That’s it for me, kids. I’m off to Florida. If you need anything, leave me a comment or two.

OK, I think we have finally officially earned the self-proclaimed title of “America’s Most Emo Comic Strip.” Wow. Bleak stuff.

And sorry, but the next episode is not going to be much happier. But you know what they say, right? Always darkest before the dawn?

In other happier (I hope!) news, if you still want one of those limited-time signed copies of the first print issue, featuring all sorts of goodies you CANNOT get anywhere else, you only have until Oct. 13 to pre-order. On Oct. 14, the comic hits the streets and internet sales move over to plain, ol’ boring, unsigned copies without the nifty shipping discount. So quit stalling.

Also, we’ll be on hiatus next week. Not that any of you read this text below the comic to even know that, so I’m sure I’ll get messages on Facebook or Twitter or whatever next week wondering where are the new pages. HIATUS, kids. We’ll be back with Part 007: Odyssey on Oct. 21.

Happy 50th anniversary to me! Or, um, here’s page 50.

I know, things are getting kind of heavy, right?

Stay tuned. We’re not doing hiatus next week. It’ll be the week after. Other changes coming soon. Hang tight.

Can you believe we’re almost to Page 50? I barely can. But here we are. I figured at this point I’d be stuck for story. But don’t worry, we’re going to drag this thing out for a while.

(No, really, there is a definitive end to The Utopian. It won’t go on forever. But it will go on at least six more months.)

Hey! Did you pre-order your copy of issue one yet? You know there’s a lot of BONUS STUFF in there, right? And you’ll get it signed? This offer is running out. Once the comic prints, the limited edition signed thing goes away, you know. So you have less than two weeks.

Or, you could just, you know, tell your local comic shop owner to order a few copies. That would be nice.

I guess my OCD won out over my poor scheduling and here we are, Friday’s strip is actually on time. Huh.

Now, about that hiatus … remember when we took off a week back in July during Comic-Con? And how it fell perfectly between two chapters?

Um, yeah, that’s probably not going to happen the same way this time. Near as I can tell, The Utopian will be dark the week of Oct. 5, when I head out to Florida for a wedding/mini-vacation. Hopefully, Part 006 will wrap up by then. But it’s kind of stretched already two pages longer than I expected, so …

No one cares but me, do you? I guess the only thing you need to know is that there will be two days this month where there are no updates. OK. Bye bye.

There is the distinct possibility Friday’s strip is going to be late. Like possibly delayed ’til next Monday late. I’m sure I won’t let that happen because I’m OCD about this stuff, but it’s a possibility is all. The strip WILL be on hiatus in a few weeks, though. Only for a week. I’m going out of town and need to catch up. But I’ll tell you more next week.

In other news, one of my dogs is having knee surgery on Thursday, and if all goes well, Rosie should end up looking like this by day’s end:

By some amazing force of will, I actually am posting this Wednesday night. Yes, it was done more than 36 hours ahead of schedule. Which is the way things should always be, but, well, we know how that goes.

I’d like to thank everyone who’s pre-ordered the first issue of The Utopian print comic. I received a bunch of orders on day one of sales, and figured that would be most of the pre-orders, but I’ve had a few trickling in every day since then. Remember, this is a limited-time offer to get copies signed by yours truly, and to save yourself a bit on shipping before I turn sales over to IndyPlanet. People seem to be ordering one copy each of the two editions — Standard and Deluxe — which is really cool, unexpected and a testament to the talents of the two cover artists, Mark T. Zeilman and Hernan Valencia.

My girlfriend’s parents are in town this weekend, so there is a slight chance next week’s pages might be a hair late. But you’ll give me some slack, right? Right? No? Sigh … You and Kanye, always bringing me down.

Things are ramping up, and I barely have time to catch my breath here. I have to get back to inking the next page. In the meantime, have you pre-ordered your copy of issue one yet? There is some new artwork that’s going to knock you friggin’ silly.

If you knew how much went into making it rain, well, you’d ask why I even bother.

I’m really going to have to ramp up to get next week’s pages done plenty ahead of time, because aside from having journalistic deadlines and a gig with my band next week, my girlfriend’s family is coming to town, so I’ll need to be a little freer in general. These are going to be some intense pages to draw, so … yeah, I’ll shut up now and get to work.

In other news, I’m doing my final prep on the files for the printer today in order to ensure the first print issue of The Utopian is in stores by Oct. 14. If you could do me a favor, please print out the following graphic (click on it for a larger version) and take it to your favorite comic shop to let them know you want your Utopian comics!! Or, you know, you could pre-order your SIGNED copy now!

Sorry, I could not resist the Milli Vanilli pun. Or their Grammy Award-winning fakery.

But I digress. If you have been living under a rock, you may have missed the momentous announcement yesterday that not only have the covers for the first print issue of The Utopian been revealed, but pre-orders are now open! The comic doesn’t ship until October, but if you order now, you’ll save a few pennies, skip the middleman, and get a copy signed by these very hands with which I type this missive. What more could you want? Nothing, I say! Also: Prices start at approximately $32 less than Beatles Rock Band, so there you go.