We did not actually surf a hairy wave of hobo spiders. For reasons unknown to us, though presumably they have something to do with promoting Pocket Kingdoms (which I will now link), we were sent a couple N-Gage game "decks" as part of some strange self-flagellation ritual they have going at Nokia.

The prints are finally going through, and they look the way we want them to. We have a special run of three available for the dinner/auction , but we snapped a shot of how it looks if you'd like to see it.

Things just keep getting worse for the Phantom. What they need to do is release their keyboard/mousing surface device and cut their losses. At this point I think they could sell that thing by itself and be far more successful then they ever would be with their goofy console.

I wanted to finish the game before I spoke about it again, and I completed it last night. I'll talk about it later today, if you want.

I got this email this morning:

I really like this comic. I've maybe admitted it five or six times in our entire oeuvre, but Gabe's art in this one is excellent and my writing isn't idiotic or offensive. Also, it was an opportunity to do a Thanksgiving strip, even if it is Thanksgiving refracted through the lens of madness. Other holidays have ways of obscuring their food offerings, with gods and whatnot, and I just find the focus on birds themselves refreshing.

Gabe just had a great idea - if you're one of the people that "adopted early" and picked up a DS, why don't you go ahead and bring that son of a bitch to Toys 'r' Us on Saturday. You probably have the same problem we do, you think it might be kind of a cool device, but you don't have a bunch of people to dig in and really try out that wireless functionality. We'll rock the Hunters for a while, see how it goes.

I got this letter from a reader named Michael this morning, and I just wanted to share it with you guys. I'm sure you get a lot of worthless thank-you e-mails constantly, but I felt like I needed to let you know how great of a thing you are doing for all those sick kids.

Our friends over at Garrison Titan will be at the Toys 'r' Us in Bellevue collecting toys for Child's Play, from 10am to 4pm here's the address:

Imagine if both outcomes of a coin toss represented unmitigated tragedy. Then, imagine that we had created a comic about just such a scenario.

Good news! Amazon has fixed the Wish List problem we were having and you are now free to purchase items from third party vendors. That means that you can finally purchase video games and systems for the kids. The main idea behind Child's Play has always been to get games to kids who need them and now we can do it.

First of all everything Tycho said about MGS 3 is right on the money. If you want to know what the game is like but you don’t want to buy it, here’s what you do. Go out into your backyard and lay down in the grass for fifteen hours. Every twenty minutes have a friend come out and step on your balls. That will give you a pretty good idea of what MGS 3 is like.

Now that Half-Life 2 and Metal Gear Solid 3 have joined Halo 2 and the sequel to Metroid Prime, the dark conjunction can finally begin.

The World of Warcraft Strategy guide should be in stores tomorrow. I mentioned a few days ago that the book is full of original comic strips by Tycho and I. So we're going to go to our local EB around lunch and sign all the copies they have. If you want to, you can come by and say hi. We'll be at the EB in the Northgate mall around 12:30. Or you should be able to drop in there later and at least pick up an autographed copy.

Every big charity always has a fancy dinner and auction. We figure that just because we're gamers doesn't mean we can't get dressed up for one night and act like we're a bunch of fancy high society types. So with that in mind I'd like to invite you to the Child's Play 2004 charity dinner and auction - December 9th in Bellevue Washington.

Misbehaving with a game's physics system is one of life's great pleasures. Don't think about the domination of your species by hostile aliens and their earthly commissars for a little while. Take a moment to hit someone you don't know with a box of delicious chow mein! Smash your downtrodden fellow man with a glass jug. You'll thank me later.