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!