Today’s comic is my personal dedication to the ever-passionate EarthBound community for their years and years of effort! Between the starmen.net PK Call-Ins and petitions, Tomato and his team translating Mother 3 (and making a full guide to it), and the thousands of fan works over the years, this community never gave up. It seems that, of all things, Miiverse was the key to tipping the scales, as we’re finally getting EarthBound on the Virtual Console! While it’s no translated trilogy, it’s a significant victory, and one that’ll allow a whole new generation of gamers to finally experience this quirky and lovable series.

Hope this one wasn’t too treacly for some of you, but this is a franchise that’s long been near and dear to my heart. And I listened to Smiles & Tears while writing it, so I’d suggest doing the same while reading it.

On the note of me thanking people, I’d also like to express my gratitude towards a great number of you who’ve willingly chipped in more than they had to for shipping the books. The full story is here, but to keep it brief, I greatly underestimated shipping costs for international orders, and asked if anyone would like to contribute more (although I’d still send the goods either way). The response has been terrific so far, with people going beyond the call of duty and making generous contributions. I’m going to have to make another bonus image or something for you guys.

So thanks to you BitF fans and thanks to you EarthBound fans! It’s all about feelin’ good this Tuesday!

-By Matthew