Dragon’s Lair holds a nostalgic, geeky place in my heart, mostly because I remember the shock it created after it hit the arcades when I was a kid. It wasn’t like playing Pac-Man or Zaxxon or Defender with their sprite-based graphics, it was like playing a full-fledged cartoon due to the laserdisc system which ran the game. And even though the gameplay wasn’t all that great – the player hit a 4-way joystick and sword button at the correct time corresponding to the animation onscreen – it was still like playing a game from the future.

Well, I’ve played many iterations of Dragon’s Lair since then, including a pretty bad version on the Commodore 64 and a playable version for DVD (which I played on my PS2). A prized possession of mine is the Blu-ray version, signed by the creators of the game, including animator Don Bluth and screenwriter Gary Goldman. But having a near-perfect (the touchscreen controls aren’t ideal) version on my iPhone, with all the animation from the original arcade game, is just astounding to me. And a reminder of just how far technology’s come.

And yeah, all those things that the Cornfather mentions in that second panel are pretty cool, too.

• Dragon’s Lair Trailer (which I watched over and over when I ran out of quarters at the arcade)

Most of the day was spent walking around, talking to new friends and readers, and basically hitting all the things I wasn’t able to see the day before when most of my day was occupied by the panels. This included visiting rooms which held stuff like the Infinite Canvas Post-It Jam, which was a tongue-in-cheek way of exploring an infinite canvas, the idea that, theoretically, webcomics have no size limit, and can be expanded on in any direction within a browser window. Many, many people took up the challenge and took advantage of the post-its and pens provided, including myself. Neat idea. Adjacent to this room was a gallery of original art done by several top webcartoonists, and I constantly had to stop myself from buying anything (including an original Octopus Pie strip I still want) due to the expense of the art and the difficulty of taking some of the pieces on the plane. I wasn’t able to stay for the closing ceremonies, as I had to get back to the airport to catch my flight back to L.A., but it was a short, relaxing day, and was a nice wrap-up to the weekend as I got to hang a bit with some other webcomic writers and artists again, and did a few more sketches and handed out pins for JEFbot fans.

Now, did the weekend really live up to being the “Woodstock of Webcomics” or, “Webstock” as many have been saying? I suppose time will tell, but being in the middle of all the excitement and energy of the hundreds of creators and fans there, I’d have to say, “Yes.” It really did feel like an important movement was underway and that all of us there were a part of it. And with its success, I can only assume the organizers will be doing another one next year, which I’m sure will be bigger and (perhaps) better, and I know I’ll be back at some point. I can see the NEWW becoming the San Diego Comic Con of webcomics, so I’ll be cherishing memories from this event for a long time. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if many of us will be saying to people in years to come, “I was there, at the very first NEWW. And it was awesome.”

Lastly, I wanted to thank all the JEFbot fans who came to the show and asked for a sketch or pin, or just wanted to talk with me about the strip – beyond all the panels and galleries and pub crawls and peer meetings, you guys really made this weekend for me. It’s the same with the readers who take the time to leave comments or email me: all you guys make doing JEFbot so much more fun and worth all the time and effort it takes to write and draw it. Thanks!

Here’s some of the loot I got at the show. Click on the pictures to check out the websites for these awesome webcomics.

Hope you all had a great time ringing in the new year – this strip is literally how my family does it. Yep, we have an old bell we all ring every New Year’s Eve at midnight, and we’ve had that tradition for as long as I can remember. Us Schuetzes might not get as serious about it as the strip makes it appear, especially with guests, but I think we can all use as much luck we can get, and ringing this bell has worked for us. Mostly. Besides, you wouldn’t want us talking smack about you behind your back later, right? Recommendation: If you spend New Year’s Eve with us, just ring the dang bell. Happy 2009!!!

Oh, and for new readers: The character with the mouth is none other than jefbot’s niece, Akira. She hasn’t been seen since she vowed revenge almost a year ago in JEFBOT.29_Bad Uncle.