I promised you big news today, and by-gum, I’m gonna deliver!

I’m here to announce the VERY FIRST Theater Hopper t-shirts!

It’s been a long time coming for yours truly to start producing t-shirts. But after consulting with my many constituents in the forum, I decided the time was nigh to deliver. The demand is there! It was simply a matter of making the product available.

As you can see from the graphic on the right, the t-shirt features the one and only “Pimp Tom”. My forum homies had a real soft spot for this guy and I hope you do, too. The graphic is emblazoned boldly on the front while the Theater Hopper log and URL have found a righteous home on the left sleeve.

The shirts are 50/50 poly-cotton blend, black with white ink. Cost is a meager $15 dollars. They are printed with love and affection by the good people at Brunetto Shirts – the same individuals who’ve brought you quality clothing for web comics like Diesel Sweeties, Sam & Fuzzy, WIGU, Exploding Dog, Scary Go Round, Ctrl+Alt+Del, MacHall and many, many more!

Currently the shirts are on pre-order status through April 30th. That means, at the end of April, I will tally up all the orders we’ve received and submit them to Brunetto. They will then print up the shirts, mail them back to me, and I will ship them out sometime around the middle of May. Pre orders are the ONLY WAY TO GUARANTEE you will get a shirt.

I hope everyone is as excited about this as I am. Who knows? If the response is strong enough, I may just print up more shirts!

Thanks again for your support and continuing interest in Theater Hopper. I know I have some of the most awesome fans around. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t print up shirts for them. So THANK YOU!

You know you’ve really “made it” in web comics when your merchandise starts showing up on fictional characters like in today’s Aikida. You’ll notice that the lead character is wearing the ever-classy “Pimp Tom” t-shirt. And believe me, there isn’t any more valuable real estate in web comics.

If “Pimp Tom” is good enough for Aikida, isn’t it good enough for you?

I know I mentioned some big new in my earlier blog. Well, this isn’t it. But it is AS EQUALLY big!

Taking a page from my playbook, Cami teased the THorumites with the prospect of a special surprise. Today, we’re ready to announce it!

After watching my piece of original art fly out the door last week, Cami took it upon herself to use her creative skills to produce two, HAND-MADE ORIGINAL Theater Hopper dolls! Representing Tom and Cami in their full, felt glory – each doll is approximately 14″ tall and is ready to go home with you!

To improve your chances of getting your hands on these one-of-a-kind collectors items, we are selling the two dolls seperately. If you’re desperate to own both as a set, well, it’ll be a blood-thirsty bidding war that we will all watch with breathless anticipation!

Click here for the Cami doll listing.

Click here for the Tom doll listing.

I can not underestimate how unique these dolls are. They will become the envy of Theater Hopper fans everywhere. Imagine! Theater Hopper dolls! Made in our house, by Cami sitting next to your computer. Smiling benevolently as if to say “Good purchase, friend.”

The auction will end next Monday the 12th. Until then, take back your aluminum cans and check the couch cushions for spare change. You’ll need every red cent you can get your hands on to make sure you walk away with these one-of-a-kind dolls!

You may now go back to breathing regularly.

Like many of you, I waited until the last day possible to order my “Professional Movie Goer” shirt, but remember: There is a difference between procrastinating and just plain missing the boat.

Order one (or more) today and be one of the cool people! Everybody’s doing it. [Unless you are against that sort of thing. If so: order one (or more) today and be a unique individual!]

Have a great weekend!

After Emerald City Comicon, I had a couple of t-shirt ideas kicking around in my head. I tend to over-analyze my ideas and smother them before I give them a chance to get off the ground. So this time out, I decided just to roll with my instincts and try not to put too much thought into it.

Maybe I’m not doing myself any favors by putting them out here for your comments at such a formative stage. But I figure at this point, what do I have to lose? Either I entertain the notion of a new t-shirt design and kill it before I ever sit down to design it or I knock one out super quick so I can at least move on to the next thing. Who knows? Maybe you might like it? Maybe it’ll be the biggest-selling shirt I’ve ever designed!

So, what do you think? Leave your feedback in the comments below.

A couple of days ago I posted images of a few t-shirt designs I was working on. Response was generally positive and I have been encouraged! Thank you!

One of the designs I’m taking back to the drawing board and adjusting. But the other design was received well enough that I’ve decided to go forward with production. Starting today, you can pre-order the Spoiler Alert t-shirt. Next Wednesday, April 22, I will submit those orders to the printer.

For those of you who forgot what the design looked like, here’s a reminder:

You’ll notice that I added a tag line to the back of the shirt. The feedback I received the other day pointed out that a shirt that says “SPOILER ALERT!” on the front kind of sets up an expectation for some kind of spoiler. I agreed, but I didn’t want it to be a specific movie spoiler. I already have two shirts that do that. Instead, I decided to make the statement more general and reflective of your passion and knowledge and movies. In a way, the shirt says “Watch out! I know so much about movies, I might accidentally spoil one for you. But, hey – my t-shirt DID try to warn you!”

I had a suggestion to print the tag line on the back in black ink. Think about it for a second. Black ink on a black shirt. Kind of like a hidden message or sort of like how you have to highlight text in a forum or on a web site to reveal a spoiler.

