THIS IS ME

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June 20, 2008: This Is How I Celebrate

Two news items in one week? That can't be good...

Well, it sorta is bad news and it isn't. I'm leaving for a much-needed vacation. My dear technical wizard willing, the site will continue to update on a twice-weekly schedule – Tuesdays and Thursdays. Furthermore, I will have to leave you stripless for two weeks. I tried to build up a buffer, but my health and other factors conspired against me.

Instead, you will get two weeks' worth of peeks at my sketchbook, THIS IS ME pencil art and miscellaneous retrospectives. I hope you will enjoy this peek behind the scenes. If everything goes well, regular strips will resume on July 8, 2008.

June 16, 2008: The Big Week

So this is is probably the biggest week for this strip, with not just one, but three events to celebrate.

150 StripsMonday's strip marks comic number 150. Wha-hey! I never thought I'd get that far. As a matter of fact, I had pretty much planned to conclude the strip around this number. When I announced the impending end of THIS IS ME in Mid-December last year, I wasn't merely setting up the stage for the now-infamous punchline for the 100th strip. That was actually more of an afterthought.

And I still have an ending in mind, and a final strip in the sketchbook. But the end is getting pushed back and back over and over. I guess I'm still having fun, so why stop.

Wednesday brings me a birthday I'm not going to spend too much time thinking about. So, moving right along...

Friday brings you the first anniversary of THIS IS ME. Really. On June 20, 2007, the first strip appeared on the site. I'm not sure whether I explained previously why I decided to do the strip in the first place. Basically, I set out to do all the things I'm really bad at.

I usually like to draw semi-realistic artwork, so I went for a sparse cartoony look which gradually softened up over the months. I tend towards verbosity, so I limited myself to four panels and made a rule of shaving off all the words I could do without. I don't like to talk about myself, so I made a strip about... you get the idea. In short, I set out to fail. The main purpose was to flex my drawing muscles on a regular schedule. I never expected much of an audience beyond my wife and a few friends.

So to everybody who reads the strip without me having had to directly badger you into it: Thank you. And please let me know about it at <me AT thisisme-comic DOT com>.

May 14, 2008: More Excuses

So, what is the excuse for the delay this time? Well, I'm trying to lower my personal stress levels. So far, it has only resulted in me fretting about letting my readership down, replacing one kind of stress with another.

Due to circumstances somewhat beyond my control, the strip will only update on Wednesday and Friday next week as well. This means there will be no strip on Monday, May 19, since I'll be far away from my computer, celebrating my grandmother's birthday. There will, however, be a strip this Friday. I can state this with some degree of inner conviction since I just finished drawing it.

Back-handed compliment of the month: A personal friend stated he liked the Hidden Subtext strip "even though it featured Andrew". I have decided to interpret this as the first discernable sign of grudging acceptance of one of my more problematic characters.

Since I'm on the topic: Beansprout is getting cautiously positive feedback. Keeping in tune with my blatantly unrealistic optimism, I've decided to interpret this as a raging success. However, one reader wondered what's wrong with Beansprout's ears. Nothing, they're just drawn badly. I was trying to stylize and overshot my target by a mile.

April 28, 2008: Behind The Scenes Shenanigans

The delays continue. Of course I have an excuse.

Today marks the arrival of a new character to the strip: Beansprout. I've been putting off his introduction for half a year now, making all kinds of excuses to myself. The main reason for my uneasiness is that I worry about throwing the strip out of balance. In short, it's got the potential to become a debacle of Lymanesque proportions. Lyman was a short-lived character in the comic strip "Garfield". He moved in with John and brought his dog Odie. Lyman proved superfluous and eventually disappeared without a trace, whereas Odie lives on.

But then I decided: It's my strip, I can fail if I want to (singing: fail if I want to...). And perhaps it will work out after all. Finalizing the character's look took a while, though. As usual: Your input is appreciated. Tell me what you think at <me AT thisisme-comic DOT com>.

I also spent a lot of time doing behind-the-scenes house cleaning. Three strips have been updated: Strips 127, 128 and 130.

I also meant to modify the last panel of "Reorientation" only to realize that it could only get worse.

April 24, 2008: Apologies For The Delay

Yes, I'm painfully aware that today is not Wednesday, but Thursday. However, the top of the main page specifically states: "Updates Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays." I wish I had a good excuse. But actually I don't.

In fact, the thing that kept me from posting a strip yesterday was a computer game, of all things. Other people finish playing "Portal" with a sense of elation, I have to publicly apologize for it.

"Portal" is a rather fun game and rather involving. I've never before played a 3D shooter like this. There aren't any monsters or people to kill, the sole aim is to get ahead. The environment becomes increasingly hostile, yet the player's only weapon is utterly incapable of destruction. The main focus is not to empty rounds of ammo into twitching corpses, but to engage your brain to solve puzzles and develop a certain dexterity with the one tool you've been given.

I'd go on, but (a) this isn't that kind of website, (b) others have described "Portal" far better and worse than I ever could and (c) this isn't meant to be an infomercial. Can't wait for Uwe Boll turning this one into a movie, though.

So, once more: I wasted the time I should have been drawing the strip on a game with a firmly pre-determined outcome. I apologize. Friday's strip may be a bit late as well.

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Please let me know how you like THIS IS ME! Criticism is also appreciated! It's mainly feedback that keeps me going. Please e-mail me at <me AT thisisme-comic DOT com> (replace AT and DOT with the respective characters).

 
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