I’ve noticed this past year, whilst looking at my stats, that the amount of hits I get from my home country of England, rank pretty low. Heck, they rank lower than countries I would never even imagine would read my comic. Yet, there, low in it’s ranks, sits England, and it seems to be sinking lower with each passing month.

Well, it got me pondering the thought of whether comic fans and geeks in the UK do read online comics. I even looked to see if there were any webcomics from the UK, and its sad to see that there is but scant few, and that number seems to sink on a mid-yearly basis, to a point, where I could only find five active UK-based webcomics. I discount the professional online comics that are being done by those who work in the comic industry. There’s a few of those still around, though not sure they update on a regular basis. I also discount any “here today, gone in two months, due to the artist getting bored or leaving the fad” anime comics/ fan-comics, done by teenagers, that dwell in places like Smack Jeeves and other free-hosted sites. I am only counting those that are hosted on their own URLs.

But, there does not seem to be that many webcomics from the UK, or just England, alone. The most noted from the UK is “Scary Go Round” by John Allison, and it’s growing number of spin-offs like Bad Machinery, but other than that, there seems scant-else. Jump Leads is another, and of course, Gunnerkrigg Court. But, looking at the lists at Wikipedia (though using Wiki is not reliable, as they have a burning hatred of webcomics and have been deleting everything and anything related to webcomics.), Comixpedia and OnlineComics, there seems, to a glance, to be quite a few, but most of those that are listed have either gone offline or have been non-updated in over a year or two.

There is untapped creativity in the UK, and it seems so infrequent that they appear. I just wonder, is there an apathy in England, towards webcomics, both in reading and creating? Are UK artists just not willing to put their work online for the world to see?

Or is it because schools/ colleges/ universities in the UK still drum it into art students that comics are not acceptable or recognised as art. I remember my high school art teacher being very snobbish and off-handed about comics and referring to them all as pointless scribblings of untalented mentally-stunted man-children (god, I’d give anything to have seen her try saying that Bryan Hitch, Brian Bolland, Dave Gibbons, Steve Ditko, Jack Kirby, etc…)

It seems webcomics, very much like print comics, seem to be very much a heavily American-saturated thing. Not saying that’s a bad thing, just wondering why there isn’t more international webcomics out there (again, discounting the fan-made knock-off anime/manga/pokemon short-lived things on smackjeeves, etc.)

But I just wonder why there isn’t more coming from the home of such wonderful comics (either still in print or now defunct) as 2000AD, The Eagle, The Beano, Dandy, TV Action and not forgetting the awesome Doctor Who strips, in Doctor Who Magazine.

If you’re from the UK, let me know your thoughts, and if you know of any UK-based webcomics, then name-drop them, too. Also, if you have a webcomic (no matter which country you are in), comment if you have the same level of hits from the UK, or better.

So, from the responses I’ve got to my question about what sort of merchandise you’d like to see, apart from books, the call has been for prints of the strips.

So, now the question put forward is, would you prefer the strips unlettered or lettered?

The prints will obviously be either on nice white card stock or glossy, depending on your choice, in a 8.5×11 size, to be shipped, between two pieces of stiff card, in a nice document sized envelope.

Now, all I have to do, is sort out an e-cart, to take payment, and get a “Buy This Print” button up in the navigation bar.

Oh, and yes, I’m still trying to finish up Book 2, and I’ve started to colourise the black and white portion of the 2009 strips for Book 3. If anyone wants to submit fan artwork, to be included in the future releases, then let it be known you have my eternal gratitude.

T-Shirts will also be in the works, as I am checking out a few designs and slogans, making sure that none of it hasn’t been already done. But, this is still moot, as I have to find a decent printing place that is willing to start small and then build as demand grows. Let me know in the comments if any of you are interested in shirts.

This past twelve months have flown by so fast, I barely got a chance to know it.

Its been a ride, for me, consisting of many ups and downs, though I could have happily done without the downs. But, that’s life.

Much has gone on in the geek-centric world. The DC reboot and the hoopla surrounding the god-awful redesigned costumes of their female characters, Marvel unveil a new Spiderman (but only in the Ultmiate Universe) Neil Gaiman writing a Doctor Who episode (and boy what an awesome episode it was), filming started on The Hobbit (God, that trailer just really hits the spot), Anne Hathaway as Catwoman in Dark Knight Rises (and boy she looks good in it), the passing of both Nicolas Courtney and Elisabeth Sladen (if you’re Doctor Who fans, you should know who they are), the death of Steve Jobs, Captain America and Thor movies, a pretty uneventful San Diego Comic-Con, Gareb Shamus quitting WizardWorld after almost all but killing the company. The list is quite extensive.

As for this humble comic strip, well, Chris now has eyes, Gopher’s real name is Michael (though it’s short for Michaelangelo) and his a twin brother named Leo (yes, there are Turtles jokes there), Tim continues to get abducted by aliens, Lee has a secret life, there was a trip to a mysterious town named Dual Hills (and a return is planned for 2012), Justin left for college and Chris finally makes peace with Santa Claus after a lightsaber fight.

Now, what will come in 2012… well, there could be podcasts and there will be a new book (which was meant for 2011, but couldn’t get it finished in time), new additional material running along-side the main strip (all going well) and more of the usual tom-foolery and hijinks that befit this comic.

