Okay, first things first. I was supposed to announce the three winners of the first round of  the hand-made Truman doll give-aways on Wednesday and I didn’t do it. Let me explain.

I had an all-day meeting Wednesday and was nowhere near a computer. Of course, after the all-day meeting, there was "required" all-night socializing. So, I didn’t get the job done.

Why didn’t I announce the winners on Thursday? Well, there was another reason for that, which I will get to later. It’s tied to a larger site announcement that I want to make.

Regardless, the winners of the first round of the give-away are Daniel Longe, Thomas Kelly and Jacob Bond. Their names were pulled from a random drawing of orders submitted between September 6 and September 13. Congratulations to the winners! Your one-of-a-kind creations will be shipped out to you this weekend!

Please keep in mind that there are three dolls left as part of this give-away. Two more will be awarded on September 20 and the last remaining doll will be awarded on September 27. If you want a chance at winning the dolls from the second week of the pre-order, we must recieve your order by Tuesday, September 19!

Sales of "Theater Hopper: Year Two" continue to be strong and I’m getting more and more feedback from people who purchased "Theater Hopper: Year One" every day.

Take, for example, this e-mail I got from Tess Liebersohn:

Simple statements like that really warm my heart and it’s nice to know so many of you are appreciating the work that has gone into the first book. If you like what I’ve done there, you’ll LOVE what I’ve done with the second book. I’ve maintained the level of production and have added more content than before. You’re really getting your money’s worth since I’m only charging $15.00 during the pre-sale.

If you haven’t bought a copy of "Theater Hopper: Year One," please consider our bundle that packages the two books together. You get a great discounted rate – $25.00 for two books. There’s about 450 pages of content there, so you get a lot for the money!

I’ve had lots of people write in and tell me that once they pick "Year One," they can’t put it down and that the commentaries for each strip are worth the price of the book alone. That makes me feel great and I thank you so much for the support.

Things have been going so well for the site lately, I can hardly believe it. To that end, I have an announcement I would like to share with everyone.

Starting Wednesday, September 20, Theater Hopper will appear in the weekly youth publication Juice – an social and entertainment magazine that is an offshoot of The Des Moines Register. I realize this won’t effect the majority of you, but for those of you who live in the Des Moines area, it’s a big deal.

Basically Juice is a magazine that is aimed at 25 to 35 year-olds and tells them what is new and exciting in the Metro area. What bars to go to, what shows are coming to town, the social groups and who is making waves in the community. A lot of people read it and it’s great exposure for the comic.

The way the whole thing started was kind of innocuous. We sent Juice a press release announcing the sale of "Theater Hopper: Year One" after I came back from Wizard World Chicago in early August. We didn’t hear anything from them for a while, tried to follow up, but heard no word.

Then, late last week, I was contacted by one of their reporters who asked me if I would be interested in being interviewed for their "What I’m Into" article. This is a weekly profile of young people in the Metro doing unique things. They’ve featured morning news producers, hair stylists and real estate brokers. They thought what I was doing with the comic was unique and wanted to ask me a few questions. Of course I jumped at the opportunity.

I talked with the reporter about Theater Hopper. How I got started, how long I’ve been doing it, what it has afforded me creatively and socially – it was a great conversation. Afterwords, he sent me a list of "standard questions" to kind of flesh things out a bit. What’s my favorite movies, music, tv… where do I hang out… why did I stay in Des Moines – that kind of thing.

Anyway, one of the questions was "Where do you see yourself in 5 years? (specifically as it pertains to the comic.)"

I have no dellusions of granduer. I’m fairly certain I’m not going to turn Theater Hopper into my job. So I said that I was looking forward to producing more books and getting caught up to the point where I could start producing them annually.

I also told him that it would be interested to see Theater Hopper translated into another medium. Maybe a cartoon or short film. I also expressed interest in having Theater Hopper reproduced in other publications. Jokingly, I said "Is Juice looking for any cartoonists?" Ha, ha.

Well, a few days after submitting my answers to the questionnaire, I get a call back from the reporter. "I talked to my editor," he says. "And he’s interested in running your comic in Juice!"

I was totally floored. For real? You bet. They were serious.

So, long story short, the comic will appear in the magazine on the same day that my profile appears. Afterwords, I will become a fixture at Juice.

It’s a great deal for me because it offers the comic a great deal of extra exposure aimed directly at my audience. Plus, people who read Juice are connected, so who knows what potential relationships could come out of that.

The greatest benefit is that this gives me a foot in the door toward honestly cultivating a large local fanbase. When the reporter asked me if I made comics for people in the Metro, I told him "Actually, the Metro is probably the LAST place that knows about Theater Hopper. I have people ordering shirts from Isreal and the Netherlands, but no one around here seems to know what I do!"

Being given the opportunity to speak directly to people my age in the town I’m from feels great and I don’t intend to waste it.

I just learned today that I will also be blogging on the Juice web site, posting each week’s Theater Hopper comic one day after it appears on the main site (to give incentive for people to check out the comics earlier). There will also be a commenting and feedback section, which is a great advantage because it’s something the current Theater Hopper site presently lacks.

I’m really hoping this opens more doors for Theater Hopper. I’ve been doing the comic for more than four years, but I really haven’t made an effort to generate any press around what I’ve accomplished so far until now. The fact that I have an off-shoot of the largest paper in Iowa sitting up and taking notice is a huge victory for me. It makes me feel like anytihng is possible and I’m ready to see how far this will go.

I’ll be sure to let everyone know when the article is online next week. And when I post next Wednesday’s comic on the Juice web site the following Thursday, it would be really cool if you guys would log on and let everyone in the Des Moines area know exactly what you think of Theater Hopper!

2006 has been the best year for Theater Hopper ever. It keeps getting better and better!