Wordpress, the software I use to manage Brown Sharpie, keeps rolling out the upgrades. I keep applying them, crossing my fingers that it won’t all go wahooni shaped (to borrow a phrase from Terry Pratchett).

Continuing the comic throughout the first year of grad school was really tough, and there were certainly days I thought I might just let it fizzle. But summer is here, and once qualifiers are done, I think I’ll be much more optimistic about the future of Brown Sharpie. I’ve even considered adding some more ad units (unobtrusively, if possible) to try to generate a little revenue. So far, the all-time ad income I’ve made is a whopping $11.07. That’s about, oh, three sharpies (unless I can find an art store that’s closing–then it’s about 40).

Although I’d love for Brown Sharpie to take a summer vacation, this is not the year, so thanks for reading! I hope to keep you mildly entertained for a bit longer still.

There have been some serious close calls these days, with me waking up to remember that I don’t have a comic scanned yet! Luckily, my desire to keep Brown Sharpie going for another year outweighs my desire to sleep well at night or succeed in grad school.

I had hoped that grad school would provide lots of fresh new material, but it turns out that graduate math classes just aren’t that funny! Here’s hoping that changes, soon.

It will be interesting to see how the caption contest goes. I’m having a hard time picking three top choices!

Wow! What a lot has happened since I last updated here:

I signed up for Oh No Robot’s comic transcription database service, meaning that you can head to Brown Sharpie (or “brosh,” as I think of it) and find some comics that need transcriptions. So far, I’ve transcribed 2. But here’s me, doing all the work, and there’s you, having all the fun. So seriously (SRSLY!)–knock yourselves out.

Moving on! At the college where I still technically work, someone was throwing away a perfectly functional (albeit old and ugly) scanner. So I snagged it. Score! Now I can continue to update even after moving without having to find a convenient scanning location.

Finally, I registered “brownsharpie.com” today. So once the DNS propagates and such, you can choose to visit either the usual url or the shorter, more memorable one.

And that about wraps it up!

Fun trivia:
In the past month, I’ve had a total of 1,835 visits and 9,732 pageviews. Sadly, neither number is prime. Le sigh.

I’ll be moving this summer, in June (and then more officially in July). This move signals the end of the formative era of Brown Sharpie, where I sat in my cozy office and came up with a method for getting the comics from brain to paper to screen. Once I move, I’ll need to get a scanner to keep on top of the comic business. I don’t anticipate that I’ll stop creating comics–I think, actually, that grad school will prove to be rich in funny material.

So here’s the question I’ve been mulling over: Do I try to generate some revenue from the site to pay for a scanner (or at least part of one)? Revenue could happen in the form of Brown Sharpie merchandise, google ads, amazon links, or anything creative you might suggest.

I’m also considering getting a P.O. box when we relocate so that readers can send me postcards, sharpies, or whatever. Maybe I’ll even start sending out physical comics (think index card post card) for a small donation. What do you think? Would you send me a buck via snail mail or PayPal for a recreation of your favorite sharpie comic?

How do my comics get from my brain to your screen? I have a system in five phases:

Phase 1: To make my comics, I sit down with a few ideas, sketch them up, maybe redo them, come up with some related ideas–and then I might have six or seven new brown sharpies ready to scan.

Phase 2: I bring these guys to the linux lab where I work, scan them, and adjust them with the GIMP if I need to. I save them by date scanned.

Phase 3: I upload the new batch to my flickr account (I like to have a self-archive on the web), steal the conveniently resized version, and save it back to my laptop.

Phase 4: The fun part! I sketch out a little grid of the next 6 or 7 MWF’s I have to fill. I plan which comic goes with which day.

Phase 5: Now I login to wordpress, write the title, appropriately tag the entry, forward date the post, and upload the comic. Voila! Another brown sharpie completed!

Someday I hope to score a sweet Wacom tablet so the first two phases can be smooshed together. Until then–well. I’m just that old skool.

I’ve decided to create a news section for Brown Sharpie so that I don’t have to make news updates into comics, although that is a quick way to generate content.

Anyhow, in case you’re interested, here’s what I want to do to Brown Sharpie in the coming weeks:

• Upgrade to the Wordpress 2.1 series. Unfortunately, every time I try, Wordpress won’t pull my comics from the database. If anyone knows of a fix, that would be delightful, delicious, and delovely. Done: 3/5/2007
• Implement a thumbs up comic rating system. I’ve learned that I can’t take negative feedback well (in the form of a three box rating). Instead, I like affirmation. So if you love a comic, you’ll be able to give it a thumbs up. The comics with the highest positive thumb count will be featured…somewhere.
• Come up with a logo for the header. I’d like thinks to look more “Web 2.0″ (you know what I mean). Done: 3/8/2007
• Get more people to subscribe to the RSS feed!
• Look into a subscribe via email plugin.

And that’s where my head is at on the meta-comic level.