I was tremendously surprised and elated when I went to my mailbox this past weekend. The first goodie package I encountered came from John Norton, the creator of the astounding webcomic “George”.

John sponsors a contest once per month where (by some arbitrary means) he selects one person who comments upon his website to win the prize of an original sketch of their favorite series’ character.

I was as happy as a lark (are they really that happy?) to get notified that I was the winner of January’s Comment Contest! I knew which character I wanted John to draw for me: Amanda! She’s one of my favorites out of the whole George gang.

John, you did an amazing job! I love it!

I also found in my mailbox that weekend another package! This tantalizing tidbit was sent courtesy of Chris Flick of Capes N’ Babes fame. Chris creates another one of the funniest, most original webcomics around.

Capes N’ Babes sponsored a trivia contest during one update, and readers were prompted to name a tune based on a snippet of lyrics. Fortunately, I was able to recognize the song (along with fellow comic creator, Pam Harrison of House of Muses)

As a winner, I received a few of the flyest buttons on the planet which feature the main characters from Capes N’ Babes. I also received some nifty postcards which advertise all of the most pertinent information about Chris’s creation (every decent webcartoonist should have a bunch of these available at their convention table).

I would like to thank John and Chris again for making my day so wondrously enjoyable. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt like an absolute fanboy. It’s weird. I’m a cartoonist, and I bump into a lot of different creators every day somewhere on the internet, but it was totally wild to actually hold some artwork in my hand that someone else created. I was able to see what other folks see when they look at my stuff. It was that awe-inspiring feeling of “Wow! How did he do this? Look at those pencil lines! I can feel the impression of the ink strokes!”

Well, you get the idea. So what are you waiting for, Dear Reader? Go check out Capes N Babes and George comics for yourself. Maybe you can win next time!