Please remember to vote for my comic on Kotaku, and if you have already, thanks so much. Just click the “Vote Button” below the comic and it will take you to the place to vote.

The Strip: So I went outside of my comfort zone here a little bit. Tried a new format for the strip because it wouldn’t fit into just 3 frames. I was just think how damn sick Princess Peach must be of getting kidnapped. So, obviousl,y a concealed carry class would be in order. I like the idea that even Bowser would be terrified of a .45 caliber pistol pointed at his head, and that Peach is going to callously execute him. Ahhh, good times.

Gaming: I played a little more BF3 beta this weekend and it just has me more and more worried. I will still get it on day one but it may be a short lived experience at the Legacy Control compound.

TV/Movies: So I watched the newest episode of iCarly Saturday. Listen, I really like iCarly, and so do my kids, so shut up. I then watched My Cousin Vinny on Sunday. Its actually a lot of fun to watch.

Music: I listened some Paper Chase at work on Friday, and think I am going to be going through another phase of listening to God Bless Your Black Heart, daily.

Life: So I am going to be bluntly honest here: This being nominated to be the next comic on Kotaku… is a really big deal to me. Its a big deal because I count most of the strips that are posted on Sunday Comics as my idols. It’s a big deal because of the exposure your strip immediately gains, and subsequently gets us one step closer to making the strip our full time job.

Here is the blunt honesty part. I am almost as afraid to win as I am not to win. There is something I knew going into this (making a comic and putting a piece of myself out there for the world to see), that people, especially on the internet, are fucking mean. Really mean. And that’s fine, but it’s my inability, at least right now, to just let every single negative comment slide right off. I assume this is something that comes with time (I am praying).

Us creatives… you really do not have to tell us what is wrong with our work. We fucking know. We sit and criticize our own stuff all day long. Every night, right before I post a strip… I look at it, and am not pleased. Now other creatives in a position to give good honest feedback… I am all for it. It WILL make us better. To the average Joe that can’t understand that their objective taste isn’t sound artistic advice, just move along… if you don’t like it… just move along. If you are walking down the street and you see someone you don’t find attractive, do you stop them and say: “Hey, wtf are doing outside, go get a haircut and buy some nicer clothes”, or do you just keep on movin’? Exactly.

Now, I am not saying I don’t want to win, however unlikely it is, as all the strips are REALLY great and any of us deserve to win, I am saying I want to be the next comic on Kotaku so very very badly. It just scares the shit out of me and it is cranking my anxiety levels through the roof. Just had to put it out there.

A sincere and hearty thank you to all the support I have gotten over this past year for my comic (not just during the Kotaku contest). It really means everything to me. Its what keeps me pushing through the late nights, wrecked back, and time lost with my family. I have to do this, it is my passion and I love all the people who keep me going.

For Realz,

Javis