[dc]Y[/dc]es, Zach Parise and Ryan Suter, two of the most sought after unrestricted free agents in the NHL, both signed with the Minnesota Wild. Fans of the other 29 teams were bummed out, to say the least.

I would have liked to see the Detroit Red Wings get at least one of the guys, but I am not losing any sleep over this.

Congrats to the Minnesota Wild. As a fan of the sport, and the league as a whole, I am eager to see how this signing plays out (and this comic is not meant as a jab at the Wild or their fans). I am also eager to see what this pushes the Red Wings to do–I love off season deals (and the Draft, as seen previously).

This comic sums up how I spent July 1st through July 4th: refreshing Twitter on my phone every five minutes to see if Parise and/or Suter had signed.

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I decided to do the black fill in Photoshop, and thank Batman I did. It probably would have taken about four black markers to do all of that work. The funny thing is, this comic started out as throw-away, warm-up sketch. Then I decided I liked it, and drew a real strip.

I originally drew myself holding a newspaper, which would have been a false representation:

1) I did find out about the signing on my smartphone.

2) Other than glancing at a front page in passing, I don’t read physical newspapers.

3) I doubt this signing would even be mentioned in a Lansing newspaper.

In the original comic, Steph was not blacked out (she had a face and everything!). I decided I liked her in silhouette against the white door more. Look at me, gettin’ all artsy.

I had a difficult time deciding how to show off the zoomed view of the phone screen. I eventually decided to keep it simple and just put an arrow. The ‘frame’ around the blown up phone screen was also made with the Shape tool in Photoshop–I was happy it matched my style (more or less).