Today’s issue is Number 171. But in actuality, this is issue number 1. This is the very first Bitmap World comic we did…ever. After the “throwing around ideas” stage, and we had settled on actual characters, storylines, and whatnot, we put together this prototype strip. In fact, had you visited our site in the months before we officially went live, you would have seen this sole comic up on the site. Our site was very much like it is now: the pseudo computer with the framed comic within and the navigation buttons on the “keys.” Though, back then, there were much fewer links on the keys.

Of course, you will also recognize this strip as one of the templates in our Build-Your-Own-Comic maker. But, be assured, this strip was not made using this utility. It was done months before we even dreamed of the BYOC.  It truly is neat to have this stand-alone comic done so long ago slipped into the regular continuity, rather seemlessly. Though, if you do look closely, this strip has been altered slightly from the prototype (this alteration was done recently since we have certain style aspects to the comic now we didn’t in the beginning). 5 points in the forum if you can see the differences.

We always planned to have Rasterman come on the scene a bit into the strip, but I don’t think Jim or I ever planned that it would be nearly a year and a half and 170 issues in. The strip, the characters, and the story really have taken on a life of their own, and have gone in so many directions we didn’t plan.  But it’s been so much fun, and ultimately it’s worked out that we’ve been (up to this point) been able to add the elements we’ve wanted to.  It’s funny because many of the stories we did plot out in the beginning are still yet to be told.  In fact, Jim and I were just hashing out a few things and realized a couple of the storylines probably won’t come up until year 3 or 4!  How’s that for planning ahead. And we have new ideas popping up every day, so who knows where that will take us. That said, I guess it would be hard for you all to believe we actually struggle with writer’s block on occasion and pull our hair out to get one strip up.  That’s because it’s not the pictures that give us fits but getting the words just right.  While this “little comic” may not be Pulitzer Prize material, we still taking it seriously and don’t want to shell out just anything.

Anyhow, thanks for making Bitmapworld part of your weekly routine. Here’s to strip 200 on the near horizon, and to many more after that.

We went around a couple of times on exactly what was going to happen in this comic. Michelle finally decided on the minimalistic direction to take it. When I saw it, my first reactions was, “Harry really is a lunatic, isn’t he?” I don’t know if any of you are playing along in our Laugh Olympics in the forum, but we did mention that this storyline, and Harry’s psychosis about the paperboy, is based loosely on similar situation in one of our favorite movies. If you can guess what movie it is, post in the forum, or leave a comment here.

When we first started on this storyline, I thought it was a fun way to put Evil Couch into Bitmap World. What I didn’t know would happen is that I would end up loving the character. I’m almost sorry this was just a “cameo.” I think there is so much potential for this character, and want to know what happens next! Of course, there is one small problem–he’s not our character! We did plan to leave the storyline like this, a virtual cliffhanger of sorts. I’ll be honest and will say I hope we see Evil Couch again. Though, of course, that is more up to Couch than us. Still, if he can’t take over the real world, maybe he’ll be content taking over Bitmap World. Or better yet, both?

Since tying up of the “monkey in the closet” storyline, we weren’t planning on doing another monkey strip for quite some time. That was before we learned about Monkey Day and the Monkey Day Webcomic Blog. It was too good of an opportunity to pass up, so we decided to jump on the bandwagon. It took a bit of improvisation, since we didn’t want another out-of-continuity strip. We wanted something that could fit into the actual history, but wouldn’t throw off what we have planned for the near future. Thus, this strip. Since we’re in the middle of the Mr. Smiley/Nyanko storyline, we’re initially listing it as a bonus, and it’s permanent strip number will be determined after we wrap that mini-arch up. Don’t worry though, we’re not going to cheat and insert this comic in place of a regular update. Instead, it will be in addition to any planned strip.

Hooray for Monkey Day!

We didn’t plan on having a Thanksgiving themed strip. But this was an idea that actually came from real life. Linus’s school had a food drive where they assembled baskets of Thanksgiving food. They were raffled off through a hoop-shoot. The winners didn’t actually have to make a dunk, they won simply if their name was selected from the hat. Then, for fun, the student and teacher competed with the other groups to see who could get the most hoops. Linus was so excited and proud when he came in and announced that he had Thanksgiving dinner taken care of. This actually had more significant meaning since Jim is still out of work and money is tight. Anyhow, using that as a starting point, we thought it would make a cute story for the Pixels. Of course, their ending was a bit more surreal than ours.