Thanks for reading.

4/14/06

For today's cartoon I got to test my frequent assertion that the reason I persist in using software to create AKOTAS that can be found on any Windows computer is so I can work and update from almost anywhere under almost any circumstances. Yesterday I forgot the flash drive (or thumb drive, or USB drive, or whatever they call it where you are) with my template files at home when I left for work. Actually I'd done most of my daily prep - creating or modifying the index and archive pages, creating the cartoon file from the template - before I left for work, which isn't usual. I'd be home from work before scheduled update time (though there's a vet appointment after work, so today I still may not update at 00:01 GMT promptly). So when I got to work and I realized what I'd done, all that was left to do that ordinarily I do during work hours* was to actually create the cartoon. I went to the website (I visit the AKOTAS website as little as possible, so as not to skew my traffic numbers. Internal site links are all relative so, when I just want to refer to past cartoons or proof links or stuff, I can do it on the local files on my computer.) and saved the most recent three-panel cartoon to disk to act as a template. Then I worked on the cartoon normally with MSPaint. As soon as I'd completed the cartoon I uploaded it to AKOTAS's host, as usual, to make sure there's one copy of the file offsite from where I am. To update, as usual, I'll only need to upload the new pagefiles that are waiting for me at home. (Yes, I've just confessed that, with minimal surfing skills, you can usually see the next AKOTAS as much as five or six hours before actual updating. Big deal. It's not like I work ahead two or six weeks like some people.) But even if I hadn't already done the other prep, I could have downloaded active files to use as templates for the pages in question as I did for the cartoon, and edited them with MSEdit as usual; and then emailed the files to myself pending update time. Every list of recommended best practices for webcartoonists leads off with always update on schedule. If my work is an eyesore to some self-appointed experts, the rest of you still get a joke every day. * By which I mean to say, on my breaks. Honest. Yes, that's honestly what I mean to say.

Webcomics I read mornings: Peanuts, General Protection Fault, Achewood, Newshounds, Scary Go Round, Tux & Bunny, College Roommates from Hell!!!, Todd and Penguin, Real Life, Kevin & Kell

Webcomics I read M-W-F mornings: El Goonish Shive, Zortic, Theater Hopper, Nukees, Girl Genius, Pibgorn, Ctrl+Alt+Del

Webcomics I read Tu-Th-Sa mornings: Digger, Crap I Drew On My Lunch Break, AppleGeeks, Orneryboy, Striptease, Penny Arcade

Webcomics I read middays: Calvin & Hobbes, Least I Could Do, User Friendly, Anywhere But Here, Starslip Crisis, Questionable Content, Biggest Webcomic Loser, Schlock Mercenary, Narbonic

Webcomics I read evenings: LuAnn, Count Your Sheep, Goats, Pearls Before Swine, For Better Or For Worse, Help Desk, American Elf, Loserz, Dandy & Company, Irregular Comic, Bruno, Shortpacked, Boxjam's Doodle, Sluggy Freelance

Webcomics I read M-W-F evenings: Reasoned Cognition, Two Lumps, Alice!, Order of the Stick, Gossamer Commons

Webcomics I read Tu-Th-Sa evenings: Casey & Andy, Girls With Slingshots, The Green Avenger, Get Out of My Head, Megatokyo

Webcomics I read bedtimes: B.C., Something Positive, The Angriest Rice Cooker In The World, Medium Large, Station V3, Dinosaur Comics, Wapsi Square, Little Dee, PvP

Webcomics I read Sundays: Butternut Squash, Dr. Devious vs Lincoln High, Checkerboard Nightmare, Nemesis, Journey Into History, Tailsteak, Smithson, No Room for Magic, 13 Seconds, The Whovian Observer, Ctrl+Alt+Del, Perry Bible Fellowship

See also The Daily Grind Iron Man Challenge, Talk About Comics, The Belfry Comics Index, The Webcomic List, Mister Bloo, Nth Degree, 100% Originality Theatre, Comixpedia, The Living Comic and Websnark.

Arthuriana sources I use or recommend:
Arthurian Legend
Arthuriana - the Journal of Arthurian Studies; the website of the quarterly journal of the North American Branch of the International Arthurian Society.
The Camelot Project at the University of Rochester.
Camelot In Four Colors: A Survey of the Arthurian Legend in Comics
Mystical-WWW - The Arthurian A2Z knowledge Bank which has encyclopedically-arranged entries on the characters of the Arthurian legends.
Le Morte Darthur: Sir Thomas Malory's Book of King Arthur and of his Noble Knights of the Round Table, Volume 1 and Volume 2.