Back before Christmas I mentioned that I was attempting to save up for a boat trip with Joel Watson (and our wives I guess), and so created some posters. First I did one for Dumbing of Age, where I learned that posting news in the week between finals and Christmas is probably the worst idea ever, and then after Christmas ended I created and teased a Shortpacked!-themed fundraiser poster.
This is what the desktop wallpaper version looks like, but smaller.
This is it! A beautiful mash-up of Shortpacked! and Transformers, rendered on 11"x17" cardstock. There are just fifty of these, and I'll sign and number every one. Postage is included in the $20 price, but if you just want a cropped desktop wallpaper version and not the hardcopy, I'll send a link to you for half that. But wait, there's more! If you want to super-size your pleasure, I'll include a character sketch with your mailed poster for an additional contribution. Offering character sketches is usually something I reserve exclusively for convention appearances, so if that's something you've been craving, this is your chance!
Also, let's be frank, I don't put Ronald Reagan on much stuff anymore.
So if you want to help put me on a boat, then getting this sweet, quality artwork in return isn't that terrible a trade. One might even consider it mutually beneficial. And you'll be one of, like, fifty people in the world who has it!
And, let's face it, Joel Watson's shoulders don't lotion themselves.
It's one of my favorite strips by one of my favorite people, and I'd say check it out, but I'm pretty sure there's nobody left on Earth who doesn't read it.
I will say you should really try out one of his Super Stupor mini-comics. I say "mini," but they're really only mini in height/width dimensions. The story is dense enough to fill a mainstream comic trade paperback. I'm always surprised at how, in addition to Randy's usual daily comic, he can simultaneously whip up this amazingly orchestrated and emotionally provocative story that plays brilliantly with superhero tropes. So jealous. I love these little things. They're glossy genius.
First, a reminder that I'm going to be in Austin, Texas, this weekend for Webcomic Rampage! Click the bolded link to the left for more info. I'll have lots of Book 4 with me!
Some of my favorite webcomics people and myself thought it'd be helpful to put together a shopping list of Items of Interest for the webcomics lover in your family. This Christmas, give the gift of, let's face it, mostly fart jokes.
At this writing, there's fewer than 23 hours left to preorder/pledge for Shortpacked! Book 4! If you want to make sure you get a sketched-in book or a chance at some unique swag, this is your last chance. Don't miss out!
Also, I've just put in for an Artist Alley table at BotCon this summer. So look for me there! At least, look for me there when there's not an interesting panel or it's lunch or something. I'll be bringing Dinobot posters and some other interesting new goodies.
HEY DUDES! Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, the best webcomic you are or are not reading, now has a book! You may remember SMBC as the fantastic webcomic that pulled off this amazing feat, re: gayness. As for its book, you should totally get one. And then put it right next to your eventual SP! Book 4, like they're making out.
I've reached my target pledge amount for Shortpacked! Book 4, but thought I'd throw out one more reminder before the pledge/preorder countdown reaches its end in five days. If you don't want to just pick up a book later and want to pick up a sketched-and-signed book or some original art pages, there's still those five days remaining!
There has been a casualty in all this, however. Stupid Book 4 preorders had to go up at the same time as preorders for Patch Together's Ethan statue! I'd basically completely forgotten about it, and since pimping the book was way more important to me, like, financially and all, I kind of ignored the poor thing in favor of ensuring Book 4 reached the target pledge. Books are a large part of how I make my living. Statues are fun romps on the side. And, looking at the number of folks who've preordered one so far, man, you can really tell I'd dropped the ball on him.
So here's some much-deserved face-time with the Ethan statue. Gaze upon him in all his glory. And if you want, he's there to take.
One of the best people in the world, Dave Kellett, is up for an Eisner Award this year! His collection of Sheldon comics about literature has been nominated for "Best Humor," and dude deserves a win. He's not only a best peoples, but he's also a fantastic cartoonist. A cartoonist's cartoonist. A god among men.
You could get lost in his eyes.
If you're eligible to vote in the Eisner Awards (meaning, you're a cartoonist or graphic novelist of any stripe), you're invited to download a PDF of his Literature book for free. Y'know, just so you know that, come voting time, you're making the right choice.
In the realm of somewhat less important voting, Hasbro's assembled the Transformers Hall of Fame votes they've received from the Various Internets into a list of final five nominees. You can start voting on them now at transformers.com! Be sure to click their graphics so you can read their profile. I am not going to tell you to vote for Waspinator.
