Do you guys remember that comic I owed you last week, but that totally didn’t happen? Well, here it is.

I don’t have a very good excuse for you. I think this is the second time since I announced the comic was ending in January that I’ve missed a week – which is especially stupid when you consider that I only have 10 more weeks to wrap this up.

But, as I did previously, I made up for the missing comic with a few weeks of double comics. I think the same will have to be true here. 10 comics won’t be enough to get me where I want to go before the end of the strip.

I suppose a little planning could have prevented that. But, truthfully, I kind of wanted to run over a little bit. I wanted an excuse to make more comics.

I still plan on ending on August 6. What I’m saying is that you’ll probably get more than 10 comics between now and then.

As you might remember, two weeks ago I went to the Minneapolis SpringCon which was – ostensibly – the last convention appearance I plan on making.

It was a really good show. I managed to turn a profit, which is not always easy for me at a mid-sized show. So I close out my convention career with two in the win column – C2E2 and SpringCon.

Probably the best part of going to SpringCon for me was getting a chance to see my good friends Zach Miller, Mitch Clem and Gordon McAlpin.

I can’t remember the last time I saw Mitch. It’s probably been at least 4 or 5 years. Maybe the same amount of time for Zach. But as we got to hang around each other for a little bit, we immediately feel into a groove, laughing and having a blast. I got a chance to hang out with them, Gordon and his lovely girlfriend Karyn on Saturday night and it was wonderful.

I’m usually not very good about taking pictures while I’m away at shows. I take more pictures of things than I do of people. I don’t know if you’re like me, but I get really self-conscious taking pictures of others. Like I’m spying on them, or something, and I don’t want them to know about it. I really hate asking others to take pictures of me with someone else. The pictures rarely turn out the way I want them to anyway.

That said, thank Steve Jobs for the reversible camera on the iPhone. It gave me the ability to take this picture – and the more I think about it, the more it’s probably one of my favorites from my “career” in webcomics.

When push comes to shove, these are some of the best friends I’ve been fortunate enough to make in webcomics. I would have never met them without Theater Hopper. It’s hard for me to look at a photo like that and not get a little melancholy.

I’m certain that I’ll keep in touch with all of them. Just because I’m ending the comic doesn’t mean the friendships have to end. But going to SpringCon a couple of weeks ago and understanding what that means for me personally kind of compartmentalizes the relationships a little bit. I’m leaving a part of myself behind – and that’s always kind of sad.

At any rate, that kind of brings us all up to speed. If you could help share this week’s comic to let your friends know that we’ve updated, I’d appreciate it.

Cami and I are having a huge garage on Thursday (which is also part of the reason this comic has been so late – we’ve been busy preparing.) So I don’t know if I’ll be able to get to another comic this week. But with any luck, I’ll be able to knock out a few more in the coming weeks. Be on the lookout for those.

Thanks for your patience! We’re entering the home stretch!