Welcome to the new and improved JEFbot.com!

This is the fourth major update to the website since I launched it as a meager blog a few years ago (I know at least a few of you remember those days). The site and the strip have come a long way since then and both have needed some important upgrades since 3.0 went online last year. There are a couple more tweaks that need to be done and a couple more pages that need to be completed (e.g. the “new readers” page), but once they’re finished, I can get back to concentrating on the strip. It would be nice to get a buffer of comics going so I’m not racing to the deadline every week.

I have to thank Tyler Martin and his awesome  ComicPress 2.5 Theme for making this site easy to update and customize, Matthew Arevalo for hosting it, and all the readers for coming back each week to check out JEFbot! Thanks, all!

Oh, and if you notice any glitches be sure and let me know. Other than that, sit back, relax and enjoy the new site!

The botSHOP is now open for business, so if you’re looking for some swell-looking JEFbot swag or would like to support this site by buying a shirt, look no further than the botSHOP for all your shopping needs (who needs pants or underwear?) by clicking here (Printfection.com/jefbot)!

Both shirt designs that were previously available only to JEFbot contest winners are there for sale, so you can be wearing all the fan-favorite characters and items you know and love, including the Cornfather, the Angry Scarf, mombot (with or without her Nintendo DS!), the Pagan Hamsters, Blue Elmo, Xinda, the RROD, the Christmas Bat and more!

Go, now! Before everything sells out!!!*

*actually, if it does, we’ll just make more, but still, go.

I found out this morning that Stan Winston, visual effects master, died yesterday at only 62 years of age from cancer. If you’ve watched almost any science fiction movie in the past 20 years, you’ve seen his work as he had a hand in bringing to life such iconic creations as the Terminator, the Predator and the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park. He also worked on Galaxy Quest, Iron Man, and, well, the list goes on and on.

He’ll go down in movie history as one of the greats, for certain, and not just because of his four Oscar wins in the visual effects categories. When I worked at a movie memorabilia store in Hollywood in the 90s, you couldn’t pick up a magazine like Cinefex or Cinefantatique without mention of him in their pages, and the same holds true today. Coolhand and I went to see him speak at UCLA once, and the auditorium was filled with enthusiastic fans who wanted to hear every detail of how he spun his movie magic. He will be greatly, greatly missed and the world of film won’t be the same without his special gifts. Thoughts go out to his friends and family.

Congratulations to the winners of the Free JEFBOT T-Shirt Contest II, and a big thank you to everybody who sent in an entry!

It was an interesting group of winners - we had our first one from outside the USA, we had two “Pauls,” and we had a return winner from the first contest whose husband also won (what are the odds!?)! Oh, and if that sounds like too many winners, it’s because, swept up in the chaotic fun of randomly picking the winners, my mom decided to donate an extra shirt to the contest (thanks, mom!).

Without further ado, here are the champions, my friends:

General Contest Winners
• Paul, Dracut, MA
• Paul Zeidman, San Francisco, CA
• Kurtis B., Northridge, CA

Mailing-List-Peeps-Only Contest Winner
• Kellee B., Northridge, CA

Bonus MOMbot T-shirt Winner
• Shan M, Ottawa, Canada

UPDATE: CONTEST IS OVER.
Winners will be announced on Wednesday! Thank you to everyone who submitted an entry.
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What better way to celebrate another 25 JEFBOT strips than to give away 3 free JEFBOT t-shirts away again!? Just like the contest back in January when we hit #25, the rules are simple:

1. In one of the strips in the JEFBOT Webcomic Archive, you’ll find a “50.” Believe me, you’ll know it when you see it. Find that strip.

2. Once you’ve found it, email me the date, title or number of the strip.

3. The contest will run from today through next Sunday, June 8, after which I’ll throw all the names of the people who emailed me the correct answer into a hat and have someone trustworthy randomly pull out three lucky winners. I’ll announce those winners on Wednesday, June 11.

That’s it, get to it! I’m hoping this contest will give new readers a fun incentive to read through the archives, and give longtime readers a refresher course before we continue on to the next 50.

You can check out the color and look of the t-shirt below. I’ve stuffed many favorite characters, moments and things from the past 25 strips into the design. It comes in white, forest green and dark chocolate, and if you win, you can choose the color you like best. Hope you like ‘em, and once again, Happy Hunting!!!

Last Thursday night I saw my friend Amy Claire perform her hilarious one woman show, “An Classy Evening With Amy Claire: How I Got This Far” in Hollywood at the Pan Andreas Theater. The show (unfortunately, it ran only one night to a sold-out audience) was very much like Amy’s gut-busting stand-up comedy act, and mined much of the same ”1/2 Southern Belle and half White Trash” material, but added blocking, lighting, a few props, and a slide show (the elephant baby was particularly effective) to the mix. Minimal, to be sure, but the direction (by Michael Cornacchia) kept things low-key and natural while keeping the biting spirit of Amy’s stand-up routine intact, much like we (the audience) were at a party where Amy started telling funny stories.

And the stories she told were indeed funny. Most of them let us in on the intimate details of her relationships (”I’m dating a doctor. So there’s a slight chance of me quitting my job and a strong possibility of “accidentally” getting pregnant.”), growing up in Louisiana (”Obviously I’ve never slept with my brother. We’ve only made-out. It’s not serious.”), drinking too much (”What’s that called when you make a wildly inappropriate decision just cuz everything else in your life sucks? Oh yeah. Drunk.”) and working as a secretary (”I just got caught stealing toilet paper at work.”) Funny, funny stuff which I can’t do justice here, but you get the point.

After the show, which was seriously the fastest 45 minutes I’ve experienced in a theater in the past 10 years, we all celebrated Amy’s birthday with the singing of “Happy Birthday” and the eating of cake. And the drinking of free alcohol, which seemed totally appropriate.

Even though her show’s now closed, you can still catch Amy’s stand-up around Hollywood every now and then. She’s performed at the The Improv, Comedy Store and The House of Blues, among others, so if you see her name on a marquee somewhere, be sure to check her out.

Oh yeah, I did the “trailer park” sign for her show and was honored to do it.