Greetings, Fellow Astronauts! Your friendly neighborhood Boxcar artist, Marc here. For almost 3 years I’ve been letting my pictures do most of my talking, only occasionally putting my spell check to the test to make a blog post here. That being said, I just couldn’t let this 150th, and final strip in this Boxcar chapter, pass without saying a few words.

Seeing as how this is the end of this incarnation of Boxcar Astronaut, I thought I’d share some insights into the strip from the artist’s perspective. Some of you may wonder “why have you limited yourselves to only four square panels?” The four panels started in Jeff’s initial sketches of his ideas for the first few strips. There were other strips written at the time that called for more panels, but I made the decision that every Boxcar strip should be only four panels in order to make it easy to read for all ages, maintain visual consistency, and fit with the “box” theme. There is one more reason why I kept up the rigid four panel format, one that I’ve kept for myself in my mind’s eye, and rarely mentioned out loud, but have dropped a couple of very small visual clues to. The clue lies in how I’ve draw Ben’s house, something we’ve only seen twice, once in strip #101 and again in #150. I want you to look at the windows on Ben’s house, notice something? While we’ve never shown any parental characters in this strip (until that tiny silhouette in panel 4 of #150), but that doesn’t mean they weren’t there. I have always imagined the four panel structure of the strip itself to be a representation of the windows on the back of the house as Ben’s mom watches the boys play in the back yard. As a parent, nothing is more enjoyable than simply sitting back and watching your child’s imagination run wild. It’s magical stuff, and I imagine Ben’s mom has been sitting and smiling proudly in that window all summer long witnessing water balloon fights, games of freeze tag, movie making, tree house construction, hole digging, and so much more.

Some folks have asked if Robot and Caveman are real or if they are like Hobbes in “Calvin and Hobbes”. To that I say, “Are you saying Hobbes wasn’t real? Of course Hobbes was real! Just because grown ups never saw him as anything more than a stuffed toy, doesn’t mean he wasn’t real.” Robot and Caveman are like that. They’re real to Ben and Devin, and that’s as real as you can get. Oh, and by the way, my theory about Robot “finding his spaceship” in today’s strip is that when we first met Robot, he had merely forgot where he parked!

I want to thank all of you for reading along with us for 150 strips. It’s been a fun ride watching these boys grow right out of my pencil. This whole Boxcar endeavour has been extremely educational and rewarding for me. I’ve been introduced to some wonderful people and some amazing comics throughout these 3 years. I want to send out a personal note of thanks to the following people for the support and loyalty they’ve demonstrated and made this ride so rewarding. In no particular order, thank you to Benj Christensen, Brad Joyce, Mike Witmer, Lucas Turnbloom, Tim Perkins, Tom Racine, Jim Cox, Al Quesada, Brock Heasley, John McCarthy, Bob Savage, my lovely wife, Stephanie, my amazing daughter, Zoe, and of course Jeff.

This is by no means an end for me. I have a VERY busy 2010 ahead of me. Spooky Doofus, of course will continue to haunt the internet throughout the year. We will be working to get all 150 Boxcar strips collected into a print edition. I hope to visit a local convention or two before the year is out. And as if all that weren’t enough, come July, Stephanie, Zoe, and I will be welcoming a new baby into our lives. Wish me luck, and follow me on Twitter @marctoons to keep up to date on all my comings and goings!

Before I say good bye for now, I want to leave you all with one last gift. It occurred to me as I was putting together this last strip, that in it’s standard format, panel 4 could not possibly convey the full scope of my epic vision. So I went ahead and turned panel 4 into it’s own stand alone image. Think of this as a high def, Blu-ray vision of the world of Boxcar Astronaut. And with that I say to thee, Farewell, Fellow Astronauts!

Good morning Astronauts! The above image is a panel from Marc’s latest guest strip, another contribution to our good pal Brock Heasley’s hilarious webcomic about superheroes in a retirement home, SuperFogeys! This time instead of just illustrating a script provided to him by Brock, Marc wrote and drew this guest strip, about the perils of arts & crafts day at the home. Click on the image to check it out!

Man, now this one just tugs at the ol’ heartstrings. The “Real” Tyler Durden, AKA Brad Joyce, AKA Boxcar Astronaut’s biggest fan and supporter since day one, sent us this beautiful and touching piece of fan art as a way to say “goodbye” to the strip. Tyler, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts for this, and for all of our fans for your support and words of encouragement.

