This Week in Webcomics: in Comic Form?

Cameo appearances by:
Grrl, Bad Decision Dinosaur: Cat and Girl
Joe Dunn: Digital Pimp Comics
Aaron: Calamities of Nature

8/21: Friday Bullet Points

If you haven't seen yesterday's comic-form interview with the creators of Blank It, I'd encourage you to hop down an entry and check it out. But now it's time for...

• The Multiplex Store launches today. This is especially exciting for me because I am the merch guy! If you place an order, I'll be the guy shipping out your t-shirts and stuff to you. Stop by the store and check out the selection--Gordon McAlpin and I are both very pleased with the shirt designs we've got available, and more are in development right now.
• In shirt-related-but-non-me-related news, Real Life has done something innovative and awesome this week. Every comic this week was scripted by a Real Life reader! Greg Dean sorted through each day's submissions and created the strip whose idea he liked best. It's a hilarious Shirt Ninja adventure with an epic climax, and it's well worth checking out.
• Cat and Girl has been similarly at the top of its game this week. It brought us comics about the youth-afflicting social disease sickle cell bohemia and late-80s edutainment software Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing. I learned to type with Mavis Beacon, and I, like Girl, always thought Mavis Beacon really existed, as some celebrity of education. Only thing is, what the heck was Thursday's comic about?

And that's the news. Have a good weekend, and buy lots of shirts! We at This Week in Webcomics are nothing if not shameless.

7/31: Bullet Points

Today's full-length post will go up later today. But until then: the news goes bang.

• Penny Arcade locks and loads for Automata. As of this writing, the comic image has not yet gone live, but it should be there by the end of the day.
• Cat and Girl: Echoing a sentiment from a previous comic, Grrl asks, "Do we need a college degree and a formal education for everything in life?" Cat, in turn, shares an unexpected revelation.
• The Book of Biff: Biff warms up to beat the carnival shysters at their own game.
• I first discovered Joe and Monkey while it was on hiatus--which was kind of disappointing for me, because from the archives it looked like a really entertaining comic. Good news, though: J&M recently sprung back into action and is going strong, with promotional pinups by a variety of comic artists and four comics already up in its new time-traveling storyline.

More words about webcomics later today. And as always, you can follow my Twitter for links to new TWIW posts, daily updates with the "webcomic Pick of the Day," and inane babbling about Disgaea 2 and sandwiches. I'll see you in the future!

7/24: Week-in-Review in Comic Form #3 (finally!)

Starslip: Monday, 7/20/09


Matriculated: Wednesday, 7/22/09





Creep House: Monday, 7/20/09


Cat and Girl: Tuesday, 7/21/09


Request Comics #85 (date unknown)

Request Comics #8
Ben Heaton's Tall Comics guest strip

Co-written by Jackson Ferrell and Eli Parker; illustrated by Jackson Ferrell
Unwinder appears courtesy of Unwinder's Tall Comics
Abe Lincoln appears courtesy of Thinkin' Lincoln, or maybe just history
(and frankly he'd probably make a more tolerable co-host, disembodied floating head or not)

5/8: This Week in Webcomics...in Comic Form!

Cat and Girl: Thursday, 5/07/09


Achewood: Monday, 5/04/2009


Space-Time Condominium: Wednesday, 5/06/2009

Hitmen for Destiny: Friday, 5/08/2009


Blank It: Monday, 5/04/2009


Dinosaur Comics: Tuesday, 5/05/2009

And that concludes our show for this week. Tune in next Friday, when I will almost certainly be doing something less crazy and time-consuming.

Co-written by Jackson Ferrell and Eli Parker; illustrated by Jackson Ferrell
Angie Kurokami appears courtesy of Multiplex
Unwinder appears courtesy of Unwinder's Tall Comics

2/27: Week in Review

In my opinion, a number of webcomics this week have really been at the top of their game. I've got some other stuff to do tonight that snuck up on me, so let's get right down to it.

• Cat and Girl:


• Tuesday: Girl once again struggles with the role of pleasure in human life


• Thursday, Friday: Boy attempts a serious discussion of cryptozoology, which Cat promptly derails. The Yeti is elusive!


• Sheldon: a week-long series of comics providing a guide to having houseguests and being a good houseguest. Covers housecleaning under time constraints, tiny decorative soaps, being hospitable without overdoing it, and socially awkward bedding options. Informative and hilarious!


