On October 7, 2006, I joined some friends and strangers in participating in 24 Hour Comics Day. Back then, I claimed I was going to scan them and post them. Well that sure didn’t happen as planned. But to get some more content up here, I’ve decided to color them and run the 24 pages as a 5 week (minus one day) daily serial, starting today.

Starting next week will be “Planarian Man vs Y2K,” the follow-up to the recently completed series 2.

Set several years after the close of 1996’s “The Power of Uranus” (also known here as Series 2), “Planarian Man vs Y2K” was originally published in the Daily Nebraskan in November and December of 1999.

It was a collaboration with writer Mark Baldridge, who had picked up the Planarian Patrol comics several years before and ended up working as my editor in the fall of 1999. We decided that fate had determined that we produce new Planarian Man material, and the powers that be at the Daily Nebraskan gave us roughly a month and a half to do so. That was all we needed, as the story counts down to Planarian Man’s millennium challenge.

This is the story that was compiled and handed out as the limited-edition San Diego Comic-Con 2002 Ashcan Edition, although I just discovered - when re-digitizing the originals - that I had left one of the strips out of the compiled comic. I had completely forgotten that strip even existed, since I’d only read my copy of the comic since 2002. The events of that day’s strip are referenced later, but I’d since assumed that we must’ve just decided to show that stuff “off-camera.” Turns out we didn’t, and I had just forgotten all about it.

So that means that even if you are one of the few with the Ashcan edition comic, this re-publishing will still have material not seen since 1999. Not only that, but if I get my act together, I’m intending to draw up a brand new prologue and epilogue for the story, helping better set the stage for Series 4.

To celebrate the latest relaunch of PlanarianMan.com (and to hopefully inspire me to create some new content), I’ve decided to republish old Planarian Man strips in their original form.

We’re starting with Series 2, which originally ran in the Auburn Newspapers from the fall of 1995 through the summer of 1996 and was eventually compiled in the “The Power of Uranus” comic book. To be honest, I would’ve liked to have started with Series 1, but I have no idea where the originals are, so this will have to do.

The series will run Monday through Friday - much faster than its original semi-weekly pace - but it’ll still last a month or two. After that, I’ll have Series 3 from the 1999 Daily Nebraskan ready to go. At that point, I’ll either have found Series 1 or I’ll have to come up with something new.

As part of 24 Hour Comics Day, I made a Planarian Man comic. I did not meet the challenge - I only finished 18 pages in the 24 hour period - but I’m going to do what is known as the Eastman variation, where you just take longer than 24 hours to get it finished. After another 3-hour session, I have another 3 pages done, so we’re up to 21.

But the reason I’m posting this now is to announce that as soon as I can get them scanned, I’ll be posting the full comic on this site, one day at a time, one page at a time. Then print it out, staple it together, whatever. Or just read it online. But a fourth Planarian Man comic is finally coming soon.

Chapter 4 of the Planarian Man Adventures flash cartoon is done.

Stop by the animations page to watch the four-part series.