Lackadaisy Birthday Special

Posted on August 10, 2020 by Clint | Uncategorized

Happy birthday to… you?

It was Tracy Butler’s birthday this week… but today, we’re giving you some presents. One, in fact, from Tracy herself! She recently uploaded a bonus comic on lackadaisy.com featuring baby Freckle and Rocky. If you missed it, go check it out!

Our lovely artists are also working hard on some Lackadaisy film progress for all you lovely fans! What a gift on this, a day which is statistically unlikely to be your birthday! You’re very welcome!

First off, we have a couple more character sheets we haven’t released until now. One is the beautiful Mitzi May.

Having achieved peak widowhood, what else is there to do but look pretty?

The other, the gorgeous and stunning Mordecai Heller!

Similarly, once one becomes the perfect widowmaker, what else is there to do… but look pretty?

The next “gifts” are some prop sheets arranged by Newt and Tracy

I guess owls are “props” in animation world?

Maybe because they provide the ambiance… Wait. Does that mean Rocky is also a prop? Let’s check this reel by Mel Mrozek (@Radvumtal)…

Checks out.

Also by Mel, notes by our director, Fable (@fablepaint).

Rocky knocking some dust off his shoulder.

And now Jack Ma @JackMaToons, (notes by Fable)

Serafine knocking some poor souls into the dust.

These animation layout notes were created by Sagan Yee (@saganyee). The second to last row of model notes by Fable.

This last “birthday present” this week is by Nick

But that’s enough of gifts for you, friend! It’s Tracy’s birthday week, after all, and I’d like you to take a moment to consider donating to our project.

And if you don’t have a dime to spare, you can also throw some art and/or love at Tracy herself (@LackadaisyCats). Wish her a happy belated!

The crew, for their part, celebrated in the best way they knew how—by surprising her with a slideshow of art and animations!

(Easter Egg: you’ll notice my charming face in the top corner half the video because I’m a dummy who didn’t mute Discord)

If you want to see the birthday surprise without commentary/reactions (or without my charming face), you can follow this link instead.

And because I said basically nothing during the actual surprise party (social anxiety rears its head) and love abusing the devlog platform, I’m just going to leave a personal message here:

Webcomics have been a huge part of my life since I was 13 years old, back when my entire world was video games and pixel comics. Even today, they offer a short break from work (provided I’m not diving into a new series). It wasn’t until “recently” (2012, I think?) when Fable introduced me to Lackadaisy at a nearby comic shop. The story was so compelling, the art so immaculate, that I remember feeling cheated, like it was a crime I hadn’t known about this comic for six entire years. Fast forward and now we’re both obviously still immersed in the beauty and wonderment we get from Lackadaisy. We just couldn’t leave it. We didn’t want to.

The truth is, we don’t have very many people who remember 1927 or the 1920s at all. My own grandfather celebrates that as his birth year, but he certainly doesn’t remember any of it, being a baby and all. So, we fill in the gaps with history books… but also with fiction. Humans experience the past through our shared mythologies. I can read about 1927 on Wikipedia or something, but it’s the stories we tell that let us feel an actual attachment to the past. And that’s why this is more than just a comic or a short film to me.

“I’ve always preferred mythology to history. Because history is made up of truths which eventually turn into lies. Mythology is made up of lies that eventually become truths. And if I have the luck of living on in your mind, it would be in mythological form.”
Jean Cocteau (English translation from Jean Cocteau: Autobiography of an Unknown)

Thank you, Tracy. And happy birthday! :3