happy birthday, pups!

Over the weekend, the online comic strip Nemu-Nemu turned six. I think I've been reading this ALMOST from its inception...I can't even remember where I first saw the link to it.

I love the strips. I admit, occasionally there's a storyline of less interest to me, but storylines aren't forever...I tend to prefer the sort of 'slice of daily life' type strips the couple draws.

The strip, if you've never seen it, is about two pre-teen (maybe young teen?) girls and their stuffed toy pups. Which are magical, and so, are alive. Anise and Kana are the girls - Anise is more outgoing and athletic and Kana is more quiet and artistic. And their pups, Anpan and Nemu, sort of mirror the girls' personalities - Anpan is outgoing and can be a little brave and brash, and Nemu is quieter and sweeter and sometimes a little naive.

The strip is free online (though the couple that draws it takes donations, and they also have a fanshop where you can buy t-shirts - I have a couple of the t-shirts- and books and things). They also do compilation books of the strips. I think I have all the books of the strips they've done.

The most recent one just came out. For people who were willing to pony up in advance to cover the costs of publication, we could get our names in the book, plus a hardcover edition (they may also have the hardcovers for sale on their site, I don't know). And one of the nice things is that Audra (the artist of the pair) will draw a character in the book for you. (I had her draw Kana in mine).

I got my copy yesterday, it's a really nicely produced book. I didn't have time to read through all the strips in it but I did read part of it. I keep these books on hand (along with my Owly books and the ones of Little Dee - which sadly, is no longer being drawn) for days when I'm feeling really sad and "meh" because reading the comics cheers me up.

I like the strips because they're just very sweet and warm. The humor is not mean-spirited; the characters remain nice to one another. A lot of the situations are typical "kid" situations I remember from my own childhood - having a rival at school, not being able to chase down the ice cream truck when it comes through the neighborhood.(The strip is described as an "All Ages" strip - it's not purely aimed at children, though it's child-friendly)

One of the nice things about the internet is being able to find stuff like this online.