Zwol.org

Yes, he of the many curious and often inscrutable comics (not forgetting the backwards comic, Spongy) has graced us with another No Contest strip, the filename of which was "Viovis Bonus." (Don't look at me like that, it only hurts the first time.)

Zwol is scheduled to return with a new strip on Monday.

I notice the return to semi-regular comics rates a mention on Talk About Comics (.com), which is cool. But since it says that "It's just a panel, but it's a start," I have to say, Hey! I was back last week, too!

"I have a problem with the word evil being used by mortal human beings to describe other humans. When I hear it, I think 'Who does this person think he is?' We're all just human beings here, as far as I know."

I've checked into this and it appears he's right-- Everybody I've met today seems to be human. Except that one person who cut me off on the freeway this morning. He was evil.

There's a comic today (finally) and there should be comics on Tuesday and Wednesday. Not sure about Thursday, but I'm hoping to get one for Friday.

All behind the scenes, but evident in some respects. The menus are now PHP functions rather than hard-coded, which means I'm positioned to roll out some CSS in a couple weeks. I also removed the little dot character (which looked like this: ?) as that's a Microsoft/Windows-specific character and replaced it with a pipe character (looks like this: | ) since all browsers should be able to read that. Also this Latest Word section is going to be displaying a little differently. It used to show only the last three distinct entries, but now it'll show items for the last five days worth of stuff, regardless of how many entries I make per day.

What? How can the Super Jar-Jar Explosion Episode I DVD not have any Jar-Jar in the packaging art? He's not on the case, not on either of the disks and not on the little paper insert with the chapter listings. This is outrageous! How can I experience the Super Jar-Jar Explosion without Jar-Jar?? This must be a miscalculation. Maybe there'll be a Special Total-Gungan Edition later on...

Fitting that on the day of the Super Jar-Jar Explosion (read as: "release of Episode I on DVD") that this would turn up:

"Thousands of wannabe Luke Skywalkers in Britain have apparently converted to the Force, listing 'Jedi Knight' as their faith on the country's 2001 national census form, Britain's Web-based news service Ananova reports.

"Spurred reportedly by a fan's jokey email campaign, more than 10,000 Britons put down George Lucas' mythical Star Wars religion as their own, forcing the government's Office for National Statistics to classify 'Jedi Knight' as a separate category in compiling the statistics."

Chris Baldwin shows you how he does it. I always find it fascinating to see how other artists work. It's also gratifying to learn that his workspace is almost as messy as mine.

Better late than never? Better rushed than not at all? Not sure. Don't like doing comics at 1am. See what I do you for? Truth be told, I don't do it for you, I do it for me, which is why someday I want to go back and redraw yesterday's and today's comics. I like the concept, but trying to rush a drawing when I should be fast asleep just doesn't pay. Let's hope I get it together for tomorrow's.

For the record, I was working on the site this evening, and left joined SQL statements just kill me. Glad I'm not a programmer.

I'm pleased with this one, unlike yesterday's. As mentioned in Monday's news post, there won't be a comic tomorrow, but I'll see if there's any time to redraw Tuesday's so that it's presentable. If I do, I'll let you know. Otherwise, expect the next new comic on Friday. I don't have any No Contest or Reiterating Comics strips for Saturday, so if you've got anything, feel free to send it my way.

The online versions are pretty hip, though I don't think anything will ever replace a portable copy you can stuff in your pocket, and they're no substitute for the good 'ol A-Z London. Online, I'm partial to Streetmap.co.uk

are amazingly unsophisticated. I cannot believe that these are the flyers that the US military is "distributing" to the Afghan people. Get this:

Attention Taliban! You are condemned. Did you know that? The instant the terrorists you support took over our planes, you sentenced yourselves to death. The Armed Forces of the United States are here to seek justice for our dead. Highly trained soldiers are coming to shut down once and for all Usama bin Laden's ring of terrorism, and the Taliban that supports them and their actions.

My word. It's not that I'm pro-terrorist or pro-Taliban, but it just seems to me that the issues are a whole lot more complex than this.