Click on the dates for the news posts below to go to the strip when it was posted.

3/5/10: And so, with that, Miranda becomes the latest member to join the regular cast. As it is, I had planned on her being added since the beginning of the series, but have pushed back her introduction several times now. However, seeing as she's supposed to take part in several upcoming storylines, I decided the time had come to finally bring her in. And so, on to the next chapter! :)
-(JK)


12/21/09: On Wednesday, LDE Studios celebrates a special milestone: our 500th strip! To celebrate, this week's strips are all of the "Sunday" variety - double the size and color thrown in to boot. Here's hoping for another 500 strips to come!
12/2/09: For those who don't quite remember, you can check out Max's last brush with Death here.
11/23/09: After the (very) lengthy last storyline, here's one a little lighter in tone. I should probably mention that this was originally meant to run nearer to Halloween (for reasons that will become obvious soon enough) but the last one went a little longer than expected. Hope you enjoy! -(JK)


10/26/09: Good news - if you look at the menu bar to the left, you'll see where the "Old vs. New" link has been changed to "Extras". This page is finally back up and running, along with some other bonus content I plan to keep adding to over time. Please be sure to check it out, and stay posted for more updates! -(JK)


10/5/09: Boy, this is turning into quite the lengthy storyline. For those who are just now joining us (or else have forgotten how it all started), you can go back to the beginning of it here. -(JK)


7/27/09: Hey, back from vacation. FYI, you can check out the Cast Page to see the updated character profiles, with a couple new faces. -(JK)


5/30/09: You'll notice a little change to the format here. From now on, news posts will appear specifically for the days on which they're posted (both here and back through the comic archives). You can also check out the news archive at the link below. In doing this, my hope is to start giving updates more frequently, so be sure to keep checking back... -(JK)


4/13/09: 400 strips. That's not a bad start. To help mark the occasion, we'll be shaking things up a little here at LDE Studios. The boys will be taking a short break for the next couple weeks, while one of the ancillary cast members, the Professor, takes the spotlight. Assuming he doesn't blow his big chance, expect to start seeing more of his own storylines in the future. -(JK)


3/27/09: For those curious about the photo that this comic was based off of, it's one of my Grandpa's taken during a camping trip of his back in the Spring of 1950. He and his friend George Henderson took a canoe trip up north to Fall Lake in Superior National Forest, eventually making their way to Quetico Provincial Park in Ontario, Canada. After finding themselves in some pretty unpleasant weather, they decided to make the most of the trip by fashioning a shelter out of the canoe itself (you can check out the orignal photo here). It's those kind of events that always make for the best stories later on (and have helped inspire a few of the storylines for this comic as well). -(JK)


12/22/08: We're celebrating here at the LDE studios, because it's graduation day! No, not for the characters, for me! After two-and-a-half years of evening classes, I'm happy to say I've finally earned myself an MBA degree. During all that time, I also managed to keep up with maintaining the production schedule for this strip (more or less), which is something I also happen to be pretty proud of.
At the same time, updating the comic is about the only thing I've had time for; there are several improvements and additions I've had in mind for this site that I finally hope to get around to making. I won't give away too many details right now, other than to say ... stay tuned! Of course, those will all come in due time. For now, I'm just going to enjoy taking a few days to sit back, and enjoy the lack of homework and studying. :) -(JK)


1/7/08: It's a new year, a new semester, and that means time for new updates to the LDE webpage. If you take a look at the Archive page, you'll see a couple new links have been added.
First is the Singles Archive page, which features all of the stand-alone strips from the series. This is particularly for those looking to download strips for publications that only run once a week or so, to save the time of having to search through the entire lot. Also added is a Stories Archive page that gives a visual list of the LDE storylines. Enjoy! -(JK)


8/27/07: It's the start of a new school year, and that means time for big changes around here. First off, you'll notice a new feature added to the comics pages, where under each strip is a link that will take you to a hi-res version. For those of you who use "Last-Ditch Effort" in your print publications, now you can easily download the strips you want.
Also, if you head over to the Archive page you'll see that the strips have been organized by year, with thumbnails added to more easily find older strips. So here's to getting through another semester! -(JK)


5/6/07: I finally got around to making some changes to the site. The cast page has been updated to include everyone, and I've added a little counter to the top of each comic. More to come... -(JK)


3/26/07: HAPPY 100!!! It's hard to believe, but today's strip is the 100th of this comic's run. My thanks to everyone who's tuned in to read, and believe me when I say we're just getting warmed up. And if you're new to the site (and have a little time to kill), then I invite you to start from the beginning to get yourself caught up with all that's happened so far.
Unfortunately, I haven't had as much a chance to work on the website as I'd like. My main concern of course has been cranking out the comic strips themselves, but there's a lot of improvements and other things I've been meaning to update around here. Hopefully I'll start finding the time for it soon, and in the meantime, here's looking forward to the next 100 strips! -(JK)


11/27/06: NEWS ALERT!! After a brief hiatus for the cast, the guys are back and with some big changes in store. Starting this week I plan to start updating the strip three times a week, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. I'll also be dropping the "Sunday-style" strips for the time being; between these two changes I hope to start bringing you storylines at a much quicker pace than I have so far.
I should note, these changes come as I finish with the bulk of my studies this semester, so whether or not I'll be able to maintain this schedule once things heat up again is something only time will tell. In the meantime, thanks for stopping by, and I hope you all continue to enjoy reading the strip as much as I do writing it. -(JK)


9/2/06: Call it a case of life imitating art: two years after saying goodbye to school for what I hoped was a long break, I'm officially back to earn my master's degree. That is to say, I'm earning one part-time, which means I can now add that workload to my existing fulltime career for the next two to three years. The updside is I'll hopefully pick up some good new material, the downside is this may make it tough to continue meeting my strip schedule, although I'll certainly do my best to keep up with it. I'll just have to give it the "old college try" (whatever that means). -(JK)


7/31/06: The Old vs. New Section is finally up! Check it out to see some side-by-side comparisons of how the look of the strip has evolved since its original run. -(JK)


7/3/06: WELCOME to the grand opening of the comic Last-Ditch Effort. This is my attempt to revive a strip that I originally drew some years back (see the Intro section for more details). My plan is to update twice a week with "daily" strips, with every fourth week presenting a single "Sunday" strip. In this way, I hope to maintain a standard newspaper comic strip sequence, except for it taking about a month's time for every "week". I'm sure this format will change in time, depending on my schedule. At any rate, if you're reading this then please have a look around, and if you like what you see I hope you'll be back for more. -(JK)