And the Crowd Goes Mild

Well, today marks the 500th strip of Medium Large...about 400 more than first intended.

The strip was initially created back in 2003 as a syndicate submission but in a far different version--the main character spoke and had a name, most of the dialogue came from household appliances and the only thing my editor even remotely liked about it was Teenage Girl President. It was then drastically reconceived (read: mute character, no talking appliances and a lax attitude toward language) and posted on Drink at Work.com on April 19, 2004 with the full intention of it running weekly. But that day I received an email from our good friend Chance over at Crewless Films asking "So what do you have in store for tomorrow?" And so a daily grind was born.

Of course, the only reason this strip is celebrating its quinticentennial is because of its readers and its readers alone. Your tremendous support through your comments, emails and that one somewhat disquieting phone message have made doing "Medium Large" one of the happiest parts of my day. I thank you all.

As for the future of the strip, we plan to publish the first book collection this summer (the working title is I'm the Ghost of a Murdered Orphan but that...that probably won't be the case come print time). It will feature plenty of exclusive material, including 40 or so strips that won't ever appear on this site. If by some miracle we experience anything even remotely in double-digit sales maybe we'll release a second volume come Christmas.

Well, that about wraps up this celebration. Time to end it with what seems to be the only fitting way how--by listing a host of some truly terrific comics on the Web:

Barkeater Lake
Joe and Monkey
Wondermark!
Pirate and Alien
Nothing Nice to Say
Five Bucks to Friday
Lulu Eightball
Autumn Lake
Butterfly

Thanks again, everyone!
Ces