Sorry guys, no time for a news post tonight! If I don't get to bed soon, I'm going to be a zombie at work... and I'll already be angry about dealing with children swarming our theater to see the insipid "Robots" movie. *shudder*

>Some small notes: I harkened back to a couple old strips, which was fun... and humbling, because my old stuff kinda... sucks. Anyway, hope you're adjusting to the new style OK, as I'm thinking this is the way it's going to stay. Feel free to drop me a line and let me know what you think!

Other than that, keep voting, keep talking in the forums, and keep up the feedback, and tell your friends! We're bouncing back well, I think.

Enjoy, and I'll see you next week.

::Eleanore, your-extremely-tired-and-dreading-the-morn (web)mistress DM8

Well, guys, as you all know, this strip has been a long time coming, hasn't it? Sorry it took so long, but I needed to know I still had readers out there, and no matter how stupid of me that was, now at least I know! So thanks to everyone who responded to my e-mail and/or voted in the poll at my LJ.

You probably notice a very stark difference between this strip and #036, if you take a quick click back. This is because I am currently experimenting with some different techniques and styles. If I'm going to improve the quality of the strip, I need to change some things -- there's no getting around that.

For example, this one may be only black and white and be lacking any sort of "shading," but if you compare it to #036, which one looks sharper, neater, and just overall... better? I'm talking line work here, mainly. Plus, I'm trying to ween myself away from constantly drawing only profiles. Funny thing is, in my non-DM8 art work, I don't restrict myself like that. I guess I just got used to taking too many shortcuts.

So this is the time when I really need your feedback. What do you prefer? Colour or black and white? The new line style (and panel layout, can't forget that), or the old style? Your guys' opinions are the priority for me, so be sure and let me know what you think!

So thanks for sticking with me! It's been a bumpy ride, but I think we're making progress all right. We'll see how things go.

::Eleanore, your glad-to-be-back-but-nervous-about-trying-new-things-but-pleased-with-the-result (web)mistress DM8

ONE YEAR. I can't believe you haven't all killed me yet.

THANK YOU, guys! I love you! You stuck with me! And didn't beat me with a large stick! What mental capacity! What patience! What... astounding sanity. I envy all the above, because... yeah, I don't have any of it. *looks shifty*

So! The fun graphics I made. For the curious, the first graphic took more work than meets the eye. It's actually three photos spliced together, rather than just one. Why? Because I had to take my own picture. The first was of my head, the second I took with my right hand, and took a picture of my left side, and the third I took with my left hand, and took the picture of my right side. I'm just skilled enough with a camera (hee) to have gotten all three angles right, so that they don't LOOK like I spliced three photos together. Nifty, yeah? And then, in the second graphic, the white sweatshirt I'm wearing is the DM8 sweatshirt. I wore it at the '04 Comic Con too, and it rocks, y'all.

On to the future! What to expect for this year:

-- Updates ON TIME. I will go blind working into the wee hours of Saturday nights/Sunday mornings to do it. Or so help me god, I will jab my jugular with one of my inking pens. Dammit, you guys deserve a helluva lot better than I've been doing recently. And I'm going to make it happen.

-- I should be participating in the 24 Hour Comic with my art teacher from middle school, the awesome Jeremy Wright. The 24 Hour Comic is very cool, and will happen on Saturday, April 23rd. As for Jeremy, bow to him, because he's the one who really encouraged me to draw what I wanted, rather than what people found "pretty." Hell, he's the reason I draw comics at all. I had to start somewhere, and manga wasn't my takeoff point. And he gave the greatest advice: "Art is what makes you feel alive. No matter what that might be." So thanks, Jeremy. You're a great teacher.

If you're curious about the 24 Hour Comic, Kyle from Brainwrap did one of his own last year, I believe, and you can check that out here.

-- I plan to draw more characters for the About page, and re-do the old ones, which I now think are kinda... crappy. And hell, I should at least have a picture for every description.

-- I was hoping to have a banner ad drawn by now for Bob to send to the folk over at Theater Hopper, as Bob very kindly is going to buy DM8 a one month subscription to their advertising (thanks again, Bob!), but I just couldn't come up with something good. But I will churn one out ASAP, and send that over to him. I am really looking forward to that.

Thank you, guys. You made this year amazing I've never been a part of something this fun and rewarding before. And I've met so many great people because of it -- so let's make the second year great too!

Much love,

::Eleanore, your slightly-nostalgic-but-way-too-hyped-about-year-2-to-be-coherant (web) mistress DM8

Well, first things first -- Happy New Year, everyone! I can't believe how fast it went... it still feels weird to think I've already finished one semester of college. I hope everyone had fun making all their resolutions, and breaking them about 20 minutes later. I don't even bother anymore - I'm so much of a procrastinator, goals are just... kinda shooting a dead horse. I can be as lazy as I wish, dammit! Moo ha ha ha.

Anyhow, I'm sure you've all noticed a slight change in the look of the comic -- that would be because we have a guest comic this week, courtesy of the wonderfully talented Jonnie, a coworker of mine. A new hire, but cool! Do you have any idea how rare that is? Anyhow, Derek kept pestering me to look at Jonnie's work, even before I had actually met the guy, so finally I cave and go, "OK, what." So Jonnie comes up, says hello, and shows me his sketchbook. Great stuff! Then, out of the blue, he joins the forum (w00t! We need more members -- sign up now! Post! 'Tis fun!), and then e-mails me offering many compliments on DM8, and even offering to do a guest comic! By now, you understand, my head is spinning with gratitude. So I say, "Heck yes!" and there we are -- the first DM8 guest comic. I find it very exciting to have one.

With that said, once you're done appreciating his handiwork, if you or any artists you know might want to do a guest comic, mention us! Not that I plan on turning DM8 into "guest comic every other week" scheduling or something, but it might be nice to see some other artists' work every once in a while, don't you think?

In other, bittersweet, news, William directed my attention to a rather scathing review of DM8 at the Webcomic List. We both have a hunch that it might be the same ass who harassed me on my own message board a while back, and whose fault it is that Guest posting is no longer allowed there. First off, William suggested that in light of his continued asshaterry, I make a plea to you readers to write your own reviews for the comic, and up our (now one star out of five) rating on the list. What I am NOT asking is for personal attacks on this guy -- he may be asking for it, but doing so doesn't change anything, and it certainly doesn't achieve anything. Many of you already ripped him a new one when he posted on the forum, which I actually found rather funny, and appreciated, but that was in my own domain. The Webcomic List is a huge public place, and I don't want to start siccing my readers on this guy in such a place. What I'm asking for is your opinions on the comic, and a review of it AS a comic. And an honest rating. That's all.

The thing that makes this news bittersweet, rather than just plain annoying, is that, while they certainly stung, I realized that some of his comments, while put in an unfriendly way, are true. This is not news to me, but I've been ignoring it for a while. I realize that this is a very low-quality comic, art-wise. I've always been "planning" to make it better, but haven't really had reason to until now. Well, being called a crappy artist by the same ass twice turns out to be enough motivation. Don't get me wrong -- I'm not making changes because of this guy; I've been wanting to do this for a long time. I guess I just needed a bit of a kick to get me started. And while it was a low blow, it still worked.

So this is basically just a heads up for the coming strips -- there is going to be a major change in the style of the comic that I've always wanted to do, but have never done. If we're going to be advertised on a big site soon, I want us to look professional. I'm going to drop the boring, very old (in that I've been using it way too long) 2x2 panel format, and go for something more dynamic -- more like a professional comic, and more like what my graphic novel series (something I've been working on for about 6 years, but have never posted online) looks like. Also, I have been lazy about drawing my characters. I've been drawing primarily profiles for ages, and I haven't liked it since I started it, but again, was too lazy or felt it wouldn't matter if I changed it. Well, it turns out, it does matter. And it certainly will if we're going to be playing with the big boys. So look out for some changes. I hope no one is disappointed by this, though I can't see why they would be -- since when is an improvement in art quality and comic style a bad thing?

Well, that's all for this week. Have a good first week of 2005!

::Eleanore, your rather-frustrated-by-continued-criticism-by-some-random-ass-but-using-it-for-good (web)mistress DM8

Before you all even ask, yes, I DID say that to her. I didnít change the wording or anything. And so continues my vendetta against those damned floats. And I'm telling you right here and now, it wonít end until they stop forcing us to sell them. This is WAR.