• UPDATE, 2/28: Saturday's installment trumps them all, with the wisdom of Benjamin Franklin applied literally. Awesome.


• Calamities of Nature:


• Wednesday: Aaron and Ferd are skeptical of Harold's new friend Raymond, though perhaps not in the way you would expect


• Friday: when Harold suggests that Raymond move in with the others, Ferd is still skeptical, until he discovers that a new roommate could provide certain benefits


• Nobody Scores:


• with Philosophical Quandaries


• with Absinthe


• with Jane's unfiltered thought processes

And with that quick review, it is time to call it a wrap for this week. Just to remind you, we've got the Street Fighter IV comic poll going on until Monday, and you can catch my Pick of the Day every weekday by following my Twitter. I've got things to do now, not the least of which is dinner, so I'll see you next week!

My Favorite Webcomics: Part 3 of, Apparently, 3

The First Part of the List
The Second Part of the List
Share your own favorites with us!

As I summarized back on Monday, this is the third part of a special series in which I share with you the comics that I check regularly. After losing my old list of favorites to computer troubles, I rebuilt my list of regulars from scratch and learned which webcomics I most enjoy. Let us continue to continue the sharing!

Rob and Elliot: Surprise is a key element of humor, and Rob and Elliot consistently pitches some of the web's most hilarious curveballs. Like this! And this. It's only updated once a week, but it's good.

Three Panel Soul: Also good for a weekly update, 3PS is a clever look at the tension between adult life and one's inner child. It's autobiographical comics from Ian McConville and Matt Boyd, a kind of sequel to Mac Hall. Sometimes in color, but even the black-and-white is some of the strongest, most evocative black-and-white artwork I've ever seen.

Nothing Better: Oh hey, speaking of real good black-and-white artwork...
NB resonates with me personally. It's a college story with a pair of odd-couple roommates and self-discovery, but it's unique in that it seriously tackles the deeper religious and spiritual questions of its characters. It takes religion seriously and gives religious matters an unusually balanced consideration. Good stuff. And if one update a week isn't enough, you can get more of cartoonist Tyler Page with his Page-a-Day.

Unwinder's Tall Comics: What Nobody Scores does for catastrophe, Unwinder's Tall Comics does for bad ideas. Unwinder is a kid who is unable to discern impractical, overly-elaborate ridiculousness from true inspiration, much to the chagrin of his friends and neighbors. Okay, so the art isn't as polished--but it's still really creative, really bizarre, and really funny. And tall!

Cat and Girl: Isn't Cat and Girl just the cutest little deconstructivist metanarrative? Yes it is! C&G is genuinely clever cartooning, and the juxtaposition of Girl's incisive insights with Cat's inspired randomness never fails to amuse. Some of the sharpest, most intelligent cultural commentary I've seen from a comic. Heck--sharper even than a lot of books.

The Princess Planet: Hilarious escapades on a planet where every girl is a princess. It's a crazy blend of mythology and sci-fi. The premise: Princess Christi says goodbye to her cooped-up palace lifestyle and goes on exciting adventures. It's largely humor-driven, but from time to time there are recurring themes, such as Princess Christi's fake "treasure inspector" schemes, threats from evil sorcerers, the great self-important hero Smirkulees, and the Rasta detective Dreadlock Holmes. Oh, and did I mention the fun with puns and portmanteaus?

Honorable Mention:
I don't tune into them for every last update, but I also wanted to mention Calamities of Nature, The Robot is Sad, Dinosaur Comics and A Softer World. These are all good for a daily laugh, and on occasion for a little more probing insight into the nature of the world. I particularly recommend A Softer World: it's sometimes touching and often just plain touched.

And that wraps up what I've pared my reading list down to! I'm still eager to hear more about what's on your regular reading list. Familial holiday activities prevent me from proceeding with my Special Christmas Post as planned. However, if you're jonesing for some holiday webcomics festivities, Larry "El Santo" Cruz is sharing with us some of his favorite holiday-related comics from across the internet, over at The Webcomic Overlook. And there's no sense in replicating his work, right?

Enjoy your holidays, folks, and I'll see ya next Friday.

Time to get right down to business: the business of webcomics.

