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MicMit on Dec. 27, 2010

Hey everyone, a belated Merry Christmas and an early Happy New years to you all!
I'm feeling much better now so I might be able to type something vaguely interesting up.
I hope you all had a good Christmas, mine went quite well. Spent it with the family, ate some turkey, and even got along with my older sister for nearly a whole day. Now I'm in the process of organizing a New Year's get together with some old classmates and then a larger bonfire party a few days later.
I'm really excited right now, because I only have two more pages to draw to finish the comic and the next few pages have come out really nice. Most likely after I finish I'm going to do that autobiographical strip comic I was talking about.
At the same time, I'm teaching myself php and javascript, and a little bit about typography and lettering. This will serve me for what I expect to be my big summer project. I'm still working on the mechanics of it, so I haven't thought much about the concept or story, however, I like to think it'll be interesting experiment for webcomics.
Finally let's do a much delayed recommended reading. First off, best gift I got this christmas was easily a collection of pages from the classic 20th century comic Little Nemo in Slumberland. This has been a comic on my reading list for quite sometime, but I've never been able to find a copy. My parents surprised me this year by getting me a book put out by Sunday press that has reproduced the pages in their traditional size and at stunning quality. These are some of the beautiful pages of comics I've ever seen in my life. It's easy to see why so many artists were influenced by this comic. When Volume 1 came out it apparently sold out with ridiculous speed, and now goes for $400 in some places. I have volume 2, which is definitely more reasonably priced, and well worth your money.
My other recommendation is for those interested in, or perhaps have no idea of, experimental fiction. It's John Barth's Lost in the Funhouse. I was first introduced to Barth my senior year of High School. I had to write my final paper comparing one of his novels to 1001 nights and The Decameron. I was very confused and completely lost. Oddly enough I still enjoyed him, just didn't know why. The next year he came up again in a class on critical theory, and I understood him so much better.
His writing is tied strongly to deconstructivist philosophy (just google it, it's hard to explain). Once I began to understand his work, the only way I can describe my emotion towards his writing is "giddy." I can't help but read his stories with a gigantic smile on my face. Even when it's not really a comedy, I just get such joy reading his work like no other author. Easily my favorite writer, give him a look.