Woohoo! We made it Averagententians! And lookit that, it even went up early 
For new readers, or those who like me are poor of memory, a quick link back to the archives showing the last time we heard of this fellow! Also, here’s his first appearance in Strip #2, and the events leading up to his predicament…
You know, it seems pretty amazing when I look back at those first few strips linked above and consider the difference a year makes. Really, until starting Average Joe, I had little to no experience with drawing (as is pretty clear from those early strips!); now, about a year and 100 updates later, I can say I’m sliding a bit more towards the “little” end That feels pretty darn good! A year can be a long time, and I feel privileged that I’ve had the opportunity to spend some of it creating content for you wonderful readers who keep coming back every week; and for those just discovering the comic for the first time! Seriously, you guys rock, and the words of encouragement I get every now and then by email, in the comments, or across social media make the whole experience feel so amazing and worthwhile!
When I started Average Joe I had the idea that I’d buzz through a “quick” setup for the premise, detailing how Joe got his powers, then move to a more gag-a-day format with stand-alone strips and one-off jokes. I clearly did not do the maths when I planned this out, as I knew I’d start off updating only once a week, and I had already written up to strip 15 with no end to the introduction in sight! We eventually got to leave the lab though, and it’s been fun to run through the small audition/robbery arc, the second audition/”Unmaker” arc, and to keep moving the ‘present day’ story forward in between. It’s a format I’m planning to keep for a while – there is an overall story planned for Joe, Fatale, the Scientist and the newly-unveiled Major that I look forward to telling you all, but we still have a few months of time to fill in between the stories being told by Joe and the Scientist, and the predicament of Strip #1 – I’m sure the Major still has a question or two for Joe before he launches his dastardly scheme (whatever that is), and I’m sure he has some sort of nefarious plot to wrestle the location of Tobias out of our dashing hero (for some evil intent, no doubt! And how did the superpowered equal of our hero become the mysterious villain of mystery anyway?!). I seriously can’t wait to share these stories with you guys; this comic has given me so much joy, and it feels great to be firing on all creative cylinders!
Once again, massive thanks to everyone for reading, and I look forward to being able to bring you guys another hundred strips of Joe’s adventures; there’s some fun stories and some fun plans in the works for Average Joe so stick around and buckle up – this ride’s just beginning!
See you on Sunday, above-Averagers!
Terence MacManus.
PS – There’s two thinly-veiled references to franchises I love in this update; the first is pretty obvious, but can anyone guess which is the second? There might even be a prize in it for the person who can point out both in the comments below (a real one this time! )
