Heidi High

More fun with everyone's favourite plastic secretary Heidi. Who knows what Heidi really looked like before her numerous surgeries? One thing's for sure: that's a damn good salary she's on to get that amount of work done. It's also possible the Smokestack offers a really good healthcare package, which seems a little dubious given the fact that Kali and Ormrod both have scars on their faces that they don't seem to have had anything done to. (Ormrod's scar is the 'z' shaped one on his nose, hidden under his plaster, in case you forgot about that.)

The weird thing about doing a webcomic like this, especially this year's storyline that requires certain characters to be absent for weeks or months at a time, is that you can end up completely forgetting how to draw a character by the time you get around to it again. Most of the major artistic changes come from long breaks in drawing the character in question (as opposed to last year, where big changes tended to be precipitated by a complete halt in drawing the comic whatsoever). It's mostly when characters are in profile that I end up having problems: particularly Halifax, in this strip and the previous one, since really his glasses and his spikey hair are both artistic shortcuts to creating him. His actual face changes a lot, but as long as the glasses and hair remain the same, then it's very easy to recognise him as the same character. Kali's similar with her eyepatch and long purple hair; Tara with her distinctive dreadlocks (and funny chin shape). Honey is defined by her size, and the cabbage-like mass of her head. Virtually every character has some sort of mental shortcut that distinguises them as that particular character, even when the actual rendering of them may in fact be completely different than the last time they appeared. Halifax is, of all of them, the most consistent, despite minor hiccups here and there. He is also, of course, the one I've had the most practice drawing, given that he was in probably at least 90% of last year's comics and a good chunk of this year's as well.
The focus will shift at the end of the year, however. Some characters I'll have to get used to drawing (like Tara -- I always have to look up reference for her) whereas others... well, let's just say not everyone makes it through the year alive.