Some of this info is out of date.
Fri Aug 26 '94
This is the second Tom Tomorrow newsletter, and probably the last for a couple of months, as my calendar is rapidly filling up for September and October. I wanted to get some of this info out to all of you before I am too swamped to think about it. As always, if you don't want to be on this list, please email me.
My second book, Tune in Tomorrow, has just been released from St. Martin's Press, and should be in bookstores soon. I'll be doing a slideshow and discussion at some various California and Oregon stores. The schedule so far is as follows:
Thursday, Sept. 8, 7:30: A Clean-Well Lighted Place For Books (SF) Wednesday, Sept. 14, 7:30: The Booksmith (SF) Tuesday, Sept. 20, 7:30: Cody's (Berkeley) Thursday, Sept. 22, 7:30: Keppeler's (Palo Alto) Wednesday, Sept. 28, 7:30: Book Passage (Corte Madera) Wednesday, Oct. 12 (I think -- call to confirm): Hungry Head (Eugene, OR) Thursday, Oct. 13: Powell's (Portland Oregon) -- call for time Thursday, Oct. 27, 7:00: Copperfield Books (Sonoma County)
I'd suggest calling the stores to confirm these dates.
I'm also scheduled to appear on a panel of humorists at the Book Fair in SF in early November with Roy Blount and Merrill Markoe and others. I'll try to at least email out an update of this list next month.
Tune in Tomorrow and my first book Greetings From This Modern World (which just went into a third printing) should be available at most bookstores, but if your local bookstore doesn't have them, ask them to order. Or call St. Martin's directly: 1-800-221-7945.
This Modern World is now accessible on the Internet. I'm doing this for interested readers who live in areas where newspaper editors aren't hip enough to be running the cartoon. Such as CHICAGO. Ahem. (More on Chicago below.) So as not to step on the toes of newspapers which *do* run my cartoon, and pay me to do so, I'm putting up work a month after it appears in print. The URL for my home page on the Well's WWW server is: Ê
http://www.well.com/user/tomorrow
The strip is also being broadcast on cable tv in Chicago, in between public service announcements on a public access channel. I don't have the channel number, but if you're in Chicago, call the Chicago Access Corporation and ask them about it.
Many of you have asked lately:
WHAT'S ALL THIS ABOUT WAFFLES...?
Well, a couple of weeks ago in a Sunday strip, Garry Trudeau asked readers of Doonesbury to choose between two icons (to represent Clinton) which he said had been suggested by his online readers -- a flipping coin or a waffle. Well, as those who keep an eye on rec.arts.comics.strips know, since one of my alert readers posted the information there, This Modern World featured Bill Clinton as Waffle-Man six months ago. My sense was that if Trudeau started using the Waffle icon, I wouldn't be able to use the Waffle-Man character without being suspected of plagiarism, so I did a strip in which Sparky takes two Doonesbury characters hostage and says, "Listen closely, Garry -- I've got an india ink eraser and I know how to use it. Choose the coin and nobody gets hurt." (This strip can be accessed on my Well home page.)
Well, unfortunately Trudeau's reader response was 'overwhelming'in favor of the waffle -- according to a strip which appeared eight days after the first (and if you believe that he works so close to publication that he had time to receive an overwhelming response and get the next strip in print, I've got a bridge to sell you - though the Associated Press took him at his word in an article which made no mention whatsoever of This Modern World - but hey, I'm not BITTER...)
(One thing I should make clear is that I'm not so egomaniacal as to think that Garry Trudeau is stealing my ideas -- the waffle is a pretty obvious symbol for Bill Clinton, after all. And frankly, he'll probably get more use out of the idea anyway. I only do four cartoons a month, after all, and hadn't gotten around to bringing Waffle-Man back since his initial appearance ... )
MISC. INFO
I'm sending this out the night of Friday the 26th, so it will probably be too late, but for those of you in the Bay Area who get this early, I'm scheduled to appear on KQED's Fog City Radio tomorrow morning at about 11:15 or so. (I think it repeats tomorrow evening at some point also.)
I'm also scheduled to be on Jim Hightower's program next Saturday. It's syndicated on AM stations around the country -- I think it's on KGO in San Francisco. That's a call-in show, incidentally.
FINALLY ...
Thanks much to all of you who write ... but I'd like to make one small request. If you have the time, write the paper in which you read TMW, and tell *them* that you enjoy seeing it. I love getting the feedback, but letting the papers know is what keeps me in print.
See you in the funny papers. (Sorry -- couldn't resist.)