My apologies everybody, but due to the fact that I was out of town for the past 3-4 days, today’s strip will be late (probably posted in the evening of Monday, June 1st).

I wanted to say a very special hello and welcome to a little princess named Abigail who was born last week! 

Many thanks to a good buddy who loaned me his scanner to get this strip done on schedule.  He’s loaned me his Epson Stylus CX4800 for a few weeks until I can do some research into what scanner I will buy.  It’s amazing how much faster this scanner is than my old one which was almost 10 years old.  It’s as if technology had progressed in that time or something!!

I guess I’m lucky that I rarely have computer hardware problems.  I tend to use the same equipment for years and years.  However, last night, my flatbed scanner of approximately 10 years suddenly up and died on me.  I can’t get it to register any power whatsoever, no matter what I do.  And, as you may be aware, scanning in my hand-drawn artwork is a pretty key step in doing the weekly strip.  So…

I’m now shopping for a scanner.  While I really like the idea of all-in-one printer/scanner jobbie, I already have a fully functional colour printer (also around 10 years old) so I’m not crazy about replacing that for nothing. 

Does anybody have any recommendations as to a (cheap) flatbed scanner that they find reliable?  How about the all-in-ones - any preferences?

The transcriptions have started coming in, slowly but surely!  Thanks to all those who have submitted some so far via Ohnorobot.com!   Remember that if you would like to receive an original (electronic) drawing featuring (electronic) characters from The Crown Prince, just find the strip you want to transcribe and click the “Transcribe this comic!” button which can be found immediately beneath the strip.  Once you’ve completed five transcriptions, I will prepare the picture for you which I will then e-mail to you.   The picture will be suitable for use as a wallpaper.

Big, big thanks to Ken who submitted the first ever transcription for The Crown Prince via Ohnorobot.com! Ken submitted a transcription of strip #2 and this has earned him a custom-made, original (but electronic) drawing that he will be receiving (electronically) in the very near future.

If you too would like to receive an original (electronic) drawing featuring (electronic) characters from The Crown Prince, start submitting those transcriptions! All you have to do is find the strip you want to transcribe and click the “Transcribe this comic!” button which can be found immediately beneath the strip. I will send a drawing to everyone who submits FIVE transcriptions. (Ken gets one for being the first, therefore he’s special.) This (electronic) prize will be of a size suitable for use as a wallpaper on your (electronic) computer.

How about that?! If you submit SIX transcriptions, you get a voucher for a free hug. (Vouchers will not be honoured.)

Thanks to Delos for the kind words over at Artpatient.com.  He has posted (in what appears to be a cool little site that you should all go check out immediately) what I consider to be a well-balanced and thoughtful review of The Crown Prince. 

In his review, he makes a suggestion that I offer some kind of reward (perhaps a wallpaper) for anyone submitting a certain number of strips via Ohnorobot (click on the “Transcribe this comic” button to find out more).  Anybody have any thoughts on that?  I’ve been eager to get the database populated but just haven’t found the time to do it myself.

I don’t often link to established, popular strips, but in this case, I’m happy to make an exception.  Starslip by Kristofer Straub has recently gone through what is known as a “soft reboot” and it has succeeded in grabbing my attention far more than in the past.  There’s a fairly large archive (going back three and a half years) so I’m looking forward to taking the time to explore it all in detail.

I’m personally excited by this big shift in the middle of the strip because I sometimes anticipate that something similar could happen with The Crown Prince.

Many thanks to Bengo (a.k.a. Benjamin Gordon) of L’il Nyet, Scratchin Post and Floating Lightbulb fame for his mention of The Crown Prince’s 200 strip milestone.  Go check it out and be sure to stick around his blog for many other interesting posts about webcomics.

After two months of updating on Mondays and Fridays, effective immediately, I am returning to the weekly schedule (Mondays only).  While I really enjoyed the parallel storyline featuring the royal family on the one hand the Black Duke on the other, I’m finding it challenging to complete two strips a week and do the other things that go with the strip and the site.  This includes all the little tweaks I’ve done to celebrate the 200th strip.  It also includes the forward planning of the storyline.  Drawing two strips a week means that I need to plan the future farther in advance because I reach the future twice as quickly!  (Not sure if my math is good, but you get the idea.) I do plan on returning to a twice-weekly update before too long.  I know now that it’s not impossible for me to maintain, it’s just, well, twice as much work!  Feel free to let me know if you have any thoughts on the matter.