Long ago I drew some poses of a friend in Seattle named Mike (I have several friends named Mike in Seattle). I liked the way the drawings came out, so I used him as a movie producer in a strip last year. A few months later I needed a new coworker character. I had always liked the Mike drawings, and felt they had been wasted on a one-use character, so I recycled him as a co-worker. Last week I needed a strip to rerun (the reruns are over now, btw) and I grabbed the strip with the movie producer because I like it. Today I sat down to post the strip that ran in newspapers a month ago, and lo and behold, it's one with the co-worker character.

I could insult your intelligence by saying that it's the same guy, and that the major motion picture "The Least Dangerous Game" was such a bust that it destroyed the career of it's stars (William H. Macy and Vivica A. Fox) and left the producer so destitute that he had to take a day job at my office ... and that's just what I'm going to do.

It's the same guy.