First of all, I owe our regular readers an apology. Last Friday, I promised a weekend post from my fellow blogger Ari Collins. As no post materialized over the weekend, I talked with Ari throughout the week, and although he tried to find time, he couldn't make up the post. I made the promise to you guys. Not him. That wasn't fair of me, so: sorry. To both you guys and Ari.

But now, let's get to the weekly rounds! It's been a pretty good week for the funny.

Quite honestly, I think Penny Arcade has been on fire lately. In my humble estimation, PA has been hit-or-miss for the past year now; when they're good they're great, but at times they just don't bring the comedy like they used to. But recently? They've been on a winning streak. You've got this one from last week, with a punchline that is vintage Tycho. And then you've got this Wednesday's comic. I'm not even sure what that game is, but I certainly laughed out loud. Inconsistent reality in video games is always a good source of humor--heck, Katie Tiedrich of Awkward Zombie practically builds her comic on it.

But the point is, you can't go wrong with the past three or four weeks of Penny Arcade. Which two years ago would have gone without saying, but such are the troubled times we live in.

It's certainly been troubled times down at the Multiplex this past week. The videogame rivalry between the theater and Flickhead Video Store, journalist-snoop Gretchen's information-mongering "friendship" with Calvin, and assistant manager Allan's general sleazy laziness have all converged and come to a head. The result is bad news for Franklin, who's been breaking the rules with his after-hours video games tournament and betting pool. Catch up on the action and intrigue starting with Monday's strip.

It's always fun when comics pack more than one laugh into their space, so as much as I can appreciate the economy of a well-crafted newspaper strip, lately I've been gravitating toward long-form humor installments. And Wednesday's F Chords delivered. Ash interrupts Wade's recording of a bubble bath commercial jingle to deliver some awesome news. Practically every line in it is funny, building up to a punchline coup de grace in the final panel.

Similarly, with its extended tales of drawn-out catastrophe, Nobody Scores! never fails to amuse me multiple times per comic. And this week it's delivered two standalone disasters: one murder investigation (by which I mean an investigation into the benefits and drawbacks of murder) and one housing purchase gone horribly horribly awry. Plenty of comic suffering in each: well worth reading.

Then there's today's Cat and Girl. Cat tells Girl a bedtime story about the Mainstream, which thrived and thrived until it was defeated by the internet. The notion of counter-culture bedtime stories--and the scary things that keep counter-culturists up at night--is a funny and clever topic, and C&G's social commentary is sharp as always.

Since its return last week, Nothing Better continues with a new update, as Kat comes face-to-face with the force that tore the roof off her dorm. It's God! God looks stern and imposing, but not threatening; he simply asks Kat why she won't believe in him. Considering that this is probably a dream and therefore indicative of Kat's perception of God, I'm interested to see where this dream goes.

I also meant to note that Undwinder's Tall Comics has staged a recent return. A little bit of social commentary, but mostly just ridiculous humorous weirdness driven by its absurd characters. Unwinder's parents chain him up in his yard for trolling on the internet; hilarity ensues. Be sure to catch up on all the new comics.

Finally, we have another sighting for the God Watch: today's Calamities of Nature discusses theism, atheism, and agnosticism in down-to-earth terms. I am one of those weird guys who both thinks there is a god and thinks he has good reasons for thinking there is a god, but despite disagreeing with the comic on that level, I think it's a good comic. I mean, it does make the bigger point that adamancy of belief promotes conflict, and conflict sells, so you've definitely got people on both sides of the fence belting out their views to create marketable spectacle. Hey, it's worked for Richard Dawkins and for the folks at the Creation Museum.

So, that's a wrap for this week. See you next week sometime! And this time around, I won't make promises that I can't keep.

Welcome back, folks. For those who haven't been back since last Friday, we slipped in a couple special feature things while you weren't looking: an interview with Multiplex creator Gordon McAlpin, and a review of the unique "wordless" webcomic Pear Pear. Check it out! If you haven't already, I mean. Or you could check it out again, that's cool too.

But that's old news, and it's time for new news. First of all, Real Life continues the storyline it began last week, with alternate-genderswapped-universe Greg and Tony trying to find the source of the Plot Hole in their dimension. While riding the elevator up to Real Tony's space station, a surprise comes to light: Liz's male dimensional counterpart has been dead for over a year. Sort of a sobering moment, but at the same time, the revelation sets up two extremely funny jokes. And then today's comic delivers a plot twist that has got me, for one, awaiting the next installment with bated breath. It's a weekend cliffhanger, no less! Man.

