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Five Effing Years
November 7, 2006
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Yes, ladies and gents, it has indeed been Five Effing Years since I started this comic.
I keep looking at that sentence waiting for it to wink at me and say "just kidding!", to have something about it reveal itself as a clever joke. Five years seems at once such a small little nibble and such a vast, ridiculous stretch of time. I was in college, I had been dating Web Guy Josiah for just over a year, I'd been kicking around the concept of a webcomic for an honest year-and-a-half, continually looking at other webcomics grow and flourish and wondering if I could really bring mine onto the scene, would it work, could I keep it going, would it be good enough, would anybody care. I outlined an update schedule, wrote up scripts, kept sketching. And at a certain point, it was stalling. And then Mr. Lem "Hot Soup" Pew (of Lethal Doses) consented to hang out with us, checked out my drawings, and asked me why the hell the comic wasn't up on the web yet.
A week later, it was. And I had no idea how much it would start to change my life.
I'm sure you might be chuckling at that. Yeah, you change things to always have a comic ready for the site, know when you have to update and how long it takes to do a comic, a schedule gets imprinted on your life just like taking care of a pet - but this comic has had more to do with it than that. I've met truly awesome people through it (whom I hear refrain from pointing to precisely, lest it seem like bragging, but I remain humbled by the fact that in the past they've freely chosen to hang out with me. Moreover, honored. Ladies and gentlemen, I here give you shout-outs, because you are all insanely cool, and this one holds you all in very high regard) - in person, through email, et cetera.
It also got me my start in the gaming industry.
(Betcha didn't see that one coming, didja?)
Here's a sequence of events.
1. I have a comic.
2. I go to give a panel lecture/thing at a small convention held by the RPG Club at the University of California: Irvine (a.k.a. ZotCon).
3. I meet some awesome people there, who are super-cool and who are still my friends today (woot HIGH FIVE!)
4. I go to E3 2004 with new friend and friend's roommates - it is rad, and I make a new friend there too who is also still my friend today (woot HIGH FIVE!).
5. Later on that summer, friend from E3 tells me that the game developer he works for is looking for a writer, and he recommeded me.
6. I get in touch with the company, interview, and BANG I get the job.
7. Holy shit I just got my start in the video game industry, OH EM GEE. The rest is - well, you know.
So - aside from a career path I've dreamed about since I was seven - and a regular update schedule - oh, and new and awesome friends - oh, and being a part of a really awesome webcomics collective - and having the best readers in the history of EVER - and a bajillion other things - what else? Doing this comic has made me happy. Lem told me once that what he did with his webcomic was to do what he and his friends thought was funny - and that people would find it and enjoy it as well. I followed that - doing what intrigued me, what made me laugh, what challenged me and followed the line of thought I wanted to follow - and you guys have come along. I cannot thank you enough for that. I don't know where I'll be in another five years, but I really hope this comic is still a part of my life.
'Cause it's been seriously fucking FUN to have. ::smile::
Anyhow - that's enough jawing for me. Back to your regular schedule on Friday, with more things like links and less things like me yapping for about a million pages. Be well.
Mazeltov,
Annie "Blue" C
I don't know
who it is
- DJ Strongbad
"Everybody to the Limit"
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