at the time. But when he put a TOOTH in my hand... Well, at first I wasn't even sure what I was looking at! Then I finally look up at him, and he's got his mouth open like that. It was really cute. It was his first tooth to fall out too. And the second one - the one right next to it in the front? Fell out as well about five minutes later. LOL

I had a slightly different one of these, featuring Michael's first lost tooth, planned for awhile. But this just happened last week, so I figured I'd put it up. Michael's wasn't quite like this. I might do his next, kind of as a flashback maybe.

On the Spectrm #73 - April is Autism Awareness Month!

2010-04-04T17:55:00.001-04:00

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Don't worry, they were fine! At least they watch where they're going now. Thats a little bit of 'increased awareness' anyway. That's what this month is all about, right? ;)

I have no idea what this is, but I'm still pretty proud of it!

2010-04-03T22:03:00.002-04:00

This is just a little bit of bragging.

I really appreciate all the comments and emails I've gotten from everyone out there. I'm glad that you've all enjoyed the 'strip so far and that it's been so well received. BUT, as I'm sure you've noticed by now, while I'm not completely hopeless with a pencil, the artwork in OTS is... shall we say... average, on a good day. LOL

So I've been studying a lot of anime and manga style artwork lately, to try and improve my own drawing in OTS. The pic to the left was just something I was doodling on a post-it note while I was on the phone (on hold) with someone. It's no one and nothing in particular, but I was pretty psyched at how it came out. This was the first time I think I got even close to getting the style right, and I really kind of surprised myself. So I just felt like showing it off a little. Pathetic really, I know, but what can I say? I just really liked how this came out!

Of course now the pressure is on me to improve the level of artwork in the 'strip... Yeah... We'll see about that... LOL.

On the Spectrum #72 - Literality

2010-03-28T22:38:00.001-04:00

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On the Spectrum #71: EXCELSIOR! ...For Science!

2010-03-21T21:23:00.003-04:00

The third panel was actually drawn by Michael, last year, at his great-grandmother's house in Boston, after our visit to (you guess it) the Museum of Science. And yes, yes some of the exhibits are depicted in his picture: The pneumatic tubes; some air-blowing, floaty-ball thing; a periscope and a couple others. (It was a year ago, what can I say? I don't remember everything either!) But the one thing that's in EVERY picture he drew? ELEVATORS and ESCALATORS! And it was the same last Thanksgiving in the Air and Space Museum in Washington: Whatever else we did, he had to ride the escalator about a hundred times. LOL.

He was even starting to draw the elevators in perspective. That was pretty cool, odd though it may be!

On the Spectrum #70: The Pepsi Challenge

2010-03-07T21:23:00.000-05:00

Wise guy.

It's OT, but I wanted to let everyone know about a wonderful movie we saw over the weekend called Music Within. It's about the life's story of Richard Pimentell, a Vietnam Vet who lost his hearing and became an advocate for the disabled. He wrote Tilting at Windmills, which became one of the earliest blueprints for diversity and jobs training for companies to hire, train and work with disabled people. Really interesting story, and a really moving and FUNNY movie. I highly recommend everyone see it.

On the Spectrum #69: LOOK AT ME!

2010-02-21T19:42:00.002-05:00

Any guess which one of the two brothers is the bigger mischief-maker? LOL

On the Spectrum #68: God Bless the Pronouns

2010-02-08T20:21:00.008-05:00

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Before anyone says anything, YES, I do cover my nose & mouth! I'll let you in on a little secret: I was running behind (again) and feeling lazy to boot and found some artwork from about a year ago that was about 90% exactly what I wanted. So I recycled. (Hey, YOU recycle too, don't you? LOL) Just had to update to Michael's new clothing style (which I didn't do when I did the same thign last week! Whoops!) and the background to match the new room layout and Viola! New strip! Only problem was, in THAT strip the joke was a little different, so I wasn't covering up. And since I want to try to get back to weekly updates, I took a little shortcut with this one. (Cheap, cheap. I know. LOL)

Anyway... With regards to pronoun reversal, I'm sure you've all heard stuff along these lines. Michael didn't do this TO often, except when he got scared or nervous. (These days, you can tell he's getting upset when he refers to himself in the third person, "Michael," instead of "I.") But this was his pat response to a loud sneeze, every bit as reliable as someone else saying, "Bless you." I thought it was cute. LOL.

