by soulsrocker on Thu Sep 04, 2008 9:21 pm
I've been reading since about the end or maybe halfway through 7th grade, which would be about....probably February or January 2001. Back when the characters were very "comic strip," those big-eyed people with the little bodies, and I loved it. It was the first webcomic I ever read, and since the drawing wasn't overwhelming, I could get into it, since it wasn't so far from the only other comics I'd know at the time, and it was funny and I loved it. And over the next 7 years, I've read it faithfully for 3 to 8 months at a time, and gotten sidetracked with something or other, and neglected it for another 6 months or so, and then read up from wherever i left off to present, caught up, and read for another while. And as I've grown up, it seems like the Striptease gang has, too. The artwork's so much more mature and detailed, and now I revel in it every time a new strip comes out!
I guess it's weird to think that I started reading this when I was 12, almost 13, living in Pennsylvania, and now I'm 20, living in Nebraska. Since I first met Max and Emily and Alli, I've started dating, learned how to drive, learned the guitar, graduated, gone to college, gotten into drugs, sworn off drugs, started a band, dropped out of college, lived in Michigan, waited tables, sold cars, straightened my life out, and now I'm getting everything sorted out to go back to college.. And here they all still are, 800 issues later, still going strong with that perfect mix of real-life scenarios and the completely ridiculous shenanigans that keeps me coming back for more! Congratulations on 800 strips, Chris! And here's to another 8 years! I wonder what I'll have done by then! I really need to thank you for making something that's changed (in only good ways), and yet stayed so constant as all these other things in my life have changed.
So, thanks again, Chris!