Greetings fellow astronauts, dreamers, and space cadets! We’ve got a bit of a sad announcement to make here today: After nearly three years of consecutive Sunday strips, Boxcar Astronaut will be going on hiatus in 2010. Our 150^th strip, which will post on Sunday, January 23^rd will be our final strip for the foreseeable future. Marc and I have decided to take a break from the webcomic in order to regroup, recharge our batteries a bit, and focus on our day jobs, familial commitments, and other creative projects.

I know this news may come as a shock to some of you, but fear not! I am 100% certain that we will see Ben, Devin, Robot, Diogee, and Caveman back in one form or another soon. We both feel these characters are very special and that there are many more adventures for them to go on in the backyard.

We would like to thank all of you regular readers and fans of Boxcar Astronaut who have taken the time out of your lives to stop by each and every Sunday to check in on what mischief Ben was getting into, and for leaving your comments and feedback. Your words of support and encouragement were the major driving force that enabled us to keep going for three years of Boxcar Astronaut adventures! Marc and I are going to do our best to try and package up all 150 of those adventures into a print collection that will hopefully feature lots of fun extras and goodies and be truly worthwhile for your hard earned money!

Keep reading the updates over at Marc’s webcomic Spooky Doofus or follow us on Twitter @DeadHenchmen or @Marctoons for more info on when the book will be available to order and the future of Boxcar Astronaut. Of course, the archives of all 150 strips will remain here at boxcarastronaut.com for you to enjoy. Thanks, and we’ll see you to say goodbye on January 23rd.

Hey gang,  Marc’s guest art for another exciting chapter of Brock Heasley’s SuperFogeys Origins is up now.  The tale features some background on how Tom (son of the hero Captain Spectacular) meets his current girlfriend, Ms. Missle (The daughter of #1 evil-doer Dr. Rocket). For many of you, this will be your first look at Marc’s work in glorious color, and let me tell you,  the results are absolutely stunning! Check it out now!

Here’s a sneak peek at some artwork Marc did for a two-page “SuperFogey’s Origins” story. The story will begin running on Tuesday the 23rd. SuperFogeys is a hilarious webcomic by Brock Heasley,  which chronicles the lives of several superheroes (and villains) who now spend their days in an old folks home for former costumed adventurers.

Well hey, lookie here gang, we’ve been nominated in the “Writing” category over at the Webcomic Reader’s Choice Awards! If you would like to vote for Boxcar Astronaut in this category (or nominate us for any of the other categories such as Art, Antagonist, etc.), please head on over to Webcomic Planet, register for an account, and vote away! Thanks in advance for the support!

Hey, kids! Friendly Neighborhood Boxcar artist, Marc here with a little announcement. His name is Tom Racine. He is the host of the mighty Tall Tales Radio podcast. He’s interviewed many of the biggest names in webcomics, and now he’s interviewed ME! Yes, that’s right, in what must be a slow news week in the world of webcomics, I, of all people, was asked to be Tom’s guest on the show. In all honesty, I was very flattered and humbled by the request and was more than happy to oblige. I had a ton of fun chatting with Tom about comics, family, my influences, and of course plugging my two strips, Spooky Doofus and Boxcar Astronaut. So, head on over to Tall Tales Radio and give this episode a listen. I hope you all have as much fun listening in as we did recording it!

Hey gang, check it out! Marc has written and illustrated a short Jenny Everywhere story in honor of Jenny Everywhere Day! For more info on Jenny Everywhere, check out The Shifter Archive.

Hey gang! Jeff here, your friendly neighborhood Boxcar Astronaut writer. Yesterday I took a trip down to Hartford CT, and wandered the floor of the absolutely gargantuan CT Convention Center for ConnectiCon ‘09. The convention is primarily a manga/anime/cosplay convention, but there was a healthy role-playing and webcomics presence as well. Several well-known webcomics were represented by their creators, including VG Cats, Starslip Crisis, Dominic Deegan, and Diesel Sweeties. Joe Dunn, who does the hilarious Joe Loves Crappy Movies strip was in attendance as well, but he wasn’t at his table when I walked by so I didn’t get a chance to meet him. I did, however, get to see the super-cool artist of Weregeek, Alina Pete, who I met and chatted with previously at the Easthampton Webcomics Weekend event back in March. Here’s a photo of yours truly and Ms. Pete:

I also ran into my good friend Aaron Wood, who draws the spiffy-keen webcomic Near And Far. He also wears spiffy-keen Hartford Whalers jerseys!

I can see the CT growing and growing into something massive over the years. The facility is huge and beautiful, and who knows, maybe you’ll see Marc and I there next year selling Boxcar Astronaut print collections! To see a full photo gallery of me at the con with lots of cool cosplay photos, CLICK HERE