I've had a pretty busy year so far, work-wise, which is great, but one thing I have missed having the time to devote to is my comic strip, The Rainbow Orchid. For that reason, a few months ago I decided to adapt the strip into a webcomic format, with the main intention of giving me a weekly schedule to work to, even if it's just to advance the strip forward only a little. The webcomic is not intended to replace the book, as a printed collection is still my ultimate ambition for the story.

Recently the webcomic version passed 50,000 hits (actually 54,000 at the time of writing), with about 40,000 in July, and 10,000 so far this month. Converting that into unique visitors that's about 12,000 in July, which is very pleasing, especially seeing as I haven't really promoted it much, just dropping a well-placed mention here and there. I know that falls far short of many webcomics, but I also know they're numbers to be fairly happy about.

I don't usually do public forum angst, but I have not been feeling good about my own drawing recently, and I have lost quite a bit of confidence in my own ability. This is nothing unusual, and the good side of it is that it does make me want to try and improve my work and redouble my efforts. I do feel enormously grateful that even one person enjoys my writing and drawing, and the response I've been getting to Rainbow Orchid is wonderful - so, thank you!

I'll end this with a very early picture of my main character, Julius Chancer - I don't think I've ever shown this before, from my sketchbook while developing various characters (1997). Check out his enormous feet!