I didn’t exactly redraw the strip for today… rather, I retouched it.  I cleaned up some sloppy coloring work, made a few stylistic changes, and voila.  I liked the old one a lot and didn’t know much I could do to improve it, so… yeah.

In addition to the classic strip, I’ve also posted a simple one-panel strip I did the day my first niece was born.

Longtime fans, you know what this means.  *Cue imperial march.*

Dum-dum-dum-dah-duh-dum-dah-duh-dum.

(It also means I had the devil of a time drawing Hildebrandt’s hug pose.)

Classic strip below.

Not much to say this time, so I’ll just echo the sentiments I posted with the original strip:

Thanks Few for complimenting the graphics quality of the first one.

Thanks Rob for staying on my back and making me not quit.

Additionally, thanks to my wife for cheering me on and giving me advice, to the occasional student who passes along word-of-mouth recommendations to his or her friends, and to everyone else who’s read the strip… whether you admit to it or not.

Original strip posted below.  Note the total re-thinking of the roommate’s character design… the one in the classic strip never clicked for me.

The basis for this strip — Andrew’s first day at Mall*Wart — was first drawn and published in 2004.  It was the original introduction to the comic.

My real first day as a cartpusher didn’t go exactly like this (although we did have to list beneficiaries for death and dismemberment insurance payments).  The most memorable part of it was the HR lady looking at my scrawny, geeky, 140-pound frame and saying, “As for you, Jason, I just… I don’t know.  Do you think,” she squinted up at me, “do you think you could handle being a stockman?”

I pictured myself stacking merchandise on shelves.  I nodded.

She shook her head doubtfully, but she handed me an orange vest and led me out toward the parking lot.

Turns out “stockman” is big-box-store lingo for “cartpusher,” and after a couple days of being bullied into pushing too-long lines of shopping carts, I understood why she looked so doubtful about me.

I guess I showed her.  I pushed those dang things for six years… three times as long as I drew the original comic strip.  (Obviously, drawing a webcomic is much harder.)

Classic strip posted below.  Note the absence of a demon-skull-candle-holder… I didn’t get the idea for a demonic boss until later in the original strip’s run, but I wanted to include it in the reboot.

In 2004 I decided to start drawing a webcomic about my, er, adventures as a cartpusher at the local “big box” store.  The comic lasted for around two years and accumulated about 150 strips.

Eventually, I lost interest.

For several months now, however, I’ve been thinking about rebooting the entire comic.  This post marks the beginning of the reboot.  For as long as I can hold my attention on it, I’ll be redrawing the “classic” strips, revising them when I see room for improvement, and adding new strips (like this one) into the mix as inspiration strikes me.

For fans of the classic Cartpusher, I hope y’all enjoy the new take on my old project.

For newcomers (should there be any… heh heh… heh), I hope you’re at least somewhat amused by both the new strips and their classic counterparts.

Thanks for stopping in.