Even though "Hodge-Podge" failed to draw syndicate interest, I was convinced that this group of characters that I was slowly developing had a lot of potential.  So naturally, I chose to create a new strip around them.  Having begun e-mail correspondence with cartoonist Greg Evans (creator of "Luann") by this point, I was inspired to have my main character be a girl.  The often mentioned but never seen character of Cholly from "Hodge-Podge" seemed like the perfect candidate for the role.  The strip would revolve around Cholly's exploits in college, while the supporting characters from "Hodge-Podge" would take on slightly different roles than before to best suit the new strip.  Ultimately I was satisfied with this new strip but the syndicates were not.  The rule of thought with them was that college students don't buy newspapers, so a strip about a college student wouldn't work.  As a newspaper-buying college student at the time, I tended to disagree.  Regardless, Cholly and her gang were persistent, and would resurface yet again in other comic strips.  On a side note, it should be stressed that this strip was by no means a sequel to "Hodge-Podge." Every strip I create should be taken as a self-contained world with no relation to any of my previous work.  With that out of the way, the following is a description of the characters in "The Epic of Cholly":

Cholly: An introverted college student with a passion for writing and a voracious imagination.  TRIVIA: The name Cholly was derived from my childhood nickname given to me by my grandfather.  And also like me, Cholly was adopted.

Auntie Bijou: A loveable, daffy old lady and Cholly's adoptive parent.  TRIVIA: Auntie Bijou was based, in different aspects, on my grandmother and her three sisters.

Gunk: A grumpy little cuss, as well as Cholly's imaginary friend/guardian angel-figure.  TRIVIA: Upon Greg Evans' suggestion, I tried to make Gunk a more sympathetic character than in his previous incarnations.

Hokum: A brash and ballsy Goth chick and best friend to Cholly.  TRIVIA: Hokum was an amalgam of several girls I knew at the time, and named after one of them whom I'd nicknamed Hokum (her last name was Holcomb).

Gossamyr: Cholly's snotty hair-obsessed Editor-in-Chief and arch nemesis.  TRIVIA: Based in part on my friend Kristen, whose own hair inspired Gossamyr's, and on my friend Tonia, whose face and attitude inspired the rest.  Similarly, Tonia served as my co-editor on my community college paper, inspiring some of the hostility between Cholly and Gossamyr.