I owe you an Anime Expo con report. I will tell you that the highlight was getting to meet Jamie Haram who draws the excellent comic Picatrix (which you should go read. I mean, our comic won't be up tonight, so that should free up some time for you). I've been busy at work lately; the good news is that my team got special training. The bad news is that I had to come in seven hours early for it, which means that our personal schedules have been shaken about. We're working on getting things back to normal now, but it's slowed us down a bit.
Secondly, you'll see the comics are in greyscale. I'm sorry about that. I was called in for a family computer emergency and it ended up taking four hours to get everything sorted out. We've got an early day tomorrow, as well. We will get these colored, just not tonight.
Thirdly, you can see that sites got a bit of a redesign - we've replaced the update announcement with a nice chart labelled "our schedule" you'll see in the upper right. It's a work in progress and I value your feedback.
Fourthly, we've got pages on Facebook for Namir Deiter, You Say it First, and ND Unlimited. We need to get those integrated soon, but for now, you can join and totally be a part of the "I read all the way to the bottom of the news" club.
I helped Misty and Bombur get the new Coming Up Violet site up (yes, that was one of my Secret Projects).
I'm writing Brent: Agent of B.U.R.R. over on NamirDeiter.net. We've got a short preview up here.
There were some issues with the RSS feed showing things late and/or twice. I've made some changes that hopefully should fix that. If you have this issue for Thursday's comics or later, let me know which RSS reader you're using.
Been playing Super Mario RPG, Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia, and Pokemon Pearl (the Battle Tower is the best thing I've got for playing while you're on a treadmill)
Watched The Magnificent Seven the other day. Seven Samurai is, by far, a better movie. I understand most of the changes they made to it: the Japanese caste system doesn't really translate to the Wild West. Some plots had to be cut because of length. And they couldn't get Toshiro Mifune. His character really makes the original movie, and his American counterpart isn't as vibrant or as pivotal. But then again, The Magnificent Seven has Yul Brynner. Now, if you're my age or younger, Yul Brynner is just a punchline to bald jokes - when I saw that he was playing the leader of The Seven, I said to Isabel, "At least he won't have to shave his head"*. But if this movie came out in 1985 instead of 1960, the Internet would be full of Yul Brynner facts instead of Chuck Norris facts.
*: Which, if you've seen both movies, is hilarious. Trust me.
We got the proofs for You Say it First book 1! It looks awesome! How can you a copy? We've been sold out of You Say it First books for the last several years. We're getting them reprinted and we're opening pre-orders now.
When? Book 1 is ready to print and we expect it to ship in about four to six weeks. Preorders will be open until Friday July 9.
What's awesome? Sketch preorders. The book - unsigned and unsketched - is $8. With signature and sketch (your choice of any You Say it First character) it's $15. The sketches will only be available on preordered books. And if you've got an active NamirDeiter.net membership, you get upgraded to the sketch edition at no additional cost!
What's different? The 2010 editions are a bit smaller. Several of the strips have been re-lettered. The content is essentially the same; if you have the earlier editions, you don't have to throw out them out and replace them. I always hate it when a musician puts a brand-new song on a greatest hits album, so I'm not going to do that to you. But if you don't have the books, this is a good time to start. We expect all future You Say it First books to be printed at this size.
What's next? We expect You Say it First books 2 and 3 to be ready in 6-10 weeks. Expect the preorder for those books to open in the next few weeks. Namir Deiter Year 3 and You Say it First volume 4. Both of those require a bit of extra work. And we've got about five secret projects left now. It's like a hydra - each time we complete one, we get two more.
Secondly, June's wallpapers are up!
Thirdly, we're going to be at Anime Expo, in Los Angeles, July 1-4. Not as guests or dealers, but as con-goers (I couldn't get July 4th off work). Is anyone else going? Let us know!
Isabel had a great birthday. Thank you all for your well wishes!
In major news, our store is now open! We don't have very much in stock right now but we hope that will change very soon! In addition to the Namir Deiter and You Say it First books, we have the last copies of Isabel's other series - The Shokora Diaries and Undoubtedly Kawaii. The Shokora Diaries and Undoubtedly Kawaii are only available in two places: online in as NamirDeiter.net bonus books, and in print here. There are limited quantities and we do not plan on reprinting these books.
We've been working on a secret project, a secret project, and a secret project. We hope to have more news on them in the near future. Sorry if we've been quiet*, but it's because we've been busy.
*: And there aren't many folks who could call twelve comics a week "quiet", you know**.
**: Ok, for Bill Holbrook that's practically a vacation. But besides him.