I’m not dead. Kara and I are pretty much all moved in now. We still have a lot of stuff in boxes but the important stuff like the video games and the computers are all set up and running. I understand I haven’t posted in a while and I do apologize for that. Here is what I have been up to.

Until Max Abernethy sent me this link, I must admit that I was unaware of the rich shared tradition of chickens and aviation.

I did this on Wednesday, too - I will type up a post, it will be all done, and then I'll go play videogames until I pass out without uploading it. I'm surprised that I remember to wear clothes.

You might be surprised to hear some of the bizarre theories I receive regarding Gabriel's whereabouts. Clearly, it's not me drawing the strip - regular readers know what that looks like, the poor dears. It's just that the temporary dial-up he is using is immensely distasteful to him, and strips out all the joy of using the Internet. He's also been subjected to a jaunty parade of lies regarding the date of his installation, which made its way into today's comic. That's not even factoring in Kotor. If I like it as much as I do, and I think that Star Wars is alright, I can only imagine the violent seizures he must be having over there.

I got a lot of mail from people requesting I scan and post the pictures I got from Stephen Silver and Stan Sakai. They are actually being shipped back up from SDCC and should be here in a few days. Once I have them both I’ll scan them for you guys.

Aside from the inability to pause the game and queue up commands, absolutely every e-mail I've received about Lionheart - referring to either the demo or the full version - has been saturated with high praise. I've even heard on boards that this demo was stuck together with gum glue and tape, and doesn't represent shit as far as the final is concerned. So I have uninstalled it and made the decision to wait for the retail.

I just wanted to make sure everybody knew about it, because it's only the most ambitious mod ever released.

My man Jason from eToychest saw that I had mentioned Temple of Elemental Evil and Lionheart - in the same paragraph, even - and made me aware of the articles they've done on both games. Here's a review of Lionheart, for example, which is very nice! But Tim Cain comes out with some interesting answers in his Temple interview, yes he does. Very interesting indeed.

I did not mention with sufficient vigor the thorough rocking necrowombiCon attendees faced at the hands of not one, but two bands.

Tender Penny Arcade reader Sean McDonald writes:

Even with a planet-a-day Kotor habit and now God Damned Mario Golf there in the Cube, the production of marbled, USDA choice comics is our chief concern. You could say this strip was co-written by Suzanne Vega, which is even sort of true.

It's like three in the morning now, so I can't call him - but I know he'd be interested in this info on the new Samurai Spirits (also known as Samurai Shodown).

My affection for KOTOR only grew stronger while I was away, and there's no telling for certain but don't be surprised if it becomes the topic of more than one additional comic. I got back from the Necrowombicon today around four o'clock, and played it for about ten straight hours - wrapping up another world and learning some really crazy shit. I've got all these custom lightsabers for different tactical situations, color-coded for quick access. If you are a droid, let's say, and you see that violet saber come out? Let me tell you briefly what that represents. It means I'm going to make such a mess of you that people will think Jackson Pollock had been there.

When we only had two advertisers a month, it wasn't hard for me to keep up with thanking them - but since they've started to take the site very seriously in this regard, I've fallen somewhat behind. We're still very picky, of course, and we turn down ads all the time. That is probably not a good business practice, but we have the luxury here to be able to do the right thing. In any case, we've had some really cool things on here the last few months that I wish I had been more demonstrative about.

Jesus Christ. I like writing and everything, I like it a lot. I like writing for you. But you are lucky indeed that I sit now before this screen, depositing words of varying length, new comic in tow, having summoned the strength to stop playing Knights Of The Old Republic.

I wish that weren't true, but it's out of our hands. We can't do that and get the store ready and do Necrowombicon and get all of Gabe's shit moved, we aren't enough people to do all of this stuff at the same time and we can't pay for all of it. I'm sorry to be typing this, because until we got back from San Diego I thought the whole thing was essentially in the bag. I told a lot of people there about it and now I am a huge liar.