Web Comic of the Week
I agonise quite a bit when I make these choices. I hope I'm not offending people by choosing one comic before another, or that I'm misinterpreting what the creator is trying to achieve with the characters, the stories and the strip as a whole. In my choice this week, I think I'm fairly safe in my assumption that the creator is developing characters the readers care about, writing stories that are in tune with those characters and ensuring that the strip is consistent in style and humour throughout.

My choice for this week is PvP - Player vs Player by Scott Kurtz.

I know that there will be a lot of people surprised by this choice as I've seen a number of posts in various forums which say it's not funny and by which I'm always astonished. To me PvP is one of the most consistently funny webcomics in existence. Admittedly, you need to have read a reasonable amount in order to understand some of the humour as it's based upon knowing the characters and the dynamic they operate under. This actually makes PvP much richer as it allows Kurtz to explore storylines that wouldn't exist without such rounded personalities. There have been strips which have had me rolling on the floor, but I expect would leave a casual reader a little cold. Invest some time in getting to know the characters and I'm pretty certain you'll get to love the comic too.

If you wish to read PvP from the start, be warned that the visual style is a little rough around the edges, but it's interesting to see the development of the comic over time. The comic went through a bit of a shaky patch about a year later, but then Kurtz started afresh with a more developed style and has gone from strength to strength since.

I hope you'll give the comic a look.

Dane & Joe
This week's Dane & Joe has been posted on the Just Adventure site.

The Joys of the Season
Some of the residents of Juniper Crescent are not getting into the festive spirit. Take a look here.

Tuppence a bag
A very frosty start to the day and when I looked out into the garden I realised that the food I put out for the wild birds was getting very low. So donning my coat I dashed out into the fresh morning air to replenish their supplies. One of the things to realise when embarking on the feeding of the birds during the winter is the necessity to keep the food supply constant. The birds get used to having food in the same place and if there is none they've wasted energy coming to take a look. So on a morning like today it was particularly important that I dealt with it before having a shave. I now find that I'm low on sunflower seeds and peanuts and will have to buy more tomorrow.

A bit of a record
For me, at least. I pencilled, inked and coloured the Dane & Joe strip in just over an hour. It was just one of those times when the work just flowed, the lines were good and there was some super music playing (David Sylvian again). I wish all my strips would go so well...

Expect to see the strip on the Just Adventure site tomorrow.

A little quiet
I must apologise for not posting as often as I'd like this week. After months of putting in lots of hours on Broken Sword - The Sleeping Dragon, I thought I'd be able to work normal hours for a little while at least. this week I've already had to stay behind on two evenings because of meeting running on and worked through one lunch break. And that's on a project that's just starting up. It's not possible to tell you anything about what we're doing, of course, but we're working very hard on it just the same.
Now I've got to try and get this week's Dane & Joe strip done before tomorrow...

The Sapphire Claw
No new episode again this week. The excuse is that last night I was out enjoying myself at the annual company meal. Whilst it's generally regarded as the christmas meal, we went to an Indian restaurant and the food was delicious. If you're ever in York looking for a place to eat, try the Bengal Brasserie on Godramgate. Apparently it won an award for its food based upon the whole of the North of England.

Normally we all get very drunk at these festive occasions, but as we had to come into work today we had to be a little more moderate in our approach. The evening was still good fun and a great time was had by all.

New Juniper Crescent
I would have posted it earlier, but you know how it is - you get a heavy cold, you feel dreadful, you manage to get the pencilling done, but then don't feel up to inking and colouring. Anyway, I'm feeling much better today (thanks for asking) and I finished the strip off this evening after a long day's toiling at the coalface. Well, actually, after I'd had my tea and then washed up. So after that pile of old tosh, if you're still interested in taking a look at the latest strip you can find it here.

Feedback of an excellent kind
I'm feeling a little ill at the moment, but an e-mail I received from David Walberg made me feel a whole lot better:

"I found Juniper Crescent as part of a research project about comics on the internet. Quite a find too, not just one, but three very fine comics. This is the type of site I was looking for when this project began. The art and writing are well above average. People who only read newspaper comics don't know what they are missing.

"I am in the process of introducing myself to comics creators. Beginning in early 1978, I have collected and archived over 125,000 comic strips, panels, and editorial cartoons. They are filed chronologically under more than 350 topics as a historical perspective. I think that this is probably the largest privately held archive of its type in the world.

"Eventually, I intend for the archive to be donated to a museum or library. The one thing I felt was missing to make this museum quality was original work. There is now a section in the archive for just that, and I am actively seeking work for it. If you would like to be included in this, I would love to have something from you. I can use original strips, sketches, or whatever works for you. I would get a huge kick out of seeing something about the archive itself."

What a great guy! And what an amazing acheivement - more than 25 years of collecting and archiving strips. Now that's dedication. I'm also quite honoured that he would ask for something of mine.