Fun for all ages, races, genders and stages of undress!

Indeed! Free domestic shipping on purchases made at the Cool Jerk store until Jan. 1, 2011! So if you’ve been on the fence about adding some Cool Jerk books to your library or maybe have some holiday shopping to wrap up, NOW’S THE TIME!

(Sorry, my foreign friends — international shipping rates still apply!)

By popular request. (Will Puppy be the new Gyros girl?)

I just shipped a book order out this weekend. Not terribly newsworthy in and of itself, and normally not worth mentioning in my blog, but this a little different. It was to Greece.

A few years ago at San Diego Comic-Con, I met a fellow named Dimitris Sakaridis. He came up to my table and checked out my comic. Either he liked what he saw or my mind-controlling brainwave emitter worked, because he bought a copy of Hodabeast. While I was signing it off to him, he signed up for my weekly e-mailer.

When Hodabeast was distributed via Diamond in 2008, I spotted an online recommendation from Greece. It was in Greek, but I used Babelfish to “translate” it:

COOL JERK VOLUME 1: HODABEAST (Hornco Press – p285) Only that I know for this comic he is that editor, Dimitris [Sakaridis] it worships him. (Unless I tangle him with some other… Hopefully not). That means that exist enough probabilities it is really good. Judge better alone you. (Editor’s Note: No, you do not tangle him. COOL JERK is his exceptionally entertainer, astute comic strip and author, Paul Horn, which I [personally] knew in San Diego, it is a horribly cool type – and by no means jerk. Buy this comic!)

So this week I got an order from Dimitris, with these strict instructions: “Please, please, please, could you make it “to Dimitris – a real cool jerk!”? Thanks!” Due to a PayPal snafu (my fault), I didn’t have an option for overseas shipping & handling (i.e. $0), so I essentially made about $2 on the sale. But no worries. I let Dimitris know his book was on its way. He replied shortly afterward:

Hey Paul!

Thanks for the heads up. I’m actually trying to promote Cool Jerk to everyone I know here, since 2007. I met you briefly that year in San Diego Comic Con. You were actually the first exhibitor/creator I met on preview night and I’ve always been sorta emotionally attached to your strip. It being really cool and well made helps a lot!

I’ll do my best to convince other people here to order your books. Fix the shipping charge thing soon.

Best wishes
Dimitris

P.S.: Seriously, I feel bad about the no shipping thing. If I don’t manage to get more people to order your books, I’ll order a few more myself and start giving them away to those I love as gifts.

Nice guy, that Dimitris. People like him make the world a smaller place. And to all of you readers from outside the U.S., I fixed that shipping glitch so YOU’LL HAVE TO PONY UP SOME EUROS LIKE EVERYONE ELSE!

EPILOGUE: I’ve learned Dimitris is a reviewer and one of the head honchos at Comicdom, Greece’s premier comics news site. Also, he’s spearheading Greece’s only comic convention, ComicdomCon. If your travels take you to the birthplace of Heracles, Pythagoras and the Olympics, do what you can to help support the industry, won’t you?

San Diego Comic-Con International is this week (July 23-27) and IT SOLD OUT! If you’re one of the lucky quarter-million who’ll be there, here’s the low-down:

&#149 Debuting at SDCCI: the SECOND Cool Jerk collected edition Chickadoowa! OMG! This is the good stuff, Maynard! Fresh off the presses, Chickadoowa contains more than 200 strips, but here’s the kicker: more than A QUARTER of them are ALL NEW and HAVE NEVER BEEN SEEN BY HUMAN EYEBALLS! It’s true! Plus, it contains all the fun extra stuff you’ve come to expect from Hodabeast (Cool Jerk Vol. 1) like sketches, outtakes, director’s commentary and an index! Each book is $12 for hours upon hours of laughter and enjoyment!

&#149 Also making its San Diego debut is my 24-Hour Comic starring Doc Splatter! It’s the printed version of the comic I created last October (24 pages of comic written & drawn in 24 consecutive hours). What’s extra cool is that it directly ties in with Chickadoowa so you’ll HAVE to get one! It’s a mere $2 — less than .09&#162 per page!

&#149 If you’ve been to my table before, good news! Team Cool Jerk is in the exact same spot as the past five years! Here’s a little map I whipped up while you were shaving.

&#149 Team Cool Jerk will also have T-shirts, mini-comics, stickers, button packs, window decals and other effluvia for sale!

&#149 As always, I’m more than happy to junk up your sketchbook with some awesome pencil-and-ink action! Donations to the HornCo Fund are appreciated, of course. =:^)

…but this week’s Cool Jerk will arrive clandestinely sometime this weekend. I spent the better part of today hammering out the minutia of Chickadoowa (Cool Jerk Vol. 2) with the printers. You might be wondering, “Hey! I thought Chickadoowa was at the printers in China for the past month!” Well, that fell through because China didn’t kick down a proper printer’s proof (aka “blue line”). In the time it took for them to get me one, the deadline would be blown. So I’m going local.

RR Donnelley is handling the printing and I’ll have the privilege of being there on-site to check quality pre- and post-press! I’m actually really excited. Yeah it costs more than the China option but the lack of stress is worth it. Thanks to Natasha Lewis (my printing rep) for putting as much importance on this book as I am.

Chickadoowa. San Diego Comic-Con International. Synchronicity.

WonderCon! Cool Jerk will be chillin’ in San Francisco’s Moscone Center South Friday through Sunday, February 22-24, 2008. It’s true, these things I say! I’ll be in the Artists’ Alley, surrounded by creative freaks, cartooning miscreants and their ilk. If you’re within a 1,000-mile radius of the Bay Area, drop everything and swing by to say “Hi!” More importantly, surrender some folding money on reasonably priced Cool Jerk merchandise, including my book Hodabeast, T-shirts of many varieties, Cool Jerk button 5-packs, mini-comics and other goods you can’t possibly live without!

Plus, be the first to see the pre-press proof of the second volume of Cool Jerk, “Chickadoowa!” Like its predecessor, it’s 144 pages of comic genius! And — as always — I’ll have some freebee stuff at the table, too. Hook the kids with a free sample, get ’em addicted, make the sale. That’s what I always say.