On the Spectrum #67: Positive Reinforcement!

2010-01-31T21:54:00.004-05:00

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It's ALWAYS important to give positive reinforcement, right?

On the Spectrum #66: Kiss my..., Part Two

2010-01-17T23:07:00.001-05:00

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*phew*
FINALLY, we're back! Sorry for the delay. My first post of 2010 came a week later than I'd planned, but we're still here with lots of good stuff to share.

OK, I'll admit that I was not really feeling the art on this one AT ALL. Drawing two people wrestling is VERY, VERY HARD. Everything's overlapping, arms get too long, legs get too short... what a mess. I'll have to work on that before getting into my Super-Hero / Action Comic! LOL. And it's a shame too, because I was REALLY happy with how the the background turned out. Oh well. Hope you enjoy it anyway.

Oh yeah... And, NO, I don't know if Michael was being a smart-alec or just unintentioanlly funny there, but given my exagerated reaction, now he ALWAYS asks me to kiss a stubbed toe or a bumped foot or whatever.

And I STILL don't KISS FEET! XP

LOL

On the Spectrum #65: Merry Christmas, 2009!

2009-12-22T21:32:00.017-05:00

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One of the biggest differences in my and DW's skill sets is that I speak 'Michael' and she speaks 'Jacob.' 'Michael' is pretty easy, actually, but I'm still better at deciphering what he means when he doesn't quite know how to say it. 'Jacob,' on the other hand, is a language that is made very complex by the fact that many of its words sound very similar to other words in English that have very different meanings. LOL. Anyway, in this kind of situation, I can usually figure Michael out, but I have a much harder time with Jacob. (DW... the exact opposite.)

(Oh yeah - and I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but when Jacob says "Yes," he ALWAYS adds on, "OK." It's like one word, "Yesohkay!" That thows a lot of people who assume he's saying "That's OK," which, if you think about it in context, means "No," when he's really saying "Yes." You can imagine how frustrating that might be for him! LOL

ANYWAY... This is the last "OTS" update of 2009! So I'm done for this year. We'll be travelling, as we usually do on the holidays, through the 4th of January, so the next update won't be until 1/10/2010.

In the meantime, I hope everybody has a Merry Crispy, a safe a happy holiday and a safe and happy New Year!

See you in 2010!

~Scott

On the Spectrum #64: "C" is for "cookie"

2009-12-14T21:51:00.001-05:00

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Why on earth do they from not saying anything at all, to repeating everything that they're not supposed to?

Oh well.

BTW, this is just the second appearance of "Wendy," Michael's teacher. She last appeared waaay back in #12.

On the Spectrum #63: Inspiration can come from anywhere...

2009-12-07T21:33:00.001-05:00

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We're back! Sorry it's been so long since I've updated! We had a great Thankgiving, but were out of town, and then once we were back one thing after another kept me from getting this one finihsed!

Two things about this one...

First - whenever I have a project around the house or outside, Michael is a GREAT helper. He follows directions, knows what tool is what, etc... He's really great at being that "third hand" that we all sometimes need. Much better than *ahem* DW, who has the uncanny, superhuman-ability to teleport herself roughly six miles away, just 0.3 seconds before I need her help. LOL. And since Michael's usually interested in what I'm doing anyway, he's ALWAYS around. (So I put him to work!) LOL

Which leads me to the Second thing - Usually, after doing something this, he will go and re-create it in some artistic media. Sometimes drawing, sometime clay or play-doh, sometime (as shown here) in Legoes. He does this with movies too - if he sees a scene he really likes, he'll go a recreate it with whatever he has handy. Quite imaginitive, and always a good opportunity to get him to tell us what he's doing... since most of the time we have no idea, at least at first! He made Comerica Park (where the Detroit Tigers play) out of Legoes one time. I must say, that was really cool.

