[saturday update - aren't i terrible? ^^;; I'm actually at work (again) right now, but the comic isn't quite done - i've got about an hours worth of work yet, should go up sometime tonight. promise ^_^ - piro]

First off, lets just say that this just says all that needs to be said about today. For the record, I completely deny any part i may have had in this. Dom, don't hurt me.... ^^;;;

Oh, and Eric made some very nice winamp skins this week - i have been using and enjoying the Yuki skin both at home and at work. He's also pointed out to me the unfortunate lack of color artwork of Largo and Piro. ^^;; ehehe, I guess i should take that as a hint. My thanks to everyone who has made winamp skins and emailed them to me in the past. I have used all of them, and I'll dig up links to them when i get a chance. For now, you can find most of them over at winamp's site - just enter 'megatokyo' in the search box and you'll find many of them. :)

In case you haven't heard, Largo and I have been invited to attend Otakon 2001 this August. We've been promised a slightly bigger room than we had for the Acen panel ^^;; It's kind of a fun oportunity for Largo and I to hang around and cause trouble. Be sure to check out the guest page - you'll find mention of us there. :)

One last piece of business - as some of you may know, i've been working pretty late nights this week due to a Friday deadline at work. I barely squeezed out wednesday's comic (ah, but it was SO much fun!) but I'm pretty sure I won't be finishing friday's comic tonight. There is always the remote possibility i'll pull it together when i get home at 11:00pm tonight, but lets just go ahead and assume that i won't get friday's comic up till Saturday or Sunday. Regardless, Chapter 1 starts back up on Monday, so be sure to stay tuned. :)

Now, onto sadder things. My morning routine usually involves getting up, putting a cup of coffee in the microwave, snapping on the news, toasting a pop tart and reading thru my email, the MT and Fredart forums. First of all, i'm out of pop tarts, which sucks. Secondly, i read this morning in the forums that Neobaka, another very good manga-style webcomic, is ending.

I headed over to the site and read dan's commentary about the fate of Neobaka. Dan, I so understand where you're commin from. You touched on a lot of things that have caused me myself to question the future of Megatokyo at times in the past.

I don't think you can really appreciate some of the pressures and problems associated with doing something like Megatokyo or Neobaka unless you are actually doing it. Before ya all email me about how you understand - yes, i know, but i'm talking about the actual experience of it. ^_^ I have enormous respect for anyone who can keep one of these monsters going.

I don't really know what it is that keeps you going on these things, but I do have an understanding of the many things that can make you stop. I remember when Josh ended Wendy Comics, his comments reflected similar reasons for bringing his comic to a close. Both Dan and Josh talked about how their experiences in making the comic went from being totally focused on the comic and the art, to having to spend more and more time dealing with people's reactions to their work, even when 99% of that feedback is positive, it can be overwhelming. Dan put it very succinctly:

"I became overly concerned with all the stuff surrounding the comic while finding the creation of the comic itself becoming more and more unfun."

Brother, oh do i understand THIS problem. ^_^ I've tackled and beat this problem many times, but it always comes back. Maybe my success with it has something to do with my bull-headedness and lack of functioning ego - no, wait, those factors only made the problem worse. ^_^ Oh, there were so many times i was ready to yank the index.php and replace it with that 'megatokyo is now closed - thank you for your time' html file i made many, many months ago, but for some reason, i never did. I kept plodding along.

I think it comes down to the fact that the only way i have been able to keep MT going was by routinely pushing everyone and everything aside and getting back to the comic itself. To do this, i've had to ignore email, piss off friends, ignore requests for things people want from me. i've been absent from the forums, i've missed many rants. I always got myself back to the comic and the art itself. In the end, I do MT for me. You have to. You shut down ICQ and mIRC, shut down email, turn off the forums, open the shades and look out at the stars, take a walk, listen to the traffic from the highway and the crickets, go back inside, sit down and draw. Doing this to a 3-a-week schedule is not easy (perhaps there is where my mental instability comes into play) but in the end, its more important that you are happy with your own work.

The existence of Seraphim and Largo help more than you think. Without them, Megatokyo would have come to a close back in February. Having strong, supporting partners who, when it comes down to it, care more about you than the comic, really helps. Dom, Ed, WingZero, UkiyaShun, Natsuki, the whole #(channel name deleted) crew, the #megatokyo folks, and the 30 supportive emails a day - it all helps, because they are all supportive, not demanding. Its also a support network that i take far too much advantage of. But you also need to know when to step away from it, and just listen to yourself.

Dan, don't stop drawing Yuki. If you do, i'll send Ping-chan over to slap you around. :P You love the character, you love the story. Continue it for yourself, and do it at you own pace. Remember, it's YOUR art. Yuki is yours too. Screw the 3 a week schedule. Take a break and build it for yourself when you can. In the end, you have to do these things for yourself. It's the only reason I keep doing Megatokyo. You always have to step back when it starts being 'unfun' and go back to why you draw and create in the first place. Your readers are patient - after all, it is the inner vision that spawned the work that they love in the first place.

Oh, and the whole 'which came first' think regarding Ping-chan and Yuki? You and I both know that they are different characters - you created Yuki, i created Ping. I think that the constant badgering about Yuki being a rip off of Ping and vice versa... i'm sure that this was one of those many 'outside factors' that didn't help. Its amazing what comes back to bite us in the ass, isn't it?

peace, dude. email me sometime.