Go the hell BACK.
5/9/07: It's Wednesday! Hooray! Let's celebrate with a new Dragons comic!
5/6/07: Hey, look! A new Dragons comic! And you doubted me. Shame on you.
5/2/07: As you can see, there's a new Dragons comic. Many other webcartoonists recommended that I start putting the new comic right on the front page, so I figured I'd give it a shot.
4/1/07: A new Dragons comic is done, and it's holiday-themed! Big deal!
9/28/06: Two months and change later, it's a new Dragons comic. When you get to the last panel, please keep in mind that I'm an artist in the same sense that a mafia don is a legitimate businessman.
7/22/06: Good news! There's a new Dragons comic!
7/4/06: Celebrity deaths. Triplets. Toy-themed Dragons comics. They always seem to come in threes.
2/2/06: It's another toy-themed Dragons comic today, but with a punchline that everyone will enjoy. I hope.
1/19/06: Sorry, non-Transformers fans, but there's no comic for you today.
1/9/06: See? I told you I wouldn't wait ten months to do a new comic. This time I only waited nine months. Take that, naysayers!
4/17/05: Whew! That was some week!
6/6/04: Good news: My computer's working.
5/30/04: It's hot topless chick action in this week's comic!
5/23/04: I've got to stop putting off doing the new comics at the last minute. I put this up last night because I wasn't going to be home to put it up today. As I write this it's late, I'm tired, and I have to go dog-sit. Enjoy.
5/16/04: Everyone who's tired of the toy theme from the past few weeks can rejoice in the fact that this week's comic is toy-free. Unfortunately, it's still not lame-joke-free. I'm still working on that. And if you do like comics about toys, there's more to come. Just not right now.
5/9/04: This week's comic has it all! Adventure! Suspense! Romance! And the worst drawing of a Corvette Stingray you'll ever see!
5/3/04: Yeah, yeah, I know. The new comic is late. I screwed up. It'll never happen again... until it happens again.
4/25/04: Three new Dragons comics in a row? And the new comic was drawn less than five months ago? This can't last.
4/18/04: Another new Dragons comic. How long can I keep this up? I give myself another week.
4/13/04: New Dragons comic is up. And the site. The site is new, too.
Go the hell BACK.
I've been spending the last week or so getting the word out about the site (since none of you seem to want to. Ah, I'm just kiddin'. Or am I? No, I am.). I advertised the site on BuzzComix.net this past weekend, which worked great; instead of my usual 50 visitors a day, I managed to snag over 3,000 visitors, which, if my math is correct, is roughly 10 times my normal readership. If you decided to come back for more, thanks! If you didn't, then who needs ya.
I also managed to sneak in a mention on The Ron & Fez Show. During their "Whattya Want" segment on Tuesday, Ron was nice enough to let me give my site a little plug, which I hope brought a good chunk of people over (I'll know later today). If you've never heard their show, you should give them a listen if you have the means; they're a trip and a half. You can catch them on XM Satellite Radio channel 202 from 12pm-3pm (with a replay from 12am-3am), and if you're in the New York area, you can also catch their evening show from 6pm-9pm on 92.3 Free FM. If Ron or Fez happen to read this: You guys are awesome! Thanks a bunch! And if you're a Ron & Fez fan, thanks for stopping by! Stick around, won't you?
Click here to see the banner ad (if you missed it), and here to hear my sad, nervous little plug on Ron & Fez.
Some big big news to report on: in addition to the slight format change (the prelude to an eventual website facelift), I'm going to try my hand at something that will either be the best thing I've ever tried, or the stupidest: I'm going to try doing webcomics full-time. Naturally, this is an incredibly risky thing to try, especially considering my sporadic posting schedule, but it's something I feel good about, so I'm hoping it'll pay off. I'm going to be tweaking the website to make it look more professional, buying myself some ad space, and most importantly, drawing more comics. If you guys wanna throw some love my way by supporting some of my sponsors, maybe treating yourself to some merchandise, or even just telling people you know about site, it'd be much appreciated.
In the meantime, enjoy the new comic, and I'll see you in a few days with a new one. That's right; I said days.
I'd do some funny little April Fool's joke here, but I just spent the last 11 hours getting my scanner to work, and I'm not in the mood. I guess the scanner played the joke on me! HA HA HA HA HA!
Yecch.
Speaking of legitimate business, don't forget that the Almost Comics Store is alive and kicking and waiting for someone to make a purchase. So don't disappoint it; I'm getting tired of having to console it and remind it that it's loved every night.
Almost-as-good news! The Almost Comics Store is now open! Now you can walk around with webcomic characters and logos on your chest, just like you've always wanted! It's mostly shirts and caps now, but if there's enough demand (read: one person asks), there could be more. But everybody loves shirts and caps, right?
Nothing special to report since the last time. I've gotten the site onto a couple of webcomic listings; Online Comics and Hot Web Comics, to be precise. There're links to them on the bottom of this page. I think you can vote for my garbage there if you're so inclined; I'm not sure what it'll do for me in the long run, but it can't hurt.
I got a few new bits of mail, for all you nosey folks. I'd also like to give props (as the kids say) to Milk Man from the He-Man.org message boards for hooking me up with a G-Mail account. Now I'll have plenty of room for the occasional email that manages to trickle in past the gigs of spam I receive daily. Updates are going to be sent from the G-Mail account from now on, too, so update your spam filter accordingly, assuming you're on the mailing list, which you probably aren't.
If you need to be distracted from something important, I highly recommend the following games:
They're all great ways to keep from getting stuff done.
Finally, let's all pray for the speedy recovery of my iPod, whose hard drive failed the other day and is on its way to be repaired. Now I have to figure out some other way to drown out my lunatic boss at work for a month.
