December 17, 2002

I got a very, very cool piece of fan-art via email today from Clint Hollingsworth. I'd post it here, but I've gone to all the trouble of updating the Fan Art gallery that I'm going to make you click here to see it. And see it you must. Clint's work is wonderful (and he said he was just DOODLING. Bah!)

In other news, I've joined a little SF web comic link exchange. You'll see the banner under the calendar on the home page. I happen to know that there are a lot of widely-unrecognized-yet-worth-the-read webcomics out there, and this seems like a good way for me to put you in touch with them without me having to actually hold your hand or spoon-feed you or stuff. Hey, it's the web. You know how this works, right?

Work is still kicking my butt and taking names (my name, over and over... you'd think it would get old) but I'm also still getting paid, and in the current economic climate I'm counting that blessing over and over every day. (You might say I'm taking its name, but the 'kicking butt' metaphor does not lend itself well to the counting of blessings, so I'll just leave it at that). The good news is that on Friday of this week I work my last day for the next sixteen or so. One of the major perks of putting in long hours for a flat salary is this concept of 'paid vacation,' and I'm going to be getting downright perky with it.

This last weekend I cranked out an entire week's worth of strips, start-to-finish. I drew seven strips, colored-and-uploaded fourteen (including the seven I drew), and scripted the week I'm supposed to be drawing right now. I actually got the buffer back up to four full weeks, which is a comfortable place to be. For the last two years I've promised myself that during the Christmas vacation I'd build the buffer, and both times I've failed. This time will be different. I've got a running start, and I'm shooting for a new buffer record of thirty-five. With two full weeks of vacation, it should be easy as pie.

Mmm... pie. Christmas is coming. There WILL be pie.