I wish you all a Happy New Year and I hope 2012 will be a good year for all of us.

For the past few years I have been using Bluehost, to host this site, but for the past few months I have been noticing that the site has been going offline or has been acting very slow.

Now, I know I’m not someone like Penny Arcade or PVP-Online, when it comes to readership, but it seems the throttling has been limiting the chances of this site’s growth, and that I cannot accept. I need my site to grow.

So, I am now shopping around for a webhost that is more Webcomic friendly, and gives a better service for a better price.If any readers have a good webhosting service they use (not webcomic hub like smackjeeves, etc), then drop me a line with their URL, so I can check them out.

When the change-over does come, you may notice a slight bump or hiccup, but don’t worry, you’ll know what it is, as I shift from Blue”balls”host to a better company.

Its that time of year, where presents are exchanged, families get together and much food is consumed, whilst Christmas themed movies run on all the TV networks.

I’d just like to wish everyone out there a very Merry Christmas. And, don’t forget, you get a Christmas Day gift strip, to make the day extra awesome.

Some time back, I opened up a chance for you all to come up with a name for the readership/ fanbase of this strip. In return, I offered a prize of a signed and doodled-in copy of Book One, for whoever came up with the best name. One reader replied.

Renaissance Dork, if you’re out there, drop me an email, the button is amongst the Facebook, Twitter and other icons, and I’ll get the prize out to you.

Anyhow, as it’s close to Christmas, I would love to hear your thoughts about this past year, and what you think is going to happen in 2012. I want to engage all you readers and hear what you think and feel. What are your opinions of the DC Reboot, the downfall of Gareb Shamus, the ever-rising prices of San Diego Comic-Con, comic movie reboots, and other topics?

I want to get to know you, the readers and grow this random fandom, and start to do conventions, so I can meet you all and give you my personal thank yous for reading this strip.

So, if you have thoughts and opinions, then please comment. If you have merchandising requests and thoughts, let me know. It’ll help me plan for conventions, merchandising and other cool things.

I want to get to know you readers, so speak up.

I sit here, as I wrap the first half of the Christmas storyline and I feel as though this year has flown right by.It only feels like yesterday I had started doing the Justin’s “dream” storyline. You know, I do plan on revisiting Dual Hills, perhaps sometime in 2012.

I’m also trying to complete Book 2, which is now gonna by coming out in the first month of 2012, instead of the originally planned May 2011. (Sorry about that, folks. Life stuff just kinda piled on top of me, and its been an uphill fight to deal with it all.)

For 2012 I have been working on some redesigns of the main cast of characters, finding ways to give them more facets without adding on layers of line. Actually, I hope to take some line-work away. I want to make things more fluid, as I get more comfortable with my tablet, but have it so I can easily do it on paper, too, for convention purposes (yes, I am hoping on maybe hitting a convention or two in 2012, finances and fates willing.)

I am working on adding colour to the strips of the first half of 2009, as it will then make the third anthology completely colour, instead of it being half in black and white. There may also be a podcast, which is in the planning stages, between myself and good friend, Mat Nastos and Matt Draven.

**UPDATE: Strip is done. Will be going live after midnight. **

As some of you in the Los Angeles area know, yesterday the city and surrounding areas got hit by major black-outs due to the heavy winds tearing up trees and smashing them through power-lines. I spent most of today, and last night, without power, and the local weather specialists have warned that tonight and Friday night could very well be a repeat performance of last night.

So, just to let you all know, that if a new strip does not go live by Friday evening, then you know I’m having power issues and not able to get new strips done. Well, its hard to draw on a power-dead tablet and computer, and doing it the good old-fashioned way may be hard without anyway to scan artwork.

So, please do bear with me as Los Angeles goes through Wind Invasion 2011.

Here’s something to give you all a nice little taster of what is coming this December…

(click to enlarge)

I’ve been using the Sharethis widget for sometime, for people to use as a way to share my comics on sites such as Digg, Technorati and other aggregate sites. However, after seeing not much activity from the Sharethis service and also seeing the raising number of users bailing on it, citing poor rating of clicks, the widget screwing up their site and many other numerous complaints, I also decided that it was time to give them the old Scottish cabre toss.

I’ve also found that most casual people who browse the internet tend to share what they like on Facebook, Twitter and Google+, and not that many people, outside of the really hardcore users really use such sites as Digg, Stumble-upon, reddit, delicious, etc. Don’t get me wrong, I have found a lot of news and web aggregator sites useful. But, they’re not really that good or reliable for bringing in readers to many webcomics, outside of the major titles like PVP, Penny Arcade, Hijinks Ensue, Sluggy Freelance, etc.

But, as a tool for me, I found the Sharethis widget pretty useless and unproductive. It really did nothing for my site and the metrics data on the company’s site was mostly way off or didn’t even work on the best of days, so it showed me nothing.

So, with not much ado, it’s gone and consigned to the “Do Not Use This Service Again” drawer.

A piece of advice to others out there who want to use links or “like” buttons for the various aggregator sites, just get their buttons, and not use a third-party all-in-one service. They tend to be a let down.