Also this past week, Sinfest wrapped up a series of strips in which Squigley signs up to be Slick's running mate...as "Sarah Piglin." Political parody ensues, building to a head with the appearance of Senator Obama as a guitar-slinging Barackstar. Pretty funny series if you're not a diehard blood-red Republican, but even I, broadminded as I am, found Squigley's political cross-dressing kind of weird and disturbing.

Shortpacked! (LOOK OUT, SPOILERS AHEAD) has been building toward the appearance of a special guest at the toy store all week, and in today's comic, it is revealed to be David Willis himself, proposing to his longtime girlfriend Maggie Weidner. Aww! And Maggie bounces right back with her own cartoonified acceptance. Congratulations, guys! Okay! END SPOILERS!

Welcome back, spoiler-avoiding people. Let's have a few quick Update Boxers and News Briefs, and then call it an entry.

Update Boxers and News Briefs:

• @You'll Have That: This is the first time I've ever seen a comic strip that teaches the reader how to play a song about one of its characters. Super-creative awesomeness from Wes Molebash!


• @Diesel Sweeties: Cleverest visual pun ever? Made me laugh out loud as soon as I got it.


• @Cat and Girl: Bad Decision Dinosaur spotted last week...but wait, why is there a big "M" on his shirt? Speculation ensues! And in today's comic, all is revealed.

Man, I love Cat and Girl so much you guys. Have a good weekend, and I'll see you all next week.

EDIT: Somehow it slipped my mind to mention that last Wednesday was a Ryan Estrada Guest Comic Day! Ryan Estrada did guest strips for 70 different webcomics, and if you like webcomics a lot (which you do), chances are you ran into at least one of them. You can get the complete lowdown over at Ryan's personal site, ryanestrada.com.

Here at TWIW, the big news this week is small comics. On Wednesday, I posted a feature spotlighting some lesser-known comics that you may enjoy, so if you'd like to see some hidden talents, they're only a click away.

Today, though, I largely want to talk about Multiplex.

Multiplex focuses on the staff of its titular theater, so one might reasonably offer the critique that too much of its cast comprises the solipsistic-young-adult category. However, recent events at the Multiplex have seen a need for increased security, so the theater has hired a new security guard. His name is James Harris; he's well into his sixties, if not older. He's a retired police officer, and when he was younger, he worked at a theater too.

I find Mr. Harris to be a welcome presence at the theater for two reasons. First, he has wisdom, a trait rather lacking in many of the Multiplex employees. Plenty of them are sharp, but age brings perspective, and I really think that Mr. Harris will provide a grounding presence amidst all the workplace drama. As Jason is showing him around the theater complex, the two of them run across Lizzie Stoner and Whitey lighting up in the back lot. Harris handles the situation very prudently--he's understanding but firm, and he lets them know that while there will be second chances, there won't be a third. I also get the sense that he genuinely cares about the kids.

Secondly, Mr. Harris broadens the strip thematically. Turns out he didn't work at just any theater, either--he worked at the Regal Theater back in the 1950s. Before it was torn down in 1973, the Regal was a major cultural fixture of Chicago's Bronzeville, and in a flashback, cartoonist Gordon McAlpin showcases its ornate architecture through some sepia-toned, hand-drawn artwork. These history-of-theater elements do a lot for the background and substance of Multiplex, and it's all brought in very naturally through the "new" hire. This stuff is a part of who James Harris is and where he's been.

When it comes down to it, Multiplex is a comic about how movies are a part of our lives. A lot of that is strictly on the humor level, sure, and movies are a bigger part of some of our lives than others (coughJasoncough), but there's this other level to it. As humans, we crave stories. And when we go to catch a story on the big screen, we want a good story, one that innovates in the medium, one that doesn't just entertain but says something substantial and resonant to us. And in its own way, with a cast of characters that you really get to know as you keep tuning in, Multiplex embodies those same values that it's looking for in a good movie.

Wait. How did this soapbox get here, and what am I doing standing on it?

Anyway, it's just about time for me to go do productive stuff, but before I do, let's have a...

Quick Rundown of Stuff I Liked This Week

• The Book of Biff presents: Hover Socks!


