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Archived News for 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.
Monday'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>.