On March 13th, Odori Park will be officially one year old. That is to say, on March 13, 2009, I posted the first Odori Park strip on the Web. At the risk of solo horn tooting, I’m pretty proud of making it a full year without a missed update, and I’d like to do something to celebrate:

I’d like to take a nap.

Actually, there are three things I’d like to do:

• Take said nap,
• Spend some time with my ever patient and supportive wife, and
• Rebuild some of my ailing comic buffer.

To accomplish these tasks, I’d like to enlist your help. If you dig Odori Park, and you think you have a fun idea for a strip, would you please consider drawing it up and sending it along for me to post? Any guest strips I receive between now and March 13th will–barring any inappropriate naughtiness (I think this comic does a pretty good job of establishing its own boundaries, if you need guidance)–be posted on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays until I run out of guest strips. At which point, I will stop slacking off, reshackle myself to my drawing tablet, and give you more new comics.

You can email strips, in GIF, JPG, or PNG format at 900 pixels wide, to chris@odoripark.com

Let me know if you have questions, and thank you in advance! My family will thank you, too.

It’s been a cho very busy week here in Odori Park-ville, and I haven’t been able to keep up with the blog and other press notifications enough to keep you all abreast of it. Here’s a rundown of the latest news:

CCA Donation Tally - Lora Innes posted the final tally for donations to the Comic Creator’s Alliance drive to fight human trafficking, and the remarkable number was over $10,000! All from webcomic readers. How cool! Thanks to everyone from this neck of the woods who linked over and donated.

Instances - The “Instances” gallery show at the Colacino Gallery at Nazareth College wraps up today with a closing reception tonight (Fri. 2/5) from 6-8pm. If you’re in the neighborhood, please come! Here’s a link to gallery info.

TWCL Awards - I’ve created an extra-long comic that serves as part of the “awards ceremony” for the 2009 Webcomic List Awards. My strip serves to present the award for Best Comic, and although I’m sorry to say OP wasn’t nominated for any awards itself, just getting to create the presentation comic for what I presume will be the most prominent part of the “show” is gratifying. Thanks to Wendy at TWCL for letting me pitch in. The awards ceremony goes live on Sun., 2/7, at (I suspect) this address: thewebcomiclist.com/awards and I’ll repost my own contribution here on Monday, so you can see it at full size.

Phew!

I took some photos of the “Instances” gallery show (at Nazareth College’s Colacino Gallery through the 5th) before we really dig in to the mural walls (walls, mind you, not wall, as previously indicated; Tom and Greg have arranged them into four distinct surfaces, for four times the fun!). Have a first look via my Instances flickr set.