• Waitaminit, Starslip Crisis! Don't get me wrong, it's a funny strip, but I thought this kinda thing was the province of Dresden Codak!


• New horrific adventures in reptile care courtesy of Nobody Scores!


• Cat and Girl's Bad Decision Dinosaur: last sighted preparing to go on vacation


• Panel three of this Sheldon comic: best description of Flaco ever


• From Boxer Hockey: the intrinsic hazards of good fortune

Good times, good times. See ya next week.

Here's the big news for this week: in addition to his current projects Starslip Crisis and Chainsawsuit, Kris Straub has launched a new strip, F Chords. That's three strips. Seriously, the dude is a cartooning juggernaut. F Chords is about Ash and Wade, two studio musicians who have traded in their dreams of rock-and-roll stardom for the more accessible aspiration of playing music for radio commercials. It updates on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and there are already a couple strips in the archives, so hop on over and check it out.

So while Straub is upping his cartooning output, R. Stevens of Diesel Sweeties is cutting back. He will no longer be running a print edition of Diesel Sweeties, focusing his attention on the main site instead. The last day of comics.com Sweeties will be this Sunday, August 10th. After that, I guess we will all have to get by on just one Diesel Sweeties comic each weekday.

Over at Dr. McNinja, Chris and Kent aren't doing any comics this week--but that doesn't mean that other people aren't! It's the second-ever Dr. McGueststravaganza! My spell-checker tells me that isn't a real word in like five different ways. But anyway, Dr. McNinja has had a bunch of guest comics going up all this week, by such illustrious cartoonists as Kate Beaton and the Nedroid guy. Pretty sweet stuff--and a new Dr. McNinja story begins on Monday. I'm pumped.

Here's some more news about comebacks: Nobody Scores! returns! After taking a month off to retool his comic and general become more embettered (which is like being embittered but for quality), Brandon Bolt brings us the first installment of an extended story about arch-capitalist Sara Peterson's latest purchase. In general, the new Nobody Scores! will have slightly longer "episodes" overall, delivered in installments of slightly shorter shorter individual comics. The details of the new presentation format can be found in this here newspost.

That's all the news about cartoonists this week. Now let's have a quick look at a couple of strips I liked.

Tuesday's Cat and Girl delived a "sites of historical and cultural interest" take on the classic Abbott and Costello "Who's on First" routine. I thought it was a clever little tribute.

Also, as Ebert and Roeper end their run as co-hosts of "At the Movies", Joe Dunn has got a new pair of critics lined up. Who are they? They are awesome.

And that's the news for this week! Tune in next week for your regularly-scheduled Friday webcomics lowdown, plus a special feature on small comics.

Hey, folks. The big event around here this week is yesterday's Thinkin' Lincoln review commemorating its three-year anniversary. Thinkin' Lincoln is a pretty good comic, and you should check it out. But here is a condensed version of the usual week-in-review-style content, providing you with some quick laughs.

Did any webcomics this week make you laugh out loud? Post a link in the comments and share the funny!

Quick Laughs:

• @Starslip: the absurdity of Mr. Jinx's alien physiology never fails to amuse me


• @Starslip again: Vanderbeam's departure from the Fuseli is a momentous occasion and a major turning point for the comic--good thing it's funny too


• @Sheldon: this series of comics, in which Flaco and Arthur purchase a Barbie Dream House, is good for at least four quick laughs, if not more


• @Biff: Biff forgets to feed his pet


• @Cat&Girl: Girl dishes out the burnsauce on a familiar institution

And that's a wrap. See y'all next week!

Uhhgh...mfff. Nerghh. What time is it?

It's time for a review of the week in webcomics.

Let's start off with two of my favorite M-W-F comics, Gunnerkrigg Court and Penny and Aggie. In premise, these two comics have just about as little in common as conceivably possible: one's the science-fantasy adventures of a stoical little girl at a weird, mysterious boarding school, and the other's this down-to-earth teen drama thing with lots of hate and friendship and other interpersonal emotions, and no fantastic stuff whatsoever. But in their current storylines, they have one thing in common: plays. And I loves me some Shakespeare and some swordfights, so these are welcome developments.

