Black Friday has actually become as a much a holiday as Thanksgiving itself. Though it has many definitions, predominantly the term “Black Friday” is used to mean the day after Thanksgiving, when most retailers start getting Christmas shoppers. Since holiday shopping sales (meaning the 8 weeks or so in November/December) often account for as much money as the stores makes the rest of the year together, they essentially go from being in the red to the going into the black on their financial books.

This comic (issue 94) was yet again inspired by Linus. Even though in real-life he is a bit older than Max, Linus does provide a lot of material for this character. The other day while watching a television commercial for After-Thanksgiving early bird specials, Linus proceeded to tell us why it was called Black Friday. His explanation (which was identical to the one Max gives) made me laugh out loud. Kids are so innocent and their sincerity is priceless. Of course, I explained the real reason it was called that to our son, but I thought it would make a great strip. Particularly since a lot of people will be celebrating the long weekend (as well as starting their shopping) and won’t be checking the site until Monday or Tuesday. We wanted a small stand-alone strip before jumping back into an ongoing storyline.

On another note, Max and Ada are on the floor coloring in this strip. I’ve been wanting to do this for a while. Our kids are all very much into art and drawing. I think we go through more crayons and paper than about anything else. High priced toys and gadget hold nothing over pencils and notebooks. Even though this is a “smiley comic” we really try to add little bits of real-life to it. I think a lot of parents can relate to sitting around while their kids draw and color. Oh, and of course Mike taking a nap on the couch! One of the biggest compliments we get on Bitmap World is how expressive and descriptive we make the smilies and their world. It’s a conscious effort on our part, and we’re delighted people take notice.

Hoping our American friends had a great Thanksgiving, and that everyone has a great start to the year-end holiday season!

Another series of Cosmic Dungeon strips. I thing I’ve said it before, but I both loving and hate doing those strips! I love them because they are so much fun, and I think the story is great. RPGs and MMPORPGs have been a part of our lives for so many years, it’s really exciting to draw upon that experience for this storyline. The reason I hate these strips is that they require so much more work than the regular strips. Truly, a price for affect.

We hadn’t planned to go back to CD so soon. We were going to come off of the monkey storyline and were going to jump back into one of the other ongoing plots. But, even with the couple of filler strips we had, we decided we wanted to pad things out a bit more in the pacing department. Since we’ve had quite a few fans tell us how much they love the Cosmic Dungeon strips, it seemed natural to go back sooner than later.

I personally hit a big writer’s block when scripting these newest 3. I knew what they were going to be about, but the dialogue just kept escaping me. I was actually getting worried that we’d have a series of stinkers, which I really didn’t want. Then, while walking to the commuter train on Wednesday night, inspiration hit. There is often a lot of musing among webcomic writers about where and how ideas hit. In this case, there was no inspiration, but rather working through the story over and over, and on the 20th time, an element coming to me that hadn’t before. Once that happened, the words came naturally. The added plus was that the idea blossomed into something I’m very excited about.

For those wondering about the other story arcs, be assured, it’s coming. We’ll be in CD a few more strips, and then we move on. Be assured, answers always come. All in good time…and pacing.

Since our old blog database is not compatible with the new blog system, we have to manually enter all of the old entries. Above this post are all of the newest entries through November 2007. Below are older entries from when we started this blog, moving forward to the current one. Hopefully in the next few weeks we’ll manage to get them all in and the 2 will meet!

Above this line are the more recent posts. Below this line are post from when we first started the blog. Because the databases of our old blog system and new one are not compatible, we are manually having to add all of the old blog entries. Our hopes in the next week or two, we’ll have everything added. Thanks for your patience.

Since the database for our old blog system and our new blog are incompatible, we are having the manually enter all of the old blog entries. Above you will find most recent entries through November 2007. Below are entries from when we first started the blog through March 2007. It is our hopes that over the next couple of weeks, we’ll finish adding all the new entries. Thank you for your patience.

Since our old blog database is not compatible with the new blog system, we have to manually enter all of the old entries. Above this post are all of the newest entries through November 2007. Below are older entries from when we started this blog, moving forward to the current one. Hopefully in the next few weeks we’ll manage to get them all in and the 2 will meet!