Way back in December of 2006, I launched New Book Day as kind of a lark. I never thought about the future of the comic or what I was going to do with it, it was just something to do and have fun with. In the years since, Diego, Trevor and the rest of the gang have become very special to me. Many times I thought I had decided to give up the comic and stopped updating, only to return a few months later because I missed the characters and wondered what was going to happen next.

The result has been an unreliable update schedule and the feeling that I never really gave the strip a chance to live and be a success. The comic has never had a large readership outside of my sister (my wife doesn’t even read it) and that has bothered me. But how could I be upset when I only updated once a week at best and wasn’t willing to devote the time needed to the comic?

Well, that is today’s big announcement; starting August 1st New Book Day is back with three times a week updates. I will be posting new comics Monday, Wednesday and Friday as well as blog posts on Tuesdays and Thursdays (and other days as well). Five days a week of new material for you to enjoy.

After much thought, I really felt I needed to give New Book Day a chance to succeed or fail on its own terms. That way if I still have no readers after a year, I can’t say it’s because I didn’t try. I really hope you will join me on this adventure and really think you’ll enjoy yourself. Diego and crew are in for all kinds of fun and I think you’re going to have a blast.

As you can see, work continues on the New Book Day website. I finally decided to upgrade to the new version of Comicpress, which has opened all sorts of new possibilities. I think the site has better flow now and makes navigation a bit easier.

For those of you who may be interested (and why wouldn’t you?) my weekly comic book review column, The Comic Roundup, is now live on Geekadelphia. This week I review Captain America #1, Journey Into Mystery #625 and New Avengers #14. Fans of New Book Day would be doing themselves a disservice if they didn’t check it out.

Read it here and let me know if you agree.

And so has begun the yearly geek orgy known as the San Diego Comic-Con. And for yet another year, I won’t be there. This is the only time of year I really hate living on the east coast of this great country of ours. For years I have wanted to attend Comic-Con, but circumstances always seem to put a halt to whatever plans I was making.

Now I know most fans say that Comic-Con is not the same since Hollywood moved in. They say the con is less about comic books and more and more about movies, video games and entertainment media. But honestly, I don’t really care. Going to Comic-Con is like going to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown for a baseball fan or E3 for a video game fan. For comic book geeks, it is our Mecca, a legendary place that has to be seen to believed.

So I couldn’t really give a damn if comics have become a smaller part of the con. That doesn’t mean I want to be there any less every year. My hope (dream really) is that New Book Day starts to become successful so I’ll have a good excuse to go in a year or two. Or maybe I just say the hell with it and go anyway.

You only live once, right?

Over the weekend I worked on a new New Book Day comic for the first time in two months. It was a lot harder then I remember it being, especially the inking. I’ve been inking the comic with my Wacom tablet for awhile now, but I always noticed that if I took a break, getting used to using the tablet again took some time. The finished strip didn’t turn out exactly as I planned, but it felt good to be working on the comic again. It was like seeing the old gang again after too long a time and playing catch up.

I’m hopeful that as I get into the swing of three times a week updates that the process will get faster and the comics will get better. Only time will tell.

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On an unrelated side note, my latest edition of the Comic Roundup is now live over at Geekadelphia. This week I review Avengelyne, Invincible Iron Man and Fly. I’ll be honest; you need to be reading Fly. It is by far the best new series of the year and should be on everybody’s pull list.

You can check it out here.

To my own amazement, the first week’s worth of New Book Day comics are done and uploaded. I have always liked New Book Day to remain topical, but I also know that I needed at least a weeks worth of comics backed up at any given time. To many times in the past I have ended up working on the comic the day before, or not at all because I’m lazy and I know it.

But if I really want this to work and for you to enjoy the comic and support it, then I have to meet my deadlines. No excuses. My hope is that if I take pride in my work and pride in meeting my update schedule, some of that will rub off on you and you’ll share my excitement. Then we can all have an emotional group hug! (Or maybe not…)

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Also, I have three new articles up at Geekadelphia you can check out. First is my halftime report for the Fear Itself/Flashpoint battle being waged in comic shops across the country. Then there is my Geek of the Week interview with Jeffro Kilpatrick, cofounder of the Philadelphia Cartoonist Society. And last but not least is my review of Archaia’s latest Fraggle Rock collection. And you can even win a copy! Go read the review to find out how.

Welcome to the return of New Book Day. For those of you new to these parts, a word of explanation is in order.

The last time I worked on NBD I decided to start writing the strip in what I call a “never ending storyline” style. That means that the story would just flow from comic to comic, instead of the gag strip/storyline/gag strip style I was using. It’s more fun to write, gives the comic more forward progression and lets the characters grow in a more organic way.

As a result, today’s comic features two characters who aren’t even in the About page and is the last part of a plotline that had been going on when I stopped working on the comic two months ago.

Ooops.

For those of you who want to get caught up, you can start with comic #168. That is the point at which I started writing the comic this way and it will explain what is going on and who the two people in the comic above are.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled webcomic.

For those of you who don’t know (and you better have a good excuse why not), I write about comics for a couple different websites: Geekadelphia and The Geekery Online. I just had a couple new articles go live so I thought I would share with the class and give you guys a heads up.

- A new Comic Roundup is now live on Geekadelphia. This week I review Fathom #1, Amazing Spider-Man #666 (the prologue of Spider Island) and Ultimate Fallout #3.

- Over on The Geekery Online I have Webcomics 101 – Formatting. In the five years I’ve been working on New Book Day, I’ve learned a lot about the right and wrong things to do when getting started. This is my attempt to share and help others avoid my mistakes.

Check them out and let me know what you think. And come back tomorrow as New Book Day continues with new comics three times a week.

A couple weeks ago I was lucky enough to interview Jeffro Kilpatrick, the co-founder of the Philadelphia Cartoonist Society, as the Geek of the Week for Geekadelphia. He’s a hell of a nice guy and a really talented artist.

Turns out he has a limited edition t-shirt going on sale Tuesday, August 9th at teefury.com. The shirt is only 10 bucks, is cool as all get out and only on sale for one day. So mark your calendars and plan on getting yours. I know I am.

Since it seems that the bulk of the writing I do about comics hits the web early in the week, I figure that Tuesdays will make the perfect day to update you on what you can read where.

Welcome to The Write Stuff.

Over on Geekadelphia, my weekly column The Comic Roundup is live and waiting for you. This week I look at the new Punisher series from Marvel, the latest book from the minds of Robert Kirkman and Rob Liefled, The Infinite and the anxiously awaited new title from Terry Moore, Rachel Rising.

On The Geekery Online, it’s Diversity in Geekdom week where all the articles will look at Geekdom in different ways. My contribution is all about female leads in comic books and titled “Where have all the Wonder Women gone?” I’m really proud of it and I hope you enjoy reading it.

That’s all for this week. Make sure you come back tomorrow for an all-new New Book Day.

As of tomorrow, it will be two weeks since I brought NBD back from the “dead” and so far the response has been pretty good. My page views are already higher then the last time I worked on the strip and the comic itself is proving much more fun to work on. It seems the 3 times a week updates were the way to go.

The really nice thing is knowing that not only are next week’s comics already uploaded and ready to go, but half of the following weeks are also done. Getting a little ahead really helps and enables me to keep new content coming to you on a dependable, regular schedule.

And this is just the beginning. I have big plans for the future of the comic and this site. Nothing I can talk about yet, but if things keep going this well you could see some new stuff around Thanksgiving. We’ll have to wait and see.

Just know that you have my thanks for reading the story of Diego and his friends. Without you, this wouldn’t even be possible and a colossal waste of time.

See you tomorrow.