And welcome to 2017! For most of us, last year wobbled wildly between “kind of OK” and “five-alarm blaze at the local fireworks factory that’s also somehow an orphanage”, so if we can hope for one thing, it’s that this new year will bring some good news with it, too.

As far as the comic went, however, 2016 actually wasn’t all that shabby:

• We celebrated our first anniversary with a big fanart contest, which honestly yielded more amazing submissions than it had any right to.

• D&W more than doubled its subscriber base on Tapastic, rocketing from around 1,200 followers in January 2016 to comfortably over 3,000 by year’s end.

• After months of hemming, we finally Did The Thing and launched our Patreon with a range of new art and behind-the-scenes commentary.

• With new translator Alex on board, we rebooted the Russian-language version of D&W with a vengeance and finally caught up to the English comic.

• We also picked up a bit of additional coverage, with mentions on ReverseMeltdown, Canned Air, Pretty Cool Webcomics, and The Awesome Comics Podcast, as well as an in-depth interview with Tom Mortimer over at Dirty Rotten Comics.

• On top of that, D&W was recognized for Excellence in Writing and Science Fiction by the folks at StArt Faire.

• D&W was present at almost every major comic con in the UK last year, but one event was particularly special: our first combined showing at the Thought Bubble Festival in Leeds, which mostly proved I can’t maintain a consistent signature for more than 10 minutes at a stretch.

• And elsewhere, Dan clocked in cameo appearances in HeLL(P) and Rising Sand, plus a very special guest slot in the most recent episode of Void & Meddler.

All this, of course, wouldn’t be possible without our readers and supporters, so wherever you may be: thank you, and all the best for the year ahead. We’re glad to have you with us.

- Io