I swear, this is one of those strips Iím almost afraid to make a comic of - I know there are a few of my managers who read it, and this is one of those borderline things that could possibly get my ass fired. But then I think back, and remember that I tell most of these stories to the managers less than five minutes after they actually happen, and hell, they donít give a crap. Now, if the owner or someone higher up ever stumbled across this thing, I'd probably be in quite a bit of trouble, but come on, since when do I care about something like that? Feh. Iíll take my chances, if it makes people laugh. To be honest, I donít think I could make it through an 8 hour shift free of felony charges without either (a) poking fun at someone whoís too slow to realize (and yes, that includes customers), or (b) poking fun at my fellow employees (90% of the time itís in good humour, honest -- it's only vindictive or pissy when I absolutely HATE them.

The funny thing was, I could not believe she ended up buying one anyway. Not that I hadn't already realized this woman wasn't the brightest crayon in the box, but still. She thwarted my evil plan - thwarted, I tell you! And you would not believe the lengths I go to so as to prevent the sales of those goddamned Root Beer Floats From HELL. I turn over or hide all the signs, and I never wear the pins. If I didnít have such a sadistic fondness for this job, Iíd be over at the theater in the middle of the night in a heartbeat, ripping down that huge Root Beer Float banner, and lighting it on fire in the middle of the lobby. If I ever meet the moron who proposed that product, even if weíre both off the clock (that would be preferable, in fact), I would not hesitate to bitch slap him/her across the face. Because they deserve it. And donít tell me you donít agree. Honestly, Root Beer Floats? When they were first introduced to me, all I could think for the rest of the day was ìRoot Beer Floats? ÖWhat the FUCK?î Thatís about how much sense it makes.

So, yes, as lazy as I am, I still cranked out a comic for the holiday weekend. Because I love my readers, and wish to keep them happy. I also wish to stick to my promise about keeping the update schedule intact. Because Iíve mucked with it so severely in the past. There will be no more mucking. No more mockery!

Anyway, I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend -- I know I did! DVDs are the most awesome gifts ever, especially when youíre a total whore for movies, like I am. Hope you all got to be with your loved ones, and had a wonderful time. Iíll see you all next week -- if all goes according to plan, I will have DM8ís very first guest comic! You have no idea how excited I am!

::Eleanore, your very-much-in-the-holiday-spirit-to-an-almost-obscene-amount (web)mistress DM8

Oh. My. Goodness.

If you have stumbled across this page -- I LOVE YOU. It means you either actually read these news posts (*love!*), or have been a reader, and haven't abandoned me yet for my ridiculous lack of updates! Or both! If any of these scenarios is the case, to put it simply... yeah, you? Rock. My world.

And here is where my sincerest apologies belong, for being such a terrible, horrible, inconsistent, ludicrous, unreliable, good-for-nothing webmistress. I am shamed! I cannot believe that I was able to excuse away leaving you all hanging this long without an update! I know there are very few readers left out there, but each and every one of you is important to me, but I've hardly been implying that these past two months or so, have I? In fact, quite the opposite. And I can only say -- I am so sorry.

I am sorry that, no matter how legitimate my excuses, I don't have a better way to contact you to let you know what's up. I'm sorry I don't have a mailing list. I'm sorry hardly anyone checks these posts or the forums. I'm sorry hardly anyone checks my LiveJournal (which is, for future reference, the most up-to-the-minute place to find updates on the status of DM8. But I'm sorry about more things; I'm not done. I'm sorry that school, no matter how much I love my classes, has been bogging me down. I'm sorry that I wasn't able to find the time, and that I didn' try to make the time. It's just, as much as I hate to admit it, it was so easy, after the first few weeks of problems on William's end, to get out of the habit of updating. It's still a long process, even though I've been doing it for almost a year. It still takes 6-10 hours to finish a single strip (and we're talking shorter ones, like this weeks'... don't even get me started on longer ones... *shudder*). It was easy to be lazy. Anyone who's ever been in school or had a job knows exactly what I'm talking about here. No matter how much you love doing something, if it's a lot of work, and sometimes stressful and difficult, it is way easier than it should be to ignore it and be lazy about it. And that's what I did. And that, for you guys, is unforgivable.

So, I'm cooking a little something up as a thank-you for not beating my sorry ass into the ground for being a total non-updating whore. I won't say any more this early (*mischievious wink*), but expect something special around the time of our one-year anniversary, an event to which I can't even begin to believe I made it to alive. I mean, just look at the first few paragraphs here. If I were in your guys' positions, I would have chucked me off a cliff in frustration by now. Lack of updates = EVIL. EVIL, I say.

But a good thing did come of this -- it has boosted my morale once again. I guess a breather like that -- while unplanned, horrid, inconsiderate, unintentional and evil of me -- gave me a new perspective on things. And a pay raise. That's nice too, after two and a half years... *cough* But aside from that, I have a few pleas for help.

I don't deserve this AT ALL, but I am going to get down on my knees and beg for mercy anyway -- please, please pimp this site for Will and I. It's totally and 100% my fault that our hits suck, but I can't bring them back up alone. I can kill them all by my idiot lonesome, but resurrect them single-handedly I, alas, cannot. Vote at Keenspace Super 100! Vote at BuzzComix! Word of mouth! Word of e-mail! Word of A/Y!/MSN IM! Word of LJ is an amazingly powerful thing. They all are, these things. I am berating passerby at school (or was until Winter Break started, and will be again in Spring), newbies at work, and anyone else I'm not afraid will beat me away with a handbag to check out this site. Help me out? No, don't help me; I'm an evil, site-hits killing wench from hell. Help William. After all, he does contribute to this heavily too. Hell, I don't give him enough credit. It comes down to this: No William = no site, no DM8, no NOTHING. We can't go online without him, and he rocks my world, and we must looovveee him for putting DM8 online and for putting up with ME for the past 11 months. Can you believe that? I have NO idea how he does it. I'd've killed me by now. And happily, out of sheer frustration alone.

Second plea for help -- this goes out to my fellow DM8 employees -- in order to complete this mischevious plan of mine for the one-year anniversary, I need more material. I'll make it simple -- I am going to post a flier in the box office on the bulletin board with my e-mail address and this same plea on it: if something funny happens, and you think it would make a funny comic... jot it down quickly on receipt paper or some other scrap (remember, receipt paper scribblings is where DM8 comes from even now), and send it to me! Not all the ideas have to come from me. I don't want to resort to making things up, because nothing is funnier than real life. Even if you don't think it's all that funny, send it to me anyway -- I'll be the judge of that. I will take anything. 100% serious here. I know Andrew and Wayne at least have plenty of stories for me. Derek too. Managers? I think Alex and Bodey still visit here from time to time -- you get the whiniest, complaniest (shutup, I know that's not a word) customers of the lot of us! Tell me, and I will do them hilarity justice.

Oh, and DM8 staffers who choose to try and spam me? DEATH awaits you. :)

So to everyone still out there -- I love you lots. Thank you for not killing me.

About this strip in particular (long rant, I know): I hum when I clean. Boredom tic, I suppose. And by the way, this strip marks the first appearance of Derek, a true Highland Rat. When this happened, he was no longer a coworker, but would sometimes show up when I was closing concessions at night, and unconsciously resuming ex-employee habits, such as stocking napkins and straws. The brainwashing, it never leaves, I tell you! But he is now hired once again, so huzzah for oldies coming back. Wayne often helps stock candy for closing as well, as I am often forced to close concessions alone.

Some eagle eyes out there may have noticed a few slight format changes. I am experimenting with a cleaner look... and I must say I'm pretty happy with it. While my handwritten dialogue, you could say, gave DM8 a slight "homey" touch, I have sloppy handwriting. This is just a fact of life, and I must accept it. So I am trying out a computer font instead. It's obviously a style tailored for comics, and I like the look of it -- very clean. Let me know what you think -- I am a feedback whore.

Again, so much love I cannot fully express to those few readers who have stuck with me. I swear I am shutting up now.

::Eleanore, your-so-overcome-by-shame-that-she-refuses-to-call-herself-a (web)mistress DM8

Yeah, so I was sick this weekend. This should still go up on time, if William and I aren't shamelessly abusing Murphy's Law to its fullest extent, which we tend to do, and which is more than creepy. More details on update status, as always, will be found first at my LiveJournal.

So, you're probably wondering why the hell Wayne and I were so damned mean to this poor guy (whose name, by the way, is Jason... those of you at work know him well), I'll tell you why. Jason was some little 15-year-old ass who made everyone's job harder by getting in the way, not doing HIS job, and slacking off all the time. Now, usually Wayne doesn't care about little stuff like that, but when you're looking to fire someone like Jason, who's been an ass to everyone from day one, you'll take what you can get. And he would come in, literally every day he worked, and harp and harp and HARP about taking his freakin' break. In the end, one of the managers would be so close to the edge of homicide issues that they'd tell him to take his break, just to get the little freak out of their hair for a blessed thirty minutes.