Very creative. And you just never know what will strike him as inspiration! (He's as likely to make a Sump Pump or a Vacuum Cleaner as he is a Stadium or a Castle.)

On the Spectrum #62: Driving Miss Nutsy

2009-11-17T22:40:00.002-05:00

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Sorry this update was a couple days late. I should mention now that there will not be an update next week (11/22) since we'll be travelling that whole week. (Regular updates will resume on 11/29, possibly a day of two late on that one as well, sorry!)

A couple things... First, I swear that was exactly what he said. I was floored. (Of course, I guess it goes to show how often I say, "JACOB, YOU'RE DRIVING ME NUTS!"

LOL

Also, not to blow my own horn, but I think that's the best picture of Jacob I've drawn yet. I haven't had him in here that much, so I don't get much practice and when I do I'm never quite satistified with how he comes out, but I think I really nailed him here. Also, "angry-face" Daddy is new too. Michael thinks it's hysterical... Probably cause he's "angry" at Jacob! LOL

Well, since I won't be posting again until after the Holiday, I home everyone has a happy Thanksgiving, and safe travels for anyone who will be on the road ro in the air.

On the Spectrum #61: Everyone's a Critic

2009-11-09T06:43:00.001-05:00

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This is a test of charecter - You're not supposed to find this funny! ;)

On the Spectrum #60: The loneliest profession

2009-11-01T21:56:00.004-05:00

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Does ANYONE like going to the dentist?

(And technically it's his Great Uncle Dennis (well, Great Step-Uncle, actually) but whatever. LOL.

On the Spectrum #59: Use the fork, Luke!

2009-10-25T22:01:00.001-04:00

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And yes, he eats Hot Dogs and Pizza with a fork. Spaghetti... not so much.

And I just realized that I'll have to update Michael's wardrobe in it, if I plan to keep recycling this picture of him! LOL.

On the Spectrum #58: Physical Graffiti, disc 2

2009-10-18T22:57:00.003-04:00

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If anyone esle has problems with the writing on the walls, I highly recommend a white-board. There are other products out there (slate-paint, for example?) but this is a lot easier to do and a bit less dratic. Of course... the first few times, before they really understand that you have to stay ON THE BOARD, you might get something like this...

But what the hay? Dry-erase marker comes off a lot easier than crayon anyway! :)

And yes, this is more of Michael's actual work; from a while ago, and on paper though, not on the wall! LOL. BTW I'll need to show it in more detail some time, but the above picture is a surprisingly accurate and detailed map of our neighborhood. I was rather a bit surprised when he me told what everything was.

On the Spectrum #57: Physical Graffiti

2009-10-11T20:28:00.004-04:00

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Today we participated in the Southeast Michigan Autism walk for Autism Speaks. We had a good time, but it was very cold, very windy.

We did have a little bit of a "drawing on the walls" problem a while back. Some of the walls that were merely cleaned and not repainted still bear some witness to that. LOL

The drawing shown here is a scaled down copy of one of Michael's. It's the Viginia Tech Hokie Bird, and I used it once before, waaaaaay back in #12. Here what the original looks like:

This was from about a year ago, just before #12 was originally put up.

Funny thing... When I got done drawing the scene, but before lettering it, I called Micahel over over and asked him to look at it. I pointed to him and said, "Who's this?" And he said it was, "Michael." And then to 'Dad' and he's said, "That's Daddy." Then I pointed to the Hokie Bird and said, "And what heppened here?" And he got this HUGE grin, started laughing hysterically and said, "He was drawing on the walls!" He really got a kick out of it, probably becasue he knows now that you're not supposed to do that! :)

A little more on 'drawing of the walls' next time too... :)

On the Spectrum #56 - Decisions, decision...

2009-10-04T16:37:00.004-04:00

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This is really more of a social story intended for Michael, who's probably OTS's biggest fan.

Last week he broke his arm for the second time in about six months. He fell off the monkey bars at school, came down and broke his left radius right below the elbow.

