Well, we said the special collected edition of Callithump! #1 would be shipping in June, and here it is July already... Sorry about that! I’m afraid we were overly optimistic about how long it would take to settle into our new place. Our Callithump! gear didn’t even get unpacked until just a couple weeks ago! Plus, for the cover we’re doing a 3-color screen print, something we’ve never done before. It’s looking just lovely but it’s a bit of a technical challenge.

Anyway, enough of the lame excuses! If you’ve pre-ordered issue #1, you’ll be getting a special treat in the mail shortly, just to say “Thanks for ordering, sorry we’re slow.”

If you haven’t ordered yet, there’s still time to get in on the insanely low pre-oder price! I’m not sure we’ll even break even at the current price, so take advantage of us while you can! Buy now!

In the classic South Park episode, “Simpson’s Already Did It,” Butters tries to come up with an original idea that hasn’t been done on The Simpsons. The challenge drives him insane, and he starts perceiving the entire world as if it were a Simpsons episode. Ultimately, in a beautifully postmodern moment, Butters realizes that the episode’s sub-plot was also lifted from a Simpson’s episode. Mr. Garrison points out that The Simpsons have been around forever, so of course they’ve already done everything. And even they weren’t original. The Simpsons got their idea from and episode of the Twilight Zone. What Mr. Garrison doesn’t mention is that even the Twilight Zone episode wasn’t original. It was cribbing from Theodore Sturgeon’s short story, The Microcosmic God. Watch the episode here.

I often have “Butters moments,” where I’ve hatched a plot only to find out that someone else has already done it. Case in point, Busy Beaver’s Button-o-Matic. They’ve been vending art buttons in capsule vending machines since 2002! They’re much smarter about it than we are, too. They actually have groups of different artists create annual series of buttons (instead of having one lonely person design 500 different buttons by himself!).

I didn’t know about Button-o-Matic when we did Callithump! Totally Buttons. What do I do now that I do?

I think most creative types are like Butters. We persue an idea just as long as we think it’s original, but as soon as we learn that someone else did it, we abandon it. Where did we get the idea that this is the way it should be?

Currently, there are 420 episodes of The Simpsons. That’s enough to use up every major and most minor plots there are. But that’s just one TV show. There are currently more than 6.7 billion people on the planet. Many of them are more intelligent, creative and talented than you and I are. All of these people have ancestors going back many millenia who have also been making stuff. What are the chances that any idea is original?

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t strive for originality. By some miracle it still happens, and the world becomes a more interesting place.

However, to shut off your creativity just because someone else did something like what you were going to do? That’s just silly and counterproductive. As Isaac Newton said, “If I have seen a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.” There’s much to be learned from following in other’s footsteps. Even if you don’t get bragging rights, you’ll still make discoveries and grow as an artist.

Instead of abandoning a project because someone else has already done it, I try to ask, “Can I bring anything new to this idea?”

Well, in comparison to Button-o-Matic... I, er, um.... well.... we’re cheaper! 25 cents instead of 50. I guess that’s something. And our buttons are smaller, so there’s that too. But more importantly, you can only get the buttons through the Button-o-Matic vending machines, and those are only in New York and Chicago. So we’re bringing access to art buttons to an area that didn’t have it before.

Maybe the Simpsons did it because it was a good idea that other people should pick up on! Maybe you should start your own “art gallery on buttons in a capsule vending machine” today! It’s fun, easy and affordable. You can find used vending machines for cheap on eBay, and button makers are widely available on the Web. Spring for a decent one, though. Cheap ones just aren’t worth it, and once you have a good button maker, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it! (BTW, if you’re a friend of ours, you have a standing invite to come over and use ours!)