No comic on Friday, August 10. I've been on vacation this past week without access to a computer. I know this message comes almost after the fact, but I'd rather give an explanation late than never.

Some of my long-time readers might remember I used to publish these comics on an independent website (STPcomics.net) before I moved here. While I'm still using SmackJeeves as my comic host, I now, once again, have a top-level domain that goes to my comic: MobianChaos.com!

(Odd as this sounds, it was an impulse buy. Today I learned that domain registrar GoDaddy.com had a sale on .com domains, making them just $0.99 for the first year.)

At this point, it's only a forwarding domain, i.e. entering that URL simply redirects to the actual location of the comic. I am aware that SmackJeeves has a Premium comic option which would allow me to actually host the comic under the domain name, but that would cost me $60 a year and I don't know if I want to spend that.

Well...here it is. What started as a little project when I was in high school, my desire to "run with the big dogs" and make a Sonic the Hedgehog sprite comic, has now reached its tenth anniversary today! Uploading a new comic almost every Friday since April 22, 2005, I have reached a milestone to which I've looked forward for years.

In honor of the occasion, I've put together a short movie describing the characters of my web comic, and a fast montage showing all of the 476 issues that have been published to date. In all that time, I've learned a fair bit about what goes into a successful sprite comic, as well as refined my techniques for making one.

You can watch the video on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HG9NyBhhSw0

EDIT: I've also, for the first time in years, created a new top banner for the comic, which also notes its ten-year anniversary.

In times past, I've had to make what largely amounts to "filler" comics just to meet a Friday deadline.

My question to all my regular readers is this: If I can't deliver both, which is more important to you, having a comic from me every week, or accepting the occasional (key word: "occasional") missed week so I can find time to put more thought into the script?

Oh my gosh, it has been AGES since I've taken a look at the affiliates on my Links page. Gimme a minute to blow the dust off of it.

...OK, now that that's done, I can say that just this past weekend I got a new request to affiliate with another comic here on SmackJeeves called "Kirby's Dreamland If..." I have added it to my Links page, and also combed through all the links to prune the dead ones (but I did keep links to sites that were inactive yet still existed). Isn't it interesting how so many of my affiliates have come and gone and yet I'm still here?

A disadvantage to running a single comic strip for many years, I've concluded, is that the author's comic-making skill changes over time. I'll admit that Mobian Chaos isn't quite the same comic it used to be several years ago, and I can see that reflected in the number and type of people who leave comments regularly.

What I'd like to hear from you, my readers, is the following: How long have you been actively following new comics in this series? Would you agree that things have changed? And would you keep reading my series no matter how it may have changed?