In May, he broke his right radius, also just below the elbow. In that case we don't really know what happened. DW was in the next room, heard a crash, and found him crying and cradling his arm. We THINK what happened was that he was using this huge Fire Truck they have (pictured above) as a step-stool and, having wheels, it shot out from under him. The crash was more likely the Truck crashing into the wall on the other side of the room (which is why we didn't notice it right away) than him hitting the floor, but we don't really know. So he's in a cast... Again. So this one's really for him, a sort "BE CAREFUL" type of pseudo-social story. ("Make good choices" is the particular maxim that they use at school and at speech and he does sometime say it to himself when he's working through a plan or thinking about a decision.)

Oh yeah... I mentioned that he's probably the strip's biggest fan. He absolutely realizes that it's all (or at least mostly) about him, and he dig's that. He actually quote's it sometimes - last night he was stading in front of the TV (so we couldn't see) laughing and saying, "I want the no I can't see!" Which isn't even how he talks anymore, but he remembers it from the comic. (It was #40, if you're curious.) But I mention this because by now he's seen it so many times, and seen me drawing it, that he's started doing some stories of his own! He drew the follwing piece about a week or two ago. It's content is a bit ironic considering what would happen to him shortly thereafter. Here you go:

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Obviously I added the text afterwards, but it's all per his own description of what's going on. I thought it was pretty cool, that he could make up the story on his own and all.

On last thing... Michael's wardrobe update. You see... it's really been a while since Michael's dressed the way I've been drawing him. The short-sleeve polo shirt buttoned all the way up was his thing up until sometime last school year. Now ALL he wants to wear is black track pants (usually with white stripes) and two-tone-tees; You know: the kind that look like you've got a red tee on over a black long-sleeved shirt? Anyway, I figured it was time to update him, so I'm probably going to start drawing him like this from now on. We'll see.

On the Spectrum #55 - Another Brick...

2009-09-27T19:42:00.002-04:00

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No profound symbolism was intended here, just some humorous scripting from Michael. BTW, if you're old enough / young enough to get the joke here, let's keep it a secret from the whippersnappers / old fogies that don't get it, K? LOL.

If you're between the ages of 35 and 55 snd STILL don't get it, there's a clue that's about as subtle as a sledge hammer in the background behind Michael. ;)

On the Spectrum #54 - Backseat Driver

2009-09-20T21:44:00.003-04:00

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This was very hard to draw. And the funny thing is that I decided to do this one because I thought the one I'd originally wanted to do tonight would be hard to draw! LOL.

I'm not sure how many of you see this sort of thing... Every time we go by, for example, the Car Wash, Michael tells us "No Car Wash!" Now, we haven't been into a car wash with him in like six years. And there's one around the corner from our house. So we drive by it 3-5 times a week at least. So we've literally driven past it about a THOUSAND TIMES, never ONCE been IN IT (with him anyway) and he still feels the need to tell us!

On the Spectrum #53 - Twenty Questions

2009-09-13T13:41:00.001-04:00

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He loves to volunteer his little brother for all the lousy chores, take the blame for something, etc... What older brother doesn't, huh? LOL.

BTW, this game work just as well with multple "Yes" questions (Do you [good thing]? Do you [another good thing]? Do you [another good thing]?) Followed by a "No" question (Do you want to clean your room?) A good way to find out if they're really listening (and understanding) or not.

You gotta love the, "Ye... NO!" asnwer. : ) Sometimes he misses it, but usually these days he's listening pretty closely and I can't slip one past him, even if I go really fast. Clever boy. : )

On the Spectrum #52 - Trauma Drama

2009-09-06T12:55:00.005-04:00

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Ah, labor day tomorrow... Then BACK TO SCHOOL! : )

On the Spectrum #51 - Happy Birthday Michael, 2009!

2009-08-23T21:42:00.004-04:00

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Happy Birthday, Michael. And don't worry, we're getting you a GOOD ONE! LOL

On the Spectrum #50 - Time for bed, part 2

2009-08-16T20:54:00.006-04:00

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Sometimes "quiet in the room" works out better than others...

