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Guys first off, extreme thanks are in order for everyone who’s pre-ordered my upcoming novel via Kickstarter. I’ve met my goal — and my stretch goal, which means that the book will be illustrated — but of course I’d love to get my book into as many hands as possible, and more presales means a better edited, better designed, and better book overall.

First, I wanted to let people who might be interested know that we have readers who’d be interested in going in on a novel-reading party in the San Francisco Bay Area, Vancouver, and New Orleans. If you live in those necks of the woods and are interested, email me and let me know and I’ll put you in touch!

I also wanted to let you know that Francesco Marciuliano, writer for Sally Forth and creator of the beloved Medium Large webcomic, has chipped in some Medium Large art that you can get your hot little hands on by sponsoring my novel To wit:

• For $150, you get a signed and inscribed hardbound copy of my novel, plus the e-book version, plus you’ll receive your choice of a Medium Large strip from the archives. These would not be the original strips, but would be hard-drawn on better paper than the original was (and Ces adds that “frankly the art would be better after years of drawing these things”), so it’s like a … betteriginal? You could pick this infamous B.C. strip, or an entry in the glorious Teenage Girl President series, or perhaps something from Todd and Son, or your own favorite!
• For $225, you’ll get the signed/inscribed hardbound novel, plus the e-book, plus a custom Medium Large strip on the subject of your choice (so long as it isn’t politics or pornography). Seriously, tell Ces what to draw and write, and he’ll do it!

Those of you who are thinking “But Joooosh I already bought your stupid book and now I want this, it’s not fair, I don’t want to buy it twice” fear not! If you would like one of these Medium Large strips for yourself or a friend, you can go to the Kickstarter campaign and click “Manage your pledge” (in the blue box just above the list of rewards). Then you can change your sponsorship amount and pick a new reward.

There will only be three of these rewards apiece! So you should probably act quickly if you want one. Thanks for reading this far, and thanks for sponsoring me if you’ve sponsored me. Now back to comics! (And by “now” I mean “tomorrow morning,” sorry, you will have to look at this for the remainder of the afternoon.)

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Good evening, everybody! Just wanted to start off by saying an enormous THANK YOU to everyone wh has pre-ordered my book through my Kickstarter. I’ve already met my original goal and my stretch goal (which means that the book will have illustrations) and I’m cooking up some new stuff (including new, comics-themed rewards!) for next week. I’ll give you a break from the sales pitches this weekend, but rest assured that the banners will return Monday!

And now, your comment of the week!

“J. Jonah Jameson looks like Hitler as envisioned by mid-90s Duracell ad executives.” –sporknpork

And the runners up, very funny!

“I bet ‘We trust you, Tommie. Don’t we, honey?’ is always met with a loud groan, even when she’s just asked to order a pizza or pick up doughnuts.” –Ed Dravecky

RMMD: “You know the story arc is almost over, because everyone is smiling. ‘My father died in a drunken scuffle with his wife that I hate. I haven’t come to terms with my own alcoholism or my complete loathing and mistrust of that evil old woman. But because of your generosity, I might get enough from his inheritance to cover my plane ticket and a few drinks at the airport bar! Thank you, Dr. Morgan, for enabling my dysfunctional family!'” –Hogenmogen

“Put everyone in Apartment 3-G into leather straps and ball-gags, and the dialogue still works surprisingly well. Better, even.” –Izzy

“Nina looked down. Get on my hands and knees? she thought. But that means… going into the void. The void had always been there, for as long as she could remember, below her waist and above… whatever was below her waist. They had all come out of the void, in their teen years, but no one ever knew or remembered what went down there. It was said that, to there they would all one day return. But Nina wasn’t ready. ‘Okay,’ she said, mustering her courage. ‘I’ll try. But you’d better be telling the truth!’ Trembling, she got to her knees. Oh god, she thought, as she lowered herself off-panel and toward the unseen ground. The voices.” –Black Drazon

“Who wants to see Nina’s baby zing out and whop Scott in the head?” –Lynn

“If anyone can get a hernia lifting a memory stick, it’s Peter Parker.” –But What Do I Know?

