February 20, 2003
This strip represents the very earliest Dumbstruck strip ever recorded. I discovered it when I was going through my earliest sketchbooks, and found the strip sketched out very roughly in the front, dated February of 2003. So you can thank this event for what would become one of the trademarks of the comic: bizarre customer interactions.
When I put together the print collection of the strips, I’ll include the original sketches, just for fun.