The Christmas ornaments were pretty last-minute this year. We’re hoping to give ourselves much more lead time for the next holiday season. Right now, the ornaments under consideration are Sparky and Blinky with full bodies (not just heads) — Blinky with a scarf, and Sparky with or without a Santa suit. And a third, more limited ornament, for those of you who remember Wilbur the Talking Stomach and his untimely demise — a glittery Wilbur angel, complete with wings. (If we actually produce that one, I might as well retire, because it’s hard to imagine that I will ever achieve anything stranger.)
Anyway, we’re still in the planning stages, so I’m open to requests. What TMW chotchkes and/or ornaments would you be likely to purchase in large quantities and proudly display? (One thing I’m pushing for is a child-safe plush doll, largely because a 19-month old of my acquaintance is quite taken with Sparky.)
…And before some tedious stick-in-the-mud starts whining about “selling out” — the Christmas ornaments this year represented about .00000002% of my 2004 income. I’m working on this stuff because it genuinely amuses me, not because it’s making me rich, ha ha, rich beyond dreams of avarice. Though as I’ve stated before, that’s certainly one of my main goals in life. And I think I’ve clearly chosen the most obvious career path toward that objective. (Astonishingly, I do occasionally get email from readers who berate me for not presenting a conservative or moderate/right point of view — my motivation for this omission, apparently, being the extreme marketability of left-wing cartoons. One thing you learn, doing work in public, is that — well, that this cartoon was not far off the mark.)