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L E T T E R F R O M T H E E D I T O R First, I want to sincerely thank everyone for your overwhelming support of our launch of <strong>GIMP</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong>. Upon the announcement of our launch teaser (in July) we accumulated over 2,500 followers and roughly 20,000 page views from all parts of the world—and this happened over a weekend. All of this was based on a mock cover design, a website, social media properties, and an idea to make the coolest <strong>GIMP</strong> magazine ever. The notion that this is going to be an international magazine quickly grew as some subscribers from New Zealand asked for clarification of "Fall 2012" (something I never considered). <strong>GIMP</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> - Issue 1 was downloaded over 10,000 times in the first 24 hours, shattering all expectations and estimates. And our website views exploded to over 60,000 all while doubling our followers. Wow! Besides the numbers, most important were your comments, of which so many were positive. We greatly appreciate your comments as they drive us to do more. We want to get better at this and your constructive criticisms are helping. It does take significant effort from many people to produce this magazine, including our team and submitters. I am really excited about Issue 2, as it features digital arts, illustrations, graphic novels, tutorials, a book review, and so much more. We have had some pretty spectacular submissions to date, and the cover art by Yeshua Nel is simply outstanding. Acting as a curator of this magazine has become a more difficult task given the amazing submissions that we are receiving. And the fact that Yeshua and all the other contributors are willing to share their art and process under a Creative Commons licence with the world is pretty incredible. The format has been revised slightly for Issue 2. The magazine has been reformatted for professional printing. We are planning to make all issues from here on in available in a glossy, print-on-demand format. We are now accepting donations and you can also support us by buying official <strong>GIMP</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> merchandise available from our gift shop. These items help us to cover the ongoing costs associated with running a free publication. I think for me the most spectacular thing is not what we have produced so far in Issues 1 and 2, but rather the enormous potential that <strong>GIMP</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> has for the future. There are so many amazing opportunities that lie before us with this publication, and we can only make it better with your help. We would love to hear your ideas as to what you would like to see <strong>GIMP</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> become—after all, it is your publication. Share your ideas with us on Twitter (www.twitter.com/gimpmagazine), on Google+ (+<strong>GIMP</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong>), on our website (http://gimpmagazine.org), or simply send us an email at gimpmagazine@hotmail.ca. With that, we (the <strong>GIMP</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> Team) proudly leave you with Issue 2. There are many more <strong>GIMP</strong> users that we want to reach, so do us a favor and continue to spread the word. Enjoy! Cheers Steve http://www.twitter.com/steveczajka http://steveczajka.posterous.com g i m p m a g a z i n e . o r g 5