Soup the Comic Strip by Alun Clewe
Comic strip for September 4 2023.
PANEL ONE: Erlak faces the demon bartender Drv'dxx across the bar. DRV'DXX: Why are you suddenly so desperate to find a champion, anyway? ERLAK: Well, it's Conniff, the Grain Goddess. PANEL TWO: Close-up on Erlak ERLAK: I've always admired her, but she doesn't even know I exist. I just want to show her I can amount to something. PANEL THREE: Close on Drv'dxx. DRV'DXX: So you're a practically unknown god of soup who can't find a mortal willing to serve as your champion and who pines after a goddess who couldn't care less about you. PANEL FOUR: Different angle on Drv'dxx. DRV'DXX: You really are pathetic, you know that? PANEL FIVE: Erlak looks at Drv'dxx in silence. PANEL SIX: Erlak faces Drv'dxx across the bar. ERLAK: Thanks, Drv'dxx. Good to know you're there for me. DRV'DXX: I loathe you all. You realize that.
September 4 2023

I just realized something the day before this strip went up that I'm very surprised I hadn't realized earlier.

So I decided to relaunch the comic this year because, among other reasons, the dates fall on the same days of the week as in 2000 when the comic originally ran. August 20 is a Sunday, August 21 is a Monday, and so on. Except that's only true through February 28, and then things go awry, because 2024 is a leap year, and 2001 was not.

I could just add an extra strip for February 29 and then continue from there, with the color Sunday strips thereafter falling on Mondays. But I think it'll be more in line with my original intentions for the comic if instead I just change the dates on the strips from March 1 on... relabel the March 1 strip to February 29, the March 2 strip to March 1, et cetera.

Honestly, though, even if I had realized this in retrospect blatantly obvious situation earlier, I'm not sure what I would have done differently. If I wanted to launch the strip on a year when August 20 fell on a Sunday and the following year was not a leap year, I'd have to wait till 2028. Which, granted, is only five more years, when the strip is already being relaunched twenty-three years after its original run, but still, eh, I really wanted to get things (re)started. Even if I'd recognized the leap year problem before the relaunch, I guess I probably still would have gone through with it.