Ah, I should also explain the terminology for breaks seen here. A "ten" is the one (or two, depending on how many hours you're working) ten minute break you can take. Everyone who works an eight hour shift gets one thirty minute break (referred to a "half" and a "thirty" here), and one (or is it two? I can't remember) ten minute break per shift. You're supposed to wait until there's a sizeable gap between movie starts (when you're a concessionist, that is; when you're an usher, since you're responsible for cleaning the theaters, you wait until there's a gap between movie endings) before you can go, and you're also supposed to get manager permission before going.

That was another thing that was annoying about Jason. He wouldn't just pester the managers; he'd pester everyone. Anyway, he's gone now (we found something menial to fire him for, not that he didn't deserve it - that's what we call Obnoxious Asshole Karma), thankfully, and we're actually starting to pick up some friendlier, smarter, more efficient newbies in the place of some of the slackers we've finally gotten around to firing. So that means that the customers had better start being funnier than ususal, or more stupid than usual, whichever the case may be, or I'm going to run out of material!

For those of you who may have spotted the hole in my "punchline logic," (i.e. why doesn't he just ask "Well then, can I take my half, and then go away?"), don't worry about it. I was more than aware he didn't have enough brains to catch it.

So yeah, I know the background looks shitty, and the whole thing is pretty boring in appearance, but being sick really dragged down the quality this week. I'll try and do better for you next Sunday.

Well, that's all for this week. Until next week, when I'm hopefully not sick and feeling like crap.

:: Eleanore, your really-sick-but-still-basically-got-the-strip-done-on-time-SHOCK (web)mistress DM8

I know, I KNOW. Late, AGAIN. *pulls out rifle* I really need to stop doing this.

I know also, the background is boring and white. I am TIRED. And sick. I came down with something last weekend, and though I was only feeling a bit off-color throughout the weekdays, yesterday and today hit me especially hard. Besides, it looks nice and clean without one of my sloppy, sad excuses for a background anyway, don't you think?

So yeah, there has been quite a bit of drama going on in the forum. I don't know why, as all I did (that apparently started it) was ask people to "follow the rules or we'll ban your ass, plzkthnx." Anyway, if you'd like to bring some life back to the dark depths of the DM8 forums, feel free to drop by, register, and post.

Also, again, I know; two pirate gags in the past three weeks... But I'm short on material right now, and I just remembered this story from two summers ago randomly while trying to come up with something. So there you have it.

Anyway, short news post, I'm tired and sick. I'm sorry that I'm late, yet again, and hope I haven't driven you all away with my tiredness.

Until next week.

::Eleanore, your-sick-and-tired-and-who-knows-what-else (web)mistress DM8

Yes, I know. Late again. And I was so sure I could make it by Sunday night... Well, alas, it was not meant to be. But do take some comfort in my lateness: the only reason I was so late updating was that I was busy drawing my longest strip yet! That's right, ladies and gents, this strip is 20 panels long - the longest since the 16-panel from a few weeks ago.

So, this alleged "training video." Don't get me wrong, we DO have training videos... but none of them have anything to do with making Root Beer Floats - as those are a fairly new product. They usually entail mundane and/or asinine things such as "How to Usher," "How to Sell Tickets at Box Office," or "How to Work Concessions." So technically, the video idea I have here is "embellishing," but the process it describes is so accurate, it's hurting me to look at it. Why? Because it is a BITCH to make those insipid Floats. It's not so much the extra minute or two, not so much the extra mess, and not so much the freaking explosion of root beer foam that spreads all over your (usually already clean, in my case) counter... it's more the fact that they are a completely ridiculous item for a movie theater to sell. I mean, think about it... Root Beer Floats? Who was on what and when, when the execs threw out that gem of an "idea"? I'd like to know, because I would probably bitch slap them, if I happened to see them on the street. What would be the most amusing about that would be, they would have no idea who in the hell that weird girl who just slapped them was.

That's not the end of the Float horror, however. Not only are they now an item that the managers happily announce is not "a temporary" product (you can just see me tearing my hair out in giant, angry tufts, can't you?), they are inanely over-advertised. And I mean everywhere. We used to have to wear Root Beer Float pins, I kid you not. But most of us "lost" ours, and so that part of the campaign has been successfully annihilated. But there's more... We have little cardboard posters that we have sitting all around the concessions stand. Again, most of us just turn them around. In anger. But the worst part of it is the part we can't do anything about: the GIGANTIC banner they've taped over the front of the stand. *bursts into tears*

But since most concessionists (the smart ones, at least) have managed to either "lose" their silly little pins, and have "accidentally" knocked the little posters backwards (and many are plotting a coup d'etat where we all show up in the middle of the night, break in, rip down that damned banner, and BURN it), it's not really as high as 10 times a day that you have to make one anymore. At least, not for me. I did my part to bring the idiotic operation down. I can at least take some pride in that.

Also, no matter how much they whine, as of the past few weeks, I simply flat-out refuse to put that stupid lid on. I'm not getting foam all over MY space of clean counter, thank you very much. *haughty sniff*

So, until next week. And I will do my best, even if it involves an evil plan with space owls and rabid chimpanzees, to get it up on time.

::Eleanore, your-generally-frustrated-with-herself-for-being-somehow-incapable-of-managing-a-WEEKLY-strip (web)mistress DM8

First and foremost, I'm so sorry for the lateness this week! And I had such a nice "On Time" streak going there, too. *pouts* Of course, this was entirely my fault, as usual. Well, mine, plus the combined effort of some other issues, which I detailed on my LiveJournal for those who went looking when the strip didn't go up on time. For future reference, there, and the DM8 forums, are where you should go to look for update issues. In this week's case, I posted information about the strip being late in both locations.

So, about the comic. I know the background is rather boring. DEAL. I'm very tired. Besides, with the sort of text bubbles I use, and the amount of dialogue in each panel this week, if I had bothered to make the background any more interesting, you wouldn't have even been able to see it.

This strip also marks the second time I've embellished on the truth just a tad: I WISH I had an angry red and green mackaw to scare obnoxious customers away. But alas, I do not have such a pet. But the rest is all true, as usual. I think it's pretty damn good that I've only embellished twice in 30 strips. If you're a new reader, and curious what the first time was, it was this week; and if you're curious just what I embellished on, check the news post for that week here and scroll down to "April 18th."

So yes, I did talk like a pirate for most (not all, sadly) of last Sunday, which was indeed the unofficial "Talk Like a Pirate Day" In the LJ post I did for that "holiday" is where Clance is first introduced. I made him up, naturally, but hell, that's where the fun comes from. For those of you who think I'm smiling throughout this strip, I'm not. I'm not violating the Bitch Barrier (tm) rule. It's still a smirk. And I reiterate; a rather evil one, at that.

Also, if my "harassment" of this particular customer frightens you a bit, let me quell that fear just a tad (or attempt to). I rarely - and I mean very rarely - go out of my way to bother a customer, unless they're really getting on my nerves. And considering just about every single customer I serve seems to manage to find at least one way to annoy me, that's saying a lot. This woman in particular was letting her ridiculously loud son run around practically screaming in the lobby for going on twenty minutes. I was about to go over and say something like "Excuse me, ma'am, but could you please leash your ANIMAL," but she came over to the stand at that point. So I harassed her in a better way: I didn't let up on the pirate talk. You just know the kid was bugging the crap out of her about my being a pirate and about not being allowed to talk to Clance for the rest of the day. I love misleading children. Especially the ones that bug the crap out of me, which is most of them. I just rarely get such a golden opportunity to do so. I also love karma. It goes with my new motto: "If I didn't believe in Karma, I'd have been convicted of a felony by now."

Also, some of you artists or fellow web-comic-ers out there might have noticed how unnaturally big the mother's hands seem. Or at least how long her fingers look. That's not a mistake on my part. She had, as Jerry Seinfeld would put it, "MAN hands." It was rather disturbing. They almost looked like claws. Of course, the fact that she had those inch-and-a-half acrylics on had a lot to do with it. *shudders*

I like how offended she seemed about the concept of pirates. I really wanted to ask her a bunch of things, such as "Do you watch CSI? Without a Trace? Any other show with the Bruckheimer Midas Touch?" How much you wanna bet she's seen Pirates of the Caribbean? There's almost no avoiding that man, I tell you.

