Footnote: Okay, guys, I swear this is the last guest strip! Let’s all go thank SG for ending it on a high note.

Volume Two starts next week! Tell your Friends !

Footnote: OMG, an actual guest strip! It’s a miracle!

It’s also done by Amanda.

Footnote: The blast from the past continues…

UPDATE: Well, someone at MomoCon must’ve heard me, because I managed to find and secure an indoor space after all! ‘Course, it doesn’t solve the problem for everyone else who’d like to be at the convention, though…

Short Answer: Maybe.

The Problem: Everyone loves MomoCon. So much, in fact, that MomoCon is becoming entirely too big to accomodate everyone (Hint: if you want to go to MomoCon 2010, you need to preregister at Fandom U, because there IS an attendance cap) , including all of the artists who got wind that it’s a great place to set up shop, and so there’s not enough Artist Alley spaces to go around… including the one that was supposed to be mine, apparently.

There’s going to be an Outdoor Bazaar section to accomodate this, which is good in the respect that the tables are free (like they cost much to begin with!), but very, very bad in that they’re:

• Weather permitting (so you better hope it’s sunny and warm; I’m more than happy to remind everyone that two years ago MomoCon was interrupted by tornado warnings, so this is by no means a given. )
• First come first serve (i.e. I still might have trouble finding a spot)
• I won’t have a dedicated (let alone secure!) table during the duration of the convention, which means I’ll have to set up / take down my entire setup each day of the con.

Yes, those of you familiar with furry conventions may not find this to be all that unusual (save for the open-air part), but there’s a significant difference between “carrying your supplies back and forth each day to you hotel room that’s an elevator away” and MomoCon, which is not located inside a hotel and even if you live on campus, that’s no small trek to do with a dolly filled with merchandise and supplies.

In short: It’s doable, yes, but most of the implementations  that come to mind so far tend to suck, and the weather is a significant wildcard even with the best of ideas. (And remember all those books I’m getting ready to sell soon? All those paper-based, ruined-by-rain-and-possibly-wind books?)

I don’t blame MomoCon for doing this. I’ve watched them grow / been good friends with the con heads from previous years, so I know their hands are probably tied between “We can’t afford to rent all this space for a free convention, but we’ll never afford this space if attendance drops because we start charging for the con!” and “We want to make sure the convention is able to grow and become even better!”

That doesn’t mean I’m happy with this decision by any stretch.

Maybe there’s a bunch of you out there lured by the concept of a free table enough that you’re willing to come out here with a binder full of wishes and give it your best shot anyway, so the odds are good that MomoCon is being shrewd by doing this and allowing their convention to grow as big as it wants by having this additional spill space.

But as much as I’ve raised and invested in books, buttons, prints, and other oh-so-sensitive -to-wind-and-rain merchandise? I want a proper table.

There’s still a few months between now and then, though, so who knows? If enough of you write the Dealer’s Rep and ask very nicely for more space somewhere indoors, explaining to them that having a thriving Artist’s Alley is one of the better parts of their conventions (and it’s a sure bet that if I’M having trouble securing a table, tons of other worthy artists are too), and that there’s no shortage of nice places on campus to have it in that don’t involve leaving all those artists at the mercy of the weather, maybe they can find a way.

Footnote: Yup, I told you you’d never guess it. This week’s special guest is… my old 2006 self!

As you may’ve already guessed, this was a pre-Last Res0rt pamphlet comic I did just in time for Dragon*Con 2006. It was made from taking several 3×5 index cards, slicing them up to fit a sheet of 8.5×11″ paper, and drawing in the pictures accordingly with an ink pen, and xeroxing the whole project together.

I still added in the lettering digitally, though.

It’s very similar to the Last Res0rt we know and love, but things went differently back then; Slick ended up being Jigsaw’s lieutenant, not Daisy (and for reasons I can’t quite fathom, Daisy had a devil tail). There’s more that’s changed since, I’m sure, but that’s what’s in the next few strips, if nothing else.

So sit back, enjoy the blast from the past for a few weeks, and if anyone else wants to send in guest strips… hop to it!

Year in Review:

For those who want a little plot recap:

• We came into the year with Daisy having her alleged secret identity as a Galaxy Girl Scout revealed,  then went straight into Episode Two where they end up fighting who else but… a gaggle of Galaxy Girl Scouts ready to wreak revenge on Daisy and collect some collateral damage in the process.
• Jason’s all too willing to comply, but Slick and Addy gain the upper hand with some help from their new ‘little friend’ Sedja (hint: she’s not that little) , which allows the players to turn the tide on the Scouts, but not without some zombie-on-Talmi action getting in the way first.
• The players win, and White Noise is put in charge, but also ends up with Jason as his second in command, which doesn’t go over very well. There’s no time to worry about it though, as Jigsaw ends up having to think fast (literally) to save Daisy as well as Addy’s new friend from the Vaeo family. Addy is very… grateful.
• Jigsaw’s not in a good mood, but that doesn’t stop her from meeting a guest at Cypress’s request… though she wouldn’t have done it if she’d known that guest was Veled! After a brief conversation over tea, Veled loses her temper and forces Jigsaw to confront her “true” nature… including revealing how she ended up a vampire in the first place!

In addition to this, we switched over to our currently snazzy Wordpress site engine (complete with a sweet redesign!), opened Last Res0rt On Demand (Our Print-On-Demand Zazzle shop full of sweet swag!), an awesome omnibus cast page and tagging system, recieved several awesome reviews and an excellent interview (as well as a couple of guest appearances on the Webcomic Beacon!), and raised plenty of funds through the Star Org Cameo Drive, all of which means that 2010 is bound to be even better!

Plans for 2010:

• The book’s done, now it just needs to be published! I’m shooting like mad to have them ready in time for Furry Weekend Atlanta 2010 (and if they aren’t ready by then, I WILL be mad!), but don’t worry, they’ll be available online as well… probably around the same time, if not a little earlier.
• More stuff available online! Yes, we do have Last Res0rt on Demand to handle some of the buttons and smaller items that you can otherwise only get at conventions, but once we have these books available for sale, we’ll also have a few other things we need to post for y’all as well, including those sweet posters from Anime Weekend Atlanta (You remember them, right? … oh, you weren’t there? Shame…)
• The start of Volume Two! Yes, we’ve got a few more guest strips to go through while I’m getting everything back in order, but we’ll be back in action soon enough, which means all those cameos and things ought to be showing up shortly.

And of course, this isn’t all we’ve got planned… just the stuff that’s pretty obviously going to happen over the next year. But hey, what’s wrong with a few surprises?

You Can Help Last Res0rt in 2010!

Of course, all of this requires making a lot of decisions about what to do, where to do it, and how to make this all as successful as possible…

So I’ve made a survey so you can help me do just that! Click here to go and take the survey now!

It mostly covers cool conventions I’m considering or stuff I want to try and make next, but it’s really important to fill this out even if you’re only thinking about going to a con or getting some of the stuff I have available, because I want to make sure it’s stuff you’ll like in addition to it being stuff that I can think I can make my money back on!

So… go ahead and take it, already!

Footnote: Yep, I’m not responsible for this week’s strip, which was instead drawn by Fluffy  of Busybee Comics.

If you think you can draw a better guest strip, by all means, send it in!

Next week, come back for more guest strips… and you’ll never guess who the artist for this next batch is!

Footnote: Yup, as though the exposition wasn’t a dead giveaway, we’ve got the first book all wrapped up nice and tidy, and guest comics are on the way! Don’t worry, the crew’ll be back soon, but it’s time to have some fun… come back to see some good stuff in the next few weeks!