Yesterday, November 2nd, was the tenth anniversary of GPF. I would have posted something about it, but yesterday was a pretty busy day that kept me away from the computer most of the day. I also meant to have a GPF News item up for today but, well… you get the idea.

I… don’t know what to say about it. If you had asked me ten years ago if I expected to be doing GPF a decade later, I honestly don’t know what I would have said. I probably would have been so heavily distracted by work, a fledgling marriage, and similar things that I wouldn’t have guessed that my little comic had that much staying power. I did know it had the potential to last; I’ve long told the tale that I had over a year’s worth of material written up before the comic went online, and that after expansion and further development that initial year was stretched out to two and a half years. I had honestly thought—although I definitely hoped it wouldn’t be so and never publicly admitted this—that I would completely run out of material by the end of Surreptitious Machinations. That obviously wasn’t the case. I thought the same thing about To Thine Own Self… and the comic just kept on going. Whether it’s because GPF is so flexible and well written that it endures change, or I’m so stubborn and hard-headed that inherently refuse to give up, I’ll let you decide.

I suppose that if I sat and gazed into my navel long enough, I could come up with all sorts of philosophical musings and misty-eyed nostalgia. I’m, um, a little too busy for that, I’m afraid. So for now there’s just a slightly fancier title graphic on the main page, and that’s about it. If I can come up with anything more celebratory, I’ll make sure to post about it, either here or in the News. If you’d like to post something celebratory or nostalgic, there’s already an anniversary thread on the GPF forum and, of course, comments attached to this post.

You know, I could wax all philosophical, get nostalgic and misty-eyed, ramble on and on about how things have changed between 1998 and now, but… I’d rather not. If you care, celebrate in whatever means you are so accustomed, although I request that if you do so in the name of GPF that you do so in a socially responsible manner. (Don’t want anyone going to jail for some drunken GPF-inspired murder spree.)

I guess I could mention, in the light of other comics celebrating a decade of existence recently, that GPF was actually created in 1997 and I spent over a year developing and honing it before it came online. So in a sense, GPF is also a decade old, although not officially until November 2, 2008. Somehow, I doubt anyone would really count that.

Woo.