Folks, I'm heading over to the SDCC this July 22nd through the 25th as an exhibitor -- I'll be at The Nice booth with PE(aott) compilations, some "got dice?" shirts, and probably some Spade Phillips, P.I. stuff. I don't expect to recoup the costs in the table, and I sure don't expect to even sell enough to cover one night's lodging at a hotel in sunny San Diego. So it's back to doing what online cartoonists do best -- grovelling for cash.
In fact, I'm going to do exactly what Mister Checkerboard Nightmare, Kristofer Straub himself is doing. In fact, I'll even raise him twenty-three dollars! Like every other online cartoonist with a paypal account (like there is any other type of online cartoonist), I'm going to be posting a progress bar calling for your donations to help me pay my way to San Diego. Good Mister Straub is trying to raise $80,000 -- I'm trying to raise $80,023! Why? Is it because I have an eighth of the readership? No! It's because covering the expenses for this outing are going to be such a huge, unattainable goal, I'm going to make our goal huge and unattainable as well. That and I want to get a computer system that'll run Half-Life 2 whenever it comes out. If CxN gets to shoot for a ludicrous amount, so do I.
Look, if a bunch of goddamn sprite comic strips that illegally use copyrighted material can sell mechandise featuring material solely based on a giant corporation's Intellectual Property, can sell advertising on their web site that features unauthorized reproduction and republication of another's work, and can also successfully beg their incredibly huge readership for money to go to umpteen different conventions a year, then dammit, it's my turn on the merry-go-round.
So, not only am I stealing the $80,000 donation drive idea, I'm topping it off with twenty-three more dollars! Can we make this the most ridiculously enormous amount of money ever raised by a webcomic? It's twenty-three more bucks than Checkerboard Nightmare wants to raise -- how could it not be?
Oh, and he's already raised $340. Let's get crackin', shall we?
Penny Arcade's Child's Play drive raised $146,000 -- although, to be fair, only $26,000 of that was in money. But next to that, this is small potatoes.
Posted by: Zzedar at May 24, 2004 01:36 AMYeah, yeah, but all that says to me is we just have to beat $26,000. Now, if we get $80,023, that's not just better, it's an even more ridiculously enormous!
In fact, I'll bet we even get a mention on the internet somewhere if we reach that goal!
Posted by: cartoonlad at May 24, 2004 07:57 AM"In fact, I'll bet we even get a mention on the internet somewhere if we reach that goal!"
What you mean, "we", Pale Face?
Posted by: Issachar at May 24, 2004 03:28 PMPA's Child's Play doesn't count, because it was for charity.
Posted by: Stephen at May 24, 2004 08:21 PM"In fact, I'll bet we even get a mention on the internet somewhere if we reach that goal!"
You already have a mention on the internet. That's what this page IS.
Posted by: Someone explaining a joke, rendering it humorless. at May 25, 2004 02:01 AMOk, I sent you 0.0124% of your goal. Of course, if you had been raising Canadian funds, it would have been 0.018%. Either way, it's enough for coffee on the way.
teach
Posted by: teach at May 25, 2004 08:40 AMThank you and two other people who I don't know if they want me to thank them publicly! That means I just need the other three readers of the strip to pony up $26,661.38 each, and we'll have met our goal! And by "our goal", I mean "my goal".
Posted by: cartoonlad at May 25, 2004 08:53 AMOh, the person who didn't understand humor didn't post their name, so I added the overly-long attribution.
Posted by: cartoonlad at May 25, 2004 09:04 AMOh, ha bloody ha. Don't get me wrong, you're very funny in the strip, but that did not qualify as a joke.
More pedantry: strictly speaking, this is charity as well. We're being asked to give money out of the goodness of our hearts. Just because the money is only going to one person doesn't make it charity.
Posted by: Same guy again at May 26, 2004 12:38 AMAccording to my Magic 8-Ball, that "Definitely Yes" was a joke. But you did bring up a good point, that donating money to help someone out is "charity". What Stephen probably meant to say above was "PA's Child's Play doesn't count, because it was a deserving charity."
But regardless of deserving or not, your pedantry has raised a valid point, Penny Arcade did in fact raise $140,000, so that means we've now got to beat $146,023, "Same guy again". As you're one of the three people who regularly read the strip and haven't donated yet, that means you now owe $46,661.38 along with two other people. Go ahead and click on the donation button anytime.
(If you can get more people to read the strip, that'll cut the amount you owe, dramatically.)
Thanks for supporting something you enjoy!
Posted by: cartoonlad at May 26, 2004 08:55 AMI don't really consider donating to PE(aott) to be charity, since we're getting something (a comic strip free of charge) for our donation.
Posted by: Stephen at May 29, 2004 01:10 AMBut we're getting it anyway. Or we would be if Monsieur Deeny ever updated. The point is, our donations, or lack thereof, have no bearing on when the next strip shows up.
Posted by: at May 29, 2004 06:48 PMReaders like you, I don't need. There's an opportunity where you can support something you enjoy and you decide to bitch about it? You come to my site and complain about me missing an update on a holiday weekend? You dare to complain about something you get for free and don't even have the courage to make up a stupid internet name? You are an ingrateful little puke.
Donations having bearing on when the strip is updated? That's not the point, you dolt. The point is if you like the strip and would like to support it, now would be a good time to send in a donation as I'm about to do sometime that would impact the strip.
Please, go fuck yourself.
Posted by: cartoonlad at May 30, 2004 09:30 PMROFL!! Are you sure you're not Canadian?
That's the most polite piss off note I've ever read.
I'm sending more money just because I laughed so hard!! Plus, PEOTT is hysterically funny right now - and was that "Retraining order" a deliberate or Freudian spelling mistake?
teach
Posted by: teach at May 31, 2004 06:39 PMYou misunderstand; I'm not saying that we shouldn't donate for this reason, I'm just saying that the donation is still technically charity. Stephen said that it wasn't charity because we get a comic strip in return, and I was pointing out that, technically speaking, we don't get it in return for our money. This has no bearing on whether or not I'm willing to donate; it's merely a question of semantics.
Posted by: at June 1, 2004 11:22 PMOkay, the SDCC progress bar is up to date! Just $79,936.83 more to go! Show those people who donated five dollars what a real donation looks like! Just remember, this whole thing isn't about you giving me money, it's about you giving me more money than anyone else that is giving me money. You must win!
Posted by: cartoonlad at June 2, 2004 09:49 PMSlightly battered? You do me a kindness, good sir. Truly, it was in such a bedraggled state when I found it that it did resemble a 1st edition copy of Vampire: The Masquerade*.
*minus both the ANGST and the excessively large number of pictures by Tim Bradstreet they used to pad out the pages.
I completely disagree with our anonymous poster. I suspect that, when debating whether to update or do something else with his time, the status of people donating/not donating plays in the mental calculations that Thomas goes through. I know that I would certainly be less inclined to regularly do a strip if my readers didn't think it worth throwing a few bucks at every now and again.
Posted by: Stephen at June 6, 2004 05:30 PMJust so you know, the delay/hiatus we're currently in has nothing to do with what Stephen posted on the 6th. New PE(aott) on the 21st.
Posted by: cartoonlad at June 13, 2004 05:35 PMTechnically, donating to a comic isn't charity. It's payroll by honor system.
Posted by: Syke at June 13, 2004 06:49 PM