News: April 2000

         

Sunday, Apr. 30, 2000
    Thanks to Alex Bebout for today's Sunday strip! I must say I like this one better than his others. ;-)
    Oy, and sorry about being late with this week's poll. It turns out most people have only just discovered Avalon very recently. And very few people discovered it from the very beginning. And it's pretty much linear in between. Now, since readership has steadily increased since Avalon's inception, I really should have known this already. :-)

Friday, Apr. 28, 2000
    New site layout! Not too much difference from the old one... just hopefully things will load faster. Please e-mail me if you find any problems.

Wednesday, Apr. 26, 2000
    Okay, here's yesterday's comic. I'll likely have two comics up for tomorrow. I will eventually run two comics in one day to catch up. :-)
    And 2nd Round registration is open for the Avalon hockey pool! The deadline is midnight, the morning of Friday, April 28. So enter now! Remember that you have to register again, even if you were in on the 1st Round. You can even enter for the first time, in case you missed the 1st Round!

Tuesday, Apr. 25, 2000
    Well, my idiocy truly knows no bounds. :-) I sincerely apologize for a lack of comic strip today. It seems I really fluxed up my computer, and I can no longer access Windows (which happens to run my scanner software and graphic editor). However, Linux now works like a charm. ;-) With any luck, I'll have two comics up on Wednesday.
    And hockey pool news: the First Round ends tomorrow! Immediately after the St. Louis - San Jose game (around 11:00 PM Eastern), registration will open for the Second Round! The deadline for registration will be the evening of Thursday, April 27. You must re-register for the Second Round, even if you've already entered for the First Round!

Sunday, Apr. 23, 2000
    Ugh... I'm still an idiot. :-) Turns out I had a Sunday artist on the backburner for about a month, and totally forgot. But anyways, Rudi Gunther drew these two awesome strips. Go check out his comic, Deathworld! Thanks Rudi, and I'M SORRY!
    And by the way... a few kind souls wrote in to explain what a "Hab" is. Well, it seems to be short for "habitant," the French word for farmer. The Montreal Canadiens' logo features an 'H' inside a 'C' (the 'H' presumably stands for "hockey"), but the original team apparently was composed mostly of farmers, so the 'H' has been connect with les habitants, or the Habs. Yes, the NHL has one heck of a screwed up history. :-)

Saturday, Apr. 22, 2000
    Poll time! Just more than half of you don't know what a Leaf or a Hab is... well, they're the Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens hockey teams (respectively). Don't ask me how "Canadien" translates to "Hab." :-) But the hockey rivalry between the two teams is legendary. It's not possible to be a fan of both teams. So which is Mrs. Page a fan of? 37% of people say the Leafs, and a measly 10% voted Habs. Sucks to be a Habs fan. ;-)

Friday, Apr. 21, 2000
    Today's comic, like yesterdays, was a couple hours late again. And this time I don't have a very sympathetic excuse. Sorry. :-)
    Meanwhile, three of the 1st Round playoff series have wrapped up, so the scores are starting to come in for the hockey pool!

Thursday, Apr. 20, 2000
    Avalon has been awarded Sarah "Esyla" Alyse's Kiss of Death-- I MEAN, um, Kiss of Goodness award. ;-) Thanks Sarah! You can check out her website here.
    And on an unrelated note, I was at the Toronto vs. Ottawa game last night (the one where Ottawa beat the Leafs 2-1), and it kicked arse. :-) This also explains why I was a mite late getting this comic up today.

Monday, Apr. 17, 2000
    Heh... being the idiot I am, I've been under the assumption that the Sens game is on Thursday, when it's actually on Wednesday. This is important primarily because I have a ticket to that game. :-) But also, it means I goofed on last Friday's comic, so I made some quick editing to fix things up. You can check it out here. And if you still have a copy of the old one, that should be a valuable collector's item one day. ;-)

Sunday, Apr. 16, 2000
    Hey, I actually got some Sunday submissions! DaFalcon sent in his second Guest Artist Sunday, as did Alex Bebout. I thought you'd all be dying to see Alex's, so I threw it up there too. ;-)

Saturday, Apr. 15, 2000
    Wow, a third of you are unemployed. :-) Some 23% of those polled are making money from something. 21% have horrible, painful jobs, while 12% of people have awesome jobs for next to no pay. The remaining 11% have excellent jobs combined with excellent pay, and must be beaten. ;-)
    And still no entries for tomorrow's Guest Artist Sunday. I'm all outta submissions, so everyone's invited to throw something together before midnight! :-)

Friday, Apr. 14, 2000
    Avalon was chosen as today's (and Saturday's... and Sunday's...) Canuck Site of the Day over at Maple Square!