So I've made it to 50 issues! W00t! W00t! And this is the last one that will post in the myspace blog. From this point onward, this blog will be the official home of On the Spectrum. I'm still going to maintain my MySpace page, but only as a personal profile and blog; not for the comic.

So if you're just tuning in, and wondering how I created 50 comic strips in two days, haha, yeah, I didn't. This strip was stared on MySpace over a year ago, OTS#1 posted on 7/31/08 to be precise. And while there are a lot of cool things you can do in MySpace (why would anyone use facebook?!) There are also some limitations with it that make the Google blog a better product, IMHO. I've still got to see if I can tinker with the size of the images though - it would be nice to be able to post them legibly w/o having to click out. I'll see what I can do about that. (Maybe do the four panels vertically?) We'll see what works. But every strip that posted over the past year on MySpace (OTS #1-49) has been moved here. And going forward, the strip should update about once a week, typically late Saturday night.

So please enjoy! And please feel free to leave comments, or send me a message. I really love hearing from everyone, and am fairly good about getting back. If you want to see my myspace page, it's www.myspace.com/on_the_spectrum. And it will be undergoing some major renovation now that the comic is here and that page has a different purpose. (And if you do check it out, scroll through the blog a bit. I've got some other comics that I've been working on, as well as some other tidbits, pics, youtube links, etc...)

On the Spectrum #49 - No 'hand-me-downs' for the first born!

2009-08-16T20:43:00.007-04:00

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You can be forgiven if you don't get the joke right away. The thing it that while Michael doesn't seem to understand (or care) that flowers are typically for girls, he fully understood (and cared) that 'hand-me-downs' were for little brothers. In this scenario I guess novelty trumps gender appropriateness.

(And it's been awhile but the full image recycling count (of OTS#5) remains 6 - See OTS #'s 5, 14, 18, 27, 29 31; while the partial recycling count is now up to 4, see OTS #6, 24 & 26. LOL - It's far from the only art that gets recycled here, but I've gotten far more mileage out of that on than any of the others.)

www.myspace.com/on_the_spectrum

On the Spectrum #48 - 'Incredible' Scripting, part 2

2009-08-16T20:38:00.003-04:00

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This is a continuation of OTS #47. This line is from Syndrome's speech that kicks of his final scene in the film.

www.myspace.com/on_the_spectrum

On the Spectrum #47 - 'Incredible' Scripting, part 1

2009-08-16T20:26:00.005-04:00

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I'm sure you seen this! I think the technical term is 'scripting?' Sometimes it's in context, like above, sometimes it's when playing with toys, and sometimes it's just echolalic.

This is from Pixar's The Incredibles - another must-see, if you haven't. The line is from a scene at the beginning, when Dash was sent to the principles office, but was going to be let off, again, must to his teacher's chagrin.

Speaking of scripting, do any of you have a kid that doesn't know this one?:
800-588-2300 ... Empiiiiire ... Today!

(God I hate that song!)

www.myspace.com/on_the_spectrum

On the Spectrum #46 - Kiss my...

2009-08-16T20:18:00.004-04:00

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I could be mistaken, but did my son just tell me to kiss his...? Nah, nevermind.

It just so happens that Michael's nickname is "Moony." I swear this isn't why!

www.myspace.com/on_the_spectrum

On the Spectrum #45 - Silly Question, Grandpa!

2009-08-16T20:15:00.003-04:00

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Ask a silly question...

I was sitting accross the table from him. I think I almost spit my coffee out. He writes it folks, I just draw it! I could never make this stuff up!

www.myspace.com/on_the_spectrum

On the Spectrum #44 - Sunset in the Gulf

2009-08-16T20:08:00.007-04:00

Just for a day, I'd like to see the vivd and amazing and confusing and frustrating and wonderful world that he sees.

