News: December 2000

         

Saturday, Dec. 23, 2000
    Big thanks to Dacut, the man behind today's guest strip! And again, thanks to David Willis (of It's Walky!) for tomorrow's Guest Artist Sunday strip. And thanks to Damonk, again, for taking over last week... if you haven't seen it yet, make sure you go back to see the havoc he wreaked! And then read Framed!
    Now then, I leave for Alberta today. Whee! This means I will likely be without Internet access until I return, on Jan. 3rd. However, I have completed this week's strips, and they will appear automatically during my absence. Unfortunately I couldn't get anything ready for the first week of January, so those may come a wee bit late... please don't hurt me. :-)
    Now, of course, while I'm away I'll be unable to read my e-mail. So if you want to send me something, I invite you to wait until January before sending it to me. Otherwise it'll sit in my inbox for a week and a half, and just increase the mass that awaits me upon my return. :-) And if you have a question or comment to make, feel free to pose it in the Avalon Forum. It's free to use, and the regulars there are very friendly. Someone should be able to answer your questions while I'm gone.
    So, yeah, that's all I can think of before my flight leaves... in the meantime, have a happy holiday and a kick-arse new year. :-)

Friday, Dec. 22, 2000
    Well, today marks the end of Damonk's week at the helm... it was a fun ride, too. :-) Make sure to visit his comic, Framed! But the guest strips aren't over yet! Tomorrow we have a guest strip by forumite Dacut... you fans of Roomies/It's Walky will want to be here to see that one. And finally, this week's Guest Artist Sunday is drawn by none other than David Willis... you fans of Roomies/It's Walky will probably want to be here for that one, as well. :-)
    Now then, here's a feature that I know a couple readers have been wanting for a while... Avalon delivered to you daily by e-mail. The comic strips are added as attachments to the daily mailing, so this works best with those HTML-capable readers (like Netscape, Outlook, Hotmail, etc.). The only catch is that the strips are delayed by one day... the benefit of this is that, even if I'm late or miss a day, you still receive the strips consistently and in-order. The downside is that you're a day behind. :-) If you want to sign up for this, head on over to Keenspot's subscription page.
    Finally, be sure to drop by tomorrow... it'll be a big news day, seeing as it's my last day of Internet for the next week-and-a-half.

Monday, Dec. 18, 2000
    Ceilidh sighting! Go check out Bing's (the one behind Guardian Angel) contribution to the Keenspace Party 2001!
    And I owe Damonk big time. :-) He has graciously offered to draw several guest comics this week -- on unreasonably short notice, to boot -- thereby propelling him into King-among-men status. If you haven't already, you must check out his comic Framed! It might help you with understanding the finer details behind the nipple-less woman and the naked guy. :-)

Sunday, Dec. 17, 2000
    Okay, here's what's happening over the next three weeks. I'm going to be out of town for the week of the 25th, which means I won't be around to draw comics at that time. Unfortunately, that week's comics are some extremely important ones. And to complicate things further, I have exams all this week, so I won't be able to draw two comics per day (to make up for the future missed time). So, I've decided that there will be no new comics this week. Instead, I will be drawing enough comics to fill my absence starting on the 25th (and also trying to get through my exams, but I do admit this is much more fun).
    And even though there won't be any new comics this week, I do hope to have some new stuff here once in a while to keep everyone from defecting to User Friendly or something. ;-) For instance, today I want to introduce everyone to a game called Planetarion. This is a completely web browser-based game, so anyone can play from anywhere they can access the Internet. It's a real-time space colonization strategy game, which allows you to interact with thousands of players around the world. It's an amazing way to kill time. :-) It's also easy to get started in (and is absolutely free). I just thought I'd let everyone know about it, since I've been addicted to it for about a week now. :-)
    Here's something I keep forgetting to do... add a link to the Avalon Store! You can always find it at http://www.avalonhigh.com/store, even though there's no link to it from this page yet.
    And I managed to get me my own .ca domain name a couple weeks ago... *and* set it up properly! You can now find my homepage at www.joshphillips.ca. Be forewarned, right now it's rather empty and lame. :-)
    And at long last, we have some poll results! It turns out that most people need some answers to Avalon's long-term mysteries real quick, before they go insane and kill me... 43.7% of readers think so, anyway. Close behind were the 42.7% of readers who like things just great as it is. And finally, 13.7% of readers are suckers for punishment, wanting even more mysteries. Well, I'll see what I can't do with the strip with regards to this outcome. :-)

Friday, Dec. 15, 2000
    There are Wednesday's and Thursday's comics... Friday's probably won't be up until Sunday. Sorry about this.

Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2000
    My little break from school is pretty much over, thanks to exams... so unfortunately, today's comic won't be up until tomorrow.

Monday, Dec. 11, 2000
    Today's comic will be a few hours late... instead of drawing, I've been frantically repairing two computer power supplies, both of which had faulty fans and threatened a literal meltdown (you may remember it happening before during my molten hard drive fiasco). Suffice to say they're working just peachy now. :-) Not like it's worth preserving the warranty on a power supply anyway...

Sunday, Dec. 10, 2000
    Today's Guest Artist is Dacut, a regular over in the Avalon Forum. Now, with the new site design comes a new format for the Guest Artist Sunday strips. They'll appear here as usual every Sunday, but you can also find old ones with every other comic in the archives. You can find the old Sundays section in the Archive section as well, if you just want to browse through the Sunday comics. And I am looking for something to put here next Sunday, so now's a good time to submit. :-)
    Oh yeah... 8th place!

Friday, Dec. 8, 2000
    Avalon has reached 12th place, firmly entrenched between Rudy Park and The Better Half. It's just a mere 6531 votes to 1st place!

Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2000
    My sincere apologies for the lack of Wednesday's comic strip. With any luck, I might have it up by this afternoon, but failing that, there should be two for Thursday.
    And Cynthia, thanks for the talk last night. :-)

Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2000
    There, I did it, I changed the site again. This version is much lighter than the old one, and should load pretty much instantaneously compared to the old version. Unfortunately, the transistion isn't totally completed yet... for instance, the Avalon Store and Sunday Guest Comics need to find their way onto this page yet. And there may be some random bugs in my HTML, too... e-mail me if you find any broken links or funky-looking pages.
    And how's this for cool? Avalon was featured yesterday in Exploitation Now! Poe, you know how to sell t-shirts better than I ever could. ;-) And thanks to everyone who notified me about the pseudo-cameo.

Monday, Dec. 4, 2000
    Holy carp... Avalon's evil reign of terror continues over at the Planet Cartoonist Top 100. Yesterday it hit 20th place (and therefore gets a banner ad spot), but now it's at 18th, currently behind... CRFH. A mere 371 votes behind, in fact. And then it's only 6888 votes to first place overall. Yeah, I don't blame you if you don't feel like clicking anymore. :-)
    Hey Shadowgunz, I remembered! ;-) Everybody, go check out Sacrilicious, a brand new webcomic. It's like Avalon if it took place in a Catholic school... which makes Avalon look so much more innocent. ;-)

Sunday, Dec. 3, 2000
    Clan Bob is at it again! Here's yet another Guest Artist Sunday submission from Dan Jaaren!

Friday, Dec. 1, 2000
    34th place! Only... um... 307 votes out of 25th...