The weekly Vote Incentive updates have been keeping right on schedule as I had hoped. I think now I can safely say that you can expect a new one every Monday evening. This week, however, I’ve decided to do something a little different. Rather than just put up a random sketch of the characters, I’m presenting “Alone in a Crowd: The Deleted Scenes!”

Sometimes I have ideas for a particular strip that I leave out because they don't flow well with the rest of what's going on, or they have to be trimmed for concision's sake. In other cases, it might be an idea I had after a strip is done where I say "oh, I wish I could have done THAT too!" For those instances, I figured why not sketch them and make them vote incentives? Makes the incentive more poignant, don't you think? So, for the first one, I decided to show a little scene you didn't see that happened during last week's strips about Sara's "broken underwear," as Hope calls them. Sara offered insight as to WHY she would ever wear them, but where did they come from? The answer is available to those who vote for AIAC at Top Webcomics!

I think by now you probably know how this works, but just in case: to vote for AIAC and see the deleted scene, either click on the Top Webcomics Voting Banner under the comic on aiacrowd.com, or just click the following link: http://topwebcomics.com/vote/8484/default.aspx

In other news, our dear Faith sure has been getting around lately. If you aren’t reading David Wilborn’s daily strip “Urban Jungle,” you may have missed Zack’s stylish shirt in this particular strip:

http://www.urbanjunglecomic.com/?p=747

Zack never looked better, I assure you.

It doesn’t stop there my friends! The other day I received a Twitter message from the author of “Fera,” David Shirley. He was working on the next strip, and said to me: “I need a teary child in the crowd. You don’t mind if Faith cameos right?” And of course I said I didn’t mind. Considering “Fera’s” main character is a cat-girl, so I figured Faith would feel right at home. Check out the current page to see her guest appearance:

http://angelk.at/fera/

She seems so sad to see her hero fall from grace. The poor thing. Though I suppose Kato deserves more of our sympathy right now.

Well, that’s all from me for now. Until next time, keep Hope alive and have Faith!

I love the Christmas season, plain and simple. Last weekend, we spent a day decking out the house (not the halls) with all our various Christmas decorations. It used to be tradition to put them up the day after Thanksgiving, but for the past two years I’ve had to work that day. How dare gainful employment get in the way of the Christmas sprit? (though we ARE decorating our cubicles at work).

Anyway, I thought I’d share a few pictures of the results. If you paid attention to Twitter this past Sunday, you may have already seen this pictures.

Here’s the Christmas tree, in all its glory. The star DOES light up; unfortunately in this shot I caught it mid-blink. So no, it’s not burnt out. However, new lights were required this year. The old ones were veterans of MANY many Christmas holidays, but apparently they finally saw their limit. Only one small strand lit up, while the rest just refused to cooperate. Considering how cheap bulbs are, there was no way I was going to sit there and test every bulb just to see if I could get them working. I’m not going to take my Clark Griswald side to THAT much of an extreme.

This would be the mantle above the fireplace. Essentially the bottom got jam-packed with all the various Christmas décor that didn’t fit anywhere else. That little Santa with the drum is probably older than I am. It’s quite worn out and somewhat broken, but I insist on putting it out every year. It just wouldn’t feel right without seeing it there. This picture also shows a small glimpse of my Nutcracker collection. I try to get a new one every year. I’m not entirely sure why I’ve grown to like them so much, but I’m certain an inside joke between my mom and myself when I was younger sure fueled it. The silver one on the right is the newest one. Pretty, isn’t it? If you squint, you can also see some figurines of characters from “The Muppet Christmas Carol.” I still stand by that being one of the best Christmas movies of all time. That, and Michael Caine has to be my favorite Scrooge ever. If you’ve never seen it, definitely seek it out and watch it this year. Bringin’ Muppets back!

Finally we have the Christmas knick-knack table. I try to make it look a little bit different every year. Some of the houses actually light up, and the “snowmen family” have colored bulbs inside them so they change different colors when plugged in. More nutcrackers as well (the rest of the collection is in the window behind the Christmas tree). The Snoopy and Woodstock plushes at the piano is a new addition though. If you press a button, it’ll play either two different Christmas songs or the “Linus and Lucy” piece. Plus Snoopy kind of grooves along.

