Can you believe it?!?  It’s been three years since I began The Crown Prince.  And here we are, 182 strips later!  I always knew I’d like to see the strip last for a while, but I can’t say with any confidence that I thought I’d get this far.  What say we try for another three years?

I’m planning on a few changes with the strip and with the website.  Some will happen immediately, while others will happen over the course of the year (and yes, some may never happen at all.  Alas).

First: You will likely have noticed the change in the update schedule.  For the first time in three years, the strip will update TWICE a week, on Mondays and Fridays.  Now don’t get too used to this!  I’m trying it out on a very temporary basis because of the current storyline.  If it works out well and I can keep it up, great.  If not, I’ll go right back to once a week without any hesitation.  Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Second: I’m planning on adding an RSS feed to the site.  Let me know if you would be interested in this feature.  The more people who speak up on this, the sooner I’ll make it happen.

Third: Keep your eyes open for some little tidbits here and there on the site.  I plan on updating and expanding the Cast page, improving the search engine and a few other little tweaks.

So once again, I’d like to thank you all for sticking around so long.  I know some of you have been reading since September 1, 2005 while others started reading last week.  I hope you continue to find something in the comic that keeps bringing you back.

A big medieval hello to everyone over at The Society for Creative Anachronism!  I understand that someone there stumbled on my site and shared the link with a bunch of fellow members, who have been dropping by over the past week.

 Who are they?  Well, this is from their site: “The SCA is an international organization dedicated to researching and re-creating the arts and skills of pre-17th-century Europe. Our “Known World” consists of 19 kingdoms, with over 30,000 members residing in countries around the world. Members, dressed in clothing of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, attend events which may feature tournaments, arts exhibits, classes, workshops, dancing, feasts, and more. Our “royalty” hold courts at which they recognize and honor members for their contributions to the group.“

It’s not often I discover fantastic new comics when they are still new.  But here’s one that’s only been around for a couple of months and it is great.  Please go check out One Swoop Fell as soon as you can.  You won’t regret it!

Now that I’m getting closer to the two-hundred mark of strips of The Crown Prince, it occurred to me to start a FAQ for the site.  The problem is that I don’t really receive many questions.  Given that fact, most people would respond by thinking “Oh well, I guess I don’t need a FAQ!”  I am not most people, therefore my response is “I need some questions!”

So that leads us to this week’s homework assignment: what would you like to know about The Crown Prince?  Send them to me (see my e-mail to the lower right) or add them to the Comments below and I will have a FAQ up and running by the time strip #200 appears.  It can be questions about the characters, the background, how I draw the strip, etc. 

I’m really enjoying this new period in history in which we currently live.  I am referring of course to the period which began when shirt manufacturers stopped including little tags in the collars and instead printed the crucial information such as size and cleaning instructions on the inside of the back of the shirt itself.  Who is the genius who came up with this and why is his name not on everyone’s lips!?!  There is nobody in the world who can continue to look cool with a shirt tag sticking up the back of his neck (it’s just a hair less embarrassing than having a piece of toilet paper stuck to your shoe).  And now, thanks to this unknown revolutionary, we can live our lives in a more relaxed manner, knowing that we shall never again face that particular (and very specific) stigma (or at least once we have worn out our old shirts that still have tags).  This is truly a great time in history to be alive.

I’m back at my desk after some (I would like to believe) well-deserved holidays.  I hope you’re all finding the time to take a break this summer, whether it be from work, school or whatever else is keeping you busy.

I also hope you’ve all enjoyed the past few weeks as we spent a little time focusing on the newest character (the princess, of course!).  As it happens, this is all laying important groundwork for the next epic saga which will begin in a couple of weeks!  That’s all I will say for now, except that it will feature the long-awaited return of the Black Duke as well as the appearance of a new foe or two for the Crown Prince and the rest of the royal family!  (I won’t say whether or not the Knight will make an appearance…)

I believe very strongly in improving my comics by writing, drawing and “publishing” them (to the web).  I am not one who spends days and days sketching and designing characters.  I’ll do a few quick sketches (if that) and then up goes the comic.  I figure that while it may make for rougher artwork, at least in the meantime I’m getting strips out there and there is no question in my mind that I continue to improve over time.  Just have a look at my early strips for proof.

A couple of months ago, when I redesigned the Crown Prince to look like a 2-year old rather than a 1-year old, I was not at all happy with his look.  The sketches I had on paper looked fine, but they didn’t translate to the screen.  I told myself not to worry about it, that he would evolve over the course of the strip until I found something I liked.  But after seven appearances in his new incarnation, I was at the point that I hated drawing him.

This weekend, I was drawing with my kids and I started drawing the prince.  Well, sure enough, I come up with a design that I love.  I couldn’t pass it up.  I scanned it in and tried it out on this week’s strip.  It looked as good (to me) as it did on paper.  I decided to go crazy and modify all seven strips since the prince appeared in his new form.  For those who have forgotten what he used to look like, here is a “before and after” comparison:

So what do I like better? The hair is the most obvious to me.  Next is the roundness of the cheeks and chin.  This shape reminds me much more of a 2-year old’s chubby face than the earlier design.  Next is the nose.  While ultimately, the prince will have a real nose like other grown-ups, for the time being, he keeps his little button nose like when he was a baby.

I use the reference to George Lucas because of his “revisionist” ways (Han shooting second and the digital effects of the Special Editions) and this is the first time I’ve gone back in time to change something that I consider major.  I’ve corrected minor gaffes before but never a character’s complete look.  I’m still curious to hear what people think (a) of the change of character design; and (b) the fact that I went back and changed earlier strips.  The bottom line is that I want to draw a strip that I like and that’s why I made the change.

It’s interesting.  I am recommending that you “read” Kate Beaton, but Kate Beaton is the name of the writer/artist but ALSO the name of the site.  Kate Beaton writes and draws very amusing comic strips about herself, about history and about Canada (sometimes all three in the same strip).  Seeing as I am Canadian, have studied history and like comic strips, I pretty much like her comics.  I’m also a big fan of her artwork and wish that I could imitate it in some fashion. 

If you are the type of person who only reads humour strips featuring kings (for example, the one you are currently reading), you shuld check out Kate Beaton’s Old History strips since they sometimes feature kings from such dynasties as the Carolingians and Merovingians!  Medieval humour rocks.

Galaxion is a webcomic by Tara Tallon that dates back to the 1990s!  Back when I was drawing my mini-comic Bubonix, Tara was publishing Galaxion (first as a mini-comic, then as a full-blown regular comic).  I don’t believe she and I ever met, but we did correspond for a while, exchanging comics and I do remember that Tara said some very nice things about my comic.  She was also part of a group of Toronto-based artists working in comics who were all doing great stuff.  That was they hey-day of Canadian minicomics. (Sighs nostalgically…)

Galaxion is a science fiction comic with manga influences and humour.  I really hesitate to label it a “girl-friendly” comic because that may discourage some of you, but the main characters are female.

Check out Galaxion!

For all of you who grew up reading North American super-hero comics in the 1970s and 1980s, you will surely recall all those Hostess one-page ads featuring super-heroes.  These were all the rage in comics in those days.  Well, for those of you who would like to relive that heyday, please hurry to Seanbaby.com, a site that collects all those old strips/ads in one convenient location.