This was in Florida, visitng with Grandma & Grandpa during the summer.

www.myspace.com/on_the_spectrum

On the Spectrum #43 - Minivans

2009-08-16T20:03:00.003-04:00

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Michael's got good taste in cars.

www.myspace.com/on_the_spectrum

On the Spectrum #42 - An Engineer's Life

2009-08-16T19:53:00.006-04:00

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To answer your questions:
1) Yes, I am actually a seatbelt engineer.
2) Yes, it is possible for seat belt webbing to cut you if it routes over your neck. It's not common though, because...
3) Yes, we check the vehicle design to make sure it's routes so that this won't happen to most people.
and
4) Yes, given all that, it was Becky, Michael's speech therapist, who figured out what gave him the cut on his neck.

(It was a real high-point in my career, let me tell you!)

www.myspace.com/on_the_spectrum

On the Spectrum #41 - Brotherly Love, part 2

2009-08-16T19:49:00.004-04:00

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Ah... There's no love like brotherly love!

www.myspace.com/on_the_spectrum

On the Spectrum #40 - A better door than a window

2009-08-16T19:37:00.004-04:00

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I think this was his way of telling me, "Too bad. I ain't movin'!"

www.myspace.con/on_the_spectrum

On the Spectrum #39 - Pavlautism

2009-08-16T19:22:00.003-04:00

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It's amazing what can happen given the right motivation, isn't it?

www.myspace.com/on_the_spectrum

On the Spectrum #37 & 38 - Helen Keller jokes

2009-08-16T18:39:00.008-04:00

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No, we do not approve of 'Helen Keller jokes'...

And we're probaly going to hell for thinking about them in that second to last panel!

This is one of my favorites though. "I want to put the couch away!" is one of the reasons this strip even exsists. It's not quite as funny at three in the morning... But still.

www.myspace.com/on_the_spectrum

On the Spectrum #36 - Time for bed, part 1

2009-08-16T18:32:00.005-04:00

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Not too much to say about this one! Captain Chaos (or is he General Disarray?) strikes again!

(EDIT: Wow. I first posted this a few months ago and I just now noticed that my pants are the wrong color in every panel except #3!)

www.myspace.com/on_the_spectrum

On the Spectrum #35 - Feelin' Sad

2009-08-16T18:25:00.003-04:00

When I first posted this, a lot of people didn't get it. I guess the only thing I can really say is that, to me, Michael's feeling sad (whether becasue he felt bad about mistreating Jacob, because he made his mother sad, or just that his mother got angry with him) was his way of expressing remorse. So knowing he felt that way, I want to let DW know that she didn't have to worry. This was just the kind of thing that happens when you have two boys that are close in age. They fight. (And I'm guessing that neurotypical brothers or brothers and sisters probably don't really feel that bad about fighting, or even about getting in trouble over it! So everything's OK.

www.myspace.com/on_the_spectrum

On the Spectrum #34 - It wasn't me!

2009-08-16T18:15:00.005-04:00

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In case you're wondering how much of this strip is just made up, or taken from stories I hear from other people, the answer is, "Very little." I do sometimes change the location or context, but almost everything is depicted exactly as it happened.

That being said, this one was not actually one of ours. I witnessed this in the speech therapist's waiting room. Michael and another boy, Blake, had just finished a group session and were putting their shoes and coats on when Blake let one go. When his mother aksed him, "What do you say?" Well... see above! I almost died. (From laughing, not... well... you know!) LOL. (And IIRC, her answer to him was, "That's right!" which I found even funnier!)

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On the Spectrum #33 - Bottom of the ninth

2009-08-16T15:53:00.004-04:00

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This is very closely related to OTS #20. (Notice the recycled backlground? LOL) It's kind of the flip side of it. In that one Jacob was completely oblivious to my calling him. In this one I'm completely oblivious to him.

Which begs the question...

Who is less aware of their surroundings, an autistic child who's focused on something, or a man who's really into watching 'the game?' I'm not so sure... There are times (7th inning and onward the in post season?) where you could set my shoes on fire and I might not notice until after the third out.

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On the Spectrum #32 - A likely story

2009-08-16T15:43:00.006-04:00

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Yeah... DW wasn't too happy with me that day. And I can't say I blame her - it took us a a few weeks to re-teach him the difference between ice cream and broccoli! So yeah, I kind of won "Worst Parent in the World" that day! There's nothing like sabotaging your son's language development just because you don't want to share the ice cream!

