I’m going to forego my little write-up of Saw III for the moment because I want to share with you a little picture…

"THEATER HOPPER – YEAR TWO" IS IN STOCK!!!

I got a call from Josten’s late last week telling me that copies of Year Two were finished and so to be delivered. Imagine my surprise when I came home yesterday evening and found about 16 large boxes stacked on my front porch!

It was more surprising than last time considering that I had to drive to the frieght distribution center to pick up all the books when they couldn’t navigate their truck down my suburban street last time. I guess this time around there were no such problems!

I’m thrill that the books are in exactly two weeks early. That means Cami and I will be filling out envelops all this week getting set to ship off the books that everyone pre-ordered. Hopefully your pre-order was a little less agonizing the second time. I know it took us a while to turn around the first book.

But that’s water under the bridge. "THEATER HOPPER – YEAR TWO" IS IN STOCK!!!
 
I’m beyond thrilled that these books are in my hands. I kept flipping through it all last night. This is the book where I started keeping high resolution files. You can really tell the difference from those I had to take from the web site. The low res comics are still legible. But the new comics are just astounding.

Remember, in addition to the comics with BRAND NEW commentary on each, there is a foreward by my wife Cami, guest strips from the era as well as over 80 sketches. I’ve also included a handy index that outlines all the movies I made fun of that year in alphabetical order with the page number next to them so you can find it in the book easily.

If you’d like to buy one, you can do so here. And if you haven’t bought "Theater Hopper – Year One" yet, you can bundle both books together for $25 (plus shipping and handling).

Remember that all books will be signed by me! So if that’s an incentive for you, I wanted to put that out there.

Thanks again to everyone for their support. I never would have thought it possible that I could produce TWO books this year, but you guys stood behind me and helped make it happen. I am completely humbled. THANK YOU!

Hey, guys. By the way, I have a couple of sponsorhip ad spots open below the comic and above the blog if you’re interested in getting some inexpensive coverage for your site. $10 for 30 days can’t be beat! I’ll tell you, the number of impressions you see with these ads are insane. And I give everyone who advertises with me a username and password to log into the ad server and see how their ads are doing. It’s really cool! Click here to learn how to take advantage of this deal!

I’m scrambling a little bit because in exactly one month I’ll be going to Wizard World Texas. I need to come up with a little more dough to pay for "Theater Hopper: Year Two." I suppose the more financially responsible thing to do would be to wait until I had all of the money before sending the artwork to the printer. But I didn’t have that much time. I pretty much had a month and a half to turn the book around. I did it, but the money wasn’t there yet. So, if you want to help me out, even the smallest gesture counts. Get a sponsorship link for $10 and it’ll make a difference!

Or, of course, you could pre-order a copy of "Theater Hopper: Year Two" and help me out even more! I’m expecting to get the books back from the printer on November 8, so you won’t have long to wait! Order the Year One and Year Two bundle for $25 and I’ll send you Year One today!

I think next week I’m going to get off my can and post that eBay auction I’ve been talking about. Cami also stitched up a few more of those hand-made Truman dolls from the Year Two presale for me to take to the Minneapolis Fallcon. I sold a few, but I still have a few left over and I think I’m going to put those up for sale on the site next week as well.

Just giving you the head’s up! Thanks!

First, I just want to say a quick thank you to everyone who sent a message of congradulations and support regarding the announcement of our baby boy. You guys are awesome. In addition to sending e-mails and leaving messages in the THorum, I was surprised to see comments turn up on the LiveJournal RSS feed and my MySpace page! Heck, threads were even starting to pop up in other online communities. The guys over at the Digital Pimp Online messageboard even sent their best wishes. Amazing!

Thank you so much. I’ve shared many of your messages with Cami and we’re talking about preserving them along with yesterday’s announcement as part of the baby’s scrapbook. Who knows – maybe he’ll find it interesting that so many people were excited about him being brought into the world without even knowning him!

In need to share some other news with you guys right now. Obviously not as big as announcing your first child, but if I don’t do it now, it won’t make sense later.

I wanted to let everyone know that I will be attending the Minneapolis FallCon Comic Book Convention this weekend at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I’ll be there both Saturday and Sunday, 10 to 5. My good buddy Zach Miller from Joe and Monkey will be there as well, so you should come out and say "Hi!"

FallCon was the very first convention that I attended back in 2003. This was actually the first time I met Zach as well as Mitch Clem and Carrington Vanston. I was a little uncomfortable at the time because I didn’t know how to act or what to do. But now that I have a few conventions under my belt, this one is going to be a breeze.

I wasn’t able to make it to FallCon 2004 or 2005 which bums me out. Seems like there was always something in the way like a wedding or family commitments getting in the way. It’ll be great to go back to where it all started when I began to think of Theater Hopper as more than just a hobby.

If it matters to you, Cami will be coming with me to this convention. Her first convention appearance ever! She probably won’t be hanging around the booth all day, though. My sister-in-law is coming with us and she and Cami will probably check out The Mall of America at some point. It’s, like, a requirement. But still, if you’re lucky, you might get a chance to meet her.

