It’s been, jeez, three and a half years since I last did one of these recap comics. And over nine years since I started The System. If you don’t know what I’m talking about when I say “recap comics”, every 100 comics (like numbers 700, 600, 500, 400, 300, 200 and 100) we take a step back and review what we’ve learned. To say that three and a half years ago feels like an eternity feels like an understatement. Here’s some updates from the world here at System HQ:

• 5 years ago I started a design firm. 3.5 years ago there were three of us. Now there’s seven.
• A relationship didn’t work out. You may have picked up on some subtext about that.
• There was a bout with anxiety and depression.
• I moved! Twice. From that one-bedroom to a studio, and that studio to a house.
• Oh yeah! I live in a house now! And that house also has an amazing girlfriend in it.
• That house has a very nice bike commute to work.
• And of course, it has felt oftentimes like the world is going to hell.

I have debated calling the comic quits here at comic number 800. As it is, I can take every 200 comics and catch up on publishing books, and it will make for a nice four-book set. They can each be color-coded as C-M-Y-K (the first was yellow, the second is going to be cyan, we’re going a little out of order but we can get there). Truthfully though, I don’t want to put a giant period at the end of this project. As much as it sucks to have it lingering, when I do find the time to put one of these comics together it still means a great deal to me, and I’ve heard from some of you it means a great deal to you as well.

So for now, consider the project moving at a colossally slow rate for the time being. Book 2 is actually all designed and ready to go, and as soon as I find some time I’ll be putting together a Kickstarter for it so y’all can order your own copies. Hopefully the last two books will follow, and with them more comics.

Also, if you are a convention-going type, I still am hitting up the convention circuit with shirts, books, prints, and touring with the Super Art Fight gang.

Meanwhile, I’ll keep posting comics until morale improves.

—Rosscott

Next time, we’ll cover the bit about how Twitter is turning into Facebook.

This comic was my last one for the “I Love Charts” collection, which was unfortunately has shut down for the time being. So you can expect a few less charts around here, as I won’t be cross-posting the ones that were premiering on Medium.com.

I did, however, post my full “bike theft” story on Medium as it seemed to lend itself to the format. I’ve been amazed how many people have commented (mostly in person) how much they followed along with the story. So, you can read the whole thing here.

Baltimore Comic Con

That was this past weekend,and it was a lot of fun! I went into the weekend expecting to set up and have a table and sell comics and things, but unfortunately my busy work schedule and lack of stable mental reserves of energy got in the way. If you looked for me at my table, I apologize. I was there both afternoons socializing with the rest of the Super Art Fight crew, but I didn’t have it in me to lug giant suitcases 160 miles round trip and spend every waking moment worrying about selling things. So, like many of you, I spent my “time off” hanging out at a convention. I haven’t just hung out a con in so long, it was glorious! Thank you to all of you who came by and chatted. I even somehow wound up selling 2 books, despite not really having a table “set up” at all.

SPX Next Weekend

SO. EXCITED. FOR. SPX.

A little back story:

Zach “Zach Weinersmith” Weiner was looking for someone to help make his idea for this infographic a reality, and I was lucky enough to fit the bill thanks to some work I’d done with College Humor and, yknow, charts. So to be clear, Zach wrote this start to finish, and I did the design work to make it look awesome and real and stuff.

It went up on SMBC Comics earlier this week, and since has showed up on Slate! Oh, and Ezra “BAMF” Klein tweeted:

6 reasons this infographic is wrong, in one infographic: http://t.co/DGwyHiO6HE

— Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) November 7, 2013

Of course if you’d like to buy this chart as a poster, you should click here and make your dreams a reality.

So if you make webcomics and want to make a chart together, apparently you should talk to me.

I saw this twice today, people “liking” posts where the post was bad news. Did they really like the bad news? No, they were merely showing support through a “like”. Sounds to me like we should change them from “like” to “approve” or “support”, because that’s what you’re really doing anyway. In real life, when someone says “I think we should get pizza”, you don’t say “like”. No, you agree. Do that. Just agree.

Have any funny (or sad) Facebook stories? Share them in the comments! I’m reading, and as always so is Rossmom.

10,000th Tweet Day

Celebrated by: Reminiscing about tweets past. Singing songs like “Auld Slang Syne” and drinking. Silly hats are a must.

Traditional gifts: A new charger/battery for your Twitter-choosing device of choice. Cards should be no more than 140 characters. Sending photos of gifts and well-wishes via TwitPic and yFrog.

AIM Screen Name’s Bar / Bat Mitzvah

Celebrated by: Attending the event where your little boy screen name becomes a man (screen name). Witness as DrkwngDck1245 comes of age as he chats those on his buddy list with the chosen reading from the Torah, or more likely a link to a funny video that’s secretly a way to send your friend a picture of something they didn’t want to see.

