So the year is over. It’s been a pretty terrible one for me all things said and done. I’ve had to deal with a massive amount of hate and nastiness regarding this comic and my art. I’ve gotten so sick of defending myself. No more.

On to the happy stuff. I’m very pleased to see that I ended this month with 1107 unique reader. I was briefly number one on the Taversia webcomic list and made it all the way up to 435 on the TWC list. Good job! You guys rock my socks. Thank you for showing your support. I’m pretty sure most of those 1107 visitors were one time only visitors, but we’ll see how those numbers stick around in the new year. I’m hoping most of you come back and I hope to keep growing as we continue on into the comic’s second year of life.

As always, please continue to comment on things. If you see obvious mistakes in the art or spelling errors, please don’t hesitate to say something. I’m making it a personal goal this next year to be more open to readers, to advertise more and to generally be a better artist/person. I’m going to do my best to reply to all comments.

Tomorrow the comic will update again with a special new year image, so keep your eye out for that.

Hope you guys all have a great new year!

Below this will be a bit of a rant (of sorts). If you don’t want to read it, this is a good place for you to stop.

I’d post a screencap, but for some reason that’s not working right now. Very annoying. Anyways, there’s a small matter I noticed while checking my year end stats like I always do.

Links from an external page (other web sites except search engines)

http://ukabadwlmr.beautiful-words.net/viewtopic.php 91 2.3 % 147 0.3 %
See that? UKAB, as much a I appreciate the hits and such, I really wish you’d go away. I know who you are. Sure, some of you are nice people, but for the most part you lot are just… *sigh* I could swear right now. I would love to swear, curse, chew you elitist bitches out but I’m not going to. Please note that I check my stats quite often. In the last month alone you were responsible for 28 hits on my site. As much as I like traffic, I don’t need you.
There’s a chance that you’re not saying bad things about my comic, but frankly given our history I have to assume that what you have to say about it isn’t good. I hate thinking the worst of people but there you have it. If you had good things to say, you’d comment here or on one of the other mirrors (dA, DrunkDuck). You can say you don’t care about my comic all you want. You know what? Not buying it. If you don’t care, stop coming around. If you do care, leave a comment or something. Heck, you ladies (and in a lot of cases I use the term loosely) know how I can be reached beyond that. Notes, PMs, IM. You have something to say? Say it to my face (well….you know what I mean).

Given that no webcomic awards thing I’ve ever seen actually touches on character design, I thought I’d do something about that. Designs are important. What kind you need really depends on the type of comic and story you’re trying to do/tell. I find I pay more attention to fantasy comic designs than to slice of life/modern world ones (though a few have some interesting designs).

I have a few ideas of my own for good designs to add to my list, but I’m opening the floor to you guys to suggest things. Feel free to suggest things from your own comic if you like especially if you think I don’t read yours.

I’m hoping to generate a fair amount of interest in this. Cross posted on the Tomgeeks forum.

Up for consideration:
Rice Boy
Heliothaumic
Gunner Doe
Beauty and the Beast
The Chronicles of Avernyght
Juathuur

On a slightly related note, over on deviantArt I’m also doing a best/sexiest sci-fi costume list as ones I’ve found are sadly lacking in good stuff. If you don’t have a dA account, you cam make suggestions for that here as well.

I finally got around to upgrading my Wordpress install. Woo. That only took a while. Anyways, since I was doing that I figured I’d add more stuff to the site.

Other Stories
This used to be the NaNo 2009 button. Listed here are the stories set on An’katerr, including links to the 4 completed NaNo stories.

About the Comic
There is now a timeline for the series so far as well as information about the world of An’katerr itself.

Gallery
I’ve added a section in the main gallery (clocking on gallery will get you there) for the Sages. A few new images have been added under every heading.

Side Comic
I noticed that one of these pages was missing, so the 11th page has been posted now.

So I guess doing my comic this way is a good thing. My site stats jumped from being in the low 400’s (my average number) to up in the 500s. Not high in the 500s, but still. It’s a milestone. It’s not as nice as my February reader count of 623, but we’re getting there. It makes me happy. It’s awesome that people are liking the new art style. I’m not as all around happy with it sometimes, but after today I’ll even stop my inner complaints.

Not that I really need to tell you this, but you guys are awesome. The feedback I get is much appreciated. Every time I log in to find a comment it makes my day a little happier. Even if I don’t reply, I read everything.

Thank you for your continued support!

Based on some comments I’ve gotten since I started this comic and some issues I’ve noticed myself, I’ve made a few changes. I plan on making a few more, so this is a list of what I’ve done and what I will be doing.

Done so far
-That Home button up in the corner? It works now. The solution was so stupidly simple that I’m embarrassed I hadn’t done it before.
-I’ve tidied up the links pages. The Links button now takes you to a page of webcomic links. Sites that, while I don’t read them often, are still noteworthy. Recommended reading now takes you to a page of comics I really love and have mini reviews for.
-I’ve changed the font size and color to hopefully make it easier for people to read text on the site without me having to get rid of my snazzy background. Let me know if it’s helpful.

To do
-Add more detailed reviews on the Recommended Reading page
-Update the galleries
-Update page titles (the simple listing of chapter and page number is really boring me)
-New font. I’m really hating this all caps thing.
-New header image. This one isn’t as interesting anymore and its time for a change.

Can you think of any other changes I should make to the site? I’m open to suggestions.