“Chip thought mowing the lawn would be a one-time thing. He’s not really a high achiever, academically.” –Doctor Handsome

I must thanks to all who put some cash into my tip jar! And we must give thanks to our advertisers:

• The Hole Behind Midnight: Royden Poole is having a very bad day. “… fast, profane, full of joy, deeply intelligent, and just a lot of damn fun to read.” –Colin McComb, author of OATHBREAKER. “… like the fevered brainchild of Warren Ellis and Kenneth Hite. Smart, dark fun.” ––Matt Forbeck, AMORTALS and VEGAS KNIGHTS.
• Die a Stranger: Betrayal. Adventure. Mystery. A plane lands on a deserted airstrip. Five dead bodies are found the next morning. Read the new Alex McNight novel. “STEVE HAMILTON is the master of suspense.” -Lee Child. “A sensitive exploration of tragedy and redemption.” -PW (starred)

To find out more about how you could be thanked in this spot, and more about sponsoring this site’s RSS feed, click here.

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Click the banner to help sponsor Josh’s novel and to reserve your copy! Details here.

This post is going to be a little on the long side, so I’m going to start up front with the short version: Hey, remember when I told you all that I quit my job and hinted vaguely at several “projects” I had in the works? Well, here’s the first big one: I’m writing a novel called The Enthusiast, and I need your help to make it happen. It’s about marketing and trains and capitalism and soap opera comic strips, and there will be a love triangle! You can read the rough cut of the first chapter to get a sense of it. And the way you can help make it happen — as well as make sure that you’re one of the first to get the book when it’s published — is to support my Kickstarter campaign.

If you’re unfamiliar with Kickstarter, it works like this: Someone who needs money to complete a project asks for sponsorship, and offers rewards in return. They set a minimum level of cash they’d need to make the project happen; if they don’t meet that goal, they get no money, and sponsors’ credit cards are never charged. If they meet or surpass the goal, they get the money and use it to bring the project to reality.

In my case, the project is the book, and the rewards you can get are, for the most part, copies of the book when it’s done. Depending on your level of support, you can get an e-book, a paperback, a hardcover book (only Kickstarter supporters will be able to get hardcover books), a signed hardcover book, or a bunch of books that I will fly to your home and hand-deliver and then read aloud to you and your friends. (Really!)

I’m self-publishing, because I feel like I have a strong personal relationship with you guys that doesn’t necessarily map onto how traditional publishers think about a first-time author; so, I’ll be using the money I’m raising to print the books, and to pay for editorial and design help. (I’ve already got an editor lined up: National Magazine Award winner Emily Gordon.) I’ll also be using the money to live on while I write the book: as the following video explains, there’s nothing that’ll kill a writer’s focus like the Internet, and since all my freelance gigs involve being on the Internet, the more sponsors I get, the longer I can turn the Internet off and write. (Don’t worry, I will never abandon my faithful Comics Curmudgeon readers; it’s the other, more boring stuff I’m talking about here.)

You may have noticed that it’s been an unusually long time — almost 10 months — since Uncle Lumpy last ran one of our occasional fundraisers here; that’s because I’ve been planning this for a while. So if you normally contribute to one of the semi-annual fundraisers, I would humbly request that you treat this Kickstarter as a pledge drive, and contribute to it what you normally would — and hey, this time you actually get some creative work out of me for it! You can contribute any amount of money that strikes your fancy, and in return you’ll receive any reward you want at or below the contribution level that you chose. (If for some reason you want to give me money but the thought of receiving a book from me disgusts you, you can opt to receive no reward as well.)

That’s about it! The Kickstarter will be open for contributions for three weeks, and believe me, I’ll be reminding you of it fairly regularly. And if I meet my goal early in the process, I have some ideas for stretch goals — ways I could make the book even better with extra funding. Stay tuned! And feel free to e-mail me at bio@jfruh.com for more details or if you have questions on how Kickstarter works.