I really like that idea and I’m asking my printer if it’s advisable to go this route. I don’t want the tag line to be obscured completely, so we’re looking into ink that is perhaps shinier or more reflective so it catches the light. I’m thinking I might do a “Limited Edition Super Spoiler” edition of the shirt. Maybe only print up 5 of each size. We’ll see. I’ll be sure to let you know what we find out.

Anyway, that’s it for now. Place your orders now so I know how many of each size to get. This pre-order will also help me determine the popularity of the shirt and if it’s an item I want to continue producing going forward.

I really like the design and appreciate the feedback you guys gave me the other day. I hope you like the shirt as well and consider adding it to your already impressive collection of ironic t-shirts.

THANKS!

Okay, this was the post that you were meant to read this morning, but the one I couldn’t get to until I put Henry down for his afternoon nap.

Regarding Transformers, that can wait. I’m going to be talking about it all week, so there’s no need to dive neck-deep into it now.

Although, I must confess today’s strip is autobiographical. I’m less interested in seeing the movie than I am in finding out how they wrote Shia LaBeouf’s hand injury into the storyline. I anticipate that it will be richly satisfying.

Anyway… onto business.

As you know, a few weeks ago I lost my job. This came at a bad time for a lot of reasons, but one among the myriad of reasons is that I was about to send my registration for Artist Alley at Wizard World Chicago, August 6 – 9. Losing my job halted that action in it’s tracks.

Although Theater Hopper is its own entity and has its own money, I wasn’t sure if it was appropriate to attend a convention when I might have to dip into that money once my severance is gone.

I won’t bore you with the mental tug-of-war I put myself in the middle of. But, eventually, when I talked to Cami about it, she didn’t see where there was a problem and told me to go for it. Bless her for being as supportive as she is.

So, long story short, I’m going. I’m sharing a table with Zach Miller from Joe and Monkey, hanging out with the guys from Digital Pimp Online and hopefully selling some new merchandise.

Ah, but there’s the rub. I don’t exactly HAVE any new merchandise.

People who pre-ordered Theater Hopper: Year Three know this. I’ve been sitting on a finished draft of that book for months, but I haven’t had the money to have it printed up. Pre-orders stalled and I’m still trying to raise funds.

I thought I would bolster that effort by designing a new shirt – Spoiler Alert! – in hopes that the revenue from the sale of those shirts would help bridge the gap on the funds I need to print the book.

That didn’t happen, either.

I’m not pointing fingers at anyone but myself. In all honesty, I haven’t been talking about Year Three or the new shirt. So, beyond the intifada announcement, why would I expect there to be any orders? I haven’t been talking about it, so people haven’t been ordering. It’s really that simple.

Well, here’s what I’m going to do: I’m going to kick my plan back into gear and I’m trying to push the Spoiler Alert! tees hard before I go to Wizard World Chicago. I’m confident that this design will be a big seller in Chicago and I want to get this shirt to the printer before I leave for the convention.

With your help, I can raise the money I need to get the shirts printed up, take to Chicago and produce the profit I need to put Year Three back on track for publication.

To help us with our goal, I’ve created this handy bar graph:

As you can see, I need a minimum of 50 shirt orders before July 31 to make this work. If I can sell more than that, great. If the sale of merchandise extends beyond the Spoiler Alert! shirt and into the Spoiler 1 and 2 shirts, the Theater Hopper: Year One or Year Two books… that’d be great as well! Every little bit helps! What’s important is that we inch that bar to the left as far as we can before July 31.

I’ve been gun shy about this kind of promotion since Theater Hopper: Year Two came out in the fall of 2007. Well, I can’t afford to sit on my hands any longer. I’ve set a goal for myself and I need your help! So let’s see what we can do about racking up some pre-orders!!!

As always, I appreciate your support, patience and enthusiasm. Thanks again and I will talk to you soon!

Last Monday I posted to the site my goal of selling some merchandise to help me raise the money I need to send the Spoiler Alert t-shirt design to the printer. Consequentially, I would complete the pre-orders and take the rest of the inventory to Wizard World Chicago on August 6 and take the profits made from the convention to help bankroll the production of Theater Hopper: Year Three.

I created a little graphic that went into the blog posts but realized pretty quickly that a visual aid such as this was easy to ignore. So I made a little cosmetic change to the header of the site in hopes of strongly reinforcing my goal and the progress made so far.

Please help me meet my goal of selling 50 shirts by July 31. It doesn’t have to be the Spoiler Alert shirt. It can be any of the shirts. They all cost the same and the money goes to the same goal.

Thousands of you come to the site every day. I only need a fraction of you to help make this possible. If you’ve been thinking at all about buying a book or a shirt, now is the time to do it.

I appreciate your support.

Hey, guys. Real quick – I wanted to make you guys aware of a new promotion I’m running.

If you are the proud owner of ANY piece of Theater Hopper merchandise – and that can be shirts, books, posters, whatever (past and present) – take a picture of yourself and send it to me at theaterhopper@hotmail.com. If you do, I will give you a coupon code good for 25% off your next purchase in the Theater Hopper store.

I want to take the pictures and build a gallery of satisfied customers on the Theater Hopper Facebook page. I believe that if people see others enjoying their purchases, it might encourage them to shop in our store as well. Also, the 25% discount is a nice way to say “thank you” to the people who have supported the site over the years.

Incidentally, you can post your pictures directly to our Facebook page and save me a step. But either way is fine.

Thanks again for your support!