The Nightstar Zoo

February begins with the buffer at 37, dropping from January 31st's local high of 38. Three years ago on January 31st, 2004, the buffer went from 37 to 42 in one day of inking (which, coincidentally, finished all but the very last day of comics that went into <I>Schlock Mercenary: The Blackness Between</I>). 42 is the highest the buffer has ever been.

So... right now the buffer is at its highest point in 3 years, and aside from that peak, it's as high as it has ever been before.

I'm on-track for adding a week of buffer each month. I did it in January, and I've done it for February (I was planning to do it on the 2nd, but I got everything inked on January 31st, so it's ahead of schedule.)

For the rest of the month I'll be catching up on coloring, prepping for convention season, and preparing materials for the next book. One of these things pays more bills than the others do, and should get more of my cycles as a result...

February 1: Dropped to 37. Painted minis and role-played all day.
February 2: Dropped to 36. Colored 6.
February 3: Dropped to 35.
February 4: Dropped to 34. SUNDAY.
February 5: Dropped to 33. Scripted, Pencilled, and Inked 7. Buffer=40. Boo-yah!
February 6: Dropped to 39. Colored 6.
February 7: Dropped to 38. Colored 9.
February 8: Dropped to 37. Had some new URL cards printed up.
February 9: Dropped to 36. Picked up the cards, knocked out a couple of commissions.
February 10: Dropped to 35. Family in town, went to a wedding.
February 11: Dropped to 34. SUNDAY.
February 12: Dropped to 33. Scripted 7, Pencilled 7, Inked 1. Buffer = 34.
February 13: Dropped to 33. Colored 2, inked 6. Buffer = 39.
February 14: Dropped to 38. Prepped for LTUE.
February 15: Dropped to 37: LTUE XXV
February 16: Dropped to 36: LTUE XXV
February 17: Dropped to 35: LTUE XXV
February 18: Dropped to 34: SUNDAY.
February 19: Dropped to 33. Scripted 7, Pencilled 5, Inked 3. Buffer=36.
February 20: Dropped to 35. Scripted 1. Had car trouble. Ruined the day.
February 21: Dropped to 34. Scripted 6, Pencilled 8, Inked 9. Buffer=43.
February 22: Dropped to 42. Colored 4.
February 23: Dropped to 41. Colored 5. Pencilled 1, Inked 1. Buffer=42
February 24: Dropped to 41. Colored 2.
February 25: Dropped to 40. SUNDAY
February 26: Dropped to 39. Scripted 8, Pencilled 7, Inked 2. Buffer=41.
February 27: Dropped to 40. Colored 6, Inked 6. Buffer=46.
February 28: Dropped to 45. BIRTHDAY.

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Creator and Cartoonist, Schlock Mercenary

Wow. I waltz in drunk at 3.15 am (GMT) and the buffer's gone up by six.

Well done Howard.

dear god. we found it! we found the question!

if you dont get that, google search for "42".

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I feel compelled to inform you that if you get the buffer big enough, you could probably start selling us the printed version before the online version is complete, and at ridiculously high markup, too!

And I totally would do that, too.

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Creator and Cartoonist, Schlock Mercenary

You really need to change your forum rank to: Benevolent Dictator of the Schlockiverse.

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To be fair, that's actually sort of how the Girl Genius 101 Class goes: it's Phil and Kaja releasing their printed material slowly online. By republishing old stuff at the same time as showing new stuff, there's a huge incentive to purchase all of the old books, so you can catch up. This is actually a reasonable thing for Howard to do.

Considering how much I liked the first book I think I would happily pay up to 40$ a book for future material, though it would make life less exciting around 8 pm every night.

Congratulations on the new record!

to be honest I am more impressed that we managed to hit the magic number again

It's quite likely that we'll hit that number a few more times, and then never hit it again. At least not until I die.

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Creator and Cartoonist, Schlock Mercenary

Does this mean the Schlock buffer is the answer to life, the universe and everything?

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Living in a state free from the burdens of privacy and democracy since 2008-06-18.

Yes.

You had to ask?

For a few days, on and off, over the next few weeks.

If 42 is the answer, then the Schlock buffer will be a little bit like a broken analog clock -- it's right a couple of times per day, but it's not exactly DEPENDABLE.

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Creator and Cartoonist, Schlock Mercenary

Is that because:

1. You'll never let the buffer get that low?
2. You don't anticipate the buffer ever getting that high?
3. You found out you're going to die in 41 days? ("NNnnoooooo!!!!!!")
4. You just felt like writing a glib comment, in the knowledge that the freaky fanboys would spend every waking moment pondering and agonizing over every tiny little insignificant detail of your statements and would find such an enigmatic and elusive comment to be utterly mind-twisting, sending us into a downward spiral of self-delusional, self-reinforcing recursive loops of obsesive-compulsive pudding eating???

And if you get that last reference, you watch waaayyy too muc tv...

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Using Ubutnu! Go the Penguin!

I plan to grow the buffer to over 100 this year, adding at least a week each month. Before my March/April convention travel I'll be adding another week or two, and as long as I keep with the plan we won't drop down into the low 40's after mid-April.

Eventually I'll have the buffer over 100, and it will fluctuate between 110 and 80, depending on vacations, sicknesses, and other projects. I'd have to be deathly ill to lose sixty days of buffer.

--Howard

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Creator and Cartoonist, Schlock Mercenary

New all-time highs, hit in quick succession today... 44, 45, and 46.

BAM.

--Howard

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Creator and Cartoonist, Schlock Mercenary

Ho-lee Cow.

Let's see you get to 50 by... the night of March 1st.

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Nope. The next strip in the queue is a very dramatic 4-row Sunday. I may pencil and ink it today, but that's about three hours' work all by itself. I've got piles of coloring to do as well, and it's an "early-out" day because I have to be home to open my presents with the kids.

I'll probably hit 50 during the 2nd week in March, though.

--Howard

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Creator and Cartoonist, Schlock Mercenary