Cami is bringing along 10 of her hand-made Truman dolls to the show, stitched up especially for this occassion. Demand was so high for the dolls we gave away for the "Theater Hopper: Year Two" pre-sale, we’re testing the waters to see what demand looks like on the convention circuit. If things look promising, we might start selling them on the site! How does that sound to you guys? Is there a demand for hand-made Truman dolls? Would you buy one if we offered them here? You guys should e-mail me and let me know!

At any rate, I’m sure I’ll share this information again in tomorrow’s blog. I just wanted to put it into the universe now so it wouldn’t be so last minute!

I plan on coming back and discussing Uwe Boll’s pugilistic antics later in the day. For now I want you to focus on one thing.

The artwork and layouts for "Theater Hopper: Year Two" have been sent to the printer and I have raised about half of what I need to pay for the book. The printer required that I pay one-third of the total cost upon approving the proofs. The remaining two-thirds come due when the books are delivered on the first week of November.

Right now I have a little more than half of what I need to pay the printer. I’m gambling that you guys can help me meet my goal. So I’m extending the sales drive until November 8.

If today is your payday, please consider purchasing a copy of "Theater Hopper: Year Two" now. Today is also the last day that your pre-order will qualify you for the remaining hand-made Truman doll. Orders have dipped since the first week of the pre-sale, so your odds are still good. Also, if you haven’t ordered a copy of "Theater Hopper: Year One," don’t forget our special bundle package that puts both books together for $25.00 (plus shipping and handling). You save nearly $10 as opposed to if you bought the books separately.

In the coming weeks I’m going to try and leverage all of my resources to help meet my ultimate goal. That means slashing prices on my remaining inventory of t-shirts, bundling shirts with copies of the first book at a reduced price and I’m also prepared to auction off my artistic ability on eBay. I’m planning on offering an open-ended auction where I will draw whatever you like (within the confines of good taste). A piece suitable for framing. So if you’re thinking there might be something you’d like me to draw for you, start coming up with ideas this weekend.

These are all ideas that will benefit you as much as me. But in the meantime, let’s see what we can do about racking up a few more orders for "Theater Hopper: Year Two".

As always, I appreciate your support. This has been my best year of doing Theater Hopper so far and it’s all thanks to you guys. I sincerely appreciate the opportunities you’ve afforded me. Thank you!

Apologies to my regular readers, but I have a take a little time-out to welcome all of the new readers that are coming to the site for the first time.

If you’re visiting Theater Hopper after reading the "What I’m Into" article in Juice this week, welcome to my site! I’m very honored that Juice would choose to profile my hobby and I hope you find something here that you like. We have a very large collection of over 600 comics, so I strongly encourage you to start from the begining. You can tell that the artwork wasn’t quite as refined in those early days, but it get’s better. I assure you!

Or you could always check out our archive. It has a hand search function that allows you to type in keywords and comics that match will be displayed for you! I always suggest typing in the name of your favorite movie or actor. After 4 years of doing this comic, I’ve made fun of nearly all of them!

There are actually a few comics in the archive that make some specific Central Iowa references. You can click on these links as a shortcut to them. You might find something you recognize!

If you like what you see but don’t want the boss to know that you’re goofing around, I produced my first book back in August – "Theater Hopper: Year One" – that collects the first 156 comics into one handy volume. Each of the comics comes with brand new commentary and I tried to thread a narrative through it that explained how I got started with the site, the mistakes that I made and all of the behind-the-scenes stuff. It’s been very popular and you can grab a copy for yourself for $18.95.

We’re also running a special right now where if you order the bundle package, you can get a copy of "Year One" and pre-order a copy of "Year Two" (to be released around the 1st of Novemeber, 2006) for only $6.00 more! It’s a real bargin!

So if you buy a copy of the book, you can read Theater Hopper anywhere! On the bus, at the dentist’s office… heck, even during a really boring movie (if you bring a book light!) So, c’mon! Support local artists!

Something wonderful that sprang from Juice’s profile of me is that Theater Hopper will now also be seen in publication. So Wednesday’s comic will be in print the same time it appears on the site. I will also be blogging on the Juice web site, sharing with their readers Monday’s and Friday’s comic as well. Those posts will go up a day after the comic has already appeared in this space. So Monday’s comic will appear Tuesday, Wednesday’s comic will appear Thursday and Friday’s comic will appear Saturday. So if you want the early scoop, be sure to come here first!

At any rate, I just want to thank Juice once again for covering Theater Hopper and putting the spotlight on young people in Des Moines who are doing something different. I really appreciate the opportunity you’ve given me by taking time out of your day to check out my work and I hope you find something here that will give you a good chuckle and make your day a little less difficult. If so, I encourage you to bookmark us and come back every Monday, Wednesday and Friday to see what we’re up to. You won’t be dissapointed!