Morons should not be allowed to drive The General Lee. They don’t know how to get in.

Okay, first things first. A few of you are going to look at today’s strip and exclaim – “OH MY GOD! HE’S TOTALLY RIPPING OFF SCOTT KURTZ!”

Well, I’m here to tell you “Congratulations for figuring that out. In fact, if you ∗didn’t∗ figure that out on your own, I’m going so far as to actually provide you a link to the comic I am directly referencing. It’s called “an homage” and I’ve also provide you a link to the definition of that word just in case you are unfamiliar with it.”

At any rate, it’s wholly intentional and I have plans for using the visual repeatedly in a storyline this week, so get used to it.

Oh, I wish I could unveil my grand plans for how I plan to wrap things up on Friday. What I have in store is delectable. But I can’t share it! That will ruin the surprise!

Is anyone else psyched to see Dukes of Hazzard this weekend? I am. I wish I could put a finger on my affinity for that old television chestnut. I think I am so fond of it because it was a show I would often watch when I would visit my grandparents. We would hang out at their place and I would watch reruns and those were happy memories.

Plus, it is – be default – AWESOME to watch a stunt driver launch a car over a crevasse…

Something else I’m excited for is Wizard World Chicago. Me and a whole bunch of other cool people are going to be there this Thursday through Sunday and I’ve been looking forward to it all summer. This year’s outing is shaping up to be one of those events that will never happen again in your life. I can already sense it. All the pieces are already falling into place. All the people I like will be there and I know we’re going to have fun just socializing and catching up. I can just tell that this will be something special. Something we will never be able to recreate again and I think it’s great.

I’m leaving town at noon on Wednesday. Think of me while I’m on the road, listening to my recently purchased copies of the new Sleater Kinney and Dane Cook records to whittle away the six-hour car trip.

When I was a kid, six hours in the car was tantamount to torture. Nowadays, I can do six hours standing on my head. I drove to Memphis and back in a straight shot. Dallas, too. Those are about 12 hour jaunts.

It doesn’t start to bother me until I think “Hmm. Six hours. That’s one-fourth of my day. I could watch 3 or 4 movies in that time span. Maybe 3 or 4 if they’re really good Hollywood classics like Citizen Kane or Bridge Over The River Kwai. Anything with the pre-Star Wars editing sensibility. You know the ones where they actually settle on an image and let you ABSORB IT for longer than two seconds?

I’m getting off track.

Something I was going to discuss on Friday that didn’t get discussed what a revision to our archiving structure.

First, major thanks to Steve Napierski for stepping up to the plate with an awesome solution. Steve has a comic called the outer circle that you need to check out. I’ve yet to properly thank Steve personally, but perhaps by sending some traffic his way this early in the morning, it will buy me some time and I can compose a proper e-mail.

That said, Steve solved a problem that has been plaguing me for a long time. Whenever I asked for guest strips, I always felt bad about shuffling them off into the Bonus Materials area of the site because I felt the people who contributed deserved high-level recognition and their work (and links to their site) front and center on the main page.

The conundrum came into effect when I felt guilty for misrepresenting MY OWN contribution to the site.

For example. Before Steve’s solution came into effect, the archive said I had over 470 comics. When IN REALITY, I only had 450.

I want what’s out there to be honest and reflect my individual efforts. So when I go about town someday down the road bragging “I have 10,000 comics in my archive!” no one will come along and say “You’re full of it, Brazelton! You only have 730 comics! The rest of them are all guest strips!” (extrapolating the amount of guest strips I’ve run so far this year, my figures do not seem out of bounds)

What Steve did was modified the archive code so that any title that begins with the words “GUEST STRIP” have their numerical place in the archive skipped over, but their physical location to remain rooted on the front page. Additionally, on the archive page, guest strips are given their own special location, organized by date.

How’s that for the best of both words!

So I am very happy with the outcome and want to again thank Steve for his help. There were a few other people eager to lend their support that I had to unfortunately turn down. Again, like Steve, they don’t know this yet because I haven’t had a chance to e-mail them. Sorry, guys! But I will catch up with you soon!

Now all that’s left to do is add back some of the earlier guest strips into the archive. Be on the lookout for those in the near future.

Things are going to be hectic for me this week as I prepare to go to Wizard World. I really only have tonight and tomorrow night to get my ducks in a row.

What really sucks is that I came up with a cool idea for a promotional give-away about 5 hours ago. I’m going to make custom 1″ buttons for the show that I’m giving away for free. So if you stop buy, feel free to grab one.

The artwork is 90% done. It has everything but text, otherwise I would share it with you. That will come later. But once I get the art back from the printer, I need to start assembling buttons when I get home from work. This, in addition to staying ahead of my update schedule so you guys will have a fresh comic on Friday while I’m out of town.

I tell you, this train doesn’t stop!

I should have some time to kill Thursday morning to make a batch of buttons in the hotel room as I wait for them to open the floor for preview night. Since I’m taking my button making machine with me to the con, I can always make more if I run out. So that will be nice.

Anyhoo – just giving you a fairly large peek into my world! Time for bed!