Finally, despite everything from procrastination to operations to car crashes to Xbox 360's to being drawn back into the world of anime (not mentioning work, which I'm back to on Monday - sigh), The Pirate's Code is finally done.  Not just the last page of the story that I posted earlier, but the Epilogue.  Both pages of it!  Now I can spend the afternoon working on the cover (which will not have a lot of art on it for one reason or another) and then start on the next story (it's only short, but important!) for Monday.  Or Tuesday, probably... things might be a day behind for a week or so...!

I.T. : Rogue Noid! is up and running again, though it might have a bit of a limp and need some physiotherapy...  yay?

Well, finally, I've managed to get the spread done for the fight between The Pirate King and Starbeard... and it's taken longer than even I would have thought!  Of course, the actual time sat at the computer working on it wasn't the whole two and a half weeks, but it has been a problem!  Things changed from the pencils, and were drawn on the fly (as always happened, and will no doubt continue to happen - I'm currently making some big changes to the next page!), but mostly it has been because of hospital appointments, an operation and the subsequent care needed for the person involved - now I'm back and fired up - after all the comic is supposed to return on Sunday and run three days a week, and the Sketchbook isn't finished yet...  Over the next week which I have off I won't have to provide as much care as we have people coming in to stuff and give me a break, so in my last week before returning to work I have a plan.. and it will happen - it has a vagueness buffer built in!

Comic-wise, I'm holding off on completing the three short stories until a little later when I have a chance to do them right, and will post blank pages for the rest of the Sketchbook and fill them in when I can - a big chunk of that is Kamen Rider Wibble  and and nothing delayed impacts continuity anyway (not even the Christmas 2009  story The Year That Never Happened, for reasons that are obvious from the title)!  I will haveThe Pirate's Code finished by the end of the week and have got down to the new issue as well, ready to have things posted on time - which would make a change!  The next two issues of the comic will continue as they were meant to last year, leading up the Summer Special, then the latter part of the year will  be one of those big stories I've had in my mind since about 1996...  Site-wise I want to finsih the layout (not much to do really, apart from sort out the drop-down menu, tidy up a few pages and copy the layout to the comic pages (yes, Sarah - I'm back on it, okay?).

Part of the reason that I'm up for this again despite all the crap going on around me (don't ask, seriously) is that I'm working on a decent computer with a decent operating system, and I've now got two very nice (and cheap) 23" monitors that make things a lot easier when working on the art (though all this screen real estate can be a bit overbearing!).  Another part is that I have put this off too many times, and I'm also starting to enjoy it again!  Also, I hit 40 earlier this month and it's time for my midlife crisis - a sports car or motorbike isn't of interest to me, an old Land Rover would be if I had any money (!) and I'm not married so an affair isn't going to happen any time soon.  Working on a webcomic that not many people read - that kinda works for me.  Of course, becoming a hikkikomori is a possibility too, as career choices go...  mmm... staying at home all day, never going out with just the comic, anime and the internet... I could go with that... if anyone has a winning lottery ticket they could lend me...!

So - keep watching the comic pages (they will update!) and wich me luck - I'm sooo going to need it!