GPF News Archive

Greetings, all! If you haven't noticed, it's been over a month again since my last news update, and I wish I had a good excuse this time. I will say I've been very busy both at work and at home, and squeezing more than just my weekly strip quota in has been difficult. I'm also seriously behind on my e-mail, as anyone who's written me in the past couple months has probably noticed. I apologize for that, and I'll try to respond to as much of my backlogged mail as I can as soon as possible. However, I do have some interesting tidbits for you this week, so let's get started.

First off, I'd like to thank everyone at Trinoc*coN for the great time I had there, even if it was only for a few hours. I should have promoted the con more heavily on the site beforehand, but alas, see the above paragraph for the excuses. My con report is up, even if it's short and very light on pictures. Meanwhile, we're switching gears and we're making preparations for Dragon*Con in Atlanta next month (Sept. 3-6). Dragon*Con is always one of our biggest cons, and this year we'll be sharing table space with Pete Abrams, Bill Holbrook, and John "the Gneech" Robey, as well as our mutual publisher, Plan Nine. If you enjoy fantasy, science fiction, comics, or just people walking around in silly and/or weird costumes, Dragon*Con is a great place to be. Keep watching the D*C Pre-Con Report (linked above) and the general Shows & cons page for updates as to where we'll be and when. (Note to Comic-Con fans: Sorry we missed being in San Diego this year, but we're hoping to make it up to you in 2005!)

Next, I'd like to thank everyone for voting in the Favorite Strip poll. The last time I checked, there were well over 1200 votes, which was a lot more than I expected. I've closed the poll at this time, but you can still see the results here. Now I'll move to the next phase. I've already singled out the top twenty-five favorite strips, and over the course of the next few months we'll begin auctioning off the original line art for each strip through EBay. The auctions will be open to anyone (although I may consider creating some special auctions later exclusively for PREMIUM subscribers). I'm not sure what the frequency will be for the auctions, but I'll let everyone know as soon as the decision has been made. As usual, keep watching this space for updates.

I'd also like to announce a new partnership here behind the scenes. We here at GPF have joined forces with the awesome folks over at 'N'Toonz to offer exclusive, officially licensed GPF sculpted figurines! The figurines are hand-crafted with polymer clay and stand approximately 6" (15.24 cm) tall. The detail is incredible. The photos above are of a Nick and Ki figurine my wife had commissioned for me for my birthday, based on a sketch in my PREMIUM-exclusive sketchbook. And let me tell you, guys, this thing is just amazing. So amazing, in fact, that I immediately contacted the 'N'Toonz folks to strike up a deal. Each figurine comes with a letter of authenticity signed by both me and the artist. The artist will create sculptures based on virtually any GPF image, meaning any character and pose from any GPF strip, from the books, or from anywhere on the site. He'll also create custom figures, given the appropriate reference images and a detailed description. Make sure to check out their site (and let me know if you order one; I'd love to know what you've ordered!).

I also have a special announcement for our loyal PREMIUM subscribers: There's a brand new "rumor" in the Rumor Mill, where you can take a sneak peek at the Next Big Thing coming down the GPF pipe. If you're not a subscriber, you can easily become one by going here, or you can just wait with agonizing patience until we finally announce it to the world at large. (As the old slogan goes, membership has its privileges. ;) I'm exceptionally proud of this little project, and hope our PREMIEES who see it will understand why. :D