Thursday Randomness: What's Old is New Again

For this Thursday's Randomness, I'm going back in time. WAAAAAAAAAAY back. This WebComic started in July of 2005 as nothing but a reading blog. This was going to be my way of keeping track of the books I read and what I thought about them. As you can see, things changed. This is what happens when you introduce a cat into an environment.

Frank made his first appearance in the Wildcat's Lair on October 26, 2005. I created a banner for my blog (pictured below). His original role was as nothing but a mascot, but cats are never satisfied playing second fiddle. After that, it didn't take Frank long to take over the entire blog.



The first "WebComic" I did with Frank was posted less than a month later on November 19th. The episode, while somewhat apocryphal, was called "The Wildcat's Cafe Mocha Adventure." The episode contained the usual pictures with word balloons, but I also padded it with several paragraphs to bridge the gaps in the story.

Frank's adventures didn't gain any true consistency until May of 2008. Up until that point, I'd created fifty episodes. Most of those fifty episodes can be found here, but not all. The reason? The Wildcat's Lair originated as an AIM blog. This Blogger site started as a mirror version of the original Lair in May of 2006. As some of you AIM blogger refugees know full well, the AIM blogs went kaput in late 2008. Thanks to the mirror site (now the official home of the Wildcat's Lair), most of Frank's adventures from the AIM blog days were still online over here--but not all of them.

No, when the original lair went dark in November 2008, the original eleven episodes of Frank's misadventures went away. I created a "Wildcat's Lair Archives" with the intent of posting all of its blog entries, but as my blog had turned into a WebComic, I didn't see the point and left it to collect virtual dust. I did eventually post that first episode "The Wildcat's Cafe Mocha Adventure," but never got around to the other ten episodes.

Until now.

Earlier this week, I was wondering how many episodes I've done with Frank. Counting them was not a simple task, and as I worked my way backwards in time, I finally came to those lost episodes from 2005 and 2006. I realized it was way past time to get them re-posted.

Those early episodes include the original Bracket Battle from March of 2006, which was only between me and Frank. It's worth noting that Frank won that year. There's also a Christmas episode where Frank's family (with the notable exception of his parents and sister) visit the Lair, and chaos ensues. It's certainly worth a visit to see how my comic strip has evolved from those original episodes and to see just how much hair I've really lost in the past six years.

Oh, and the total number of episodes? As of yesterday's third episode in the "Frank & Hip Get Steampunked" storyline, the total is 348.