Yep, today JEFbot hit its one year anniversary!

I’ve been so busy lately the date just kind of snuck up on me a day ago. That’s when I checked the archives, just to be sure I still had a month or so until the anniversary, and there it was, the date of the first JEFbot strip, Axis Powers: August 6, 2007. Upon posting that first strip, little did I know that 364 days, 64 strips and hundreds of thousands of pageviews later, JEFbot would still be going strong and would become such a big part of my life.

I love writing and drawing this strip, I wish I could put one out every day (or at least 3 times a week) but JEFbot still has a long way to go before I can quit my day job. With any luck, by this time next year, I’ll have even more great readers, I’ll be posting more comics a week and I’ll have published my first JEFbot collection in book form. I’ll also accept being a regular in an acclaimed TV series or starring in an awesome movie, like TR2N or Akira (as Tetsuo, of course).

Not much else to report just yet. Like I said, this whole anniversary thing kind of snuck up on me so I haven’t done anything to prepare for it. I’d like to do something, though. Actually, maybe you, the readers, can help me out with some suggestions. A new shirt? An officially licenced JEFbot coffee mug? An original sketch giveaway? A videogame-themed party at a bar in Hollywood? Send me ideas or you’re getting the mug.

Seriously though, I want to get a bit mushy and say how much I’ve appreciated all the love and support of you readers. It warms the valves of my fusion-powered heart when I think about how you’ve embraced the strip and the characters in it (especially since most of them are friends or family). Also, a special thank you to everyone who has taken the time to comment on the site or send me an email. That stuff really keeps me going when a deadline’s approaching, it’s 4:30 in the morning and I’m only on the second panel. Thanks for that.

So happy anniversary! I’m ready for cake.

UPDATE: The poll is now closed and “New Kick-Ass T-shirt” wins! I’ve already begun conceptualizing what will make this shirt truly “Kick-Ass” so expect some updates on that soon. It was so cool for me to get such quick feedback from you readers that I’m already thinking about more polls for the future. Big thanks to everyone who voted!

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After putting the call out, I’ve received a bunch of feedback from readers suggesting what I should do to celebrate JEFbot’s one year anniversary. The overwhelming response so far has been for a new t-shirt design but I’ve received a few other valid suggestions (and a few not appropriate to post) which I thought I’d present here for a vote. I’ll abide by whatever gets the most votes (please vote only once), even if you choose the coffee mug.

Here are the top six suggestions you came up with. If you have any others, I can probably slip in a couple late entries before I close off voting next week.

• With a new, kick-ass t-shirt design? (33 votes) WINNER!
• With a “walk on” part in the JEFbot strip? (30 votes)
• With an original JEFbot pencil & ink drawing? (14 votes)
• With a party in Hollywood where we all meet at a bar for drinks and cake? (8 votes)
• With a “favorite character” t-shirt? (4 votes)
• With some pretty cool JEFbot stickers? (3 votes)
• With a crappy coffee mug? (1 vote)

For clarification:
• Whichever prize wins will be given away in a raffle, like I did with the t-shirt giveaways.
• The “walk on” part would consist of  me drawing the winner into a strip, either as background or possibly something more substantial.
• The “favorite character” shirt would be a shirt devoted to a single favorite character, as voted on by the readers in yet another poll.
• If the “Hollywood party” wins, I won’t be paying for travel expenses or hotel stays. I’ll supply drinks and cake for the winner, as long as they’re of legal age. Also, “bar” could be substituted with “sister’s house,” “parent’s house,” or “my apartment.”

THE CONTEST IS OVER!
July is here and the contest is now closed! This weekend, with the help of Mombot and perhaps one of the sisterlings, I’ll be drawing ten names out of a hat for the general contest and five names for the mailing-list-peeps-only contest and report the winners of the #150 Anniversary BOTtons next week. Good luck and thanks to everybody who participated!

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JEFbot has just passed 150 strips!!! To celebrate, I created a special BOTton (click on the image to the left to see a close up) with jefbot, his fighting ferret Abraxas, and his shirt emblazoned with a “150″ instead of his trusty “6″ logo. I’m only printing 150 of these special pins, 10 of which I’m giving away in the following contest:

CONTEST RULES
This one’s my easiest contest yet: all you have to do is leave a comment on any blog or comic strip during the month of June, with your valid email address in the email field (otherwise I can’t contact you should you win). You can even leave a comment on this blog post if you like. For every June comic or post you leave a comment on, I’ll put your name in the hat for the random drawing of 10 lucky winners in July. Note it’s not every comment but every post you leave a comment on, so don’t be going crazy leaving multiple comments in every single post (unless the mood strikes you), as it won’t help your chances. As you can tell from this system, many of you regular commenters are already way ahead of the game!!!

So that’s it: leave a comment with your email address in the email field of any June blog post or comic strip and you’ll automatically be entered to win a #150 Anniversary BOTton! Good luck!

MORE CHANCES TO WIN
I’m also giving away five additional BOTtons to random people on the JEFbot Mailing List. If you’re on the mailing list, you’ve already been entered. If you’re not on the mailing list, it’s not too late! Just subscribe before the end of June by clicking the following link: Assimilate me! You’ll be entered into the drawing just for being on the list! Easy peasy.

Here are the sixteen contest winners who will be receiving a limited edition, #150 Anniversary JEFbot BOTton in the mail! Since a.) commenting on a June strip or blog post, or b.) being a member of the JEFbot Mailing List, was all it took to qualify for the drawing, there were a whole bagful of names for MOMbot to draw from, which made the contest even more exciting for me than the last two.

Congratulations to all the winners and a big thank you to all the commenters and Mailing List peeps for participating!

Without further ado, here are the winners, in alphabetical order:

General Contest Winners
These ten people were randomly picked after commenting on a blog post or strip during the month of June:
• DarkWolf901
• DaughterJudy
• epikto
• Eptha
• Foxmouse
• Nicholas Joseph Kibong
• Ploute
• reynard61
• skinny arbuckle
• SeaBass

Mailing List Peeps Winners
These five were picked at random from the JEFbot mailing list, which you can subscribe to by clicking here.
• Elliott
• Gracie
• Todd
• Tom
• Vicki

BONUS MOMbot prize!
In my two previous contests, when the strip hit #50 and #100, MOMbot donated an additional prize to one lucky winner. This time was no different. The special prize this time goes to a peep from the Mailing List:
• Beastie B

If you see your name above but haven’t gotten an email, check your spam folder as all notifications have gone out! You have until Sunday, July 19 to get back to me with your mailing address before your prize goes to a runner up.