I think you’d hate to run into this version of Patti in a dark alley. She means business.

Kind of  stretching my legs a little bit and doing a short storyline this week. I saw the opportunity after Monday’s comic, so I’m just going to see the arc through Friday. I love writing about how stupid men can be sometimes. If anyone needs proof of my own arrested development, they need look no further than this web site.

Good news for those of you that ordered shirts. I was able to send out a batch of orders from what was left in my standing inventory on Monday. Hopefully, you guys will be seeing your items by the end of this week or the beginning of the next. If there are any problems, be sure to let me know.

Unfortunately, those of you who have waited the longest – some of you placing orders shortly before my move in July! – probably won’t see your items for another few weeks. If you’ve been waiting a while, odds are strong that I was out of stock. Part of this last push with the store was to rack up enough orders on some designs to meet the printers minimum requirements. Now that the last push has concluded, I have sent the orders to the printer and should hopefully see them turned around in a week to two weeks. I already have everyone’s envelopes addressed. Now it’s just a matter of stuffing them and dropping them off at the post office.

I appreciate everyone’s patience in this regard. I learned a valuable lesson this year regarding merchandise and that is to not bite off more than you can chew. I thought it would be cool if I took some of my own money to invest in the t-shirt designs and try to build a standing inventory. The idea was to be able to turn around orders faster because I would be able to grab the item from the shelf and put it out the door the same day.

This worked okay for a little while, but what I quickly realized is that this kind of on-demand service is beyond my means. I would need a full warehouse or storage facility to meet the different demands.

Shirts like the "Spoiler" design were easy to keep stocked because there was only one color to print and it was a popular design. "Truman in a Purse," on the other hand, was difficult to keep stocked because it was printed with four colors and was less popular. In other words, if I ran out of medium-sized "Truman in a Purse" tees and had orders for 5 more, I would find myself up the creek because the minimum order amount was 30 for a four-color design versus 12 for a one-color design like "Spoiler." I ended up eating up a lot of the profit I made ordering a handful of shirts to fill orders and then being stuck with inventory I couldn’t move. Eventually, things came to the point where I needed to stop being so foolish with my money and force the situation where I could try and burn up the extra inventory I accumulated before discontinuing a few designs.

It worked to a degree. There is still some stuff I’m sitting on. But I can take these things to conventions if I have to. Or maybe I can use them in conjunction with promotions on the site. I haven’t decided yet.

What I DO know is that next time I do shirts, I’m setting up a schedule and sticking to it. Two weeks for pre-orders, two weeks for printing and delivery. Wash, rinse, repeat. Because in addition to learning not to bite off more than I can chew, I’ve learned that if a reasonable timeline is established, you guys are much happier. I totally understand why. If I were in your shoes, I would get impatient waiting for my order, too. You guys have been more than understanding in this regard, but in terms of timeliness, I’ve failed you. Anyone who is cool enough to buy a shirt and show their support for the site deserves better than this. That is my goal for next time.

When will next time be? Can’t say at the moment. Right now I’m working on something behind-the-scenes for Theater Hopper’s 500th strip. Then after that I’m working on laying out a book and commentaries for the first year of Theater Hopper strips. After that I’ll come back to shirts with some new designs I know you guys are gonna love.

Thanks again for your support. It means everything.