Well hey there! What are you doing here? Hello? Huh. I guess you can’t answer. That means I can inundate you with inane drivel! YAY!

So things have been going rather decently so far. I’m getting ready to be married and it’s as exciting as it is nerve-wracking. I’ve got all the comics up until two weeks after the wedding all scripted out, except for the two guest strips. I might see if my buddy Paul wants to do one. He does the awesome work over at Gallant Adventures and totally owes me because I did a guest strip for him way back in August. That’s how friendship works, right? In a series of debt and mobster-like demands of repayment? Welp, if not I have a collection of kneecap-based apologies to write out.

Thanks for all the views everybody! I’ve been trying to make a name for myself and Ninja and Pirate on the interwebs with this comic and I can’t do it without your help. Reddit’s been a punk to me so far and hardly anyone on my facebook reads it and my Twitter has only about 30 followers so your word of mouth is the best tool in my arsenal. My view count has dropped dramatically recently and I’m not sure why but if you have any suggestions feel free to contact me at ninja_pirate_comic@yahoo.com! So far there is no feasible way for me to put out this comic more often with my schedule and the lack of views. Don’t get me wrong, I’m incredibly grateful for those of you who do read this. But I can’t justify doing 3 comics a week with 32 viewers, let alone 5. So get the word out if you want more!

If you’re a new viewer, then welcome! There’s no escape now! Here’s the first comic in the storyline: And So It Begins! You shall perish in flames!

In other, more upsetting news, my sister-in-law’s wonderful little rat (i.e. Chihuahua) Rosie got out through a hole in the fence a couple days ago. She’s a great little spaz so we’re hoping she comes back. Keep her in your thoughts, won’t you?

A very good friend of mine alerted me to Ninja and Pirate’s very first example of possible plagiarism! Yay! He pointed me to this YouTube video called Pirate and Ninja: Episode 1.  I’m all for creative license and everything and truth be told, the concept of Ninja and Pirate isn’t that original in that it’s basically the Odd Couple or Abbot and Costello. However, the similarities here seem a bit too, well, similar. A Ninja looking for a place to live, comes to a Pirate’s apartment to become his roommate, his name is Ninja and the Pirate’s name is Pirate, the Ninja is a functioning human being while the Pirate is a bit slow- not to mention this came out a month ago which seems to be an appropriate amount of time to copy the storyline and characters from when I started. I’m gonna give this guy the benefit of the doubt for now but I’m wary if that makes any sense. It’s not like I have any right to tell this guy off just because he’s trying to do something fun and I’m not a mean guy but I’d appreciate at least an ‘Inspired by Ninja and Pirate by Joe’ subtitle or something if he did copy me.

On a different note, the comic today is a little heavy-handed. I don’t know why but my lovely future wife texted me and said it looked like I used the stylus like a monkey uses a banana. (In reality she just said it was a little heavy-handed which conjures up images of me flailing my arms about and picking fleas out of her hair to me.) Sorry about that. I didn’t notice it at all until the comic went to print. Next week’s should be better. I’m actually really excited for next weeks. It should be amusing. Hopefully.

Anyway, take care folks. I’ll see you next week and thanks again for reading!