🚀 go-pugleaf

Okay. The initial response to the "Should we do some shirts?" seems to be
pretty definitely positive, so, I'm gonna go ahead and announce some pseudo-
firm information.

1. I need twenty-two orders to go ahead with the shirts (I'm buying two.)
That means twenty-two _checks_ (or money orders, or bars of gold. First
National Bank of Noj checks will _not_ be accepted) in hand before I can
hand the art to the company and say "Go for it." I'll happily pay out of my
own pocket expenses, if any, over and above the price I'm setting below,
just to get the best possible Superguy shirt out the door, but I can't do
that AND eat the expense of a shirt that I order and nobody sends me a check
for.

2. Barring weird things happening, the shirts will be the highest quality
that the company can provide. I've had bad experiences with fifty/fifty
cheapo shirts in the past, I'm not going to use them again.

3. Again, barring weird things happening, these shirts will have at _least_
four screens. That can mean three inks on the front and one on the back, two
on both, or a four-color image on the front. (If there's a demand for it, we
can even have glow-in-the-dark ink on the shirts; costs just a _little_ more
per shirt, but I'll cover that if the situation warrants.)

4. Pulling a number out of my butt, I'm gonna say that $17 will get you a
shirt. Period. No extra costs for shipping, no extra charges for XXXL sizes,
that's it. I'm positive that I can produce and ship the shirt described in
#2 and #3 for that cost, and if a four-screen, hefty-fabric shirt is
significantly cheaper, then I'll make the shirt better, with glow-in-the-
dark ink, or another screen, or pockets, or something. (As an aside: I'm
planning on using Priority Mail, so if you _don't_ count shipping, these
shirts are gonna cost $14.10.)

5. And now we come to the tricky part; the artwork. This is the problem. As
I said in the last shirt Administrivia announcement, I can't do the
illustration of the characters myself. I'm a pretty darn good graphic
designer, but I never even took figure drawing, and my humans tend to look,
er, somewhat weird (Check out the WWW site's Heroes page if you want to see
an example.) So ... If there's anybody who wants to help out with _that_
aspect of the shirt, I will _gleefully_ accept said help. I'll also accept
suggestions as to who should be on there, what things should look like, how
things should be arranged, and so on. It's not going to be public choice,
though, as I'd rather have a variety of characters on the shirt than the
complete cast of _Radian and Shadebeam_ and no other author's characters,
regardless of the quality of Gary's storyline, but I will take suggestions.

6. Once we get some artwork produced, I'll make it available on the Superguy
Web site and make an announcement on the list itself.

7. And now, if you have seventeen bucks just _burning_ a hole in your
pocket, and you MUST have a shirt just as soon as possible, you can hurry
the process along by sending me a check or money order (or whatever form of
legal currency you like.)(well, let me qualify that; it'll help immensely if
you send American currency.)(And no credit cards.) The sooner I have twenty-
two checks (or the equivalent in shirt orders,) the sooner I'll get shirts
out the door. Once I get fifteen or so checks, I'll set a cut-off date for
shirts so I won't have to wait two weeks for someone who may or may not be
sending a check while I have twenty-two other checks sitting in my drawer.

That, by the way, is important. If you send a check, it _will not_ be cashed
until the day I go to the shirt company and say "Ah wants shirts, suh!"

On the other hand, if you want to wait and see the artwork, that's fine,
too. In that case, you can best hurry things along by finding someone who's
able to do a good Surly Guy in Trenchcoat, Surly Guy in Leather Jacket, and
Surly Guy with Trashcan Lid and threatening him or her a bit.

        My address, for the truly impatient among you, is:

                Rob Furr
                916 W. Trinity Ave., Apt. 10
                Durham, NC 27701

        And now, I'll shaddup.