Haha, just kidding. But not really.

Anyway, yes today is my birthday. I’m 23 today…woot…

On the plus side, my girlfriend Sarah got my Lego Batman for the PS3!!! My love for Batman seriously knows no bounds. And in case you were wondering if I made it up or not, yes today really is supposed to be Judgement Day according to the Terminator mythos. I thought that was awesome enough to warrant a comic. I don’t know if I’ll be able to update EVERY Monday and Thursday, but I wanted something to go up today for obvious reasons…and it was late in the afternoon. So yeah, I’m definitely going to have something up every Monday and try to have something up on Thursdays as well. If not, please forgive me, I’m trying to get back into the swing of things.

What’s funny about this comic is that this was a quick one, because it only took me a few hours to complete when usually it takes MUCH longer. And yet I still managed to put a lot of detail into it…yeah that’s me holding back…

Also, I have some new customs up for sale on eBay, so check them out if you’re interested and bid often! Like my new Custom Ghostbusters 2 Louis Tully with Bus Driver Slimer!

So anyway, enjoy your day and your weekend and try not to get killed out there!

Until Monday.

Hello and welcome back (finally) to Mint Condition. I can’t apologize enough for the long wait, but it feels good to be back. There are a couple of things I’d like to mention about the site.

I’m making some changes as you can no doubt see. I’m still in the middle of it, but some things you’ll notice are different right away, such as the comic navigation buttons and the addition of being able to “like” any comic or blog post on Facebook, and being able to share any comic on a number of social networking sites. I’m still working on getting Twitter in there, so that should be added soon.

I’m also going to be updating just once a week for the time being, on Mondays until I can get the hang of things again. I’ll change the header to reflect the change.

Also, don’t be too alarmed if you see some style changes in my art. I’m going to be experimenting with different styles until I find one that works best. That’s not to say that the look of the comic is going to change drastically, because it’s not. It will still look like Mint Condition. I’m just going to try out different coloring styles, because the way I do it now takes FAR too long to complete. I need to be able to be quicker, so I’m going to try out different ways of coloring until I’m able to do it quickly and still maintain the level of quality you’ve all come to expect.

I realize many of my readers are long gone and I hope to get them back and many more, so for those of you who are still around, please spread the word on the aforementioned social networking sites. You can also subscribe to the RSS feed on my site if that makes things more convenient for you.

There is also a page on Facebook dedicated to Mint Condition that I made just yesterday, so feel free to “like” it if you have a Facebook profile, and post there anytime you like. It’s basically going to be a fan page for the comic.

As the comic says, I’ll have things cleaned up by next time. I tried updating my wordpress and comicpress files and in the process had to practically rebuild my entire website, but I got the gist of it working again. At least you can see the header and read the comic and blog posts, haha. I use Internet Explorer, so if anyone notices anything wrong on different browsers let me know and I’ll see if I can fix it.

So to recap: I’m sorry, I suck, and welcome back.

Until next time.

Hello friends, it’s the cartoonist here, John.

Um…so here’s the thing. Well actually, let me just start by saying the comic is NOT dead. I still very much have a desire to continue Mint Condition, I’ve just been on hiatus. There have been many reasons for this, and I’ll try my best to collect my thoughts here as well as give you a timeframe to expect new comics.

You all remember months ago when I got swamped with personal stuff that made me cut back on the comics. Well, it kept piling up until I missed a day, then a week, then two weeks, etc. I just couldn’t get a single comic done in any reasonable time, which is what made me start the hiatus. Everytime I thought I was ready to go back I just couldn’t do it. There was one thing or another stopping me, usually some sort of artist’s block, but also the personal stuff I mentioned earlier. Then I got sidetracked with other projects. Many of you know I’m a professional action figure customizer as well, and for some reason I got a huge desire to focus on that for a while, which is what I’ve been doing.

I’ve been customizing and working with that for some time, which financially has been great, but I keep feeling that itch to draw a comic. I just had to get this out of the way first. Not only that, but I’ve been in the process of getting rid of a lot of stuff at my house, namely a large part of my action figure collections from when I was a kid. I have a ton of old stuff and frankly I’m ready to let it go. It’s taken me months to get it all collected together, catalogued, photographed, and then put up for auction on eBay. But I finished it all this past week. I’m also about to slow down on the customizing as well and start writing some jokes and stories for Mint Condition.

