Let's dispense with the important stuff before I get to the big announcement, shall we? Today I have two new shirts available for you to pre-order! Rich and I had a t-shirt brainstorming session at I-CON and these are the bastard children of that unholy union: Impeach Xenu and What Would Sulu Do?, available in regular flavors, babydoll tees and also on American Apparel for the duration of the pre-order period, which is until, oh, let's say April 15th. Designs may be pulled from the store at that point, so if you don't order your What Would Sulu Do? Real American Pride Edition t-shirt by next Saturday, you will have likely missed your window of opportunity.
So, go ahead, pre-order your t-shirts, and come back. I'll wait.
Done already? Great. Here's the thing: on Monday, I quit my job. Granted, I was only working 3 days a week, but they were three days a week that I wasn't making comics all day long. As of this week, I am officially a full-time cartoonist, making my living drawing Goats.
It's taken me nine years to get to this point. If I were sane, I would have given up a long time ago, but I suppose sanity is only so useful these days. I kind of feel like a wooden puppet who has woken up to discover that he has turned into a real boy.
What does this mean for you, Constant Reader? Not much at first, unless you get as much relief from the idea of my working less than 16 hours a day as I do. Over time, I think you'll see the results as I get to spend more time working on the comic and finishing up all the little projects that have seemed out of reach for so long (yes, that includes the SPEY, Worlds of Peril, Goats Vol. 5 and more).
This was not a goal I reached by myself. At the risk of turning this into an Oscar acceptance speech, there are a ton of people I have to thank for their help and support. First, I want to thank my fellow Dumbrella cartoonists for getting my back and for being stand-up guys who I would gladly take a bullet for. No pseudo-illegal covert operation can fail if you've got Rich and Jeff laying down cover-fire for you as you escape from the electronics store of life with a nice new widescreen Plasma TV.
I want to thank Mike and Arnaud for keeping me fed and off the streets for the past year. If any of you ever need a website designed or some Flash work done, you cannot go wrong by putting yourselves in the hands of these gentlemen.
I want to thank my parents and my brother for their decades of unyielding love and unconditional support.
I want to thank Phillip. Without your constant goading and special brand of retardation none of this would ever have been possible. The last nine years have been a blast.
I want to thank my wife, Amy, who has been blessed with a special sort of patience. Amy, you're my rock and I love you.
And most importantly, I want to thank you, Constant Reader. Without you guys none of this could happen. There's be no reason for Goats without the readers, and now, you're the only thing keeping me from starvation and homelessness (remember those shirts I mentioned earlier?). Anyway, your continued support is going to mean even more going forward. So thank you in advance for letting me survive and all that.
Oh, and now would be a great time to tell your friends about Goats. Link to this site from your blog, whisper it into the ears of passers-by, do what you got to do.
Hooray!
UPDATE: In a surprising but encouraging trend, Ryan also announced his full-time cartoonisthood today (albeit a year belatedly). Congrats!