Blank It

I don’t generally like talking about things before they happen, because it’s all vaporous. It’s not concrete. So, just know that we’re talking in theoreticals here. But Aric and I have some merchandise in the works, either based on year-one events from Blank It, or things we thought were funny otherwise. We have a few curveballs, so hopefully we’ll delight you when we get a shop online. Start counting your pennies.

The shop will be critical when we make good on the Threat, since the comic already takes up a lot of our time even at twice a week. So once it goes to three, the show has to start growing into its own and compensating for its costs. We have faith it’ll all work out, or else we wouldn’t pursue it. How’s that for optimism!

Speaking of the Threat, Aric and I looked over the last two months of numbers, and even by the most conservative accounts, we’ve definitely cleared the 1,500 reader mark. There’s a degree of anticipation and anxiety that’s coming with all this. It’ll be interesting to see Blank It grow. Let’s hope I don’t lose my drawing hand in a freak shovel beam accident.

Dear nerds, I will be on a few panels at CONvergence this year. Here is a link for my schedule.

The price of entry is $70, so if you’re not already going, don’t pay $70 just to see me. But if you’re already on your way, stop by one of the panels and say “hi.” I will be wearing a fake mustache during one of them. Do not be alarmed.

It’s been brought up from time to time that Aric and I just wing this strip, what with how random it feels. And while I can say ‘we planned it all along’, it just really doesn’t hold water when there’s nothing to back it up.

While working on the comic tonight, I stumbled upon the original mockup for the website, which included a header graphic sporting some content that hadn’t been put in the strip yet. Since everything in this picture has made its appearance in some form, I thought I’d share it:

Lemmo and Aric are there, but so is the cookie guy (noticably different), and he’s holding the shovel. There’s also the imposter robot behind Aric, also fairly different. Plus, the fox was more of a person, or ewok or something, instead of the Socks you know of today. Lastly there’s Lemmo’s pet rat, which was scrapped altogether.

This image predates the comic launch by about two months. That makes it about 14 months old now. You just now met the cookie guy. Shows how ‘spontaneous’ we really are.