Thursday, Apr. 13, 2000
    Hey, if hockey's not your thing, how about auto racing? Or more specifically, sending little model cars down a ramp. Go check out the Micro Drag Racing Tournament at Road Waffles!

Tuesday, Apr. 11, 2000
    Well, the prizes have been determined for the hockey pool:
1st place: A signed original cast drawing; your choice of t-shirt, mug, or mousepad from the Avalon store (opening soon!); and a guest appearance in a future Avalon strip.
2nd place: Your choice of Avalon t-shirt, mug, or mousepad; and a guest appearance in a future Avalon strip.
3rd place:A guest appearance in a future Avalon strip.
    There... I hope that's not too much of a cop-out on my part. ;-) The deadline for 1st Round registration is tomorrow at 7:00 PM Eastern!

Monday, Apr. 10, 2000
    Registration for the Avalon hockey pool has begun! The deadline for entry is Wednesday, April 12th. Remember, it's free to enter!

Sunday, Apr. 9, 2000
    Another awesome Sunday comic from Esyla! Unfortunately, this is the last one I have in stock, so if anyone else wants to be a Guest Artist, now's a pretty good time to do so! Check the Sundays section for more info.
    Hey, and the Avalon hockey pool is all set to go! You can see the little linky on the menu to the left. Go check it out and read up on the rules, 'cause registration begins TONIGHT! After the final hockey game ends tonight, a registration form will appear on the hockey pool page. The tentative deadline for entry is Tuesday night! It's absolutely free to enter, and some cool Avalon prizes will be up for grabs. So check it out, and don't miss the registration deadline!

Saturday, Apr. 8, 2000
    The results of the Risk colour poll were somewhat surprising... black won it all with 20.9%, followed closely by I don't give a dang at 20.6%. And right behind that was green, with 20.3%. Then came blue (18%), red (9%), grey (7.5%), and lowly yellow (3.5%).
    A bit of a demographic survey this week... tell us what sort of employment you currently have. Don't be afraid to gripe. :-)

Friday, Apr. 7, 2000
    Heh... another banner ad! But this one's different... it's called BERT - the Banner Exchange Rotating Thingy - and was created by Eight (of Road Waffles). It's a free banner ad program for webcomics! So go to the BERT page for details on how to add BERT to your site, and how to add your banner to BERT!
    And there's a new comic out there which I think is pretty damn funny... at least to someone who's still fond of the original Final Fantasy game for Nintendo. :-) It's Adventurers by Mark Shallow, a comedic take on all those stereotypes that make console RPGs so easy to poke fun at. Now go check it out!

Wednesday, Apr. 5, 2000
    If you haven't already, make sure you check out the April Fool's Day comic swap!
    And the hockey pool and Avalon store are still forthcoming. Early this weekend is probably a good estimate.

Sunday, Apr. 2, 2000
    Big thanks to Nicholas Yu, the mastermind behind The Bad Boys of Computer Science, for being today's guest artist! Also, I don't think I properly thanked Corey Marie Kitley of Sit and Spin for her submission last week. Thank you Corey! Please don't kill me! :-) Now go check out Sit and Spin. The "Sims" storyline is over so it's safe now. ;-)
    And I apologize to anyone who showed up today just after midnight, since for some reason the April Fools comic disappeared from the page. :-/ And I was up late watching movies at a friend's place and never even realized it. Of course, you can check it out in the Archives (along with all those old classics, including the dryer sheet, and Canadian Tire on boxing day).

Saturday, Apr. 1, 2000
    I pity da foo'! Oh, erm, no... that's not it... um... April Fools!
    As you might have noticed, I didn't draw today's Avalon. You may also notice that Micheal McKay-Fleming didn't draw today's Alice, either. :-)
    Now, about that stuff I said I'd announce... well, coming next week is the 2000 Avalon NHL Playoff Pool! Everyone is invited to pick the teams they think will win during the NHL playoffs - you don't even have to know about hockey to enter! And best of all it's free, and prizes will be awarded, including Avalon merchandise!
    Oh yeah, that's the other announcement: Avalon merchandise! To coincide with the launch of the hockey pool, I'll be opening a CafePress store where you can buy Avalon t-shirts, mugs, and mousepads! There'll be several different themes to choose from, and from what I've heard among other CafePress users, the stuff is very high quality.
    And finally, the results of last week's poll... it seems most people (31%) would pick Phoebe as the culprit if AHS ever burnt down. A distant second is Alan with 17%, then Joe (14%), Ryan (13%), Ceilidh (10%), and Helène (9%). The most innocent character appears to be Alison, with only 5% of the vote.
    Make sure to tune in next week when Alison torches the school! ;-)