Anyway, again, I apologize for the lateness. I hope this will not become a pattern. I will do my best to make sure it does NOT. Thanks for your patience.

Until next week.

::Eleanore, your-quite-pissed-that-she-inevitably-broke-her-on-time-update-streak (web)mistress DM8

Well, it's been quite a month so far! Since Theater Hopper, linked to us, not only have hits remained steady near the 1,000/day mark, but posting has gone up in the forum, and voting on both buzzComix and Keenspace Super 100 as well! Thank you all so much, both new readers and old, for continuing to show support.

So I'm finally catching up to most of my friends, and I'm going to be 18 on Tuesday! W00t for not feeling a year younger than everyone else you know. As a b-day present for me, help keep our hits, votes, and forum activity up! That's the greatest (DM8-related) gift I can get. It really does mean that much to me, seriously.

Also, continue to check the forum, this news post area, and my LiveJournal - newly formatted and looking much better than it used to - for status of DM8, and other DM8-related goings-on. If something's up, at least one, if not all three, of those locations will have news for you.

About this week's strip: I have decided to stick with the 2x2 block format, rather than the strip format I used in past strips. The response is better, it looks a bit more professional, and fills in more of the page space itself, which is always good. Too much empty page space is just as bad as dead air on the radio, some might say.

The thing Wayne is holding in his hands throughout the strip is a folded popcorn bag. Before we pop them open, they're just in rubber banded stacks. During a rush, at times, a manager will come behind concessions to help out, especially if you're stuck back there in the middle of one all by yourself (which seems to happen to me quite often). Sometimes, however, there is only one available cash register, as they are all rather old, cranky and moody when it comes to deciding whether or not they're going to actually function, which explains why in this strip we're only using one. I also drew Wayne with his longer hair, even though this happened since he cut it. I did this because (a) he's already appeared in the strip looking like this, (b) he appears on the About page the same way, and (c) it's more fun - not to mention easier, for me at least - to draw his hair that way. Meh. The thing I'm holding in my hand at various times is a popcorn scoop.

Also, in case you're wondering how Wayne and I can have a repressed (and sometimes slightly homicidal, in my case) employee-related conversation in the middle of a rush, it's the magic of old theater machinery combined with the size of our concessions stand; the machines are rather noisy, combined with the noise chattering crouds of customers tend to make, combined with the small size of our stand, tends to muffle the noise if you turn around to scoop popcorn, and sort of talk out of the sides of your mouth. It's very sneaky, which is why I revel in it.

So, once again thank you, for all your continued support. Keep it up! It makes me work all the harder for you. Until next week.

::Eleanore, your nearly-18-and-proud-mother-hen (web)mistress DM8

Hey all you DM8 fans, new (we have many of those) and old! We're getting back into a regular update schedule! Finally, you're probably thinking. Most of the problems are over, thankfully, and we're getting back on track. Thanks for all your support throughout the sticky adjustment process.

First of all, as you've probably noticed by now, William and I (with the helpful artistry of a very nice girl, Sarah Jin, have done a complete redesign of the site. We think it looks much better, and certainly jazzier. William is the master of coding super sexy pages, no? You'll also notice that the Links page is temporarily gone. Will is working on another bit of super sexy code that will eliminate the need for it. It's not loaded up yet, but it will be soon. I know I'm looking forward to it.

Speaking of links, I'd like to give a big thank you to the proprietors of all the linkage love we've been getting recently. Big cyber thank-yous go out to Tom Brazelton of Theater Hopper, Jena and Betsy of UC, and Chris Bishop of Her! [girl vs. pig]. Those links on your pages have done us so much good, and are greatly helping us recover from our temporary slump, due to my recent move and Internet provider switch (simultaneous evils - *shudder*).

So, a few requests of both new and old readers: Feel free to drop by the forum, read posts, or sign up and post yourself! Vote for us at Keenspace Super 100 and buzzComix with the links to the left! Tell your friends. Word of mouth has done us plenty of good, as well. If for whatever reason, a comic doesn't go up by midnight on Sunday, please check out either the DM8 forums or my LiveJournal to find out what's going on. I plan to post reasons for schedule changes in one, if not both, of those places. I will get annoyed very quickly with answering questions that have already been addressed here, in the forums, at my LJ, or in all three places. Please check them before contacting me. If you still need to contact me, or William, our contact info is listed in our profiles at the forum, or at the bottom of this page.

So, to address this week's comic itself:

One of my biggest pet peeves is addressed in panel 5: people coming in to a movie 45 minutes early, when it's been in theaters for more than two weeks, and there is no need to get there so early. At that time, ushers are usually still cleaning, and then the people get impatient with us, while we're just trying to do our jobs. It's really quite obnoxious. That and Avril will both cause my left eye to twitch involuntarily. Think of the Chief Inspector Dreyfuss in The Pink Panther movies.

To those curious, the red-handled object in my right hand is a broom; in my right, with a black handle, is a butler. These are the holy tools of the Usher People. I wish we had stadium seating, like I depicted here. If we don't, why did I draw the seats that way? It's easier, perspective-wise, and I am lazy. Come to that, I wish we had chairs as comfortable as those look...

So yeah, I often bark sarcastic comments at things that can't reply; Movie Tunes, TV commercials, radio commercials, etc. A cynic must keep herself in training, whenever the opportunity arises. Because of that, as you see here, however, I am probably the employee responsible for "scaring off" more customers than any other three (or more) combined. Does this bother me? Do you really need to ask? *cackle*

Oh, and lastly, if you're wondering why I call the Movie Tunes "looping," I'm referring to the insanity-causing fact that they play on a loop ALL... DAY. Not to mention, the music selection on those damned CDs is terrible. *shudders*

So, enough news for this week. Sorry about the length of this post; I'm just now getting back into the groove, as well as welcoming newbies. I'll try and keep these shorter in future.

Lots of love to both newbies and oldies for sticking with us!

::Eleanore, your thoroughly-excited-at-how-well-DM8-is-doing (web)mistress DM8

Ladies and gentlemen, we're back!

I can't tell you how glad I am that I finally was able to get all the problems that SBC and the move combined managed to shove in front of me out of the way, and get back into the DM8 groove. It's good to be back!

Sorry for the long delay; when I was getting ready to move I NEVER imagined that our phone company would create so many problems for us. Otherwise, I would have done my best to forewarn you.

On the comic itself (our longest yet, in terms of number of panels!)... That line was something I had been subconsciously been waiting for, in over two and a half years of (somewhat) faithful service to that damned theater. If you can't read the smugness on my face here (though my goal is that you CAN...), I'm sure you can only imagine the amount of smirking that was going on there. Oh, and for the obscurely curious out there, that thing in my hand that I use to call for "Air in Five, please," is a walkie talkie that the Head Usher uses to communicate with both the managers and the projectionist.

Also, as a special treat, I've uploaded some images to my LiveJournal that you should enjoy: two visual examples of the process I go through to create the DM8 strip every week. I had fun doing a little something extra, as another thank you for sticking with me.

So, since we've been offline for a while, I must ask you, the readers, my wonderful supporters, to continue to help us stay afloat. The long "hiatus" (though involuntary) of sorts, has no doubt lowered our hits EXTREMELY. We need your help to get us back up there!

All you have to do is VOTE! At Keenspace or buzzComix (preferably both). And use the magical power of word-of-mouth. It just may save us. Think someone might find DM8 amusing? Have a friend (or are you yourself someone) who complains about work a lot Recommend us! We need all the new readers we can get. William and I, being in college now, are going to do our best to advertise, but the more the merrier.

Thank you so much for your continued support. I look forward to doing my best to keeping DM8 online for much longer.

::Eleanore, your newly-reinstated-and-empowered-and-EXTREMELY-GRATEFUL-because-you-people-rock-her-world (web)mistress DM8

I'd like to take a moment to personally apologize for the recent problems with the Del Mar 8 site. The message from Eleanore displayed below was originally meant to go up on the first of this month, in order to explain the day's lack of comic. However, I managed to drop the ball when my own internet access cut out, leaving me somewhat stranded. Again, my sincerest apologies for the inconvenience. We will try to get the updates back on schedule as soon as possible. Please keep checking this news section (in addition to the forum) for further announcements.

- theanonymousbrit

Hey guys. Well, I'm sorry to say that (not for lack of trying) I didn't manage to get our Internet service up and running for this week's update. See, I've just moved into a new apartment, and we're still getting settled in, and we're having some problems with our former Internet service provider, and we're trying to get going ASAP.

