This issue marks three major milestones for The Sbuirrels. First, it's the first Christmas issue; second, it's the tenth issue of the series; and third, it's the first of my webcomics to break the double-digit barrier in terms of amount.
I had developed this idea around Christmastime 2017. I thought of the famous gag from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation about the squirrel in the tree. I thought of my webcomic series with squirrels and decided to play around with the gag and the result was finally produced four years later.
During production, I neglected to do something important that I somehow forgot about, something I learned from both a book and from experience. That thing was this: In order to have something in time for a specific release time, such as a holiday, said thing must be produced months in advance so it will be ready one time. I learned this from my copy of the Garfield 20th anniversary book from 1998 when it was mentioned that Christmas strips are usually produced in September. Also, I produced the Halloween issue of 2017 in July that year after developing the idea not that long ago. In contrast, I produced this one quickly starting on/around November 29. Around this time, I got a new job as a graphic designer/producer at Replica Creative and quit my CSA job at ShopRite. This new job, based in Philadelphia, takes up a lot more of my time, but not as much as ShopRite because I come home earlier and have more time for DoorJam Creations. I ended up rushing this issue a little as a result, worrying if it would be produced in time, even as I was also setting up Christmas decorations at my home, too!
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