Power of subscription

It occurred to me today that I can use the extra forum of the message that accompanies the daily cartoon email that I send to members (subscribers) to explain potentially confusing comics. Tomorrow's cartoon features a reference to a Rolling Stones song that not everyone may pick up on. People who just check out the site might not get the joke, but if you have signed up for a (FREE!!!) membership, you'll get instructions on how to figure it out. I've learned that some people don't realize that one can sign up for free and it'll get them the cartoon every day via email. I'm in the process of learning how to edit the site myself, and when I'm proficient at that, there'll be some changes to tell people they can sign up for free, with no strings, no need to tell us your age, shoe size, hobby proclivities or birth date (although if you include your birthday when you sign up, you may get a birthday wish at some point). I originally conceived of the site as bursting forth full grown at the beginning, with maybe a major overhaul every few years, but now I'd like to make small tweaks on a pretty regular basis. This does, of course, run counter to my original plan of just drawing cartoons and shipping merchandise with as little other work as possible, but hey! things change.

I like doing cartoons that not everyone may get sometimes. I did one a few months ago about two seagulls meeting in a bar which featured a post-punchline in French. I didn't translate it for anyone. One person said that a woman in her office spoke French, so they all enjoyed it. Another person looked it up online (the internet can make almost any reference decipherable, unless it's just a bad cartoon). The joke worked fine without knowing what the gull said, but her French was kind of an extra gift for those who cared or wanted to figure it out.

Speaking of bad comics, there's a website, www.comicsidontunderstand.com, that deals with those cartoons that one or another person just doesn't get. I look forward to appearing on the site--not because I hope to do a strip that can't be understood, but because it's free advertising. Feel free to submit any QlownTown strips that you find confusing--I won't mind. There's also an "Ewww!" award for icky cartoons at Comics I Don't Understand, and I suppose my "muscle shirt made of real muscles" cartoon could've been submitted for that.

By the way, anyone who downloaded the July calendar from the FREE page on the QlownTown website may have noticed that yesterday was Hammock Day. Hope you took some time to hang around in one.