For anyone who has their own reading of this comic, please stick to that. If you want to take my version as the definitive version you will have to accept that the whole thing was a dream in Earl’s head and also Earl eats people. I am canonizing that right now using my authorial power.

I hope that with writing this I can expose some of the influences and references I put into this comic. I think it’s probably a better story in context.

Rock Salt and Nails

Utah Phillips died of heart disease.

Utah Phillips was, of course, a real person, and one of the most fascinating people to ever live at that. You could pick and choose any of the anecdotes about him to construct numerous narratives with numerous messages. His story could be about promoting anarchy, expressing yourself through words, or, in this case, what it’s like to be bitter and likable. No matter what story you make out of Utah, it ends with him dying from a broken heart.

What’s a poem without an ending?

-Pearl (but I wrote it, so technically me)

Rock Salt and Nails is a crux of the story and it served as a major inspiration for the strip.

Here are the full lyrics of the song:

"By the banks of the river, where the willows hang down
And the wild birds they warble with a low moaning sound
Way down in the hollow where the river runs cold
It was there I first listened to the lies that you told

Now I lie on my back and I see your sweet face
And the past I remember, time can't erase
And the letters you wrote me, they were written in shame
And I know that your conscience still echoes my name

Now if the ladies were blackbirds, if the ladies were thrushes
Well, I'd lie there for hours in the chilly cold marshes
And if the woman were squirrels with them high bushy tails
Well, I'd load up my shotgun with rock salt and nails
I'd load up my shotgun"

The song starts with Phillips painting a happy picture of time spent by a river, which turns sour when he references his partner telling him lies.

Utah goes on to say he can’t seem to move on, or forget.

The final verse of the song paints Utah as a hunter, and this is the verse discussed at the end of Earl the Squirrel, with a monologue delivered by lil’ Travis.

A visit Utah poster is proudly on display within the very first strip. Utah is where Pearl’s family is from.

In this strip the two birds are a blackbird and a thrush, the two birds mentioned in “Rock Salt and Nails.” Also worth noting is that the image is of the “delicate arch” from arches national park in Utah.

The first lie Earl hears from Pearl comes at the banks of a river.

A huge part of the allure of the song is that Utah Phillips never released a recording of it. The song was so reflective of a bitter part of himself that Utah refused to release his rendition of it.

The final lines of the song describe hunting women, hoping to inflict suffering with Rock Salt and Nails instead of bullets. Meaningfully, the song states that he would hunt women if they were squirrels. I hoped to cast ambiguity on whether Earl was meant to be hunter or squirrel as he could occupy both roles in the song.

The parts when lil’ Travis echoes Utah Phillips quote:

It’s better to be likable than talented.

Utah Phillips

and Kate Wolf’s quote:

Nobody ever came just to hear you play

Kate Wolf, to Utah Phillips

are me acknowledging that most everyone who reads this knows me, and most people who read this are reading it because they like me (at least a little bit (hopefully)). I’m acknowledging that I’m not incredibly talented, and I know that if you’re reading this story, you’re doing it for me. It’s meant to say, “thanks for reading, and thanks for caring.” Nobody ever picked up “Earl the Squirrel” just to read my writing. Also it applies to Earl and Pearl, who are endearing in the beginning because of their likability.

The Death of Gwen Stacy

According to the law if I were to (hypothetically) borrow a screenshot of a sound effect from, oh I don’t know… Amazing Spider-Man #122, and use it in my comic it would be protected by fair use law. But I wouldn’t do that because there is fair use law, and what actually happens in a court room.

Let’s say that the click sound effect in panel 3 looks a lot like the sound effect seen here in Amazing Spider-Man #122. A strange coincidence.

Let’s also notice how strange it is that both scenes feature a couple making very important decisions punctuated by a door closing.

Also strange that the background of overlapping images in panel three is very similar to something Gil Kane (who drew this Spider-Man issue) used to do.

Another strange coincidence is that Pearl seems to be wearing a very similar outfit to the one Gwen died in while on her first date with Earl.

It’s also strange how Earl’s voice trails off in the final panel of the final strip, similarly to how Spider-Man initially processes Gwen’s death.

I could write a thousand words about Amazing Spider-Man #121-122 (and I have, but that post never got fully polished so it never ran on this website) but the main idea is that Peter feels responsible for losing Gwen. He thinks she died because he was Spider-Man (which is kinda true). Earl feels responsible for Pearl leaving (he’s also pretty much correct). MJ stays to comfort Peter as a friend, despite him lashing out at her. Earl remains silent and emotionless and Pearl leaves, inverting that famous scene.

Maybe sometimes, it’s better to be emotional than quiet, even if it seems dangerous.

