That is the only decent excuse you would have to not go to TCAF this weekend. TCAF is great and it is no BS just straight up about comics. Don’t expect so see anybody dressed up like Captain Hello Darth Pony Fett or whatever, just expect to be around a bunch of people who are hella into readin and makin some dang COMICS.

We’re haulin’ a bunch of books and loot and FRIENDS so come say howdy! Here is our friend list:

Comeau, Joey
Clark, Anthony
Diaz, Arron
Gran, Meredith
Green, KC
Hastings, Christopher
Horne, Emily
Jacques, Jeph
Leth, Kate
Logan, Sam
Malki !, David
Meekins, Marlo
North, Ryan
Rosenberg, Jon

Andrew Hussie is also gonna be up in that piece but due to the quantity and earnestness of his beloved Homestucks he will have specific signing times. You will be able to purchase his stuff at our table upstairs and get it signed at the special signing place during signing times if you get a ticket. Come early if you’re into that!

Sadly, Jeffrey Rowland cannot make it to TCAF this weekend as he is typing this from beneath a fallen pillar. He is in a great deal of pain but must wait until the two behemoth nemeses finish doing battle before it will be safe for rescue crews to enter the Great Hall.

Johnny Wander 2Kawaii shirt, now ALSO in Teal.

And just between us, we’re probably going to release a version in MINT in a few weeks if you’re into that just be patient!

We printed Brando Bird‘s CageDragon shirt in black for Emerald City Comic Con and everybody lost their marbles. One girl just stood there screaming at it for half an hour. So now it’s available for you too!

Not much is known about the Mechanical Penguins except that they are a team and they are quite good, and that they are from Boxer Hockey…

And if you hadn’t heard, the new Gunshow Book dropped this week and it’s called RAD TATS. It so jam-packed with japes and laffs that we had to bribe the customs agent just to let it across the border.

That’s that, you’re free to put your sweat pants on and just sit there and watch whatever Netflix suggests you until Monday morning.

But what does makes it feel springy is NEW THINGS! Yuko and Ananth just dumped a BUCKETLOAD of hot, new stuff right in your FACE.

We have some new Homestuck shirts designed by Alexandra Douglass!

And if THAT’S not enough Rosemary designed some cool new cards to teach you about BIRDS.

Still hungry? Kris Straub went and made you a smart-aleck shirt that infuses typography and popculture!

And Rich is actually in the Van right now getting shirts! We’ll announce what they are on our twitter later today!

We are there and we are there with friends! Here are all the friends who will be there with us:

Bird, Brandon
Comeau, Joey
Death, Machine Of
Diaz, Aaron
Gran, Meredith
Hesse, Tyson
Horne, Emily
Jacques, Jeph
KittenTeeth, Tiny
Logan, Sam
Malki !, David
North, Ryan
Rosenberg, Jon
Vasquez, Jhonen
Yates, Chris

Did I miss anybody? Let me know!

What Pumpkin will also be there with Andrew Hussie! And all kinds of other people, take it away Gary.

Jeffrey Rowland will not be there because he has to fill up a hole in the front yard.

The award for Best New Coffee Mug goes to…

The award for Advanced Achievement in Nicolas Cage Related Products goes to…

The award for Achievement in Rad Tude Tee Shirts (Trio) AND Advancements in Swear Word Obfuscation goes to…

The award for Achievement in Badass-Looking Skulls goes to…

And now a word from our sponsor…

Thank you and good afternoon!

Congratulations to Pauline, Laura, Tim, Michelle, and Jessie! It was really hard to choose from all of the excellent entries, thanks to everyone who submitted photos. Check out the gallery of people who won Honorable Mention!

Everyone knows that January is the second worst month of the year after March. March is useless. Go home, March. It’s the last week in January, so let’s do something with it. We’re having a photo contest!

Did you know that if you submit a photo of yourself (or your pet) wearing (or reading or using) any of our products that we will send you $10 off your next order? You didn’t? Aw man, you gotta get in on this party. We also put your picture up in our Gallery Of Cool Dudes so that the whole internet will know how cool you are. Maybe you’ll make some new friends or find your soulmate! Our products are that friggin’ good.

