Well, when it rains, it pours. We have been having serious internet issues over the past few days. Jim has been working non-stop (literally to 2-3 in the morning) trying to get us up and running and it has been to little avail. Problem is, our internet company insists it’s a problem on our end. Yet, we have replaced hardware, reconfigured, and done about everything we can think of and it’s just not working! It’s the hex, I say! The hex!

Anyhow, we grovel once again for your understanding and ask that you send some positive computer vibes our way.

We have arranged for temporary internet access for a few hours. So, the plan is now to do a special update TOMORROW–Friday the 28th. We will be putting up our 2 missed comics, as well as Saturday’s strip (since we anticipate to be without internet through the weekend). Our hope is that after the holiday lag we can get somebody out to help us–or the darn thing will just start mysteriously working again.

We should have mentioned there might be a delay with our Saturday comic–but things were a bit crazy. We had relatives from out-of-town in last week and through the weekend. We had hoped to have time to get the strip up, but it didn’t happen. We apologize. So…2 strips on Wednesday, plus a bonus strip soon (not sure Wednesday or Saturday)

A full plate this week kept me from getting the strips up on Wednesday. When it was clear the Saturday strips would be up later in the evening, I decided to just push it all back a day and add another strip. I preferred the recent batch tie-up with the end of the first day of the convention. So, that’s what I did. Hope the extra strip was worth the extra wait.

A few general things I’d like to point out. Recently I did the final tweaks on our lettering font. Before our lettering varied on the panel and how much space was available. With the option of large-sizing the strip now available and to make the strip look as consistent as possible, we are adopting a standard in our lettering. I know it should have come earlier, but that’s the way it goes. We’re very happy with it and hope our fans are too.

In other news, Jim has been totally wrapped up in a project for the last many months and that greatly affected his ability to do a lot on the comic. This past week, his involvement in the project just ended, so we are hopeful he’ll be able to pitch in a little more and help us get more squarely on schedule. That also means getting Family Webcomics and many of our other projects back on track. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

• We are excited to announced that our Large-Print Version is now complete! Thanks to some nifty programming by Jim, double-size copies of each strip are now generated on-the-fly, so the Large-Print version will be totally up-to-date with the standard version! We have also added a convenient link to the large-print version on the No-Frames page.

Due to the new automatic image generation of the large-print versions, we no longer manually adjust the formatting of strip panels. As as result, when viewing the large-print comics, readers with older screen resolutions (such as 800×600) may find that the strip will roll off the screen. This may require some side-scrolling to read. We apologize for this inconvience, but hope that the benefit of having large-print versions available immediately will be worth the small hassle.

• We are also VERY excited to announce our new Toggle View! Our readers have mentioned that even though they prefer the normal view of the comic, there are occasions when they would like to be able to see a larger version of a single strip. While most browsers have a zoom feature, particularly with pixel-graphics, the zoomed image can be grainy. Well, thanks to some more nifty programming on Jim’s part, we now give our readers the ability to toggle between the normal and large versions of individual comics. Simply double-click on the strip itself and the 2-times version will appear. Double-click again to go back to normal size. ** Note that due to format restrictions, the toggle option is only available in the no-frames version.**

When toggling the large-size strips, navigation is only available by clicking back to the normal size. For our readers who generally perfer the big-print, we recommend using the large-print version, as that will allow you to navigate normally. However, for that occasional strip where you want to see the details up-close, the new toggle view is perfect.

• Michelle has just finished the process of reviewing all of the archive files. While no major changes were made to older strips, there were some minor changes made to many of the comics where there were issues with grammar, speech balloons, and other formatting. So, if you see something that seems to look slightly different than you remember it, that’s probably why. Note: We realize there are still a few strips with problems out there; they are on our list to fix.

• In other news, we are happy to announce that Tess is nearly done transcribing all of the comics. This was a project she started months ago, but was put on hold when the laptop which held the transcripts broke down. We now have it up and running again, so she will be working on the last few strips and then we will be adding them to the site. Our hope is that the transcripts will allow the visually impaired to enjoy the strip, as well as giving our non-English speaking readers the means to translate the dialogue so they can better understand what’s going on.

• Lastly, we are in the process of finalizing and re-opening our “condensed” version of the strip. Stay tuned for more details.

It’s time for another Bitmap Booyah!

We have another Booyah for you! As most of you know, this one ended up later than normal. That’s because Michelle/Mirz ended up creating 2 new fun games with all original art. That took longer than expected, but we’re happy with the results. So, at long last, let’s cut to the chase and dole out the goodies:

• 3 new comics.

• Webcomic icons - New additions to our Webcomic Icon Gallery.

• 2010 BYOC Contest Results - We had some great entries this time around. Check them out here.

• Dozens of new items in our Bonus Art Gallery.

• New card game in our Bonus Section.

• New “Magic Odd Ball” in our Bonus Section.

• Although it’s not really part of the Booyah, our Bit-Map Guestbook is working again. Stake your claim on the motherboard!

We want to note that we planned to have a new Where’s Mike entry, but our site has changed so much in the last year that many of the old ones are no longer active. So we are planning a new batch of them very soon.

We hope you enjoy the goodies and wish it could have been a bit more. Even still, after 3 years and over 300 strips, we’re very proud of this little webcomic and still committed to the long run. We look forward to all that 2010 holds for the Pixels and Company!

Our previous note about an update on Wednesday was a typo. We apologize. The special Bitmap Booyah update and the announcement of our contest winners will be on Thursday, April 1st.

We apologize for the delays in the comic. Sometimes life hits you with a lot of stuff and there’s not much you can do about it.

Our cat, Waffle, died unexpectedly yesterday. This has been very upsetting to us, and our children. Of course, it’s very difficult to write a humor comic when you’re depressed.

We appreciate our fans’ understanding and patience with us. We’ll be back on track soon.

We apologize for the late updates. Michelle hasn’t been feeling well lately, and on top of that she’s needed to stay late at work several days. As you know, when these kinds of things happen, real-life concerns need to come first. We’ll get caught-up with the comic making this weekend, and post two comics on Saturday.

We’d like to thank everyone out there for their continued patience and support. We really appreciate it. Thank-you.