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On the Spectrum #31 - 'E' is for 'Echolalia'

2009-08-16T15:29:00.006-04:00

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Just in case you were wondering... :)

(Full image recycling count up to 6. See OTS #'s 5, 14, 18, 27 & 29. Partial recycling count remains at 3, see OTS #6, 24 & 26. LOL)

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On the Spectrum #30 - How to cope with a haircut

2009-08-16T15:17:00.005-04:00

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This is actually how we first got through haricuts. Before this, he'd have to sit on my lap for the longest time, and I'd have to hold him while they used the clippers, which he hated, because he wouldn't sit still enough for the scissors. He's fine with it now, and has been for awhile. He still doesn't like it but he can cope. Jacob has just recently gotten to the point where he can sit on his own as well. I still need to stay nearby (like in the next chair) though. With Michael, I no longer need to leave the waiting area.

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On the Spectrum #29 - All wet!

2009-08-16T15:08:00.005-04:00

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There are a few, really striking differences between Michael and Jacob. One of the biggest is there tolerance to being wet. Jacob can play outside, jumping on the trampoline in a driving rain. But if Michael gets a single drop of water him, he'll change all of his clothes, right down to his socks and underwear. What's depicted here is not exagerated in the slightest!

It's just one of Michael's sensory issues. He just HATES the feeling of wetness on his clothing. (So guess which one was easier to potty-train?)

(Full image recycling count up to 5. See OTS #'s 5, 14, 18, & 27. Partial recycling count remains at 3, see OTS #6, 24 & 26. LOL)

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On the Spectrum #28 - Neither snow nor rain nor gloom of night...

2009-08-16T15:00:00.005-04:00

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I drive a PT Cruiser. And Michael really likes haveing the sunroof (and windows) open. Rain, snow... not important!

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On the Spectrum #27 - Spirited Away

2009-08-16T14:44:00.007-04:00

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This one might need some explaining! (To anyone who hasn't seen the movie, anyway!)

I originally posted this in tribute of Hayao Miyazaki's 67th birthday in January, 2009. Miyazaki-san is an amazing animated filmaker from Japan. The images above are from what is often considered his greatest film: Spirited Away. If you've never seen see it, WATCH IT. It's an absolute masterpiece! Truly one of the great, classic films of all time.

In the scene depicted, the main character, Chihiro, is trying to get the witch Ubaba to give her a job. She was warned that Ubaba would initally say, "No," but to keep trying. So Chihiro keeps pestering her, just as Michael is doing to me. (Hence what it reminds me of.) This goes on even to the point where Ubaba uses her magic to zipper Chihiro's mouth shut! But Chirio keeps at it anyway, and eventually the witch relents. (I do not recall, however, if I ended up giving Michael the Coke. LOL. He can be incredibly persistant though!)

This was one of Michael's favorite when I originally put it up. Spirited Away is one of his favorit movies too, and as soon as he saw the strip he immediately said, "DOOOOON'T SAAAAAY THAAAAAT AGAAAAIN!!!" in a passable imitation of the old crone's!

(Full image recycling count up to 4. See OTS #'s 5, 14, & 18. Partial recycling count remains at 3, see OTS #6, 24 & 26. LOL)

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On the Spectrum #26 - Happy Birthday, Grandma

2009-08-16T14:36:00.005-04:00

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Happy Birthday, Mom!

This is Grandma's first appearance. It's also the first (only?) time I've managed to work as many as SIX recurring charecters into one strip!

(Full image recycling count remains at 4. See OTS #'s 5, 14 & 18. Partial recycling count is up to 3, see OTS #6 & 24. LOL)

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On the Spectrum #25 - HOW many...?

2009-08-16T14:30:00.007-04:00

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I find this is a good test to see if he's just messin' around, or is he really doesn't understand. So far he hasn't called my bluff. LOL

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On the Spectrum #24 - Have a neat and orderly Xmas!

