Coming off the success of It's Bro Time, I felt incredibly optimistic about the future of Robot Friday. The comic strip had hit its stride, and for the first time, I had seamlessly woven every character's storyline into one cohesive narrative. I saw this as an opportunity to dive into a bigger, more ambitious arc - one that would follow the whole gang as they tackled new exploits in life.

Unfortunately, that optimism didn't last.

By uniting the characters under one overarching storyline, I had unknowingly erased their individual motivations. Karen had taken a more central role, which made it difficult to create meaningful conflicts with the other characters. Without personal struggles to play off of the storytelling felt less dynamic - and I could feel it.

To make matters worse, after nearly a decade of writing Robot Friday I had vented most of my frustrations with the print design, graphic design, and art industries - the very subjects that fueled the comic's satire. My interests were evolving beyond art itself and my motivation to craft biting, insightful strips was fading.

But I wasn't ready to quit just yet.

Determined to keep Robot Friday alive, I pushed through the creative rut and penned one last major storyline - one that, looking back, turned out to be eerily prophetic.

Since Robot Friday had always been named after the sentient robot character owned by Thomas, it was inevitable that the little bot would take center stage. That moment had arrived. In It's Bro Time, the Robot Friday had been commandeered by an advanced A.I. named S.I.D., laying the groundwork for what would become Robot Friday's next (and final) chapter - a full-blown kill all humans story arc. I had high hopes that this story would match the energy, satire, and fun of It's Bro Time, but deep down, it never quite felt the same. Looking back, I now realize why - the story was simply ahead of its time. Fast-forward a few years and I'm actually glad I didn't end Robot Friday at It's Bro Time. Because today we're living everything that last A.I. storyline predicted.

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