1 Me: My comic is a year old today.
2 Me: {flashing four fingers} 4000 readers and a paying gig in Pyramid magazine.
3 Me: {holding up a copy of The Hobbit} In its first year of publication, The Hobbit had two printings totalling a mere 3800 copies.
4 Me: {sneering} Eat your heart out, J.R.R.!

All those things are true.

This is the first anniversary of Irregular Webcomic! I posted the first strip on 31 December, 2002. At least, it was 31 December in my time zone, which made it 30 December in much of the rest of the world. Which is why you might be seeing this thinking there was another day to go. Or more likely, you probably never even considered when the first anniversary would arrive. I'm only up to strip #339 instead of #366 because when I started the comic really was irregularly posted. But the last day I missed was back in May some time.

As best I can tell from my weblogs, Irregular Webcomic! is read regularly by a bit over 4,000 readers.

Irregular Webcomic! appears fortnightly in Pyramid, Steve Jackson Games' weekly web magazine.

The Hobbit was first published in the UK in September 1937, with a print run of 1,500 copies. A second printing was published in January 1938, and consisted of 2,300 copies. No further copies were printed in the UK until 1942.