2009-08-16T14:12:00.010-04:00

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Again, I'll never understand how kids who line things up perfectly, just for fun, can have such messy rooms! The two of them have earned the nicknames, "Captain Chaos" and "General Disarray." (Yeah, we're South Park fans, too.)

This is "Grandpa's" first appearance.

(Full image recycling count remains at 4. See OTS #'s 5, 14 & 18. Partial recycling count is up to 2, see OTS #6. LOL)

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On the Spectrum #23: A Christmas Carol

2009-08-16T14:07:00.006-04:00

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But I like singing! :(

(Full image recycling count is now up to 4. See OTS #'s 5, 14 & 18. Partial recycling in OTS #6 also. LOL)

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On The Spectrum #22 - Happy Birthday, Jacob

2009-08-16T13:58:00.010-04:00

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Happy Birthday,
Michael
Jacob!

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On the Spectrum #21 - Oh, Christmas Tree...

2009-08-16T13:49:00.008-04:00

This is one of my favorite stories. There are three or four that I could cite as being what inspired me to start doing the comic strip and this is one of them. When he said, "Water," I almost died laughing. Becuase it's so perfect! He was absolutely, 100% correct - and yet gave me an answer I never saw coming!

I believe that, in his mind, we have to follow the procedure. And (silly, Daddy) you have to water the tree about 15-20 times before the presents go there!

(And the reason Iasked him what kind of tree it was is that he has grandparetns in Florida and was getting "pine" tree and "palm" tree mixed up; so I thought I'd test him. "Christmas" Tree was another answer that, while 100% correct, was totally not one of teh things I expected him to say.

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On the Spectrum #20 - Indoor Voice

2009-08-16T11:51:00.011-04:00

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This is one of Michael's absolute favorites. I think he thinks it's funny when Jacob gets yelled at.

There a lesson here, and it applies to both autistics as well as neurotypical people who happen to not speak your language: TALKING LOUDER PROBABLY WON'T HELP.

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On the Spetrcum #19 - Paparazzi

2009-08-16T11:44:00.004-04:00

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This must be an age / developmental stage kind od thing because, shortly after I originally posted this, the situation reversed and Jacob became camera-shy while Michael started striking poses and giving us the best 'cheeeeeeese'es. So if anyone out there is experiencing this, I'm pretty sure I can say, "It will pass."

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On the Spectrum #18 - Truth in Lies

2009-08-16T10:59:00.007-04:00

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Well... at least he was... honest? It really amazes me how much trouble Jacob can get into. Especially when he not even in the house!

(Full image recycling count is up to 3. See OTS #'s 14, 5. Partial recycling in OTS #6 also. LOL)

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On the Spectrum #17 - Brotherly Love, part 1

2009-08-16T10:53:00.008-04:00

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Ah... No love like brotherly love.

To be fair, I did say, "Give him a push," didn't I? You've gotta watch what you leave open to interpretation.

This scene must have taken place in the same room as the Halloween conversation. Either that, or I'm getting really lazy with the backgrounds lately!

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On the Spectrum #15 & 16 - Happy Halloween, Parts 1 & 2

2009-08-16T10:35:00.012-04:00

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*Elmo and Zoe are the property of Sesame Street

He laughed so hard when he said "Zoe" that I'm pretty sure he WAS joking / just trying to get a rise out of me. He does that. There are many that doubt whether autistics truly can have a sense of humor, but Michael absolutely does. That's why I say that he writes the comic, and I just draw it.

And how about that fancy background, huh? A single, horizontal line! Scott Adams, eat your heart out! LOL

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On the Spectrum #14 - The Great Cookie Thief!

2009-08-16T10:12:00.006-04:00

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You see that milk glass?

He ALWAYS puts his glass or cup right on the edge of the table, next to his right elbow. And he's NEVER SPILLED IT. Mine wouldn't ten seconds in that position! I don't know how he does it. And is we move it, he'll put it right back there!

This is also the first of many times that I recycle the image of Michael sitting at the table from OTS#5. (Although part of it, just his face, was also used in OTS#6 - in the picture hanging on the wall.)

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