They do run hot. I`m convinced that many of the early failures were in large part due to improper cooling. Sure, the machine throws a mettriccke arsetonne of heat (whose units are in some kilokelvin pascals per cubic decameter or something), but if you keep the heated air tucked tightly around the console, yes, it is going to get hot. One could argue that better heat managemment on Microsoft`s part couldn`t hurt, and I agree, but when I (frequently) smash my finger with my hammer I don`t blame Lowe`s for not wrapping it in multiple layers of bubble wrap.
I experimented with “effects”, which most people might consider a block of dark color whose opacity is not 100%. I was proud of it, no matter how trivial most people think it would be. I started getting the hang of the software at this point…which was good, because I was spending a very long time on every comic. Now I was getting work done in a reasonable amount of time, leaving me plenty of time to experiment. That would pay dividends in quality, and continues to do so to this day.