TODAY'S NEWS: If you have no idea what this comic is about, you've probably never seen shows like "The Bachelor," where TV producers seclude a group of highly-attractive women in a mansion and force them to compete for the affections of a desirable single man. Or "Beauty and the Geek," where TV producers seclude a group a highly-attractive women in a mansion and force them to interact with a group of highly-intelligent guys. Or a particular animated show about two mice... But I'm not going to explain it ALL for you.

Did you notice that we've hit another milestone? Comic #200! Today's comic was meant to be a break from our regular material, and a chance for me to recover from the flu, but it ended up taking much longer than I expected. Plus, I had to prepare for a contest:

THE 200 COMICS CONTEST!

To enter:
1. Correctly identify the first comic (by number) in which each character below appears.
2. Decode this email address: askdreldritch.com   @   contest
3. Email your answer to the address above by midnight, Sunday January 21, 2007!

Winners will be selected by random drawing from all correct entries.

One lucky winner will receive an Ask Dr. Eldritch t-shirt!
Two lucky winners will receive the last of the "When Trolls Dream" magnets!

Characters
Allesandra
Barry & Randall
Byron
Darla Shaughnessy
Dr. Eldritch & Kari Proctor
Ed the Tentacle Monster
Grandma Clara
Ping
Professor Boffin
Shazzgoth
Sudbury
The Eater of All
The Geeks
The Lawyers
The Reference Librarian
Trevor
Val

The last sixteen months have been tremendous fun, and I thank all of you for making that possible! I hope you'll continue reading as we make our way toward Comic #300 and beyond!