March 12, 2003
Ahhh, the irony.We just welcomed something like a thousand new readers to the Schlock Mercenary archives, and now it is time to chase you all away with pop-ups and pop-unders.
Many of you have expressed a desire to help me out with the fiduciary viability of this little comic franchise of mine. Well, here's how you can help. Don't complain about the ads. Unless you find the content of the ad offensive or inappropriate, please just put up with the fact that in order to continue meeting expenses, there WILL be "in-their-own-window" ads running on Schlock. In order for you to keep getting the strip for free, I have to sell my presence on your desktop to people who will expose you to crass, commercially improbable ventures like low-interest financing and inexpensive travel reservations.
(As an aside: with words like "schlock" and "mercenary" right in the title of my work, how principled do you really expect me to be about ad delivery?)
If you're well and truly miffed about having to dispatch pop-ups, you're welcome to purchase a Keenspot PREMIUM membership, where you won't be troubled with pop-anythings, or even banner ads for that matter. You'll also get cool content unavailable to non-subscribers, including larger, more detailed versions of the Schlock 1001 strips, some choice single-panel gags, and a whole raft of sketches straight from my hindbrain. Of course, if you feel like I'm somehow holding you hostage by making you choose between your hard-earned money and the inanity of dispatching annoying windows, I assure you that I understand. I sympathize, empathize, and my heart goes out to you.
That said, put up or pay up. And I mean that in the most sympathetic, empathetic, heart-felt way.