Traditional gifts: Skype credits in multiples of 18, or a really nice Wacom pen.

Computer Warranty Expiration Day

Celebrated by: Wearing black, and looking back on the good times. The minute your warranty expires, your computer will start showing signs of age. The only real good news is the older your computer gets, the sooner you get to a new one.

Traditional gifts: A new computer.*

*Send money to systemcomic at gmail dot com.

What new holidays do you celebrate?

Here are some quick photoshops of the final images of the comic. Feel free to use as you like, but please credit both Caldwell (if it doesn’t look stiff, he drew it and deserves credit) and myself where appropriate. If anyone asks you where you find it, you know where to send ’em.

If you really like one of these images, remember that all three are available on t-shirts and as a poster at HilariAwesome.com. It is a joint venture between myself and Caldwell, so if you decide to support us by purchasing something, we both benefit.

2018 Update: We did in fact make a followup to this chart called “So you’re MAD about something on the Internet…”  soon after that I suggest you also check out.

WHAM. That’s gotta be the biggest damn comic-chart there ever was, right?

UPDATE: HELP IRONY HAPPEN! Here’s today’s comic on . Here it is on BoingBoing. Post it in places and let me know where or post in the comments!

Thank you oh-so much to this joint endeavor of The System and Caldwell of Loldwell.com. Both of us have had plenty of experience with our work making its way across the internet, both with and without attribution to our hard work, and so we thought we would make a comic/chart about how to do it right.

Consider this reference material for the next time you find an artist’s work on a website without attribution to all the hard work someone put in. Next time you see someone posting something that isn’t theirs on Tumblr or Flickr or DeviantArt or wherever else, let them know what you really think. That they are killing the internet. And of course, every time you do that, the Internet (which, let’s face it, is a kitten) sheds a single tear. And then dies because IT HAS BEEN KILLED BY STUPID PEOPLE.

What’s that? You want this on a t-shirt? A poster? Not a problem!

Oh, you thought it would make a good shirt? Which part? The Googles? The sharing emblem? The sad kitten? Gotcha covered. Click on the images below to take you to the HilariAwesome.com store, where you can purchase any of the three shirts we’ve created from this comic. Proceeds go to the original artists, who worked hard to make you laugh and provide this public service announcement.

UPDATE: For those of you who were here earlier, there used to be a “sharing is awesome!” shirt based largely on the image in the above chart available right where this paragraph now lives. Due to using, oh, everyone’s logo in it, this infringed on some copyrights. If you think about it, that goes completely against the point of the chart in the first place, so we’ve taken it down for the time being. Caldwell and I fully plan to retool the design to not feature so many other people’s work in a way that goes against the spirit of the chart and then repost it as available for sale. In the meantime, hope you like the other shirts!

F%*k You T-shirt

To The Googles! T-shirt

See Something? Cite Something. Poster (NOTE: If you would like a “radio edit” of the chart for whatever reason, just place the order and put that in the “special instructions” and we’ll make it happen!)

Of course, talk it up in the comments! We hid a ton of little jokes into this chart, see if you can find them all and list your favorite!

Thanks to you Systemics who helped make the last comic onto The Daily What, it’s much appreciated! And while I’m at it, greetings, Daily What readers.

Hate Cancer?

Remember, any print of any comic purchased through the HilariAwesome.com store through the end of the month has all the proceeds go to a cure for breast cancer! Currently we’re at $0. Come on you guys, you’re making me look bad in front of breast cancer.

Be sure to check out the #FutureWorldProblems contest from yesterday. You should check out the details here.

Hey Systemics! I’ve got some things in the works and want your input, something I’m hoping to do more of going forward. For now, let’s talk about sharing for a sec. Your answers to any or all of these questions in the comments would help me help you to help me again. To sweeten the deal, if I get over 20 people to respond I’ll post custom artwork to this thread for all! So help a dude out and answer some simple questions as much as you feel comfortable:

• Do you ever share content from this site? Comics, blog posts, whatever?
• How often do you share stuff from this site with others?
• How do you go about sharing it? (Facebook? Twitter? StumbleUpon? Digg? Your tumblr / blog? A forum? Grabbing someone and having them look at your phone / computer?)
• What types of things do you find yourself sharing? Is there any sort of theme? (It could be “articles on design” or “comics with Jimmy the Murderdog”)

I’m going to take the answers and try to better set up the content to be shared the way you share them. Thanks, Systemics!

UPDATE: Since you guys were so helpfully amazing, here’s that custom piece of art I mentioned. This is from an upcoming postcard series I’m thinking of doing. Click on the tiny for the biggy.