So kids, don’t try this at home. Operating a screwdriver, as everybody knows, is a risky business which should be embarked upon only after thorough safety precautions have been taken. And, no matter what it is you are trying to achieve, don’t make a fool of yourself by producing a freak accident in front of a woman. Not if you are trying to maintain the macho facade of Victor…

Thought I’d let you in on some production details, because it seems the Triple Six, Inc. workflow differs in some aspects from that of other web comics - Triple Six, Inc. is produced in Corel Draw. Mostly. That is, after hand-pencilling and inking, I scan in the drawings, trace them (using the excellent Corel Trace tool) and import them in Corel Draw, where everything else happens.

The advantage of using a vector tool such as Corel Draw is that once you have vectorized the hand drawings, you can change them drastically without worrying about pixel effects. Interestingly, the tracing tool picks up the details quite nicely for a simple style such as I use. 

For more complex styles, it wouldn’t work nearly as good, of course. So on top of the general simplicity of creating a TSI-like comic, you get the added benefit of the very easy postprocessing of vector graphics. For anybody producing simple line drawings, I would strongly recommend going through the vectorization step.

Tadaaah - this update comes one day late, which is a huge improvement over the delay we had for the last one. Things look even better for the next one. Inking’s finished, the coloring and texting will hopefully be dealt with swiftly.

Sooo… Ladies, if you feel inclined to send hatemail, don’t send it to me, send it to Victor - he’s the sexist pig in the company. He’ll be happy to reply. In fact, he writes diabolically beautiful letters, especially to readers of the female persuasion.

As far as his confidence for dealing with Ina goes, I don’t know. Why can’t I swallow the feeling that this will turn out not quite exactly as he foresees?

Next week: An Espresso machine is delivered and challenges Victor’s technical skills.

Isn’t it ridiculous in a cute way, how all negotiations follow the same pattern Paul and Benoit are exercising above? 

Oldfashioned, predictable, should be extinct - the T. rex of arbitration tactics. And still, here we are, with this kind of thing happening daily all over the world. The final enigma of game theory. No matter where both parties start with their demands, they always come together at the middle.

In the end, it’s our brain’s wetware that’s messing up the game theory. For how polite would it be to stubbornly not step down from your position? And at the same time, everybody knows this strange, uncomfortable feeling when you have watered down your optimal negotiation strategy because of politeness. Almost like betraying yourself.

So in a way, your brain is working for the other side. But is this cerebral illoyalty really such a bad thing? It’s probably the difference between a sane man and a monster. Or ist it, Dr. Lecter?

Voila: Flashback! Now this comic has officially moved into the realm of non-linear storytelling, which I guess puts it right next to Lost. What a lovely neighbourhood, I’ll say.

Soooo…. we are scheduled for some nifty, heavy-duty enigmas in the upcoming episodes. And probably an expansion of the cast with characters named after famous philosophers. Which is THE most respected way of spicing up your action. Before you know it, this will be Cloverfield - Paul’s already ramping up his consumption of power drinks.

On a not really related note, my backlog is slowly but surely dwindling. Be prepared for minor delays in upcoming episodes. I’m just saying, so that there’s no complaining afterwards.

Well well, even three-headed beasts go to the doctor from time to time. At least in Hell, which takes great pride in its social benefits system. And after all, any kind of public health system is a spawn of hell anyway, right?

Creativity - what a beautiful word it is, especially in the context of business, isn’t it? Nobody will oppose a little creativity on the job, right? When you think about it, it’s the grease that keeps those happy little cog wheels turning.

Over time, however, you find out about the different levels of tolerance people have towards ‘creativity’ on the job, and it turns out these differences are one rather important cause of trouble. Especially in small businesses. And more often than not, a couple of managers, shareholders or bosses gets into the ‘good cop, bad cop’ routine, and soon enough you find yourself arguing over the same question of what really defines a good business practise time and again.

Well, employees’ rights - you can’t live with them, and you can’t live without them, right? Oh, yes - depending on whether you are an employer, you can in fact live without them. It’s interesting, though, how they create their own cute whirls and eddies in the eternal sea we call employment market.

And you really get a feel for the limitations of globalization when you look at how different these distortions are between regions and countries. Talking about Germany - where it just so happens Triple Six, Inc. originates - employees are so well endowed with rights, that it is a miracle of its own that the German workforce has not been completely replaced by robots yet. 

There is something to it, after all: In a surprising, slightly magical way, both sides in Germany seem to get along quite well and maintain a relatively satisfactory level of productivity. Having rights does not necessarily mean you have to exercise them, and German workers are notorious for not using their rights.

The whole inherent conflict between employees and employers in Germany seems to have shifted from the legal arena to the psychological one, and scare tactics are working wonders. Employers have become quite proficient in pyschological warfare, and in times of need manage quite well in corralling their workforce. Good old Karl Marx would surely be inclined to raise an eye brow…

Ok, things are finally getting nasty. Paul’s facade as an enlightened lesser demon slowly crumbles. I sure hope Benoit isn’t taking it personally. Ah, who am I kidding?

On an unrelated note, watch out for a very bizarre turn of events in a couple of episodes. Won’t be too long before we enter the world of the extremely miniscule. Stay tuned.