In the spirit of endless slews of holiday re-runs, it's
Christmas '09!
Nobody should have to guess that this is pretty much a direct rip from the Spongebob episode, "Christmas Who?". I can't remember exactly what inspired it, although I think it was comparing the Styleses and CG to the same love-hate relationship between Spongebob and Patrick and Squidward. And then as I really got into it, it became the perfect summary of DYOS in general.
At three and a half pages, this is the longest single hand-drawn comic I've done to date. I spent nearly five days straight slowly slogging through it, and I missed getting it up before Christmas Day by only four hours' worth of work. It's certainly not the prettiest, but given the length, the effort, and that
je ne sais quoi that ties this all together, I consider it to be one of my best pieces ever.
It's also set an ambitious benchmark, and I fear this year's special will also miss the Christmas Eve deadline.
This comic also contains the first appearance of the flag of the Eastern Union, the result of many months' procrastination and about half an hour of actual work.