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Ladies, do you want your man to better buy into the idea of marriage? Well, here's a simple tip: let more of that multi-thousand dollar princess spotlight shine on him! That's right, balance things out a bit so the occasion is more fun for the two of you together. To that end, here are a few tips I'd like to offer up from the perspective of the less-fare sex:

• Register for gifts that don't suck. Sure, a toaster or multi-hundred dollar place settings may get your motor revving but his may be powered by video games and power tools. Let him make a gift list of things that he might enjoy and that your male guests might also like buying for as well.
  
  
• Get awesome food. Sure a catering company can pop some Costco, frozen, bite-sized quiches into the microwave and serve it up on a platter but wouldn't you like that money going to awesome food? Pick a favorite restaurant or two and find out if they will cater your event. Many will and that way you'll put a little more of yourselves into what your guests eat and you know you'll enjoy it as well.
  
  
• Have fun and cut loose a little! This doesn't necessarily mean you have to choreograph a dance routine or fall face down in the cake America's Funniest Home Videos-style but live a little. You're never going to wear that dress again (c'mon, face it, 'cause that'd just be weird!) so dance, eat awesome food (see above), roll down a hill in grass, whatever! You're not the royal family and photos of you having fun won't be in the next day's tabloids.
  
  
• Quality not quantity. Are you best fiends with all 657 of your Facebook friends? No. Would you invite all of them to your wedding? No. So don't! If you aim to keep the guest list down you'll not just save money (a huge deal for the man in your equation) but your guests will feel that much more a part of your special day. Plus, men often get overwhelmed in crowds when dressed up. I think it's an instinctual, must protect fire, kinda' thing.
  
  Consider that the money you save could easily go towards stuff you didn't get on your registry or an even better honeymoon!

If you have any other more man-inclusive wedding ideas please drop them in the comments below to the benefit of grooms everywhere.

K^F

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Since my partner in indy webcomic crime has decided to take time to help brides-to-be in his portion of the Talkback riff I thought I would (after now 12 comics in) explain slightly how SCATS is made.

All SCATS begin in a bar... not figuratively or as a setting piece but literally in a local Tacoma bar (that rotates taps regularly and serves awesome hot dogs). Kevin and I sit down, drink a beer (Kev is big on Stouts where as I am a solid IPA man) and just talk about stuff. Ultimately while talking a nugget of a script or a punchline is created.

From that beginning the ball is in Kevin's court. Privately he takes the bar conversation and crafts it into the first draft of a SCATS strip. For this week's script he created the following script:

We then discuss whether to move forward with the script. Once we decide to do so the burden passes to me. I decide based on the script what two figures to draw. I also have been making a habit of including some reoccurring figures into the background. I have no idea why I've been doing this. Also during this stage I hackily rewrite, jettison and mangle the first draft of the script.

Once I am done it passes back to Kevin for review and approval. The strip you are looking at above is not the first strip I drew. Kevin decides whether my brutish stabs at dialog pass the muster and then either rewrites (such as in today's script) or relents. In fact there was one line in today's strip in particular that caused a bit of a nerd war between Kevin and I. In panel two RED says: B-line's are nice and for the most chaste of ladies. I thought it would be funnier if RED said: "B-line's really show off your cans". Kevin did not agree... stating quite equivocally that a B-wing looks like a cross while deployed and therefore the chaste comment was the more correct line. I disagreed... remembering the B-wing to be basically a big cockpit on a stick and figured a crude boob joke was better. In the end... the nerdier of the two options one out and the chaste line remained in the strip.

Maybe one week we will actually document the entire process... but until then enjoy the ride.

-Stowe