Today's comic is going up slightly earlier than I usually update, but I suppose being a few hours early might make up for my week-long lapse in activity. This was partly due to real-life stresses, but another contributing factor was the script to this comic, which I agonised about for ages and still don't really like. There were at least three reasons it was a pain to write, which is pretty impressive considering it's just a six-panel comic.

In the interests of full disclosure, Artemis' line about the possibility of it all being a dream was put there entirely for my own benefit, just to add a sense of plausible deniability to the whole affair. When I first had Hippolyte visiting Artemis, I worried that bringing in blatantly mythological elements could unbalance a story that's otherwise grounded in reality (well... more or less). Given the responses, it seems like I might be the only person who was bothered by this, but my policy remains. There are problems when you start bringing Goddesses and the like into stories, and I suppose one way of limiting their impact is having it so that their actions could be explained away logically, should you be inclined to do so. The line is also, I suppose, inspired by the various Gods throughout mythology who seem thoroughly uninterested in proving their own existence. Given that, in many cases, these Gods also want people to worship them, it seems rather counter-intuitive.

I once had an idea for a fantasy religion... that I may yet use, if I ever write one of the many novels I'm forever failing to write. The idea of this religion is that God exists, but he values rationality and therefore conceals his existence in order for humans to assess the universe logically. He rewards those humans who conclude that there is no God, since there's no logical reason to believe one exists. The great thing about this religion is that it's impossible to adhere to, since once you've accepted its basic premise - that a God exists - you've already failed.

Actually, forget the novel. I'm setting up my own Church. Tax evasion, here I come...