Yes, I've heard it said that strip #100 was about the moment when he started planning the whole story. Started planning, mind you -- things were probably still in flux for a while after that as well, since getting everything "squared away" in a story this big is quite a project and requires some time.
And, IMO, Rule of Funny trumps RAW even now, on occasion -- leading people into very interesting and amusing arguments about things which are actually non-issues.