I'll be there with Kel McDonald (Sorcery 101), and we'll be in the Small Press area, at table SP-29, I believe. I'll have books and prints and some new posters! One of my old prints, you see, has just graduated into a new poster. I keep selling out of my 8"x10? Dinobot "HONOR" print at every convention, so I decided, okay, this is a sign, and I did it up as a 11"x17" poster on glossy cardstock. I redrew the art for the bigger size, since the original graphic was kind of iffy at the smaller size already, and the final product is friggin' spiffy, if I may say so. If you aren't gonna be in SanFran this weekend, you can also find the poster in the store.
It's my first convention in the city where Shortpacked! takes place! I'm excited! It's also my birthday this weekend. On Sunday I turn 32. If you're there, feel free to drop me some extra booze money.
Instead of doing the whole Paypal thing this go-round, everyone else I knew in webcomics were extolling the many virtues of using Kickstarter to raise funds. These virtues sounded even better once it was realized that Paypal can throw an enterprise-ending conniption fit if you raise too much money too fast. Let's, uh, avoid that, shall we?
Kickstarter does work a bit differently. You pledge money instead of giving it outright, and these pledges are only acted on if the required amount of money is pledged. If I don't reach the $8000 I need to make everything, nobody gets charged nuffin'. If I make more, that's gravy! To facilitate pledging, Kickstarter loooooves tiered rewards. For example, putting in enough money to cover the cost of a book and shipping is fine and good, but there's also things you can get if you put in less than that or more. If you only put in $5, you don't get a book, but you still get to help make it happen and you get your name printed inside the book along with the rest of everyone who helped out. And if you pledge more, depending on how much more, you can get a pile of original Shortpacked! lineart and/or a cameo in the strip itself. Sounds fun? New and different?
Also new and different is that I'm making the book thicker this go-round. The previous books were 136 pages, and this new one's gonna be 200. Full disclosure, the cost of printing's going up, and apparently I've been undercharging all this time anyway. Joel Watson laughs at me every time he sells his books for $20 and I sell my comparably-sized book for $15. (That bastard.) But I didn't just want to raise prices, I wanted to give something back for that extra $5. So books are thicker now. You get 60 more pages of content. Good deal?
Another thing I need to address. Last year, I tried to raise funds for a Book 1 reprint. This preorder was not popular. And I still have a lot of your money for it, and it's still not printed, what with the lack of preorders and such. I've been waffling on and off for the longest time, and I was just about to just give up and move on, but, again, webcomics folks extoll the virtues of Kickstarter to me. So here's what we're gonna do. After Book 4 is dealt with, let's try the preorder-book-1-reprint process again, but with Kickstarter. If that doesn't work, I will give up forever. If you don't want to wait that long and you've had enough, let me know. Send me an email (wiigii at gmail). I will make it up to you.
Of all the book collections of webcomics about folks who work in a toy store and tell jokes about Batman, this will be the greatest.
Sure, there were some pretty great book collections about folks who work in a toy store and tell jokes about Batman before, but this will far surpass them all. It's not that the previous collections weren't great. They are. They remain great! I mean, there was the strip-by-strip commentary and the additional content and the smattering of Toy News International strips and whatnot, but there was one tragic flaw.
They were only 136 pages long.
Well, screw that! Let's crank this up to 11. And by "11," I mean 200 pages. More comics! More commentary! And for the first time ever, excerpts from both the Tome of the Ages and the Gospel of Faz.
Within these 200 pages, you'll read some of the best stories from Shortpacked!'s six-year run. There's Conquest's hiring and her various ill-fated sex-backed sales attempts. There's Robin's plot to seduce Ethan via "found" videos of her and Conquest making out in the back room. There's the first real appearances of Leslie, the love of Robin's life. There's Galasso's unveiling of the Tome of the Ages, Ethan's subsequent firing and rehiring, and Amber's faith-fueled battle with Ninja Rick. Plus, a talking car arrives, mayhaps?
Oh, right. And "Funky CancerCancer." It's in here.
So what is this Kickstarter thing trying to do? Well, obviously, printing books costs money, and I don't have enough sitting around to fund an entire book run. So I'm trying to raise the amount I need to print the books, plus hopefully enough left over to actually ship these things to those who paid in enough to earn their own copy.
You'll notice some tiered rewards on the right. Read them carefully!
Back before Christmas I mentioned that I was attempting to save up for a boat trip with Joel Watson (and our wives I guess), and so created some posters. First I did one for Dumbing of Age, where I learned that posting news in the week between finals and Christmas is probably the worst idea ever, and then after Christmas ended I created and teased a Shortpacked!-themed fundraiser poster.
