I think I found the new one. :) Found your friend again too, just a bit higher than the hint advised (if that was the hint) but... no Waldo? :O Or maybe he's just incredibly well hidden...
Definitely a more polished version here, with what seems to be an increasing and somewhat more evenly arranged wave of characters in back. The text is pretty prominent here too, not really framed in but more so a character repellent at the bottom line. Wonder how that bit would be centered with such a gigantic collage like this...
Anyway this is the kind of stuff you can spend way too much time looking at. Really cool. Wonder how much time a piece like this actually takes to make?
-cd-