I promise I will get this week's, and the following ones up as soon as I possibly can.

Thanks for your patience. Sorry for the delay.

::Eleanore, your newly-relocated-and-feeling-distinctly-ruffled-about-it (web)mistress DM8

Hello all, and I'm actually on time! Or I should be, I sent this strip to Will on Wednesday... Ah well, I'm going to at least TRY to be more punctual than I have been lately, since I might get a few new readers from my the fruits of my brochure labor, which was displayed over this weekend at the shizzle that is Comic Con 2004! w00t

Since I'm writing this up on Wednesday previous, I don't know yet if I ended up going Thursday-Saturday, or all four days, but I know for a fact - even from Wednesday's point of view - that it ended up being awesome, no doubt about it! *dances* I was sure to wear my uber-cool DM8 hoodie over the weekend, which kicked major ass, so go buy one and be part of the DM8 posse! There are so many things (as of today, Wednesday) that I am planning on doing at the Con... on Friday I'm going to hopefully see the MegaTokyo panel with Wayne from work, hang out with and mooch some space from Rachel of Poseur Ink and meet (the newly married - congrats!) Chris of 24fps...

Wow, could I have possibly plugged any more things in that last paragraph?

Anyway, on point of the strip itself, as that guy chickened out after he realized there were about eight ushers all watching and laughing (as we could hardly believe his timing), I still have yet to see a single customer buy from that vending machine down the hall. *shakes head*

The redhead is Hanna, a fairly new girl at work who I knew previously from school - we were in a play together (Playing for Time) my sophomore year. She is very nice, cool, and does a good job. You wouldn't believe how rare this combo is, especially in a newbie. There were really about 6 other ushers crowded with us in the hallway when this happened, but you know me: too damned lazy to draw that many people. Meh.

Today, I am moving into a new apartment with my mom, until my dad finds his place, and then I will be moving in with HIM. Upcoming events = chaos and confusion. Therefore, updates over the next few weeks will be on time - I HOPE - I will try my very best to work my way around re-hooking up the computer and ordering DSL in a new location, and then doing the same again in ANOTHER few weeks. I would draw the strips all now and send them ahead, but that would leave me no time to pack, or to go to the Con. So, I will try it one week at a time, and hopefully everything will run smoothly. We'll see if I can manage it. I could be more motivated to get my ass in gear if you would do me the favor of telling friends about the strip, voting at BuzzComix (the orange VOTE link) and Super 100, and posting in the forums! (Wow, considerably less whining than last week...)

::Eleanore, your DM8-hoodie-sporting-soon-to-be-relocated-yet-still-high-on-Comic-Con-goodness (web)mistress DM8

Yes, yes, I KNOW I'm late again - I'm getting very demotivated about DM8 lately, sorry for the inconvenience. I guess the sharply falling hits and such are getting to me more than I had first thought. Normally that alone could hardly cause me to waver from my original purpose, but with everything else going on in my life right now (moving, starting college, Comic Con, other annoying little things), the more little nagging things about DM8 that add on, the less motivated I feel to draw the strip each week. I guess I should never have gotten my hopes so high - this was never going to be a Questionable Content brand of success, if even 1/18th of that level.

Anyway, the joke here is that by actually doing my job, I would be chipper and happy and making people feel "welcome," but since I hardly ever actually DO that, when someone actually feels welcome, I would probably drop dead of the sheer shock. After all, my main purpose in continuing my employ with this theatre is to undermine their evil from within. Sic sempre tyrannis! *yells and leaps around maniacally* OK yeah, just kidding.

Notes on the strip itself - Here we see the first appearance of The Wayne! w00t! *dances* This was, however, back when he still had long hair (which I prefer him with, and prefer drawing, anyway), and as you can see, it just makes your job so much better when you can be honest and evil with your superior workers.

Also, another movie poster for a movie I'm excited to see - M. Night Shyamalan's The Village. Yay! Can't wait. Also, some people have been asking me (observant people, I guess) why the background colors keep changing from week to week, even if the settings remain the same. The answer is, depending on what colors I draw the customer in, and depending on what mood I'm in, I just sort of pick at random. For example, here, NO, the concrete outside the theatre is NOT blue, but I just felt like coloring it blue. The sky, however, last I checked, is still very much blue. And, for anyone who is still wondering about little things, no the customer here is not Heather. Nor Kara. Yes, she is chipper and happy, yes, she is a brunette with a braid (which would invariably make her Kara, judging by past strips, actually), but she is just a random person. If it really were Kara or Heather, they would be wearing dark colors, preferably black, and Heather would be wearing her snow parka (regardless of San Diego weather or season).

So... next update may or may not be late, depending on whether or not I'm able to get into the full four days at Comic Con, we'll see! Oh, and I just received my DM8 hoodie to wear at the con, woo and hoo!

So, here we are; I'm going to whine some more, are you ready? Here it comes... *dun dun DUN*...

Read! Tell your friends! (that's a biggie, I need new readers badly) Tell people who aren't your friends! (Hell, it couldn't hurt, right?) Run up to strangers in the street, grab them by the shoulders, shake them, and tell them about DM8! (OK, you all get to decide whether that was a joke or not) Post in the forums! Vote on BuzzComix and Super 100! EVERY little bit will help keep a lazy ass whiner like me motivated! Hurrah. OK, whining over... For this week. Muahahahaha!

::Eleanore, your suddenly-and-inexplicably-demotivated-yet-still-hopelessly-psyched-for-Comic-Con (web)mistress DM8

Hey all, I know it's late this week. Had a lot of computer problems all of a sudden, and PhotoShop was being an ornery bitch, so it took till now to get the strip finished and posted. Damn, and I was on an on-time streak too.

So yeah, at work we have our popcorn kernels delivered in humungo 35lb bags, and they really aren't that heavy, if you sling them over your shoulder, but when there's water on the floor, it's not so happy. For the record, this was the only time I've ever fallen at work. Mind, I slip and slide all over the place, but that was the first time I ever actually FELL. The soles of my boots have been worn down by this odd woman, Danni, who used to work with me, who was unflinchingly convinced that the way to solve the ice machine leaks was to pour pretzel salt all over the floor. It may work on snow, but don't try it with water on the nasty ass concessions floor. *shakes head*

Well, other than that, I can't think of much else to say, really. More news of Comic Con issues has been relayed in my LiveJournal, and all that jazz. I'm hoping a little publicity at the Con will help bring up our severely lagging site hits this month, or at least make it so August doesn't totally SUCK.

Now, I haven't whined in a while, so I think I'm in for a good dose. Post in the forums! Post about movies you've seen recently, or about the comic, or whatever! The forum has been quite neglected lately. I'm going to whine until I get some forum action, dammit! Also, it would really help the lagging hits if people could vote on Keenspace Super 100! and BuzzComix. When we first set up the accounts I didn't think being #341 on a comic listing did us any good, but we did actually get hits off both sites, even as low ranked as we were. So, read! Post! Vote! Keep DM8 alive!

That's all the whining for now. Get ready for some more, next week! Yay!

::Eleanore, your now-too-apathetic-about-everything-in-general-to-be-pissed-at-the-Comic-Con-losers (web)mistress DM8

Well, Happy 4th of July, everyone! I hope all is well and full of bar-b-q, wherever you may be. Unless you had a particularly incident involving choking on a barbecued rib or something. Then, I hope you have some watermelon slices and sparklers, or something.

Anyway, Heather reappears for a second week! If either of the twins even checked the comic (I'm not counting on their even remembering I have one right now - their memory tends to be rather poor), I'm sure they'd be jazzed about it. So, as you can see, Heather is NOT ditsy, just overly happy at times, and at others, almost insistent that you be happy too. Considering my personality, it's nearly a miracle we became such good friends, wouldn't you think?

Oh, and if you're wondering what in the hell she's doing on the floor there, she's either (a) cleaning out the inside walls of the candy case (which is, by the way, what is hidden underneath those counters - you just never see it because I'm generally too lazy to draw people from any other angle than profiles), or (b) re-stocking the candy cases. I'm thinking option a is more likely, because you don't see any actual candy.

News in Eleanore Land: for those of you who were told that I was going to be exhibiting at Comic Con 2004, apparently the people there decided to throw us for a loop, and not give us a booth and just take our $150 bucks instead, as we have yet to receive any inkling of confirmation or correspondence, and the Con is 2 weeks and some odd days away. Fuckers.

