This site
About This Is Me
About the strip
THIS IS ME came about by sheer accident. I still don't know where it's going, nor for how long I will be doing it. I'm not even sure this qualifies as a proper "webcomic". Yes, it is a comic and yes, it's published on the web, but I'm way too old to do something trendy.
Should you be somebody who actually knows me in "real life", please be aware that the events described in THIS IS ME are not meant to be taken literally.
To quote Thomas Morgan Robertson, "It's loosely based on a true story. I use the word 'loosely' with great emphasis and I use the word 'true' in the journalistic sense of the word." (Source: FORTY Live: Limited Edition)
The Cast
This is My Wife.
My wife has a steady job she is good at. She reads a lot of books (mostly light literature). She has an infectious laugh that can chase dark clouds away. We have been married for quite some time now. Recently, she has started to consider children, an idea I'm not yet sold on.
I have no idea how she can stand living with me, but she's my anchor in life and I love her dearly.
This is Andrew.
Andrew is a good friend and something of a mentor. He is admittedly a bit odd at times, but aren't we all. He has an opinion about everything and can become quite verbose defending it. Some of these opinions are well thought-out, some not. It is really hard to tell when he's giving you an informed opinion and when he's just winging it. As you get to know him, you soon realize you should really not discuss a few topics with him.
Andrew may appear a bit stern at first, but actually he's very kind. He just won't let on. In his secret identity, he is a proud father.
Andrew is dressed in a confederate flag because he is from the South, because it looks cool and because of a godawful pun.
And finally, this is Me.
I'm a neurotic loser type in my late thirties. Too old for a fresh start, too young to feel as old as I do. My hair grows like a weed. I don't know when to keep my mouth shut, with awkward to disastrous results. I have never taken drugs because I'm not convinced of the benefits. I can get rather passionate about music. I get a lot of bad colds because I live in a miserable climate and because I am a wuss.
To find out more about me, you should really read the strip. You can start here.
Updates
THIS IS ME tries to update once a week. Changes in the strip's schedule are announced in the news section of the main page.
About the art
Whereas I try to do as much as possible by hand, the text is typeset for practical reasons. Quite frequently, I revise the wording during the gestation of a strip. Re-lettering the text by hand would take way too much time. Until I can afford to have a custom font made from my own handwriting, the strip will be lettered with somebody else's, in this case mostly Nate Piekos'. The fonts currently used in THIS IS ME are CloudSplitter by Blambot Fonts, Bobcat by Andy Krahling and Komika by Fred Nader/Apostrophic Labs. The former is a commercial font, the latter two are free.
It takes approximately four hours to write and draw a single strip. Some strips take longer, few less. The more my drawing speed improves, the tougher challenges I set myself. I have several sketchbook with strip ideas.
About the site
This site is generated and maintained using CityDesk Professional by Fog Creek Software. The software is no longer being actively developed; the last release dates back to August 2003. It does not support dynamic comments on-site. I am investigating whether and how to attach a forum. In the mean time, please e-mail me at <me AT thisisme-comic DOT com>. Interesting comments (damning or otherwise) may be published alongside the corresponding strip.
The style sheets and templates have mostly been written and edited using Nick Bradbury's TopStyle CSS Editor which also doubles nicely as a text-based HTML editor.