Over at The Norm they're celebrating getting over 4000 subscriptions for this coming year. That means Michael Jantze is back at the drawing board, a good thing for everybody. Since only subcribers can read the new material things are suddenly very different for him. It's weird, because 4000 readers is a big step down from being read by hundreds of thousands in 80 or so papers around the country, and yet Mike is probably making more money. The new economy, go figure. I should add that all the strips will probably end up in The Norm Magazine, his print publication, but it will take a while. And you've got to pay for them there, too, so he'll get you one way or another.

Will we go the subscription-only route? Probably not. Right now the acquisition of new readers is too important. If we decided getting a large sum of money was the only way to continue the strip I'd probably prefer to do an NPR-style fundraiser. Which are annoying but they work. But for now we're staying the selling-things route. So, um, please go buy something, okay? Get a book. They're funny.

We are acutely aware that people want to buy Library Raid hats, and that we're out of stock. We've been waiting for our printer to get a new hat-printing device. Now they have the technology, they can make them better, stronger, faster. Well, better anyway. As soon as I see a sample we'll turn on the switch and you can order them again. Stay tuned.