Visual Details

In the first strip there are posters featuring my friends, whom I purchased the likenesses of in a legally binding agreement. The steam from Earl’s coffee (which I canonize as hot chocolate) forms a heart, and then an exclamation point to reflect his state.

Strip three features a gag where Earl accidentally opens his menu upside down. This was designed to read like a throwaway gag but by the end of the book, the menu has actually become a huge part of the story. It returns in some form for four strips. There really weren’t any throwaway gags in the story, but I really hoped the reader would think there were.

Even the stolen bike bit was there for a reason, but you’ll have to wait until issue 2 for that story. (Might drop this plotline lmao.)

Strip 4 features a panel that recreates the famous panting “The Thousand Yard Stare.” When moving from panel 3 to 4 the explosion rises into a tree and the planes become a bird.

In strip five we meet the waiter, who’s over-chattiness again seems to be a throwaway gag, but it becomes quite important later on. Here we also meet lil’ Travis, who was also designed to look like a throwaway gag but in the next strip we can see he plays a larger role in the story, then again in the final strip.

Strip 6 features the pair finding the lost cat. This was a reference to the ‘Lost Cat’ comic by Norwegian cartoonist ‘Jason.’ That comic is about a lonely private detective who connects with a nice woman after returning her lost cat. Earl, Pearl and the Waiter are all connecting over a lost (and omniscient) cat.

The seventh strip features a tree in the background that forms a heart with its branches as Earl and Pearl share their first kiss.

Strip nine takes us into Pearl’s family home where we immediately see that her family photo has her father removed. I noticed that this wasn’t as obvious as I had hoped so I tried to reinforce it by having Pearl’s mom go by her maiden name and Earl calling her “Ms.” Dodds. This character was more fun to write than I expected and I’ve made a whole comic about her at this point. Maybe one day I’ll put it out.

Also Pearl seems to be wearing the most uncomfortable sweater imaginable, which adds to the overall feeling of discomfort she has when bringing people around her mom.

In strip nine Earl’s reflection is visible in his beer bottle, a detail I had hoped would be a little more noticeable.

Ms. Dodds seems harmless enough at first but I designed her dialogue to have a much more sinister meaning on a reread. She’s also the only character in the book I didn’t care to give an arc to. Again, this is not the end of this character.

Strip 11 features one of my favorite lines of the book, “fairness is empathy.” This essentially means that Ms. Dodds believes in tough love, and justice. When she arrests somebody and puts them in jail, that is her being empathetic. The application of justice is her way of caring. This matters because in a twisted way it’s fair for Ms. Dodds to criticize Earl. The details of her marital breakdown are never discussed but she sees the world in a cynical and logical sense. She’s looking out for Pearl by being “fair” and harsh. Also when we discuss her career, her police hat is visible on top of a shelf in the foreground of panel 1.

In strip 15 we see a river, where a willow is hanging down, again tying back into “Rock Salt and Nails.” Some of the branches form upside down hearts, inverting the trees from earlier. The panel that uses the word “echoes” is visually about ripples. The rock Pearl throws when lying to Earl is going to cause a ripple effect of distrust and poor communication in their relationship. I want to clarify that Earl lies first. He pretends he doesn’t overhear Pearl’s mom through the thin walls, but this is a first for Pearl.

Strip 16 talks about an ending, and sets up the poetry book to play an important role. In order to keep this from being too ominous it ends with the pair affectionately hoping for a happy ending to write about.

Strip 18 brings back the waiter from the first date (who I’ve named big Travis btw), who inserts himself into the conversation yet again. This time however, he has had an arc.

Strip 19 is one of my favorites. Steve Ditko worked under the assumption that the two most expressive features on the human body are the hands and face. We see the waiter’s hand and it almost looks as though it’s holding something. In the second panel he has let go, and accepted that there isn’t anything there to hold on to. Also notice the wedding ring tan line around his ring finger, this shows that his marriage is still a part of him. That’s what the book is about, is learning to let go without denying the past.

Strip 20 has an ominous style bathed in shadow. We see the poetry book again adding to the overall feeling of unease. Pearl has added a P to Earl’s original dedication on the front, so now it says With Love – Pearl, which is our first indication that she has put something in the book. Of course, if Pearl has edited the book, she has found the ending she was looking for. Also, on her shoulder, hidden in the design of her shirt are some upside down hearts.

In Strip 21 She returns the book to Earl, who learns it’s not empty but chooses not to look.

The final words are “you’re right, I’m sorry.” Just like the waiter, Earl was too late to fix things.

Gallery

A number of posters and backgrounds were obscured or hard to read in the strips. Here are a number of assets created for the story.