Pre-Orders Closing at 8:00 AM Mountain Time
Pre-Orders for Schlock Mercenary: The Tub of Happiness are closing Monday morning at 8:00am my time (GMT -700). The store will be closed for a few hours while Sandra runs the last of the pre-order reports, and then it'll open back up... but any orders (including The Blackness Between or Under New Management) received after that time will not ship until December 12th. If you're planning on ordering Schlock books this month, now really is the best time.
Everybody who has seen, handled, and/or read Tub of Happiness has had really nice things to say, which I admit has surprised me. After all, this is my artwork at its earliest and its worst. One reader said "Are you SURE these are the same strips I read on the web?" I assured him that they were. The only reason they look better is that the resolution is at least three times better, but that same argument cuts both ways -- my mistakes are three times as sharp in print.
Another reader (and ardent supporter, I should add) said "I still can only say 'wow,' even though the cartoons are the same ones I’ve read in the archives. I especially liked the 24 hours before Schlock joined the Toughs."
Oh, good. The Bonus Story works, then.
One of the guys who has been helping me down at the Keep (he feeds me books, and boxes 'em after I sign 'em) picked up Schlock Mercenary for the very first time with the store copy of The Tub of Happiness, reading it during the breaks. He kept laughing out loud, and repeating my seven-year-old punchlines back to me gleefully.
I guess this means that the whole book works. Which is good, because I'm not doing it over.