First off, let me say that this strip took FOREVER to figure out how to stage and draw. You think drawing a car is hard? Try drawing a roller coaster! Coloring and shading was no walk in the park, either. Especially that third panel! It was like doing everything backwards!

But I’m happy with the result.

I need to talk about something serious for a moment. It’s about the book pre-sale.

Here’s the thing: Sales are good, but there is information about this pre-sale that I haven’t shared with you. There are deadlines to consider and now it’s time to let those be known.

THE BOOK PRE-ORDER WILL END SUNDAY, JUNE 11.

Y’see, I’ll be attending Wizard World Chicago this year on August 4- 6 and I want to be sure and have copies of the book with me. In order to have the books printed up and delivered by August 1, the printer needs the artwork by June 11.

The reason for this pre-sale is to raise the money needed to pay the printer. In order to do that, a certain number of books need to be sold. As I said before, sales have been good but they’re not moving as fast as I need them to. Which brings me to my second point:

I NEED 240 MORE PRE-ORDERS BEFORE SUNDAY, JUNE 11.

The reason I didn’t mention the pre-sale deadline or the number of pre-orders I needed was because I didn’t want you guys to look at those figures and become complacent. I didn’t want you to look at those numbers and say "Oh, he’ll get what he needs before then. I’ll just wait until the book is published."

Don’t think like that. I need your help. Not to get over-dramatic, but the success of this book could seriously impact the future of Theater Hopper.

The goal with the first book was to raise enough money through pre-orders to pay for the cost of the total run. The profits of every book sold after that would go toward the production of the second book and so on. Thus shortening the length of the pre-order or eliminating it altogether for subsequent books. A snowball effect.

If I can’t get the first book off the ground, there is a strong likelihood that there won’t be a second book. I don’t want that to happen. Because if I’m incapable of getting a single book off the ground, then I need to re-examine how much time I’m dedicating to Theater Hopper. Say that out loud scares the crap out of me.

I don’t want to guilt you guys into buying the book. I realize that it’s tough to come up with the money for these things. I know most of you are in high school or college and you don’t have a lot of spare cash.

But it only takes a few of you to make a difference. Between 6,000 and 7,000 of you visit this site daily. All I need is for four percent of you to pre-order the book to make this a success. FOUR PERCENT! That’s nothing! I know you have it in you to help me.

Remember what you’re getting. 200 pages, full-color. 156 comics with brand new commentary. 11 guest strips. A 6-part crossover. An original signed and numbered sketch from me. A $20 Fandango.com gift certificate if you get 5 of your friends to pre-order along with you. Can you see that I’m serious about this? I need to make this happen. I need your help to do it.

PLEASE PLACE YOUR BOOK PRE-ORDER TODAY!

Cami and I will be gone from May 18 – 31. It would really help to ease my mind to know that before we left, the pre-orders would be complete and we can move forward. After nearly 4 years of continuous on-time and FREE content, this is the most important thing I can ask you to do for me in return.

Thank you.