2018 Stick Tales Calendar

This year's Order of the Stick calendar is now available for pre-order. The theme this time around is Magic Items, with each picture showing characters getting their hands on some classic magic items, cursed and otherwise. Here's a cursed one, the Mirror of Opposition:

The calendar is the same 12" x 12" glossy full color affair as it has been in previous years, but it's also available as a digital edition. The digital edition is great if you just want to see the jokes and look at the art but don't need to actually hang it on your wall.

You can get the print version from Ookoodook and the digital edition from Gumroad.

In both cases, it's important to note that this is a pre-order at this time. The calendars are scheduled to arrive on December 10th at the Ookoodook warehouse and they'll jump into action to mail them out after that. But sometimes stuff gets delayed at the printer, so that date is not a solid promise on our part. It's our best guess. For those who buy digital copies, those will arrive in your email inbox on December 17th, one week later.

OK, now let's talk holiday ornaments and t-shirts. As usual, these are coming from our partners at CafePress, and here's what we've got that's new:

This year's Battle Ornament features Lien and Oona (and Lancer) in a recreation of their first encounter.

For those days when you're feeling like a 12-foot-tall vessel of celestial justice.

For those days when you're...not.

It's important to remember your place in the cosmos...

...and that the grim specter of noogies hangs over us all.

So don't take yourself too seriously.

We also have three new kids' shirts with Saha, Oona, and Sigdi:

And I've also redesigned most of the old kids' shirts to feature the current art designs, because no kid wants to be wearing art from before they were born. Here's three of them:

You can click on any of those images to be brought directly to that design, too.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Q: Why should I pre-order rather than just waiting until the calendar is in stock?
A: Pre-ordering lets me to judge how many copies I should print, and accurately estimating that is what allows me to produce a printed product at all. Even more so than with a book, I tend to order on the low side for calendars, simply because they become outdated very, very quickly. I'll have to place the order in the next few days, after I've seen the first round of sales, and as a result the calendar may very well sell out before it arrives in the warehouse. It happened the year before last! So if you want to be absolutely sure you get one on paper, the only way to do that is to pre-order.

Q: Why is the overseas shipping so expensive?
A: Because overseas postage rates are expensive, and most of the companies you're thinking of that charge less have international warehouses they can ship from, or use bulk rate shippers due to the large volume of products sold. Ookoodook is a very small company that does not have those kinds of resources, so they have to bring them to the post office like everyone else. If the postage is too high for your budget, we suggest purchasing the digital edition, or coordinating with friends near you to ship together.

Q: Why are you delaying the PDFs until the 17th? Why can't I download it today?
A: It's being delayed until the physical calendar is published so that some customers don't have to wait longer than other customers to read the jokes. We don't want some of our customers spoiling the others.

Q: Why would anyone want to pre-order a digital edition?
A: Mostly so they can get it done and not have to worry about remembering to order on the 17th, and also so I can avoid people asking me whether or not I'm releasing it digitally. Feel free to wait until the 17th to order, if you'd prefer. Unlike with physical copies, it doesn't really affect my planning whether or not you pre-order the digital.

Q: Will you be donating any portion of the calendar purchase price to charity this year?
A: Yes! For every calendar pre-ordered before December 7, we'll donate $2 to help the victims of the California wildfires. (We're still deciding which charities to support, but we'll probably pick 3-4 and spit it between them.)

Q: Will there be a holiday ornament and/or t-shirts from CafePress this year?
A: Yes, I'm just running a little late on getting them posted. Check back later today; I'll update this thread when they're available.

Q: Can I get the holiday ornament and the calendar shipped together?
A: No. The ornament and the calendar come from different vendors and cannot be combined in one shipment.

Q: Will there be a comic today?
A: Yes. A little later.

Please Note: Don't clutter this thread asking questions that are already answered in the FAQ above, including questioning/complaining about the overseas shipping rate. Moderators may remove redundant questions or posts. Posters who derail this thread may be asked to stop posting in it.