Hey folks! So, it looks like a hurricane named Sandy is coming to pay a visit to Pennsylvania starting Monday night. I'm going to do my best to get as many of the books purchased on Thursday out the door on Monday, but if they're not, I won't be able to get back to the post office until Thursday/Friday. I apologize for the wait if this happens.

As for the status of Namesake, we're having a special Halloween comic on Tuesday, and updates are pre-scheduled on the site through November 10. If I lose power, the updates will continue as normal. Store orders will be fulfilled when I get it back.

For those who are in the storm's path, please be safe!

All of the slightly damaged Namesakes have been sold! I'll be packing them up and sending them out early next week.

These are not signed, but I can toss my name in there if you want. You'll have to track down Isa with a portal gun. But, speaking of appearances, those in the midstate Pennsylvania area can come check out the little Namesake table at Roc Con PA on Sunday! Be on the look out for River Song and Batman -- the husband and I decided to do cosplay.

Hey folks, we had some server issues in the past couple of days that resulted in part of our archive being lost. I'll be replacing the pages, but it'll be when I get home from work in an hour. Sorry about that!

Check out the semi-new digs! I changed our back end from ComicPress to Comic Easel on Saturday, completely freaking out our wonderful ad guys (Sorry, Antares. You really put up with so much from us) and adding a number of site fixes and tweaks. This makes it easier for us to update comics. Also check out the archives and the cast page! Pretty snazzy! I'm also starting the process of updating the prologue through chapter 5 with the book pages as opposed to the pages already up. Cleaner art, cleaner dialogue, very cool. I'm slowly updating the posts with the characters and adding pictures to the cast page. Thank you so much for the awesome back end, Frumph!

The one casualty to the new system was our old blog entries, which didn't survive. I did want to preserve one article from that: An insight into the cast as of October 2010. So, I'm reprinting it below. Enjoy the updated read!

A bit about our cast: Originally published October 2010

With today's comic, we revealed a bit more about where our characters are and some of the locations involved in the story. Over the next couple of weeks, I'll write up a bit more about them, including the results of a research trip in the United Kingdom.

The story opens in Toronto, a place where Isa lived for one summer and I spent a week in 2008. The roots of the Namesake story always had it taking place in Toronto. Emma, Elaine and Ben are all from there. Emma and Elaine is French-Canadian. Ben is English-Canadian, even though his full name - Benoit - is French. His parents were influenced by the culture. Ben, on the other hand, gets stabby if you use his full name.

Jack is American and comes from a poor neighborhood in the heart of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Jack's upbringing influences him a lot, and I wanted him to grow up in a place that was struggling. He didn't feel Southern or from the West Coast. Having him come from New York City seemed like a cliche, so I decided on Harrisburg - which is just about 10 miles from my apartment. We'll be visiting Jack's past later in the story.

Alice grew up in Liverpool. Calliope, which will be described in chapter 3, is also based there. Calliope's location came first. My husband is from Liverpool, and when I visited this city for the first time and was told some of the history, I realized that it would be a perfect spot for something that happens later. The city is more than 800 years old, and has always been one of England's major harbors.

Alice being from Liverpool was almost an accident. We wanted her from the UK, but not London or Oxford, which we both though a bit cliché. We had a Liverpool expert right at our finger tips who works for hugs and potato chips. Alice and Calliope being from Liverpool sprang due to the plot, but her love of football is an homage to my husband.

Wendy is our London representative. For the record, Vanessa is French and Karen is Swedish.