Anyway, back to the contest. Submit a picture between now and midnight on January 31st, and the top brass at TopatoCo will choose the best five. Those five will win Super Rad Prize Packs. What’s in the packs? That’s a surprise! It’s all part of the fun. FUN, I SAY.

We’re looking for the most creative, funny, awesome photos, so get crackin’. Make Mama proud.

EDIT: We want to see the design on the shirt! Show off them torsos.

PRINT BOOKS REACH APEX; EVERYONE CAN STOP NOW

TopatoCo Announces Release of Hyper-Extravagant Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff Hardcover Book

An ostentatiously presented tome dedicated to the worst comic strip ever denotes the end of publishing and the climax of human achievement.

EASTHAMPTON, MA, January 20, 2013 – With its embossed, gold foil-stamped cover, top-quality glossy paper, and impeccable attention to detail, it’s clear that no expense was spared in making Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff. It feels good in your hands: a true work of art, a collector’s dream.

But then you notice something wrong. There’s a stain on the cover. And it is there on purpose. It’s a coffee ring printed onto the cover with gloss laminate.

“I’m really not sure what you call this,” says TopatoCo founder and CEO Jeffrey Rowland. “There’s probably a German word for it, but I’m afraid to look it up.”

This book, the debut effort by cult cartoonist Dave Strider, was realized with the help of a dedicated team of experienced artists. KC Green (gunshowcomic.com), John Keogh (lucid-tv.com), and David Malki ! (wondermark.com) served as designers. Homestuck creator Andrew Hussie (mspaintadventures.com) served as consultant.

“This book means so much to me because it means that no more books have to be made after this,” says Hussie. “There can just stop being books forever. Now writers and artists everywhere can get on with their lives.”

Since the days of Gutenberg, publishers have tried to marry form with content in pleasing and impressive ways. And while there have been fancy books, and there have been bad books, never before in the history of the codex have the two been mismatched in so dramatic and pointless a fashion. Like a wrench torquing a bolt too hard and shearing off its head, so too does Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff completely and irrevocably break the notion of the printed book.

The online comic strip “Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff” follows a handful of friends who get up to nonsensical hijinks. This is in the rare cases when it makes any sense at all. It is universally acknowledged as the worst comic strip ever created.

The book Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff lavishly presents the comic’s entire run in a treatment worthy of the highest masters of the form. It contains a completely gratuitous 4-page centerfold reading simply “centaurfold” in bright pink type.

“The printing company we used was utterly convinced that we, as designers, didn’t know what in the world we were doing,” says Malki. “The proof sheet listing supposed ‘errors’ in the book’s layout ran five pages long. I had to initial each one saying, ‘Yes, that’s OK. Yes, that’s OK. Yes, that’s OK, trust us.’”

Scattered throughout the book are perforated business-reply cards taking the form of irredeemable Subway coupons (a first for comic strip collections). Each copy of the book also comes with a “travel version” (a removable poster of all the book’s pages in grid format); a custom commemorative coin (randomly chosen from 4 designs struck); an oversized plastic paperclip imprinted with the word “paperclop”; and an animated lenticular bookmark. Bound into the spine is a red ribbon approximately three feet long, and if you scratch the nacho chip sticker on the back cover, it smells faintly of pizza. (The hologram sticker of Tony Hawk smells only of chemicals.)

“That decisions such as how best to misspell the book’s title and how often should the reader need to destroy parts of the book have been made with utmost seriousness, backed up with significant financial investment, is potent evidence for humanity having finally reached the end of its long journey,” says Keogh.

Clearly bothered, Rowland mumbled nervously “If people don’t buy this thing, we’re finished. I’ll be filling out the Subway employment application that this book also comes with.”

Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff author Dave Strider, however, does not share the same concerns: “You’d have to be a f*ckin’ idiot to buy this book.”

TopatoCo is the United States’ third-largest publisher of independent comics products. Based in Easthampton, Massachusetts, TopatoCo creates books, apparel, gift items, and novelties for over fifty of the world’s most popular web-based creators.

Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff is on sale exclusively through TopatoCo.com. The deluxe hardcover edition is limited to one print run only.

10.25” x 6.625” Prestige Format hardcover. 184 pages. $44.00.

ISBN-13: 978-1-936561-03-2

For a gallery of pictures of the book that ended publishing, visit: topatoco.com/sweetbro and scroll to the bottom.