“…And the trees are all kept equal by hatchet, axe and saw.”

And if you recognize that reference, God bless you. Actually, that line doesn’t have much to do with the strip itself, but I couldn’t help but think of that song when I came up with the title.

The trees from the game will always hold a special place in my heart, because years ago when my daughter was like 2-years old she would always refer to Commander Keen as “The Tree Game.” That’s because the only levels she would ever want to play had the trees in the background. And if I ever tried to move her on to another level, she would insist that it was a completely different game. I don’t know about you, but I think that’s totally adorable.

As for Keen’s line of greeting in the first panel, that is another piece of my distant past. I used to work in this building that had a small sundry shop on the first level, and the very friendly clerk there said that line to one of the customers one day. I’m not sure if that is an expression that other people use, or if he ever said it other than that one time; but it stuck with me for some reason until I spewed it out onto this comic. I can only assume that since it’s been unleashed upon the internet, it will now spread like wildfire until it’s just another common part of the English lexicon. Such is the power of Keen.

Okay, I guess I’ve BS’ed enough for one day. Until next time…

Peace. Out.

UPDATE: So it’s been like a year and a half since I posted this and I want to note that before publishing this strip I never heard anyone say “the hap” (other than that one time). But since then I’ve heard it a number of times—although they usually pronounce it as “haps” which is obviously wrong, but whatever. Now, I’m not saying Keen was the impetus for this term suddenly entering the popular vernacular; I’m just saying before this comic I never heard it, and afterwards I did. You come to your own conclusions.