Reya the Misanthrope returns! I personally don’t like New Year’s resolutions because they reek of impending failure. Reya’s opinions are far harsher.

Last week I mentioned some things people wanted to see more of in Ben & Winslow. One of the top three was “people getting mauled by bears.” I hadn’t really intended to draw a comic about bears–that was just a joke answer in the poll I was conducting. But what the hell, you know? Let’s get some bears up in this joint.

Welcome to 2013, fools! I decided to start things out right this year by drawing a comic with unexpected subject matter. So today we have a Ben & Winslow strip all about menstruation. If you were keeping a list of all the potential subjects I could have written about, go ahead and mark that one off. I can wait.

We actually had our first real snowfall of winter the other day. Things looked promising, but then it started to rain and turned everything into mush. I can still dream about proper winters with proper snows, with snowmen and snow angels and snow demonologists–all the trappings of a winter wonderland. And I’ll live out those dreams in comic form. And maybe with a urine joke.

Welcome to December 2012, travelers!

I’ll jump right into this editorial biz: I love it when a submission stick with me.

After the initial read, the hold request, the dozens of other submissions that come and go… it’s nice to reach the end of the reading period and vividly remember the stuff I held onto. Take, for example, Addison Clift’s “The Passenger.” That was one of the first stories we added to the pending pile, way back in early September. But when the reading period closed, I knew I wanted it in this issue. I remembered it. More than that–every time I stepped into a subway car, I though about it, as if any moment a fellow commuter would shed his skin and devour the other passengers. (This was especially true when a crazy guy boarded the train and started talking about how he was President Obama’s brother and how Dr. King “never took shit from no one,” and then had a long discourse with an invisible friend that involved the Kennedy assassination and several unkind comments about women. “Phara Koltana I am your vessel!” wasn’t far off.)