What Now?

Ahh, the sweet smell of success. I should be basking in it right now, though I am uncertain if one can actualy bask in a smell. Instead, I feel hollow...

I knew that it would take patience, perserverence, and giving 110%, but I stuck to my guns, put my nose to the grindstone, burned the candle at both ends, and used up my supply of cliches for the year to get it done. And done it is.

(I'd appreciate it if you guys would read this next sentence in a booming dramatic voice, with a bit of echo...)

I HAVE READ ALL OF SLUGGY FREELANCE!

Our beloved Sluggy Freelance exploded onto the web on August 25th, 1997. A web comic is always an ambitious project, but from the very beginning, Sluggy was a daily. The artist, Pete Abrams, committed himself to posting a new comic 7 days a week - no small task when you aren't getting paid to do it. Pete has not always posted a comic every day, and he has taken a few vacations over the years, but his productivity is still truly impressive. His dedication to the daily schedule makes some other web comic artists look like pussies by comparison... I'm not going to name any names (Ramon)... I'm sure they have good reasons for not meeting their own deadlines (Piro)...

At any rate, I have now read them all. The exact number is a bit nebulous as I'm not sure if I should include guest comics in the total, and I don't know precisely how many days of vacation to subtract, but my official S.W.A.G.* is that the total corpus of Sluggy is 2600+ strips. That's based on 7 years of 7 strips per week, plus 129 days of 1997, plus the 28 days so far of this January, plus 1 because 2004 was a leap year... for the sake of discussion, we will assume that Pete has taken two weeks of vacation every summer for 7 summers, which gives us 98 days off, making the total 2615. But who's counting?

It is a strange feeling. I don't know what to do now. When I reached the current strip, I couldn't believe it... I tried to click the arrow that makes it go the next strip several times, but there was no more. NO MORE. Those words landed heavily upon my heart.

You see, for months now, I have been able to retreat into the alternate world(s) of Sluggy whenever I needed a break. I have spent many happy hours in a place where ferrets talk, and the Easter Bunny wields a switchblade and a Glock... where people pay good money every year to go to a Halloween party with real demons, vampires, aliens, and ghosts. This land of screw-on kneecaps with ligaments and tendons on the side and brainwashed knife-wielding gymnast assassins who can't be killed has been my refuge - my happy place, if you will.

It will be hard, but I will press on. There is always the option of becoming a paying subscriber to the strip, which gives you access to extra storylines - in fact, I'll probably do that in the morning. For now, the knowledge that Pete is working on tomorrow's strip gives me hope. He better not take any vacations in the near future...

For those who have yet to learn of the crispy golden goodness that is Sluggy Freelance, click here. NOW. No, not after your homework, click here right now! DO IT!

*S.W.A.G. = "Scientific Wild-Assed Guess"