Ref: Started dating | Edona colors | Flowers, Band, and Awkward Percy | Sleigh

Holly was originally meant to be quite the bimbo foil for Percy when she was first created.  She was actually lifted from a book series I once started writing, where the main character Matthias had a sister named Holly with a similar superficial personality.  Oddly enough, Matthias was based somewhat on a Filipino friend of mine (who is NOT the same person Jorocks was originally modeled after).  And yes, Jorocks is part Filipino.  I’ve known that from very early on, but never saw cause to put it in the comic.  Anyway, as the comic went on I found that Holly was getting pushed out of the main picture in favor of other storylines, but I kept her together with Jorocks if I needed a joke somewhere.  After a while, I realized that if she remained so superficial, there was no way she would have stuck with him for this long, so I had two choices: end it, or take the opportunity for a bit of secondary character growth AND have an excuse to learn a little bit more about Jorocks! Huzzah!

John’s line in the last panel is to make up for the missed opportunity in From Russia With Love.  Originally there was going to be a bit of comedic tension between Jorocks and John, but the arc was long enough as it was, so it got dropped.

This comic also is a reminder that the main cast–Percy, Jorocks, and Nikki (Chris is a year younger)–just finished their third year, despite the comic itself being four years old, mainly because that third year was sketchy at best when it came to updates.