Yesterday marked the tenth anniversary of the end of the Oracle for Hire years of this comic.
It struck me that I’d never really had a moment to sit back and reflect on that run. The Friday that it ended was the first day of 2013 Anime Boston, and that very Monday I launched Star Power with Garth. My long-running comic may have ended but I didn’t take a moment off. I was working hard on the day it concluded, then turned around and put myself fully into the very next project, which lasted seven years.
I may have stayed busy but I remember the day it ended quite well. That first day of Anime Boston lots of people came to my table to congratulate me on the comic’s run and express their satisfaction with its ending, open-ended as it was. There was one young lady who gave me a hug and started weeping in my arms. I don’t think I’ll ever forget that moment.
Ten years ended. Ten years ago the comic that I started as a hobby while working retail and waiting tables ended. Ten years ago the comic that introduced me to some of the most talented artists and storytellers I’ve ever met came to its end. Ten years ago the comic that led me to meet the woman who would become my wife and the mother of our son was concluded. Ten years ago the comic that ran for eleven years and introduced me to all of you, my incredible readers, ended. I owe so much to the Oracle for Hire years.
Maybe this tenth anniversary of its conclusion will finally “hit” me. Maybe there’s something about decade milestones that really drives the point home. That’s why we make such a big deal about them, right?
Two days earlier marked my twenty first year of making webcomics. I didn’t make a big deal of the latter because I’d made a big deal of my twentieth year, but it’s neat to think my comics career is old enough to legally drink in the U.S.