Well, other than that extreme-agitation-causing issue, things are going as well as can be expected, considering that it's, well, me.

Enjoy the comic, and see you next week! (I'm liking getting back into updating on the right day, for a change).

::Eleanore, your very-pissed-and-about-ready-to-attack-Comic-Con-people-with-a-large-flame-thrower (web)mistress DM8

Finally, a longer strip than usual! I've been dying to do this one; it happened ages ago (as did most of these stories, actually), but I still laugh at it. This week we are introduced to Heather's twin, Kara. She's not flaky either, but on this particular day she was VERY tired, and believe me, as you can see here, it was starting to show.

And yes, we really do charge $3.50 for a hot dog. And we really do charge $3.25 for a package of 8 BonBons. I had never even heard of BonBons until I started working there - apparently a lot more people know about them than I thought, though.

So yeah, still very busy. Still waiting for Comic Con people to get off their lazy asses and reply to my damned email. Still trying to sell the house. Still going to see Harry Potter tomorrow (4th time, I know; I may have gone mad, but I still love it). Still stressed, still busy, still very tired. Too tired for summer time, dammit!

Anyway, I'm waiting to post our Comic Con donations plea banner until I'm even sure I have a booth to be begging for contributions for. If I don't, they'd better give me my damned $150 back... *shakes fist*

Well, that's really all to do with this week. And I'm actually on time! (It begins to snow outside). The 8th wonder of the world, I think. Until next week, and preferably on time...

::Eleanore, your more-relaxed-than-is-her-custom-yet-confused-as-to-why-exactly (web)mistress DM8

Sorry for the lateness, folks. Again, life gets in the way, even though I only update once a week.

My excuse this time? It's good (and true), I swear. I worked Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, and the whole (or about 90%) of Sunday, Wednesday, Saturday were spent preparing the house for the open house Saturday afternoon. Considering our house has absolutely NO storage space, but we had to find some way to get 18 years worth of clutter out of sight, it was rather difficult. I am very sorry that things keep happening to offset my schedule, as this comic is very important to me. I'm going to try very hard to keep on time from now on.

So, this is the first appearance of one of our beloved twins. Heather is the more happy-go-lucky, plucky, loveable one, and is very into shiny things, cheese, and chocolate. She is almost never found without her large, stuffed black snow parka (no matter what the weather, and we're talking about San Diego here), and a Ziploc baggie full of Cheez-Its, chocolate chips, or Lucky Charms cereal. Plus, if my hair (usually in a bun) is considered "messy," than hers is downright explosive (i.e. it's usually falling to pieces spectacularly). She's not ditzy, though, just very happy and not as cynical as I am, lol. Ah, we love you, Heather. So much entertainment and fun in such a small, unsuspecting package.

Excuse the blatant advertisement for Pepsi, but I just had to put that there. The real soda fountains really do have a huge blue sticker with PEPSI written in large letters on it, but you wouldn't believe how many times people ask for "Coke." Usually it's just a reflex, but we're required to ask "Is Pepsi OK?", and again, you wouldn't believe how many people go "Um... yeah, I guess," as if it were a surprise that we don't have Coca Cola. News flash, slow people: Coke and Pepsi will never be sold in the same place at once, unless you're in a liquor store, a convenience store, or a supermarket. That's why some places sell 7-Up, others Sprite, and still others Sierra Mist, but not all three at once, lol.

Looking forward to seeing The Terminal, possibly next weekend. Have somehow managed to squeeze in three viewings of Harry Potter. I love it, can't help myself. I actually, at work on Thursday, managed a stylized drawing of Dan Radcliffe as Harry Potter that I'm really happy with. Funny, usually a drawing that I spend too much time on ends up as total crap. Anyway, I'm going to post it on my LiveJournal for those who would like to see it. I warn you, the scan quality will probably be quite poor, as it's a pencil drawing, and I am too scared to try and ink it, and risk fucking up one of the best drawings I've done in a while. Especially since I drew him from memory (aside from the lettering, for which I looked at our HP3 poster to cheat my way), I'm rather proud of it.

Rented "Love, Actually" at one point due to badgering of mother person, and it made me chuckle quite a bit. I'd reccomend it if you're into the sort of odd humor in which you may find Hugh Grant (I'm personally not a big fan of his, but he was funny here) calling a portrait of Margaret Thatcher a "saucy minx.

Also, a fun side note! I also managed to sqeeze a trip to the Del Mar Fair with my mom and Matt on the afternoon of the open house, since we needed to be ousted from the premises anyway. And guess what I bought? Three more cool ties! Last year, I bought a Pink Floyd (Dark Side of the Moon prism logo) tie, a Robert DeNiro Godfather movie tie, and a popcorn tie. This year, I bought one with Marilyn Monroe in her famous pose from The Seven Year Itch, a half black, half white one with Al Pacino from Scarface, and a square yellow tie with Spongebob on it, and the writing "Spongebob Squaretie." Hurrah.

Well, as I said, despite how busy I've been, I'm going to try to stay on schedule from now on. My sincere apologies once more, and have a good, summery week.

...And yes, that WAS a long News bar. Whine about it, if you must.

::Eleanore, your over-worked,-under-paid,-high-on-busy-life (web)mistress DM8

Yes, these have both happened (i.e. both this week's story and the story relayed in Week 13), and though this time I didn't end up ripping that tricky bastard Garfield display down, I did have an extremely strong desire to do so.

This is also the only time I've endorsed a movie that I have NO interest in whatsoever. I would change the poster that bumped into me (and it did so about 30 times in a few weeks, dammit) to another movie, but the fact that it was a display for that ridiculously idiotic Garfield movie made me hate the damned thing all the more.

And so, I have had an exhausting week. Graduating from high school is not as simple as it should be, feh. For a full account of my recent adventures, feel free to check out my Live Journal where I should be posting about them soon.

As for all of your adventures, may they be fun and.... well... something.

Until next week.

::Eleanore, your disbelievingly-high-school-graduate (web)mistress DM8

Somone needs to invent a taser that's especially for these situations. It might work something like this...

Girl and Guy: *spend too much time bothering everyone with PDA crap*
Me: *whips out patented PDA Taser(tm)* ENOUGH! *zaps couple with it*
(Random bystanders cheer, without really knowing why)

I think that would be beautiful.

I really do like working where I do, despite all the crap I put up with. I suppose the only reason I'm still sane is I take the humor and multiply it by my general sarcasm and bitterness, and it's just wonderfully joyous, as Wayne might say.

While cleaning my room out before our move, I found a lot of receipts with stuff from work written on them, so I don't have to worry about thinking of things that happened off the top of my head for a while. Plus, as Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban came out this past Friday, and since we're playing it in 3 of our 8 theatres, that means lots of people, which in turn usually means lots of amusing stories of customer idiocy. Huzzah.

Enjoy, and vote! We get more hits, the higher we are on the BuzzComix and Keenspace listings! BuzzComix has been reset for the month of June, so we've gone way down, and any votes would be greatly appreciated.

Ta.

::Eleanore, your very-busy-yet-finding-ways-to-deal-without-causing-her-head-to-implode (web)mistress DM8

So here we see our first appearance of Matt G. I don't give his full last name because of (a) privacy laws which he may or may not care about, and (b) I have no idea how to spell his last name. We have nicknamed him "Hobbit" or "Sam," since he bears a striking resemblance to Samwise Gamgee from LOTR. Yes, it's true. Forgive me Matt, if you think this looks nothing like you; I didn't know I was going to be drawing this particular gag until today, and didn't get a chance to draw you from real life, so I settled for drawing from a Google picture of Sean Astin. Meh, fair enough.

Also, a few people have asked me why I always draw myself, and usually other employees with white ties, especially since I own some very cool ties (i.e. a Dark Side of the Moon tie, a popcorn tie, and a Robert DeNiro - The Godfather tie). The answer to this oddly specific and observant query is simply - I am a lazy ass who likes to save herself as much drawing work as she can. So, there.

Also, in case you couldn't tell, or can't read through the blurriness (I think it's readable, but that might just be me) the movie poster this week is for Steven Spielberg's "The Terminal."

Hints about my movie poster choices: I never put one in there for a movie I'm NOT looking forward to seeing. ;)

So... Yeah. Sorry again for the lateness folks; I really am turning into a terrible comic host. Tease me, call me Piro, I'll deserve it.

It has much to do with how much work it's taking to get the house together before it goes on the market tomorrow - living in one for 18 years, you tend to acquire quite a lot of... well, crap. And it's a BITCH to root through, I must tell you. So, that's my main excuse. My other is, of course, I spent most of yesterday at work.