The reason it’s taken me so long to give any sort of explanation is because, for one thing I was focused on other things as I’ve mentioned already, but mostly it’s because I just didn’t know how to properly gather my thoughts on everything. I think I was also partly ashamed of myself for letting the hiatus go this long and I just didn’t know how to face you all. I feel like I’ve lost a large part of my fanbase already, but I know for a fact many of the hardcore readers keep posting comments (which I LOVE by the way. Everytime I read them it always gives me a huge boost) and asking questions. To you all I apologize the most for not posting anything for so long.

Which brings me to my next point. Expect more Mint Condition comics as early as the beginning of January. It may not be the first week per se, but early to mid January there will be more Mint Condition. I’m going to start working on some scripts soon and then get back in full form in time to keep making the comics. For those who have given up hope on seeing any new comics I hope you find your way back here. I’ll be putting out some ad campaigns to help gather the fanbase back, but I’m confident all you guys will be back. I sure hope so anyway. You guys are such a huge part of why I do this. I do it for myself as well, for the love of art, but I also love entertaining people. It gives me such pleasure to hear what you guys think of the comic and to know that it makes you laugh. And even if it doesn’t, or even if you hate it I love hearing that as well. I take everything to heart in order to continue to grow and evolve as an artist. So for that, thank you my readers.

Here’s hoping you’ll all come along for the ride with me again. Until then.

So yeah. Super apologies for the lack of updates. As some of you know (but most of you don’t) I’ve been having major computer problems for the past few weeks and am just now starting to get them sorted out. I’m hoping, HOPING that by Tuesday I can have a comic up. I think I’ve pretty much got it figured out, but you never know I guess. Anyway, enjoy the past month of Mint Condition on Articulated Discussion! I haven’t been able to post the links to them.

Hope this tides you guys over.

For the next few weeks Mint Condition is updating once a week. I’m thinking Thursday for the day it will be updating, but it could also be Friday.

I just have so much to take care of right now that this is the only way to keep myself sane.

Bare with me because this is by no means a permanent change, but just for the time being. Perhaps the next month or so.

I will keep everyone updated on any changes.

I know what you’re thinking.

I said I was just going out for milk and that was a few weeks ago. I know. I apologize. But it took me forever to find a good date on those milk jugs.

Come on, don’t look at me like that. What? Look, I know I don’t have the milk with me. I got thirsty on the way home. Yes milk can quench your thirst. Yes it can.

YES IT CAN. Because, fuck water that’s why.

Alright, if you’re going to act like this then I’m leaving again. We need milk anyway.

Ok now that that’s out of the way, how are you guys doing? I know it’s been a while. I was on vacation, but I know the comic should have been up Tuesday anyway. To be honest, I think I’ve been feeling burned out lately. Like…really burned out. Working on the comic just seems like work and the comic has never seemed like work to be before. So I don’t know what’s going on. It’s actually taken me a few DAYS to complete this comic which isn’t right. I kept working on it every now and then and here it is! It’s actually the very first comic of Mint Condition redone!

I’ve gotten some requests and questions in the past about redoing the very first Mint Condition and that’s happened in greater frequency ever since I started doing the comic in color, and you know what? I got pretty curious myself. So here you go! I really like how this turned out, so in the future I might offer some sort of poll so you guys can decide which vintage comic I should redone. In fact, you’re more than welcome to post suggestions in the comments. I won’t do them a lot because you guys come here to read new jokes, but every now and then it might be cool to see some of the old comics redone. I might do it like…2 or 3 more times at some point in the future. I dunno.

Anyway, like I said I’ve just been feeling so burned out. I think I’ve gotten to a point in my life where after working for 3 years straight on Mint Condition (and taking very few breaks and vacations) all I seem to want to do is not work. Obviously I have to work some, but you know what I mean. For the majority of Mint Condition I was living in a small town away from all my friends so I really had a lot of time on my hands. Now I’m back and surrounded by my friends again, and it’s feeling like the old days to me. After all, you only live once right? I should hang out with my friends as much as I can.

I’m working on moderating my time better, and I will keep doing the comic. Believe me, I’m not stopping Mint Condition. I plan on doing this for a long time, and after all I do still need to get that damned book out. And I will work on getting the comics up on time, but if they are late I apologize.

As for Friday’s comic I don’t think I’ll be able to get one finished by then, but you’re welcome to check back. I might end up changing the update schedule again to one day a week, but I don’t want to. I just might have to for a little while to preserve sanity and get things worked out (again, like the book).

Until next time everybody.