the dregs #1

let me start by talking about the dregs series as a whole. shortly after talking with mr. azzarello, i went to work developing characters. originally, i was planning on making this a spin-off for my characters "bob" and "lawrence", since they were already my bar characters in the SP and they worked well and had the same sense of humor that i was looking to use in this new strip. i tried giving them more of a stylized look, but i found that no matter how hard i tried, i couldn't get them the way i wanted. after all, they are based on people that i know, and so i felt i had to do the characters' models right, but i couldn't seem to do it. finally, i gave up on "bob" and "lawrence" and decided to come up with fresh characters.

"sal" the bartender was the easiest to do. he originally started as even more of a blockhead with a literally square shouldered body and a permanent 5 o'clock shadow. "peg" started as an even more weathered bar fly. there were two other characters i was going to use regularly that i never used at all - "stevie d lixx" and "connor catastrophe". since "sal's" bar is a dive, it only seemed right to add in some young hipster-ish people, in this case two aspiring musicians with dreams of stardom - kind of like tenacious d. but, the idea was that neither of them could play an instrument or sing and the name of their band was always changing - something i could exploit each time they were in an episode (one band name was "crimson orgasm"). "stevie" and "connor", however, didn't make the initial cut since it became obvious that their idea was too conceptual and would never really fly with what i was planning to do with this series. maybe i'll use them in something else since i do like the characters.

since "bob" and "lawrence" were based on real people, friends always wanted to know if "sal" and "peg" are based on real people too. the answer is yes and no. i don't know anyone that looks like "sal". his look is purely imaginary. his delivery and personality, however, is the collection of many bartenders i know. "peg's" look, on the other hand, is based on someone i know, but i don't want to reveal that person's name since the caricature is not exactly flattering. her personality is based on many women i've seen in bars who look like they've lived in one for most of their lives and hate most people (especially men), except for the bartender who you wonder if she's had a prior relationship with (the possible reason for why she's nice to him) or if she's just been a customer for a long time. their love/hate banter gives them a relationship not unlike the comic strip "The Lockhorns".

after all the character tweaking, i was ready to go. thankfully, working in a bar gives me infinite fodder for this cynical, sarcastic, biting comic and so i already had a good amount of material to work with.

the first episode of the dregs was done in august 2008, and was titled (episodes to follow were never titled) "baby huey". "sal", early on, looked more like Cousin It from the Addams Family than how he does now, because even though i liked the way he looked i kept changing little things about him. something else that changed over time was the line work. i use faber-castell pitt series artist pens for the SP, so i used them early on for the dregs. one of the biggest complaints that i got was that my line work needed variation, though i didn't see it at first (i was, after all, a little biased), but later changed. the joke came from something i thought of when i was bartending (it's safe to assume most of these jokes came to me this way). a very large person kept asking for more bread with his meal. "sal's" comment was what i wanted to say after my 4th trip to the kitchen to satisfy this man's carb jones.

and like that, the dregs was officially born.

i love this series because it says all the things i want to say to people, in and out of bars. it also is what i initially wanted to do with the SP when it was supposed to be a Dilbert for the service industry. the reason it is far more successful is that you don't have to be a bartender to get the jokes. they make fun of themselves more than they bite at customers, so no one gets left out in the fun. i'm very proud of this series and i hope you all enjoy it too.