Sinfest this week has turned its focus on Pooch the dog taking coolness lessons from Percy the cat, which means that this week it moves from "comic my mom would not enjoy" to "comic my mom would enjoy." Sinfest really is a peculiar comic: it's certainly edgy and sharp and crass, but it has a definite newspaper-strip sensibility to it, and not just in presentation. In spite of the characters' egoism and debauchery, a lot of its humor hinges on a theme that would be right at home in the funny pages: the notion that in spite of our well-crafted veneers, we're messy and flawed and we really just want to be loved.

Except for Percy, who, like all cats, is too cool for school.

Anyways! Let's talk about cartoonists going absent and returning from absences. After a rather quiet several weeks, Joe Dunn returns to the urgent business of loving crappy movies. We celebrate his return with much rejoicing! Yaaay. The most recent comic about Wall-E is particularly good.

Even as Joe Dunn returns triumphantly, Brandon Bolt of Nobody Scores is giving his comic its yearly vacation, but not before leaving us with this wonderful gem, illustrating the inevitable, hilarious fallout between longtime friends Jane and Sara. When Nobody Scores returns from vacation, it will be fresh and re-engineered for maximum calamity. We eagerly await its return!

I'll be danged if Monday's Cat and Girl didn't make me laugh out loud. C&G often uses this formula for a strip, wherein Girl gives a very serious, earnest conceptual dissection of a shortcoming of modernity/postmodernity, and Cat's final line is an apparent non-sequitur that actually relates to the topic at hand in some absurdist fashion. And C&G creator Dorothy Gambrell generally has the chops to fill the formula with interesting content, so I'm a fan of strips like that. Tuesday's topic was mystery: in the Information Age, what remains that hasn't been mapped out and served to us on a Google platter? As it turns out, Cat himself is full of mystery. Now go read that comic, okay?

One final quick note: I was a big ol' fan of The New Adventures of Captain S during its first-season run. Captain S is a webshow that parodies and pays tribute to both Captain N and 90s sitcoms in equal measure. There's no second season yet, but there is currently an all-new webcomic-format tale, updated weekly. You can start reading it here.

Okay, and that's a wrap! See you next week. Time to go do productive things now.

So, welcome to This Week in Webcomics, the blog where I tell you what was awesome in internet comics this past week because I love you. Wouldn't it be ironic if, as I told you what comics you should totally read, I were to mention spoilers for those same comics? So I will try not to do that. All the same, consider us to be under a Spoiler Watch. You know, like Tornado Watch vs. Tornado Warning.

I tuned in to Dr. McNinja on Monday morning and immediately knew that it was going to be a good week. As soon as I saw the last panel of Monday's comic, I was like, "Man, they just totally went there." Drawing a situation like that (notice how I am avoiding spoilers?) takes serious artistic chops, but it opens up some possibilities for sweet action that subsequent installments have totally delivered on. I look forward to seeing where this battle with Dracula on his Moon Base goes.

I'll confess, Penny Arcade has been hit-or-miss for me lately. I expect the work they've been doing on that crazy video game of theirs has something to do with it, but now that they've polished that off, I hope they'll be able to devote more creative energy to their comic-style humors. A noteworthy development: I never thought I'd see the Broodax again, figuring it for a one-off gag, but sure enough, here it is today. Broodax: the Twisp and Catsby of '08? Only time will tell.

Strips that feature children playing make-believe often idealize the experience. The vibe you get from them tends to be: "Oh, look at that, the children are playing pretend, how creative and adorable." (Family Circus, I'm looking at you.) However, Sheldon this week has been doing a strip series in which Sheldon and friends play Lord of the Rings, and Flaco and Arthur insist on making up back-stories and motivations for the villains they're playing. Strangely, it's Sheldon--the actual kid--who's making the observation that kids' games can get way too ridiculous sometimes. It also works as a subtle commentary on the tendency of webcomics to get incredibly stupid when they insist on injecting drama where it's really not necessary at all.

Speaking of kids, it's a rare occurrence that Cat and Girl acknowledges that Girl is an actual child. Seriously, with all her social commentary, it's easy to forget that she doesn't even technically have a degree yet.

Oh, yeah. And Tim Buckley's latest storyline over at CAD is a big tall glass of Cringe Juice. No, I'm not going to link to it. It's that bad.

Did I miss anything? Did anything else great or significant happen in the world of webcomics this week? Let me know if something slipped past my radar--that's why there is a comments feature.