The official press release is here. you can skip the rant and just read the press release here if you like :)

You'd think a week where i barely was able to finish one comic (its still not done - it's a good one, its just not finished yet) that i'd be relaxed, recovered from the Otakon trip, refreshed and relatively stress-free.

ha. this is me we're talking about here.

I started working on a Otakon 2002 wrap-up, but it's still not done (dom's quick wrap-up is amazingly succinct (yes he did get slapped once) and it covers some salient points. First off, panel 1 was a disaster. Panel 2 was much better. fans seemed to enjoy both, which is all that *really* counts. I'm still overwhelmed with gratitude for all the friends, associates, and Otakon crew who spent so much of their time at the con helping me out. I'm not really sure how to thank all of you. I'll try in my Otakon wrap-up.

To, the sheer number of fans who spent a lot of THIER con waiting in line for MT events - not having any comics done this week is NO way to repay you all for your patience and, well, stamina for waiting for stuff. I really tried to do my best to get to everyone - to those of you who i was unable to meet or talk to, i'm very sorry. Nothing sucks worse than standing in line for an hour and not then not being able to either get in or meet the person you are waiting to see. I think the DeadPass idea worked pretty good, i'll have to make sure we do that again next time too (either that or we have a room that really is big enough).

That and i really have to work on the 'uhm' thing between thoughts. Sorry 'bout that. ^^;;;

Oh, and the art auction. To the fellow who cast the winning bid of $1,750... you're nuts, dude. :P I still can't fathom any drawing of mine being worth that much, i figured that it'd bring in a few hundred dollars (mainly because of the server fund thing) I swear i am suffering a bit of a guilt trip over this. ^^;; Honestly tho, i have to say, I personally liked the piece, i felt it was a good drawing, and, well, dude, you looked really happy to have it, and that's what matters. Thank you very much, your excessive generocity has lead directly to the following announcement.

On tuesday i ordered a new server. I don't have the exact specs on hand, but it has 2 gigs of DDR Ram, dual 1600 AMD processors, a nice shiny case, and it should at least be able to handle Megatokyo and it's forums for... a few months of growth at least. ^^;;; With any luck Megatokyo will be moved over to the new box by next weekend.

I have several other announcements too. Some are the culmination of months and months of work in the background - dead piro days don't just happen because i am tired, they usually have to do with me being overwhelmed with other projects in the background.

First announcement has to do with the Megatokyo store. As i announced during the 2nd panel at Otakon, Megatokyo has partnered with Think Geek to open a new store sometime in the next few weeks. I'm very excited to be working with them, because they are a great online retailer that offers high quality stuff with attitude. :) They are great people, they make good stuff, and i am very happy with the new shirt designs (i have introduced new shirts and refreshed old favorites) and yes, most of them are either on black shirts, or other, specific colors. More information on the new store when we are ready to launch.

Oh, and how much time did all that require to set in motion? A lot more than you folks might realize ^_^

Announcement number two is also a big one. The 2nd biggest request i get has always been for black t-shirts. Got that covered. The number 1 request i get is 'is megatokyo available in print'.

The answer to this is now "come this december, yes". Don't say i never listen to fan requests. :)

Yesterday i reached an agreement with Studio Ironcat, publishers of the Vampire Princess Miyu, Yui and Dahlia series, to publish the first and subsequent collection volumes of Megatokyo. The official press release is here. Press releases always sound so damn silly, it's almost like they exist in this land of marketing and hype lingo where you have to say all sorts of really glowing things (my friend patchmonkey, who is my de-facto marketing guy wouldn't let me write it :P) but the truth is, i'm very excited about this because the IronCat folks are hyped and willing to work with me to help produce these volumes the way *I* want to make them. Megatokyo in print is a big deal, and i am going to work very hard to make sure that volume one, which will contain all of chapter 0 in its entirety along with a lot of extra material, is well worth buying.

I have a lot more i can say, but i think that should be enough for today. ^^;; It's all very exciting stuff, and as you can see, things here at MT just, well, keep getting more interesting. :P All this was actually more work than it would take to do 3 comics in a week, so i hope you guys at least understand why the delays. :)

Oh, and then there is that deadline at work on monday. Gonna have to put some time in the weekend to hit that... (sigh)