Dear God I'm going to be very busy, very soon. Curious just how busy? I'll bet you are. Check out the calendar) for the month of June, and you'll see for yourself.

So I'm trying to get things ready for Comic Con, but as of yet, we haven't even had our booth space confirmed, damn Comic Con bastards! *shakes fist* Another pissily amusing thing that really sucks? I order a box of 1,000 business cards from Kinko's, right? They misspell fucking CALIFORNIA. So now, I live in San Diego, Californa. GRAR!

Can't tell I'm stressed? Sure, you can. Heh.

Sorry again for the lateness. Trying to get on top of everything, and failing beautifully. *bows*

::Eleanore, your filled-with-more-stress-than-one-human-body-is-physically-supposed-to-be-able-to-withstand (web)mistress DM8

Sorry if this week's strip seems a little sloppy; I spent most of Saturday morning - the only time I had available this weekend to do the strip, I usually do it Saturday night - getting ready for Prom that was that evening.

Like to hear how it was? If you're really, for whatever reason (I can't imagine why, but what the hell), interested in how it went, I'm sure I'll be posting about it in my LiveJournal soon.

On a side note, I'm very excited to annonce that our readership is at the highest it's ever been! Just a few days ago, we topped February, our debut month, which was, until about a week ago, our strongest month before hits began to dwindle. Much of this is once again thanks to Paragon Fishing! Thanks again, the help is always appreciated.

However, readers, I am now going to turn into a whiny, obnoxious, overbearing mother-type person, and pester you about posting in the forums. Our readership may be at it high, but posting is at an all time low. If you've got an extra minute or two, why not pop by? We won't bite. ...Not just yet, anyway. ;)

Also, voting is helping our website visits very much as well. You wouldn't think so at first - even I didn't - but when checking the DM8 webstats, after (1) direct requests and (2) Paragon Fishing linkage, our 3rd biggest spillover amount of hits comes from the BuzzComix listing, and our 5th from the Keenspace Super 100! listing. It surprised me as well, but votes in this case really do count!

Speaking of votes, our listing on the Super 100! listing recently got wiped, so if you've voted for us there before, please click above and vote again, otherwise we'll never get in the top 10.

So thanks again readers, you're giving me more and more reasons to keep the comic up. I'm not sure when we'll get it up on the site, but I'm sending Will a Comic Con banner to remind you to donate if you can, it's a team effort! It should be up on the page soon.

::Eleanore, your recently-Prom-ified-and-somehow-girly-despite-being-a-known-tomboy (web)mistress DM8

In case anyone is curious, or can't tell, the three movie posters (I thought they might be a nice touch, and work for a better looking background) are for, from left to right: Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (A. Jolie on this one), Spider-Man 2, and Shrek 2.

And so! Hits are steadily climbing, thanks once again to Paragon Fishing! It's good to know we won't die out totally any time soon. Plus, I'm heavily considering entering a guest strip contest for another comic we link to, 9th Elsewhere, which, if I place high enough to be posted, will greatly increase hits. Plus, it's a great chance to get some of my more serious artwork out there, since I think that style would have a much better chance of winning us a spot.

Also still working on things for Comic Con, including a banner for this site to whine at you about it. "Come visit us!" it will whine, until you will have no other choice. My evil plot will succeed. You shall see. You'll ALL see! *evil cackle*

Anyhow, here's hoping we'll keep a nice run going.

::Eleanore, your-blasee-attitude-toting-yet-still-overwhelmed (web)mistress DM8

Isn't the power of advertising almost frightening at times?

Commercial jingles: the epitome of the universal language.

So! Quite an exciting week we've had, considering our lavish praise and generous linkage thanks to the lovely Paragon Fishing. Thanks a lot! We can use the extra traffic to get off the ground.

Also, we've got some votes going at both the Keenspace Super 100 and the BuzzComix listings. Love us? I'll bet you do. Even if you don't, just vote. You know you want to...

Also, at Comic-Con I will NOT be selling DM8 merchandise, as I doubt there is a soul alive who will be both (A) at Comic Con and (B) willing to buy DM8 things from me. If you really want stuff, I've had the CafePress shop open for over a month now, I believe.

Anyhow, thanks for the support, the votes and all! Lots of love to our few readers. Here's hoping soon more will join you.

::Eleanore, your-very-much-stressed-yet-all-the-same-happy (web)mistress DM8

Time goes so fast. Feels like it was only a few weeks ago I was begging the assistant principal for rights to put up DM8 premiere posters up around school.

It also feels like ages since I referred Bei to the theatre. But she has also become one of our dearly coworker departed, sadly. (sigh) I was hoping she'd still be around when I got to this strip, but alas, it was not meant to be. But hey, I still got $25 out of it. At that time (and even now, still, I guess) we were that desperate for new hires, that they'd offer $25 to both referree and referrer. Are those even words? Does it matter? Muahahaha.

That poster plea fell through, by the way. Meh.

Also, to those of you (fellow employees) who are wondering why the trash bags are brown here, I decided to make them brown (rather than the true-to-life black) because I was thinking if I added another single part of the background OR foreground in a gray or black, the whole thing would look washed out and boorish. Fucking black uniforms ruining my comic... *shakes fist*

Anyhow, in other news, a friend of mine and I will be exhibiting at the 2004 San Diego Comic Convention. I'm thinking of putting up a banner ad about it, in case anyone will be there this year, and they can come by and visit. William suggested a donation plea? Perhaps. Although I sincerely doubt there's a soul out there would donate. But hey, no harm in trying, I suppose.

Better get going on some new DM8 sketches. (digs through pile of funny things written down on receipt paper from work) Originally I only started with 16 of them, and I've been too busy to make more, but since I'm already at week 14, I'd better get my ass in gear now, hadn't I?

::Eleanore, your tied-down-by-far-too-much-stress-for-one-person (web)mistress DM8

Well, my personal favorite strip. Surprisingly enough (or not, depending on your opinion of my lack of social tact, and general rash actions), this one wasn't exaggerated at all. *evil cackle*

It seems the traffic on the site is finally slowing down. Here's hoping some people still look at it from time to time

::Eleanore, your local-third-law-of-thermodynamics-defying (web)mistress DM8

When I first showed this sketch to my friend Matt, the conversation went something like this:

Matt: Did you really do that?
Eleanore: Well, I didn't really grab him by the collar, I just sort of leaned over the counter in a threatening fashion. *shrug*
Matt: ...You know you're going to hell.
Eleanore: I know. *satisfied smile*

For the record! This strip is the only time I've ever embellished on the truth! (with the collar grabbing thing, but when I was sketching it, I just suddenly thought, 'Man, it would have been funny if I had done that').

Next week's strip is my personal, number one favorite. This week's is number two.

You'll just have to wait and see, won't you? *cackle

::Eleanore, your inwardly-cackling-bitch-of-a (web)mistress DM8

So yeah, for those two and a half of you out there who actually check DM8 around the time it's supposed to go up (around midnight) sorry that we were late again. But I say it's better when Will and I can combine our efforts and get it out on Sunday, as opposed to Thursday, right? *does a happy dance*

Can you believe we're already on the eleventh week? *shock shock*

That reminds me, I need to collect some more stories, I only have about 16 sketches that I started with. Next week's is my personal favorite.

Enjoy!

:: Eleanore, your meh-attitude-sporting (web)mistress DM8

Again, I apologize for the messed up schedule of last week's update - it actually wasn't posted until sometime Thursday. Between William and I we managed to use Murphy's Law to the fullest extent possible, resulting in this extreme lateness. The funniest part was I finished the comic earler than usual last week. Yeah...

So both # 009 and this week's update (# 010) are up, if you thought last Sunday's never made it up. Just use the dropdown menu to check it out. Thankfully we're on time this week.

Even if you don't want to buy anything (which is understandable) at least check out the DM8 CafePress Shop to see all the weird, sarcastic descriptions I wrote for all the products. Good times...

Enjoy!

:: Eleanore, your amused-yet-tired (web)mistress DM8

Again, sorry everyone for the extreme lateness today!!! Sorry!

I was up at CU Fullerton with my theatre people from school, for a 2.5 day theatre festival up there (see my LiveJournal for more detail).

Didn't get back until 1pm today, and realized on Saturday that I totally spaced out on sending this week's update to poor William! Also, as he'd told me that he's away for a family reunion, he got it up as soon as he could, but we weren't sure when that would be so... here she is, besides!

