Undoubtedly the worse comic strip in existence, Ziggy has become the focal point of a great and epic battle between Dean and I that began years ago while still working at RIM. I don’t remember the precise genesis of the conflict, but things started off just as us pointing out particularly dumb or confounding ones to each other. Then it became a game to see if we could trick the other into unwittingly reading a Ziggy comic: ambiguous links, renamed filenames, etc. Things escalated from there.

When Dean went hiking for a few months in South America, he returned to work to find his desktop sporting a lovely new Ziggy theme … icons, cursors, big pink background with an “I love Ziggy” tag. I even found a nice registry trick in NT so that his shutdown picture remained as that even after he changed the background. It took him a while to figure that one out. :0)

At xmas 2002, Dean struck back in a sneak assault. I was in Ottawa to visit Billie for part of the holidays, and this was back when we were still going out. We exchanged gifts, but then she had another package for me. A surprise gift? Oh, it sure was. Dean had enlisted Billie’s help, and this unexpected present turned out to be a Ziggy day calendar that he had wrapped and shipped down to Ottawa for my arrival.

It was a crushing blow for morale, and things died down in the conflict over the next year. A few months ago, Dean gave me a little care package on the occasion of me completing my undergrad degree. It contained a bunch of in-joke stuff from our time at work, but he had also acquired a little graduation Ziggy doll in cap & gown, emblazoned with Class of 84. Damn eBay.

Now it was time to go on the offensive. I started off small enough. When I helped Dean move to Ottawa early in May, I took a bunch of pictures of his new place, then when I visited after my Montreal trip I took some more so that he had a set of ‘before’ and ‘after’ shots. When I finally got around to sending him those files a few weeks ago, I was sure to include an appropriately renamed and horribly unfunny Ziggy cartoon. But this was just a pre-emptive strike.

The other night, while Dean was at an ultimate match, Kyle, Billie, Ryan, and I did some redecorating in his apartment. The material of choice? Daily Ziggy comics from a certain 2003 calendar I had held onto! It couldn’t have worked out any better! I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

There are a few more pictures in this series, but posting them now would reveal as-of-now undiscovered Ziggy goodiness. In particular, the purchase made while visiting Jen is definitely the icing on the cake.

Dean has conceded this round; he’s thoroughly impressed with the assault, and is keeping most things in place for now to wallow in defeat for a bit. Now I must prepare against the eventual counterstrike. What will he think of to try and top this?