The End

After nearly 10 years and 500 strips, Elder Alex Van Dyke's story is finally over! You can read the genesis of what I would eventually title Mission Daze* here. I started the strip shortly after I returned from my mission in 1995. In 2014, the Deseret News fulfilled a lifelong dream of mine when it began publishing one strip every week for two years. In 2017, I self-published a complete collection of the strip (still available one Amazon). And now, after sharing all of them here, I'm leaving it behind forever!

There is quite a difference writing single-panel gags and multi-panel comic strips. There's just a different rhythm to the jokes. There are advantages to both single-panel gags and multi-panel comic strips. 

If you create interesting enough characters, a comic strip can almost write itself, but if you don't...it can be tough. The best thing about Mission Daze was a rotating cast of characters. Elder Van Dyke was paired with nearly a dozen companions. I could explore jokes centered around jocks and nerds, slackers and aspiring APs. It was great!

The advantage to a single-panel gag is you can explore any and every thing. One moment you're making a joke about a baby blessing, the next you're riffing on He-Man's inability to dress modestly.

Just because I'm done with Mission Daze, doesn't mean I'm done with Monday posts. Starting next week, I'll be filling this space with something slightly different. I'm excited. I hope you'll come back and check it out.

*You'll notice I nearly slipped the title of the comic strip in the final strip. I'm of the opinion that any piece of work is improved by someone speaking the title of the work in the work. For example, Raiders of the Lost Ark is the undisputed best movie of all time but just think how much better it would have been if at some point Indiana Jones had said to Belloq, "You know Belloq, we're just a couple of raiders of the lost ark."

Mission Paradox

My mission was all of this and more. 

And while it might not be the best two years of my life anymore (I'd take any two-year period of my marriage over it), it definitely was the best two years for my life.

Awkward RM

I remember a couple of days after returning home from my mission going out with some friends to a dance and nearly hyperventilating when a girl offered me a stick of gum (in my missionary-mind, I was sure this was prelude to her asking me for a kiss). Good times.

First Date, First Discussion, What's the Difference?

Poor formerly Elder Van Dyke. Those first couple of days back from a mission can be rough. Just three more of these missionary comic strips, my long-suffering audience.*

*Just joking, I doubt I even have an audience at this point.

The Mission Curse Redux

Just a month ago I wrote what I thought at the time was my final word on the "Mission Curse" running gag found in my Mission Daze strip. I forgot that I had one more. Legions, it seems, are hard to kill.

Wasn't General Conference wonderful? If you want to review everything that was covered, check out my friend Kevin Beckstrom's conference notes (Saturday AM, Saturday PM, Sunday AM, and Sunday PM). Nobody should be allowed to have this much fun in a Church meeting.

Popular Culture Shock

I've been there.

A Loose Cannon

I clearly have watched too many 1980s cop shows.

Off the Airplane

This type of situation was much more likely in the days before weekly video chats with missionaries. Good news, though, with just a handful of these strips left, this might be the last outdated one I'll ever publish on the website.*

*Unless there's some crazy announcement at General Conference next month.**

**Speaking of General Conference, the Ward Cartoonist General Conference Activity Packet is coming to this space Thursday.

The Final Victim of the Mission Curse

I was so proud of myself when I first came up with the idea of having all of Elder Van Dyke's companions Dear Johned while serving with him. I thought it would make for a good running joke. What I didn't figure when hatching that idea was the number of different ways I'd have to come up with for companions to get dumped.

Overall, I think I like the idea of the "mission curse" more than I like the execution. I feel like there were some solid jokes associated with it, but I should have made the manner in which Elder Van Dyke's companions were Dear Johned progressively more outrageous. 

Exit Interview

There is No Place Like Home

What did ya'll think of Wicked? I definitely liked the first movie more than the second, but overall it was fun. Better than Oz the Great and Powerful and Return to Oz but it doesn't hold a candle to the Wizard of Oz.

Sweet Dreams

Final P-Day

The problem with publishing a daily comic strip every week is that it takes forever to get through. Elder Van Dyke's mission is ending soon, I promise.

Nothing in Common

The great thing about families is you don't have to have anything in common in order to love 'em. (This also applies to mission companions too.)

Mother's Day Call Home

I doubt there is a mission in the world that isn't doing video calls every week. And yet, Elder Van Dyke is still only calling his family twice a year on Christmas and Mother's Day. I could be wrong but I believe this strip represents the last anachronism found in the strip (with only 14 more to go!).

Translation Trouble

This one is based on a true story. Once while serving in a tiny branch, my Mission President visited and gave a beautiful fireside devotional comparing aspects of the gospel to parts of a ship. The problem was, as his translator*, I barely knew what a stern, port, or hull was in English, let alone Slovene.

In the end, those folks who understood English heard a wildly different message than those who only understood Slovene.

*Since we were still part of the Austria Vienna Mission, our Mission President spoke German not Slovene.

Teaching by Hymns

While I have heard of scores of missionaries who did this, I was never asked to myself. (Good thing, too, as my singing surely would have driven away the spirit.)

12 Year Extension

I can't begin to imagine what a 14-year mission would be like. How many pairs of shoes would you burn through?

Beginning of the End

These are the final days of Elder Van Dyke's mission.

The Eagle has Landed

Get a bunch of clean cut kids in suits and shenanigans like this are bound to happen.