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WOW! Welcome to issue #100! I honestly do not know what the twenty-seven-year-old me imagined back in 2004 when we first came out with issue #1. I knew it was something new and would be an essential part of my life, but I did not realize just how much it would be. It's fun to go into the back issues and look over the covers of all the previous issues. I can reflect on that moment in time, connecting it to a specific moment in my life. The World of Myth has always been a part of my life through the ups and downs, as I have coded ninety-nine of the one hundred issues myself. So, even while I was not in the public eye, I have always been here behind the scenes. I remember the nerves that I felt the night we launched issue one; I was worried that none of our readers from Dark Myth Comics would come over with us to this new medium, especially since eComics was not offered in this magazine. I was on the phone with Terry D. Scheerer at the time, and he told me not to sweat it. We talked about why I moved away from making comic books online and to produce an online literary magazine instead. I explained that the previous incarnation, called "The World of Dark Myth," had eComics but the overall page counts were very low. In contrast, short stories had a great turnout. I knew then that the tide of change had arrived and reinvented the World of Dark Myth to what we know as World of Myth. Terry said that the comic people most likely would not return, but those who came to read the short stories would return, and they would be our demographic. Terry was right. While we had less than one percent of the comic readers come back, it was the ones who enjoyed the short stories that would become our loyal readers. He said that we were starting over and had to build a new name outside of Dark Myth Comics; he had asked how long it took to make that brand. I explained that I had been working on it since 1992 but had a solid following after the first five years. Terry said that was about the standard time frame, that it would take the same amount of time to build the magazine. That did not take that long; we brought something different to the world of 'eZines' as we presented multi-mediums (short stories, poems, artwork, and reviews), as where a typical electronic magazine would only sport one type of medium. At the time, we were looking into dot com names, as we used worldofmyth.tk (it was free, and it worked). In April of 2005, a company that was a game maker came out with worldofmyth.com and said that they were the same company as us. I'm not sure why someone would make that claim, especially in our first year, but in May 2005, we officially changed the name to "THE" World of Myth and moved into the home that we all know and love in theworldofmyth.com. Our little magazine has grown over the years. I truly feel blessed to be able to be here for our one-hundredth issue, but unfortunately, there are two people that are not, and I want to take a moment to honor them. I have mentioned Terry D. Scheerer already, but he is a key figure in the development in constructing the magazine; but I also want to take a moment to talk about Lacie Montoya. She was always my soundboard, and I bounced ideas off her. I remember the day that I told her that I was moving from comic books into online literature. To say she was shocked would be an understatement and asked if I was positive that I wanted to make that move. For the first few months, Lace even acted as the site's overseer, as she would go through each page and make sure everything was working. So, in their absence, I would like to take a moment of silence for not only them but all who have left us in the past seventeen years. Another group of people I would like to take a moment and thank are our previous editors,
And, of course, our current Editor in Chief, Stephanie J. Bardy. Thank you to all of you for working so many countless hours and the love that you installed into every issue! Also, a shout-out needs to go to all of our contributors, new and old alike! I remember when I wrote the commentary for your first anniversary, and I was able to list every contributor to the magazine. Now, one hundred issues and over three hundred contributors later, I don't have the memory to recall everyone, but please, please, please know I sincerely thank every one of you! Everything is so much different today than back in 2004, except for one thing, you the gentle reader. You are the only ones that remained the same; without you, there would be no reason for a magazine, and we would have faded away many, many years ago. And, to you, not only do I send you my sincere gratitude, but I love you all as we are one big family! All right, gang, let me get out of here before I get too mushy! I hope that you enjoy this super-duper mega-sized issue as we celebrate one hundred issues and seventeen years of publication! As long as I can continue, there will always be more to come! To Be Continued for the following one hundred issues! With respect to you all!
David K. Montoya
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