8/30 UPDATE: We didn’t make it to the final stage of the tournament but we had a GREAT run! Out of 50 Interviews we made it to the last 8, so a big thanks to everybody who voted and to Kurt Sasso of TGT Webcomics for putting this whole thing together. Congrats to all the finalists, especially to my buddy and competition in the semifinals, The Legend of Bill‘s David Reddick. (We’re still gonna have to do some karaoke together in the future, Dave!)

Now go check out the TGT Webcomics site regularly for some great interviews with some of your favorite webcomics creators.

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8/27 UPDATE: There’s still time to cast your daily vote in the TGT Tournament! Sure, it looks like we aren’t going to make it to the Finals at this point, but let’s not go down without a fight!
• TGT Tournament

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8/21 UPDATE: Behold the craziness: Your votes have gotten JEFbot into the semi-finals of the TGT Tournament! Looks like it’s my interview vs. my buddy David Reddick’s (Legend of Bill) this time, and I have a feeling this one’s gonna be the toughest one yet. Bracket 3, one vote a day, all week!

• TGT Tournament Semi-Finals

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8/17 UPDATE: I don’t know how it happened*, but against all odds and by the slimmest of margins, JEFbot won its bracket in Round 2 and has now moved on to Round 3 of the TGT Webcomics Tournament! If you wish to increase my bafflement at this state of events, cast a vote for JEFbot by clicking the link below, and listen to some fine interviews and perhaps discover some new webcomics while you’re at it.

• TGT Tournament Round 3 (JEFbot’s at Bracket 5 and can be voted on once per day.)

* Yes I do: A legion of you readers voted for the JEFbot interview. I’m both baffled and humbled. THANK YOU.

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UPDATE: We won our bracket for Round 1 of the TGT Tournament, and now we’re moving on to Round 2! So a big thank you to everybody who voted for my interview and helped fend off the competition. If you’d like to vote for me in Round 2 or would just like to check out some cool interviews with some talented webcomicfolk, here’s the link:

• TGT Tournament Round 2.

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ORIGINAL POST: My pals over at TGT Webcomics are having a fun tournament wherein people are voting for their favorite interviews from the past 50 shows. Mine’s going up against Rachel Keslensky’s (Last Res0rt!), and it’s turning into a close race, so check ‘em both out and vote! (And remember you can vote once a day, every day, until the tournament ends.)

• TGT Tournament EP51 – EP100

Check it out! The FANart page is up, showcasing some great illustrations from the artists among you JEFbot readers. I totally get a thrill out of seeing different takes on the characters (and animals!) from the strip, so if you feel inclined to sketch one up, do it and send it over, as i’ll be adding new art to the FANart page regularly. Big thanks to this first batch of artists!

Had to share with you guys this awesome sketch I found in my inbox recently, sent over from my bud, David Reddick. He’s an extremely talented and prolific artist/writer who most of you probably know from his fantastic webcomic, Legend of Bill, or perhaps from his amazing artistry on Gene’s Journal, Rod & Barry or (a childhood fave of mine) Garfield. David puts me to shame with the quality and quantity of his work; I can barely get out two strips a week!

Here’s his awesome take on jefbot:

And speaking of other takes on jefbot, I should have the Fan Art page up soon! Like, in the next day or two, so keep an eye out for it (and send me your JEFbot fan art if you have any stashed away!).

Those on my Twitter feed might remember me shooting a short film a few months ago where I was dressed up as a lion, rolling around on a bed with a cat. Since I haven’t had many opportunities to dress up as animals in projects I’ve acted in (thankfully), you can correctly assume that this is that film. It’s the second in a series of shorts, made by the guys over at scratchframe, entitled, Craigslist Masterpiece Theatre™ which are all based on real ads on Craigslist. For this short, You Were A Cat, the ad listing was as follows:

this last weekend I met you at a Halloween party. You were a black cat and
I was a lion with a sphinx head. We really hit it off and I really enjoyed
speaking with you but for whatever stupid reason I didn't get your name
when I left. I would love to see you again. please contact me

I had a great time shooting this thanks to the awesome cast and crew, and it was a blast reuniting with a couple of my peeps from Grey Skies on this project, namely the director of the short, Andrew Dickieson (Grey Skies’ camera and steadicam operator) and costar Anne Griffin (Grey Skies’ “Annie”). Drinking all the alcohol from the party scene after we wrapped also helped instill good feelings about the production.

If you’d like to see more shorts in this season of Craigslist Masterpiece Theatre™ or would like to know more about scratchframe and their projects, check out the following links:

• scratchframe website
• Craigslist Masterpiece Theatre™

I’m ecstatic (and relieved) to be writing this blog on the newly resurrected JEFbot site! It took all the time I’d normally be writing and drawing strips to get the site back on its feet, so no new strips this week, but next week I’m happy to say everything should be back on schedule. It’ll be nice getting back to writing and drawing the strip, and back to the characters and storyline. I’ve missed it!

For those just joining us, my site was hacked this week by some Internet AI that began hiding code within my files, the function of which was to release trojans and malware onto unsuspecting visitors. Well, thanks to the response from you readers, I was able to shut the site down before that could happen. Unfortunately, my corrupted files did get me placed on the Google “threat” list which warned browsers to stay away from my site. Fortunately, over the past week I was able to get rid of all the malicious code and clear my site’s name with Google and other search engines. If your browser warns you of any suspicious activity on this site, let me know.

You’ll notice the site is a bit under construction – I decided while I was mucking about in the site’s files that I might as well get some other maintenance done while I was in there. The biggest changes to the site are the elimination of the huge ad banner at the top of the page and the Flash-developed header. I’m extremely appreciative to everyone who advertised on that banner, but I’ve always felt it overpowered the site. And while I loved doing the little Flash animations in the header, with more and more readers accessing the site through mobile devices that aren’t Flash-compatible (like the iPhone and soon-to-be-released iPad), it just didn’t make sense to keep such an important component of the site (the title!) invisible to a large portion of users. Keep watch for updates to the new header with fun, seasonal graphics and buttons linking to random stuff, just like I did with the old one. I’ll continue updating the site over the next week or two, so hopefully this “under construction” business will be done, soon.

Thanks for all the support you guys have sent my way during this craziness. It was a strange, strange week not being able to work on the strip and interact with you readers like I normally do, so it was nice being able to still feel connected to you all through your encouraging emails and tweets. Believe me, taking the site down was the last thing I wanted to do, but it was necessary in this case, so thanks for the understanding. I’m hoping I won’t have to do that again for a long, long time.

Now it’s back to the (digital) drawing board, so I can start updating the site again with new comic strips! See you next week!