Did I mention the new book is in stock at TopatoCo? In fact, it’s only in stock at TopatoCo. It’s a TopatoCo exclusive!
Why did I choose to go this route, rather than work with a more conventional publishing house?
Partially because I’ve had crap luck with publishers for the last couple of books. Partially because the publishing industry is changing rapidly, and that place I occupied — where we’d publish a compilation and sell some relatively modest number, which could be anywhere from 5,000-20,000 — seems to be vanishing.
And partially because of this:
When you buy from TopatoCo, you’re patronizing independent creators who are using the internet to build sustainable careers from their creative work! We think that is a tremendously cool thing and we thank you so much for your support. We’re absolutely doing everything we can to hold up our end of the bargain too, by making great stuff that you will love and making sure everything goes as smoothly as possible with your order.
All of the TopatoCo member artists are directly supported by your purchases. As a company, we keep the lowest commissions in the industry, which means that the largest portion possible of your money goes directly to the creators of the products you buy. We’re pleased to report that quite a few of our artists are now able to concentrate full-time on their creative work, thanks to you and us working together to support them.
TopatoCo has been great to work with. We’ve come up with some shirts, we’ve got a plush Sparky in the works (which will hopefully be available before Christmas), and the production work on this book was the most low-drama experience I’ve had on any book I can remember.
And the book looks great! It’s got 103 pages of full color cartoons, pretty much everything I’ve done in the two years since the last book. It also has a brief but heartfelt foreword from my friend Ed Vedder, and is extensively annotated, because sometimes even I can’t quite remember what the hell I was writing about.
You can order it here.