Thankfully, we didn’t use that line in today’s comic (Issue 161).

From the day we started Bitmap World, we were waiting for this day.  The day our “superhero” would be revealed.  It only took 14 months and 161 issues.  Though, we can honestly say that this character appeared in many of the early banner ads for BMW.  Though as time went on and it was clear that this character was going to remain a secret for a while, we ended up pulling him from the banners.

I know I am a geek, even though I am the writer/artist, I just think that last panel is WAY cool! *shivers*

I don’t know if you would call it irony or tempting fate. When we did the comic last week about Leroy getting sick on the carnival ride, the punchline was Dott commenting that she was happy she didn’t have to clean it up. Well, I think any parent of a small child can appreciate that. Cleaning up messes like that is no fun, particularly at 2 a.m.–though honestly at any time of the day, it’s pretty ick.

The very next day, a stomach bug hit our house, and it entailed quite a few messes that needed to be cleaned up. I laughed to Jim and told him we jinxed ourselves with that comic. He got a laugh out of that.

I was the last to get hit yesterday, and while I had most of the art done on the comic, I could not stay sitting up at the computer long enough to finish it. I did manage to get it done very late, and left the lettering to Jim. Anyhow,we knew we wanted something funny for the Mayor’s float, and this joke was totally inspired.

I’m feeling a little better now, though I’m not up to snuff. Hoping to be in the next day or so. Until then, the forums are still down. They are on our high-priority list, and we hope to have them up–as well as announce the winner of our contest–soon.

Well, I felt so bad about the whole forum blow-up that I did 2 comics today. Forgive me??? Please, someone, a pity comment. ;O)

The forums will be up tomorrow, along with the contest winner. Sorry for *that* delay, but Jim is doing some work on the system which I hope can be done by then. I figured you guys would rather we work on the extra comic.

The last few strips have been grueling! Most the carnival stuff had to be done from scratch. There is some stock pixel art in there, but a good majority is my original art. What pre-existing art had to be heavily modified. Each one took much longer than even the Cosmic Dungeon strips. However, I feel it was well worth it. I am happy with the look, and now I have a lot of props for further issues!

I think the thing that got me the most with this last round was all the supporting characters! You know how you watch Spongebob or any other cartoon, and there are a bunch of recurring secondary characters? Well, now I know why. Getting all those faces in the crowd took an enormouns amount of time, since I needed to create a ton of non-descript characters, as well as putting in key characters and members of their families. I just wish I hadn’t been so pressed for time with the site problems, because doing the art was a lot of fun and I would have liked to have had the time to enjoy it more.

I do have a lot of comments on the individual strips from the last 2 updates, so I’m just gonna rattle them off one by one:

Strip 151 - I would love to say my kids behave in the car all the time. They do mostly, but even on the best of trips there is the kicking and the poking. This was certainly a tribute to that.

Strip 152 - This is one of my all-time favorite strips. I laugh just thinking about it. The mayor has definitely developed into a colorful character, and a bit different than what we first envisioned and planned for him. Makes you wonder what that baby looked like, eh?

Strip 153 - I am WAY proud of how those porta-pottys turned out! The joke in there about the family motto was actually something Jim said to Linus once as a gag when Jim made him use the facilities at a public place. I thought it would be funny if it actually *was* someone’s family motto. Now it is!

Strip 154 - The Dott-Com joke never occurred to me until just a few weeks ago. We’ve been doing this strip for over a year, and such an obvious tech joke was under right my nose. Too funny.

Strip 155 - I am sure we embarrass our kids by making them do things with the little ones. Most of the time they truly don’t mind, but there are moments in public, particularly when their friends are around, where they cringe at the thought. Coincidentally, this was Linus’s favorite strip of the Booyah update–because he could relate to it!

Strip 156 - Have you ever played the Wii game, Carnival? That was the inspiration for the dunk tank with Mr. Domain in there. A tidbit, Korn’s son is the one who dunked him. Also, I had more fun drawing the little drama in the background of that strip than I did the dialogue between Max and Blip. Though I do say, I am really proud of how this strip turned out overall.

Strip 157 - Jim asked me, “are we really going to do a vomit joke?” C’mon, how could I pass that up?! Seriously, I don’t normally like potty-humor, but there are times it’s appropriate and pretty darn funny.

Monday…the parade.