Life Outside the Blog

Well, for those who have been reading, you may have noticed that there haven’t been any updates for a while. This is due to the fact that I have almost zero available time for the comic, and what I do have I’d like to put towards sleep. Sorry to anyone wanting more, and I promise there is something in mind, but there most likely won’t be many new strips until the holidays when I have too much time on my hands. Thanks for the support though, and join us on the forums sometime (I’ll start frequenting them more myself)!

So now summer is over and another semester begins. My goal is to break 100 comics before Christmas, which should be reasonable after two years in the business. Thanks to all the readers and supporters of our little thing here. I’m going to try to get one strip in every other week, and maybe more depending on how busy things get. Feel free to leave comments and check out our forums!

Okay, so my spring break was this past week, and I had planned to do some comics throughout the week, but I was having way too much fun. I have a good amount of ideas, and a start on the next few strips, but I’m getting swamped by HW and upcoming midterms. I’ll get one up ASAP, and the rest whenever. They’re in the works…

Good news everyone! We now have forums! Now those faithful few can come and chat about the comic, discuss characters, and generally enjoy themselves within our growing community. So if you’re a fan, or just wanna join up, check out the link at the top of the homepage. See ya there!

If you’re a returning visitor then you may have noticed that, well, this site seems to have changed a lot. For one thing we no longer are going by our old name, “USSR Comics” and instead are called “Life Outside the Box”. Also, the site’s design has changed slightly, partly because we were tired of the old colors and partly because the old design was causing some problems with certain browsers. But the comic will stay the same, so don’t worry about that. If you have any problems with the design or comments about anything feel free to leave some feedback!

We updated the characters page today with some newer pictures and added the newest member of the cast, Man in the Tall Hat. Speaking of which, who exactly is that guy anyway and what is he trying to do?

Also, we decided to ditch the Google ads because they were just advertising shady internet dating services and age tests for old people. Their ads were terrible and weren’t of interest to anyone who goes to this site. I’m sure most of you just adblock those things anyway and have no idea what I’m talking about. In an attempt however to make this comic feature some more relevant ads that provide interesting links to other websites people like you would enjoy, we’ve deployed Project Wonderful in our ad space. As of this writing there is currently a banner for some artsy tea pots though, so I’m uncertain of how well that actually worked.

For those faithful readers, and for those of you new to USSR Comics, you may have noticed the beginning of a plot. About that, I will say that this is a new change to the strip, and I will try to maintain an ongoing plotline for the continuation of the strip. what will happen, I can’t say, since I have just started things rolling. But it will be entertaining, funny, suspenseful, and climactic.

On a marginally related note, I have noticed that we are getting a lot of viewers, and am well pleased. This little startup project is getting views from all over the globe, and is seemingly getting more popular. To you great readers, I thank you. Please feel free to post some comments anytime, we’d love to hear what people think about the strip.

-The Comrade

The new design is finished and has now succeeded the old one. There are still a few things I need to change, but they’re relatively minor and can be dealt with later. All new URLs are backwards compatible with any old links, so you don’t have to worry about updating bookmarks or anything. The only thing that might cause a problem is that I’ve changed our syndication format from RSS to Atom, but feed readers should be able to deal with that. Also, I’ve optimized this to work in IE7, Firefox 2, and Opera 9. Other browsers aren’t supported although I have put a little effort to make the it look not quite so ugly in them. If you’re using IE6 or Netscape 2 or something then I’m sorry! All in all, hooray for not having an ugly site anymore!

I’m currently beta testing the next generation of the site. In addition to the current one looking ugly, the code behind it is a total mess. The new software uses a lightly modified version of the CMS I use for my personal site. There’s no current date set for the release, just whenever it’s done.

This is a very confusing and stressful time for many people, including budding cartoonists. Thanksgiving Break is a great time to catch up on sleep and eat some good, home-cooked foods. Yet there is a darker side to it- I’m trying to make up for a semester of not studying enough, do two projects, and exercise enough to counter all the eating. Also, this is the season for buying presents, be it for Christmas or birthdays, there are a buncha people I have to buy for. That and once the break is over, I have two weeks till finals….fun. I hope to get one more strip out this week, and then it’d be a stretch to say I’ll get one before the end of finals, but I’ll try… Then Christmas, so expect more then (big important strips too…). We’re also working on changing the site design itself, so expect some (big) changes in the near future.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving, and should I not get around to updating until then, Happy Holidays!

-The Comrade