That's all I got for now. Seeya next time. And no, I don't plan on only doing new comics on holidays. Smartasses.
The last comic got a great response from Transformers fans. I got mad phat crazy traffic from them last time, and a few of them even checked out the other comics. If you're one of them and decided to make this site a regular stop on your internet tour, welcome back! If you didn't, then the hell with you. Oh yeah, the printer-friendly version is finally up, too.
Those of you who are fans of Transformers (or "Transfans", as the nerdier ones like to call themselves), should find this strip quite amusing. Or at least bemusing. I'll let you decide.
And just so the rest of you won't feel completely left out, you can highlight the blank area below for some info that will help you better understand why some of your dorkier friends find this comic so much funnier than you do. If you were following the latest Transformers developments circa 2003, I suggest you go right to the comic, since what's below is probably going to ruin the joke. But if you weren't, there's no joke to ruin for you anyway, so go nuts. The next comic will be less fandom-specific. Promise.
Around December 2003, Hasbro and Takara created a toy called "20th Anniversary Optimus Prime" (a.k.a. "Masterpiece Convoy" in Japan). It was a larger, more detailed version of the original Optimus Prime toy created in 1984, boasting a die-cast metal body, a robot mode that more closely resembled its cartoon counterpart, and took approximately twelve hours to transform. As such, it was more of a "collector's piece" than a "toy". Have fun reading the now-spoiled comic.
Oh yeah, the printer-friendly version will probably be up tomorrow. And speaking of, the best way to get them to print out correctly is to right-click, save it, and then print the copy on your hard drive. Again, that's how it works in Windows; I'll assume you Mac people know what you're doing.
Two things:
A) In addition to a new comic, all the old comics now have what we in the business call "printer-friendly versions"; meaning, comics arranged to fit on 8 ½" x 11" paper in 200 dpi resolution. Now, the next time you feel the urge to waste some ink and paper, you can go to one of the printer-friendly versions, right-click it, select "Print picture", and voila (as the Germans say): a nice, high-quality print-out of my dreck! At least that's how it works in Windows; you Mac people are going to have to figure it out on your own.
2) I know I say this every year, but this may be the year that I start taking this webcomic thing seriously. I think I've finally found some motivation; I won't say what it is exactly, but it rhymes with "I hate my job". All you need to know is that comics will be coming a little more frequently now; maybe not weekly, but more than annually. For now I'm just going to post them on a "when-they-get-finished" basis, which is pretty much what I did before, except now I'm admitting it.
On that cathartic note, I'll see you in a week or two.
Yeah, yeah, I know. But the point is, I'm back, I'm drawing again, and I'm going to try (emphasis on "try") to not put off making a new comic for ten months. Feel free to call me a lazy zilch, because I certainly deserve it.
Anywho, there's a new Dragons comic up (finally). And in a related rant: if any Best Buy employees are reading this: Just once, can I bring a $100+ item to the register and not get hounded to buy an extended warranty? I understand that the higher-ups are really on your case to sell "Buyer Protection Plans" to potential idiot customers, and you're probably getting a commission out of it, but when I say "No thank you, I'm not interested.", that's not code for "Well, maybe if you ask me 39 more times I'll say 'yes'.", in spite of what your manager tells you. If I say "no" after three explanations of the benefits of "Extended Warranty" or "Buyer Protection" or whatever euphamism you've been instructed to use this week, it's a safe bet that an additional eighty explanations won't change that. I bought a set of computer speakers there last year, and not only was the cashier insistant that the protection plan was a good thing, but another employee who happened (I'm sure) to be passing by got in on the act, and now I'm getting double-teamed to buy this stupid warranty! It's ridiculous! And a man in my position can't afford to be made to look ridiculous! End rant.
Holy crap, did I get fan mail?!
Bad news: I seem to have gotten a little overambitious with this week's strip. It's a big one, and by "big" I mean "long". Too long to finish in a week, as it turns out. So you're gonna have to wait until next week for a new comic. But when you see it, you'll understand why. You'll also think it was worth waiting for because it's so damn funny. Well, I think it is, but I may not be speaking objectively. In the meantime, do all that stuff I told you to do last week, and I'll see you next week.
About a week ago, my computer decided that printer drivers are bad, and it doesn't want to have anything more to do with them. Since I haven't been able to get anything else to work, I'm going to have to resort to wiping my hard drive and reinstalling everything (ugh). Now normally this would take half a day to accomplish, but no computer project I've ever done has been finished as quickly as it should have been, no matter how simple. I mention this so you'll know that if there's no new comic next week, it's because something's gone outrageously wrong as usual and I have no computer to color and upload the new comic with. Should that happen (and it probably will), please amuse yourself by reading the Dragons archives and telling everyone you know about the site. The second part is especially fun to do. Try it if you don't believe me.
The Dragons page is doing more than just sending you to the newest comic. Now it sends you to all the comics! Ooooo.... technology!
In case you didn't notice up top, now I'm sending out emails when I update. So if you're tired of not getting emails from this site every Sunday, sign up. You'll be glad you did. Unless you're especially prone to buyer's remorse.
Kill Bill Vol. 2 kicks ass. Go see it right now. After you're finished reading the new comic, of course.
Almost Comics, Dragons, their logos, all prominent characters and the distinctive likenesses thereof, are ™ & © 2007 Scott J. Murray, all rights reserved. Any similarities to persons living, dead, fictional, or undead, without intent of parody or satire, is purely coincidental. All other images ™ & © their respective owners. Page contents are © 2007 Scott J. Murray. Nothing on this page may be copied without the express written permission of the author. My lawyer can beat up your lawyer.
