SOS: Save Our Strip

One of my favorite comic strips over the last half decade or so has been Michael Jantze's The Norm. About three months ago, he decided to terminate his syndication contract, but the strip has always enjoyed a strong online following, and reader response was such that his wife, Nicole, came up with a plan: If 4,000 people would donate at least $25, they could relaunch the strip on the web on a subscription basis.

They just need about 1,500 more people to sign up in the next two weeks. If you haven't read The Norm yet, there's a free archive on the site. The strips that are there reflect his strengths as a writer, but let me tell you--they're older material, from the early years, and he's become an even crisper artist since then. I realize it's a bit of a hard sell, but go on and take a look and give the strip a chance, and then see if you think it might be worth $25 for a year's worth of well-crafted humor. (Granted, it's more than you'd pay to read a comic for free at comics.com, but at least twelve times less than what you pay for your morning paper...)