Despite my obvious Christmas obsession, I don’t go as to far as to deck the outside of the house out with lights. My family did it a couple times, then we decided it just wasn’t worth the effort. We like the decorations we can enjoy, not that only people driving by the house enjoy. I do put up some window lights though, because there needs to be something. In respected windows, there’s a Christmas tree, a Santa, an angel, a candy cane, and a snowman. They look pretty nice and give the outside of the house enough of a cheer.

So the season truly begins! Now to properly plan out my special Holiday AIAC strips…

Keep Hope alive and have Faith and to all a good night!

They laughed at me when I said I was going to be regular with my vote incentive images from now on. LAUGHED! Well, who's laughing now, huh? WHO'S LAUGHING NOW!?

Nah, I'm just messing with ya. Still, a new "Alone in a Crowd" vote incentive has been posted to Top Webcomics. Today's sketch features a slightly younger Hope with a good friend of her's, Chloe Kovac. Chloe's from the comic "Agents of the Entimes," which you should know by now is from my good friend and fellow Below the Foldian, Jimmy Misanthrope. Hope and Chloe are pretty strong Twitter buddies. Originally I was just practicing how to draw Miss Kovac for a future piece I want to do, but I decided to sketch Hope in as well, just for the fun of it. As you can see, she's not a fan of Chloe's nasty little habit. Ratburgers indeed!

Anyway, as always, to check out the sketch, you can either click on the Top Webcomics Voting Button below the comic on aiacrowd.com, or head to the following link: http://topwebcomics.com/vote/8484/default.aspx

Your votes are paying off by the way. Between these past few Vote incentives that have been posted, AIAC has jumped up 100 places in the Top Webcomics ranking! Thank you so much for the support everyone! And as always, an additional vote to Webcomic Z helps an angel get its wings.

That's all I have for you today. I'll have more to talk about a little later in the week (which wont be promotional, I promise).

Thanks again everyone! Keep Hope alive and have Faith!

What’s that? Could it be? YES! I’m actually keeping up with the vote incentives! I’m thinking the goal is to always have a new vote incentive up for “Alone in a Crowd” on Monday nights. Without further ado though: if you click the voting button for Top Webcomics on AIAC’s main page under the comic, or if you simply follow this link here, you’ll get to see a brand new sketch of Sara. This is another one done while on a lunch break at work. What’s special to note about this one is that I’m trying to get in the habit of drawing skeletal structures as a guide for the shape and direction of the body. I would never do that before, aside from with heads, and I think my art suffered for it at times, even if over the years I got much better at “faking it.” It’s a hard method to get used to, especially after not drawing that way for so long. You can only see some of it in this drawing, this a good deal got erased. (and of course, votes to Webcomic Z are very much appreciated as well, if you don’t mind)

Update on my computer troubles I told you all about a couple weeks ago: I fixed it! Interestingly enough, opening up the tower and spraying all the dust out with canned air was all it took. I love it when it’s the simplest explanation! Once again, thanks to everyone who contacted me with their suggestions about what to do!

So Thanksgiving is just about upon us. I hope everyone has an enjoyable one! Thanksgiving has always been my second favorite Holiday (take a wild guess as to what the favorite is). Sure, Halloween is fun, but there’s just something about Thanksgiving. I think it comes from all the fond memories from when I was young. That, and I love good food (but come on, who doesn’t?). My mom has always been the resident Thanksgiving chef of the family, so we’re always the ones to host the big mess of family. Still, I think my favorite part of Thanksgiving is the leftovers. I’ll eat those for days and days afterwards.

So to keep with the tradition, I’d like to say something I’m thankful for, and that is all of you AIAC readers. “Alone in a Crowd” is still a pretty new comic, but I’ve started to see some really dedicated fans pop up, as well as a great deal of regular readers. You guys are the absolute best and I can’t thank you enough for showing interest in the life and times of my girls Sara, Faith, and Hope. It means so very much to me. I’ve always wanted to be a cartoonist, not just because I adore the art form, but also because I had this undeniable desire to create something that would resonate with people. At the risk of sounding cheesy: to see that dream starting to come true…well, it’s pretty amazing.

So my sincere thanks out to you all! As 2010 approaches, all I can say is that I’ve got a lot planned, and AIAC is only going to grow and get better from here.

Always keep Hope alive and have Faith!