Anyway, thanks for your patience, and enjoy the update!

SPECIAL NOTE: For anyone out there who cares whatsoever, the DM8 CafePress shop is now open. Buy some crap, if you like. I'll sure as hell appreciate it! Every donation goes to my college education, or to all the work that I need to get done to put out a promo original manga at Comic Con 2004. I may even put together a DM8 compilation book (blame Colin for that idea) together and send one to whoever buys something from the shop!!! How's that for some goddamned incentive! *shakes fist* Meh, I had fun making up products, if anything.

Ta for now.

::Eleanore, your uberly-excited-and-now-much-more-relaxed-now-Fullerton's-over (web)mistress DM8

Getting curious if anyone even bothers to scroll down this far, lol. Meh.

Anyhoo, we've now reached a month and a half, for those who are counting (that would only include myself, I'm sure, lol).

I'd like to take this opportunity to give a very happy 18th birthday shout to my friend Melissa! Happy 18th, yo!

I'd also like to lament the sad departure of workers Minase, Mike and Anthony. We'll miss you guys. Mike is in this strip, and will be appearing in next week's as well. Come and visit us soon, you guys! Us old crew are dying out! *bursts into tears*

Well, the Live Journal is going strong, and the CafePress shop is nearing completion. I'll be sure to link to it when it's all good and done, in case there's a soul out there (besides myself) who'd pay to wear a DM8 shirt! Anyone... anyone... (Bueller)...

:: Eleanore, your genie-in-a-pissy-bottle (web) mistress Del Mar 8

Holy crap, I just realized it's almost St. Patrick's Day; and consequently, my Dad's birthday. Have to get going on that...

So anyway, aside from that random tangent, I'll get to the Link bar designs and finishing character pics for the About page eventually. As this is March, which I have rightly predicted to be my busiest, most stressful month yet, I'm making room for random bouts of bitching and time to work on my numerous insane projects that are all conspiring against me right now rather than doing those extra site delios. I promise, I'll get those out as soon as I can.

Thanks for sticking with me and my overly stressed quality of work. Shout out to my peeps! Yes, you can slap me upside the head for saying that, and being blatantly white at the same time.

::Eleanore, soon-to-be-selling-DM8-merchandise (web) mistress Del Mar 8

I don't think this week's strip really bears any need for futher explanation... Other than that we really do have such stamp cards, and I get people as confused and annoying as this nearly every time I have a Door shift. *shakes head*

But, holy-! A month and a half already? *dies of shock* And I haven't been swallowed whole by bad luck, circumstances out of my control, or otherwise annoying things that may have convened to undermine me. *dances a happy, victory dance*

Anyway, I know the About and Extras section haven't been updated yet, but I made it up to you: it was 6 PANELS this week, rejoice!

Just bear in mind, I will have no set number of panels from one week to the next, because I'm an evil, unpredictable ho that way.

Wayne and William want to post pictures of me in my evil girly dress from Oscar night on the message board, or somewhere on this site. What do you guys think? Feel free to post your opinion on the message board.

Until next week!

::Eleanore, the newly blogging (web)mistress Del Mar 8

By popular demand, we've got multi-panels this week! Woo hoo! *dances crazily for no good reason* Actually, I planned on having plenty of multi-paneled strips, but I thought I'd let you guys sweat it out with some nice frustration about having only singles for the first four weeks. *cackles*

Four weeks? My god, I can't believe it's already the closing of the first month... *stumbles around in hazy bewilderment*

Sorry about last week's strip; it was difficult to understand for many of you who don't work with me (have to watch that, don't I? *slaps self on wrist*). The back story, FYI, (which explains the whole ice scoop thing) has been posted on the DM8 message board under the General board (topic "deeper meanings").

Guess who gets to escort guests in to the theatre this evening for the 76th Annual Academy Awards? That would be yours truly, who will be all pissily gussied up in a gown and all that, muttering angrily under her breath. But hey, I'll be getting paid to watch the Oscars, basically. Feel free to discuss the nominees and winners on the boards as well.

Other than that, thanks for the great response in the message boards so far, and I hope you continue to stick with me!

::Eleanore, the currently uber-happy (web)mistress Del Mar 8

Hey everyone, we've already reached over 100 posts on the forums! I'm so excited that we've got people who are taking to time to register and offer suggestions, or voice their questions with William and I. Hopefully the participation will continue as well as it has been.

Sorry about the lateness today; due to email problems I wasn't able to get the update to William until about noon today. Since I can't update the site myself (as I'm a confused, HTML-phobic idiot, I'm not the one who keeps the site up, that's Will's end of the bargain, fortunately) I have to send the comic and news update thing to William via email, and for some reason his account kept bounching it back to me last night, so this is the soonest I've been able to get it to him.

Thanks for your patience; both with this and with the weekly updates only. I'm off to work! Joyous! (yes, I stole that from Wayne...)

::Eleanore, the inadequate (web)mistress Del Mar 8

Well, it's been a hell of a first two weeks, hasn't it? It never fails that just as the first weeks of my very own webcomic are going on, Keenspace is having problem after inconvenient problem (sigh). *shakes head

Anyhow, this mirror site is going to be updated every week, along with the Keenspace one (when it allows us to do so, that is) until further notice, just in case Keenspace (as it most likely will) screws with us again.

I remind you all if you've got a few extra minutes while passing through, hit the "forum" link, and join our message board! We've got quite a few posts going, and if you leave us your email under your member info, we can send you an email when Keenspace issues arise, or any other news comes up. Plus, we want you to post in our forum. Post! I command you all! *waves magic wand*

Need to reach me for any particular reason? Until we get a section up about our info, you can reach me through the following means:

e-mail: delmar8@mailup.net
AIM: mistress delmar8
Y!IM: mediocre_cynic
MSN: highland_rat@hotmail.com

Thanks for all the existing posts; I appreciate it. Enjoy the third strip! We'll get the keenspace page updated as soon as we can.

::Eleanore (web)mistress Del Mar 8

P.S. Check out the freshly updated about section, which will soon feature bio art for all the Del Mar 8 characters.

Well, we've made it though the first week alive. Now, if only keenspace wasn't so damned determined to undermine me... *plots revenge* Ah, well, we've got it up and running somewhere, haven't we? That should be good enough for you! *cackles* Coming soon to the site (either this one, or the original, if keenspace fixes it's ornery ass)!

-- New! Improved! Color character pictures!
-- Artful, varied link banners, for the part of you that loves me so damn much you can't help but link to me!

Hey kids, it's hip! It's cool! It's the second week!

Enjoy.

::Eleanore (web)mistressDM8

Hello all, and welcome to the official premiere of Del Mar 8!

I will be your head usher for today, and the movie you will be watching is... well, enough of the parody on the job, let's get down to the basics.

This is a comic illustrating funny happenstances at my place of employment, the local movie theater. I've renamed the establishment "Ultra Super Galaxy Star" to protect the innocent.

All of the comics (until further notice) are based in fact. In fact, they are almost always (about 99% of the time) exact interpretations, although occasionally I do slightly embellish for further comic effect. But the goal is to show the true horror, complexity, hilarity and chaos that resides within the dark, deep recesses of the Minimum Wage Underworld.

So without further ado, enjoy! Post in the forum! Have a blast! Get a bit of a look in to my job and my sarcasm and bitter apathy.

And lastly, for my necessary shout outs!

-- William, my webmaster, design genius and all-other-great-things extraordinaire! You rock my oddly twisted world of cynicism and tactlessness. May we have a long and humorous journey.
-- Matt, my ever-present sidekick; my Whitly Mateo, chichen is LYER, yo. (Don't ask, people. Run from the insanity)
-- Mr. Carlton: Thanks so much for all the help, and for trying to get my posters approved at school. It was nice of you to take the time, and I hope you like the comic!
-- Mrs. Allen: You rock! I love your class (no matter how tired I look) and no, this is NOT a hopeless plug to suck up to teachers. Back, you nay-sayers! *pulls out a random, angry parrot* Anyway, I like Frankenstein so far, by the way. All the descriptions of Switzerland are very cool. Thanks for giving me announcement time and poster space too! : )
-- Marinee, Fred, Robert, and Chen-Sensei: Thanks for the poster space as well! Every little bit counts. Domo arigatou, sensei.

And lastly, but certainly never least...

-- The Del Mar 8 crew! You guys rock, and I hope you like my little tribute to our crazy place of work.

Without any other random babble or distraction... Away, my little comic! Into the vast and harrowing sea of the Internet!

:: Eleanore (web)mistressDM8