If you backed the Planet Mercenary role playing game on Kickstarter, your rewards (books, cards, dice, tokens, etc) are on their way. Many of you have already gotten packages, but many more of you are waiting on things that are still stacked at the Hypernode Media shipping center awaiting their turn in the “shipping and handling” portion of this process.
It’s a complex process, and Sandra is running it brilliantly. A decade ago we ran things like this with the help of an ad-hoc team of volunteers.
These days we have a warehouse¹ and a press-ganged team of minors². The biggest limiting factor is that we’re shipping in the summer, and the warehouse is not air-conditioned. Shipping days begin at 8am, and end by noon, just before the team begins dripping sweat onto the merchandise.
My role in this is pretty simple: stay out of the way, and make comics. I’m leaving for four weeks of travel on July 26th, and must fill the buffer with at least five weeks of comics by that time, so while Sandra and her crew endure the heat and heavy lifting, I’m enjoying the A/C and my collection of art supplies³.
It is not fair, and I do feel a bit guilty about it, but it’s the only way through.
On that note, today is Friday, and I need to create an entire week of comics between now and late Saturday night, so it’s time for me to go to work…
¹ The warehouse costs almost twice as much per month as our first house did. Running a business is expensive.
² It’s not entirely comprised of minors, and everybody is paid at least minimum wage, with all of the accompanying paperwork. Again, running a business is expensive.
³ Sometimes I draw on the couch in front of the TV, enhancing that air-conditioned, seated feeling of guilt.
