Witness this armed and fully operational website! It’s been a long time coming, but it’s finally here. Read on.

Note a few improvements over the old website, like how easy it is to navigate through back issues of the comic now, either by clicking on the arrows to the top right of the comic or by clicking the “archive” link below the title. Also, there was some confusion with the old site since the comic commentary wasn’t linked directly to the comic. That has been rectified. Some have also expressed disappointment that since the launch of the webcomic, I’ve abandoned my blog posts. Well, rest assured, my blogs about all the silly, meaningless minutiae you’ve come to expect from me, including updates on my journey through Hollywood and all the reports on Giant Squid (ah, Architeuthis, you vex me so!) sightings you’ll ever need, shall commence once again.

I have to take a moment to thank Mr. Matthew Arevalo, who either saw potential and something he liked in the JEFBOT strip, or just took pity on it and decided to throw some charity my way - regardless, he has graciously donated server space to host the webcomic you see before you, and for that and all his help getting the new JEFBOT site up, I am grateful. Thanks, Matthew.

So that’s about it. I’ll continue to work on this site so expect new features in the coming weeks. For now, enjoy the new space and email me if you find any glitches or have any suggestions for improvements.

Just wanted to wish all JEFBOT readers, friends and family a Happy Thanksgiving. A couple of the biggest things I’m thankful for this year are (finally) getting JEFBOT up and for having an audience who comes to the site and reads the strip, which makes doing it so much more fun than if I were just drawing it for myself. Special thanks to those that have left a comment or emailed me with feedback letting me know what they thought about the strip or the website. I truly enjoy getting these responses and it gives me a little thrill whenever I see a new comment has been posted.

So thanks everybody! Eat lots of food and drink, hopefully with loved ones and family, and with any luck I’ll be here next year giving thanks for a whole 2008s worth of strips. I’m sure you all have lots to be thankful about this year, too. If nothing else, be thankful Hagryphus giganteus, the 75 million-year-old prehistoric turkey who stood 7 feet tall and could run over 25 mph, won’t be dining with you this year, as the turkey in that case would definitely be stuffed. With human. *insert scream here* Happy Thanksgiving!

Almost every year, I design a Christmas card my mom sends out to friends and family. Since I had half my family already designed for the webcomic, I decided to do a JEFBOT-themed card this year. A nice side effect was that I now have the rest of the family members comic-ready for future strips.

Warner Bros. announced today that it’s going to drop support for HD-DVD in May of this year and support the Blu-ray format exclusively, which basically means, in my mind, that the High Definition Disc War is over, Blu-Ray won, and HD-DVD needs to pack it up. Not that I’m an HD-DVD hater or anything, I have players for both formats and my HD-DVDs have generally had more interactive features than their Blu-ray counterparts (300). But Blu-ray has caught up technically and will be putting out discs that can compete with those features (like picture-in-picture) going forward, plus a lot more information can be stored on Blu-rays than HD-DVDs, in some cases more than twice the amount of storage space - something the HD-DVD camp can’t fix with a firmware upgrade. And now that Warner Bros. has gone over to Blu-ray, that leaves Paramount (except for Spielberg flicks) and NBC as the sole studios hanging onto HD-DVD. WB, Sony, Fox and Disney (so Pixar) are all supporting Blu-ray.

Anyway, I think the faster HD-DVD gives up, the less confusing it will be for consumers looking to get a high-def disc player, and the quicker it will be for HD-DVDs to go into the bargain bins where I will gladly pick them up. Unless another drastic, unprecedented announcement is made where a few Blu-ray studios jump ship to HD-DVD, I think if you’re looking to pick up a movie player for your new HDTV, your decision has just been made for you. I’m just glad the format with the cooler logo and name won.

UPDATE: CONTEST IS OVER.
Thank you to everyone who submitted an entry!
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UPDATE (01/23/08):
I’ve been getting quite a few emails inquiring about who won the contest, so here are the winners, as randomly picked by mombot and popbot (so you can be 99% sure there were no shenanigans involved):
• Bonnie Gillespie, Hollywood, CA
• Jeff P., Los Angeles, CA
• Kellee B., Northridge, CA

and the additional, JEFBOT Mailing-List-Peeps-only winner:
• Mary P.

Californians, all. So the no-shenanigan meter has been re-set to 89%. Congrats again to the winners!
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UPDATE (01/16/08):
Congrats to the winners of the Free JEFBOT T-Shirt Contest! Three winners from the open contest and one from the JEFBOT mailing list only contest should be getting their t-shirts in the next week or two. Thanks to everyone who participated and made the contest such a success!
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As I mentioned last Wednesday, I’ve been planning to commemorate the 25th JEFBOT strip by giving away some free JEFBOT t-shirts. Well, the planning’s done and here are the details:

1. In one of the strips in the JEFBOT Webcomic Archive, I’ve secretly replaced the number “6″ emblazoned on the shirt my character Jeff wears, with the number “25.” Find that strip.

2. Once you’ve found it, email me the date, title or number of the strip. Don’t reveal which one it is in the comments, just email it to me. Remember: the less people who know, the better your chances are to win the shirt.

3. The contest will run from now through next Sunday, January 13, 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 January 16.

I think that about does it. I’m hoping this contest will introduce new readers to the first 25 JEFBOT strips in a fun way, and give longtime readers an excuse to re-read some of their favorites. Check out the shirt design below. Unless something at the factory goes wrong, winners will have a choice between the white or black. I’m personally loving the black right now.

Happy hunting!

Today’s my parents’ Gold Anniversary so I just want to give a quick shout-out to the two of them. It’s pretty rare for couples to stay together for a year or two these days, much less 50, so here’s to them on their special day! My mom’s told me the secret to happiness in a relationship is communication; basically, make sure you fall in love with someone you can talk to and vice versa. So take that to heart, dear readers!

May they have (at least) 50 more years of marital bliss.

Love you guys.