How to start a comic series. I decided to officially retire “Raiders” for good. I didn't know much about Australia at the time, but I thought it would be cool to write the story around the Kanus family moving to America and having Chris meet Robert for the first time. Thus, the strip would be about cultural differences, and was promptly renamed “Backing Out of the Outback.”

Back then, the format for Backing Out was much looser than it is today. On the side, I made additional comics for the newspaper under the title “The Wacintosh Files,” which featured Waccoon, who was now my persona and not just an alter-ego. The two strips often traded cast, though BO was a story format, and The Wacintosh Files was more random, sometimes non canon, and revolved around current topical issues both at my college and abroad. Waccoon would get his own comic strip in 2001, and the two strips would never trade cast again.

BTW, the characters are supposed to be in high school, not college. Later in the strip's run, this resulted in some glaring continuity errors.

And now... I'll shut up so you can read the story in peace. Enjoy!