Well, I hope everyone has been enjoying ther vacations - that is, if you really were on vacation. Even if you didn't take most of last week off, two three-day weekends in a row is nice. I don't know if I am really rested or not, it's been a busy couple of weeks.

December, like all the months before it, was a month of spectacular growth for Megatokyo - we saw the number of visitors to the site increase exponentially over last month's figures (my god, where do you people come from??? ^^;;) and even t-shirt sales have been amazing... I must say a big thanks to everyone who purchased shirts, mousepads, mugs and stuff. It's very much appreciated. In fact, I think i should go buy a shirt or two. I'd kinda like to have one.

Not bad for a month where i felt i was tripping over myself the whole time.

I keep waiting for this mass exodus where people start throwing tomatoes at me and largo as they drink up and leave the bar. That's why i keep largo around. I figure if i stand behind him, less tomatoes will hit me. :)

While it is true that the story has motored along a little this month, I've been feeling a lack of focus that really has a lot to do with the holidays. There is too much going on in December to really focus on a single project. As for the last two weeks of December, there hasn't really been any story-related comics since the 20th (except for the 'Junpei f33ls l33t' strip, which is part of the story). Actually, i was going to launch into our 3-month story arc on Friday, but ugh... several things came up last week that prevented me from drawing a strip for Friday, so we used this one instead. This re-hash of the 'puchuu' strip was really an inside joke and wasn't going to be a comic - but thank god it was done. ^_^

poor Dom. The emergency call to create a 'shirt guy dom day' strip went out, but by the time dom got a strip to me, i had already posted todays. It's a shame, because dom's strip was way funnier. ^^;;

So, that being said - the holidays are over, the new year is upon us, and what better way to start the new year than to launch into a long, painful story arc! yea! ^_^ *I* am done messing around. Largo, myself, Dom, Ed and everyone else who has been helping with the project has spent time this weekend to help me get a little more organized and a little better prepared. It should last at least a week, perhaps a week and a half, i figure. :) So everyone who has been bugging us to continue the story... hush. this month should shut you all up once and for all. :)

On a side note, i was in Borders books the other day doing some after Christmas shopping when i wandered into the art book section of the store. Art books are funny things, I've purchased many of them over the years, and it seems that none of them have every really helped me. I have several Bruce Hogarth books, and a half dozen other 'how to draw [x]' books, none of which i think I've ever really used other than to get frustrated over. After thumbing thru "How to draw great-looking comic book women" (yes, it is a real book - which i chuckled over to no end (it should be called 'how to draw big-boobed super-hero women'... jezus.) I spotted a book called 'Your Career in the Comics" by Lee Nordling.

I ended up purchasing this book. I mean, its not like i do comics for a living, but gee... since i know just about nothing about syndicated comics, i figured i should at least read up on it a bit.

Gee, i am doing everything wrong. Isn't THAT a big surprise. :) Not that I'd ever even try to get MT into the traditional syndicated comic track... it'd never work. MT is a project born of the web and it's multi-media nature, so here it will stay... at least for the most part. :P

lessee... oh, and the sketch of the week. I've been playing 'Skies of Arcadia' lately - this combined with the desire to start Final Fantasy IX at some point in the near future brought back the idea of RPG fantasy world elements and Megatokyo. For some reason I envision it being a lot like Fortune Quest ... I don't know why. ^_^