Item #1: I'm slowly changing some of the images on this site, most urgently in the Cast section... The way the characters have looked on that page all this time no longer matches the art style of the comic itself, especially Janet (whose picture I've already changed, go check her out if you've got nothing better to do!) Expect some major makeovers of one or two other characters in the near future.

Item #2: An obscure feature of this website has been generating a bit of controversy in the past day or so. Though most regular readers probably aren't even aware of this, it's a fact that if you attempt to read through the archives backwards (pressing the "Prev" button continuously), you'll eventually see a mildly humorous message inviting you to read the right way instead. I admit that it was me who put that bit of code into the site a while ago, partly just as an innocent joke, and also because I know a lot of people instinctively start reading backwards, even though they don't really intend to. But it looks like some new visitors are put off by having me tell them which direction to read in with a big red box on the screen, with a few being so offended by it that they stop reading and leave the site. On the other hand, most people seem to either take my advice or just ignore the suggestion, which is what I intended. Now I'm wondering if I should err on the side of caution and get rid of that. What do you think? If you have an opinion, just leave it in a comment on the newest comic or email me. I always love readers' input, and in this case I probably need it.

Up until now the "Archive" page has been the least interesting page on this whole website. And it probably still is, but as of now the way comic strips are listed on that page has changed. I've divided all past and present strips into "story arcs", so that all comics that make up a story go together (For example, "Janet Goes On a Date" or "Janet Visits an Art Gallery"). If you want to see the list the old way (grouped by year, newest on top) there's still an option to switch to that view.

To be perfectly frank, organizing my strips in this way wasn't a big priority, which is why I'm only now getting around to it. Most other Web cartoonists seem to like to put up very clear divisions between their sub-plots like that, and I'm not always entirely sure why. Maybe it adds convenience for new readers who don't want to read the entire thing from the start. Or maybe it helps if someone is trying to find a specific comic and can't remember what it was called.

So yeah, if these divisions help you in some way, they're there now. If they don't, just ignore them. As you might be able to tell, my "story arcs" tend to be a bit loose, their starts and endings aren't always clear-cut, they sometimes have unrelated stand-alone gag strips in between, and I tend not to make a big deal out of them.

So long story short: The least-visited, least interesting page on this site is slightly different now. Hope you enjoy it!

New comics will be published beginning next Tuesday, May 5th, and will continue to appear every Tuesday and Friday at 6 pm! This means that this comic will in fact be updating at double the frequency with which it previously appeared. This should come as very good news.

Interestingly, this is actually a return to the update schedule I originally had when I started The Artiste more than a year ago. However at that time it was a temporary situation, and I had planned from the start to slow down to one update per week after the first month. This time however, I'm hoping this will remain the regular schedule from now on. So enjoy!

There are a few things that bear mentioning, so I'll go through them point by point.

Webcomic Beacon impression - The WCB crew talked about this comic on their Sunday podcast for the second time! Mostly they repeated a lot of the same things they had said about it last time, but they had some pretty interesting new commentary as well. *Listen to an MP3 clip* (3:23 @ 795Kb)

The Artiste HD - I'm considering adding an option of viewing the comic images in a higher resolution, primarily for the benefit of those whose screen width is 1600 pixels or higher. I'm having a bit of trouble thinking of an elegant way to implement such a feature without butchering my page layout, and if it turns out to be too hard I might drop the idea. But it's something to possibly watch for in the future.

Comic updates resuming - Yes, the most important point comes last. During these last few weeks of hiatus, I've been hard at work preparing to start "Batch #3" of strips. I've made a couple of changes to my work method, and I don't think the results will disappoint anybody. The art style of the comic will look more or less the same, but refined and with a bit more detail. Of course the big question is how long before you get to see them... And the answer is if all goes well, I'm hoping to start updating again on either May 2 or 9. I know that kind of sucks, but note that my plans have actually changed since this morning. After I listened to Fesworks' comments on the WCB (mentioned above), I realized that I really, really should make publishing more than one strip per week a goal for myself. Now I'm committed to giving that the old college try, which means allowing myself an extra week or two of preparation, hence the delay until May. But on the plus side, you can now add twice the number of updates to your list of things to look forward to!

Here's looking forward to a great second year. See you all soon!

Wow, next week will be strip #50! And I completely forgot to mention it at the time, but March 11 was the one-year anniversary for this comic. Hooray!

On a less positive note, I think I'm going to need to take a couple of weeks' break from updates soon. I need to take some time to really think about the direction to take this story next, and do a bit of proper planning for future strips, because my working style for the last few months has really not been ideal. Expect the next strip to be the last one for a week or three, but I promise to return as quickly as possible, and hopefully better for it.

Cheers.