Believe it or not, dear readers, Girls With Slingshots is turning TEN YEARS OLD this year! Nearly eighteen hundred strips in, it doesn’t feel like it’s been that long!

So to celebrate the strip’s decadeversary, I’m traveling across the US to visit readers in some of the places that I never get to visit (because apparently I like celebrating ten years of hard work with more hard work)! We’re calling it the Slingshot Across America Tour.

A year or two ago, I asked y’all to supply me with a list of places to include in my first cross-country tour, and now I’m finally putting my car where my mouth is (or something?) and plotting my route. I even bought a wall-sized map!

I’ll be starting this endeavor July 5th and ending it around August 14th. I’ll be doing signings in all of the places marked in hot pink, and stopping to rest at the places in orange. Lime green indicates a convention (I'll be flying to the northeast for Boston Comic Con!), and yellow is still up in the air.

I NEED YOUR HELP!

I’ll need help finding venues for my signings, and I also need help plotting out the second leg of my trip, from Denver to Portland. I’m eyeing Salt Lake City and Boise, but I’ll need to make one or two more stops in between if I want to stay sane. Requests for stops along my Denver-Portland trek are welcome in the comments section of this post!

As for venues, I’m looking for cool comic book shops at each location in pink (and yellow, just in case), but if I can’t find a shop to sign in, I can do less traditional venues. Libraries and colleges are good. Bars have worked out for me in the past, and Jess Fink and I once had the best signing ever at a laser tag place (and yes, EVERYONE played, it was fucking great!). 

Here are my preferences for potential venues:

• easy to get to/park at for locals
• MUST make parking/unloading available and easy for me (I’ll have to schlep a lot of stuff!)
• MUST allow me to sell my own merchandise
• MUST have decent lighting and a fair amount of space
• personal connections with the manager/owner would be a huge plus!

If you have a recommendation for a signing in one of the places I’ll be in (see schedule below), I would love for you to either e-mail me (girlswithslingshots@gmail.com) or mention it in the comment section below! Bonus points if you run your own shop and would like to host me - that’d be ideal!  

FREQUENTLY ASKED Qs

Here are the answers to 90% of the questions I’ve been getting thus far!

Q: “WHAT?? No New England??”

A: I live close enough to New England that I’ve been to most of the places I’ve wanted to have signings in over the past several years. I’m sorry if you’ve missed me in the past! I miss New England a whole bunch, and will be making a separate northeast tour another time. :)

Q: “WHAT?? No Florida??”

A: Fuck no, it adds like three days to my trip! I’m sorry! I tried!! It’s on my list for a future convention, but unless you can shift Florida into to Alabama by this summer, I’m afraid I have to skip it this year.

Q: “WHAT?? No [country that is not the US]??”

A: While you know I LOVE Canada (and will be in Canada a lot this year - check out the schedule to your right!), I don’t want to risk driving merchandise over the border during this trip. My car will be packed with books that I am obviously going to be selling; I’d prefer to make this JUST a US tour, but believe me, if I can do a Canadian tour someday in the future, I will! (I wanna drive to Yellowknife!!)

As for other countries, it is MEGA EXPENSIVE to ship merchandise overseas (as I’m sure you all know), so unfortunately I’ll have to wait until either I’m rich, or some rich person wants to pay for everything for me. If you know a rich person who wants to pay for everything for me, send them my way.

Q: “WHAT?? No [other place you live]??”

A: There are a few places (Seattle, Chicago) that I visit regularly for conventions, or have in the past, that I wish I could include, but this tour is specifically intended to visit those places that I’ve neglected over the years (St. Louis, Ann Arbor, Denver, Dallas). I wish I could visit every place in between, too! But the trip is already a month and a half long, so I’m just hitting the ones I’ve had a lot of requests for.

Q: “Will you be selling GWS stuff?” 

A: Definitely! The latest book (Volume 8) should be out in the next few months, and if all goes well, I’ll have a REALLY big, special new item available by the time I leave for this trip. :) Secrets, secrets!

Q: “How can I help you with your trip?”

A: In so many ways! I need to find really great venues to sign in (see “I NEED YOUR HELP” above), and once we get the venues picked out, I’d love your help spreading the word, especially if you’re local! We’ll get to that part later this spring. :)

I’m gluten intolerant and a lot of these events will run late, so Celiac-safe restaurant recommendations (that are open late AND are nearby the venues) would be greatly appreciated!

I won’t have much time in each city, so while I’m grateful for your knowledge of local attractions, I’ll probably not have time to use them. Just venues, and local food, hotel, and traffic/parking advice, would do me fine!

Q: “Do you have a schedule yet?”

A: I have a tentative schedule. Here it is! It is subject to change, but it’s like, 85% solid.

• 7/5: Pittsburgh, PA
• 7/6: Columbus, OH
• 7/7: Ann Arbor, MI
• 7/8: St. Louis, MO
• 7/9: Madison, WI
• 7/10: Minneapolis, MN
• 7/11: Omaha, NE
• 7/12, 13: Denver, CO
• 7/14-18: driving from Denver to Portand, so probably SLC and Boise; submit your requests in the comments section!
• 7/18, 19, 20: Portland, OR
• 7/23: San Francisco, CA
• 7/24, 25: LA
• 7/26, 27: San Diego, CA for SDCC
• 7/28: Las Vegas, NV
• 7/31: Albuquerque, NM
• 8/2: Dallas, TX
• 8/3: Austin, TX signing? (Submit requests in the comment section!)
• 8/4, 5, 6: New Orleans signing? (Submit requests in the comment section!)
• 8/8-8/10: Boston Comic Con
• 8/12: Atlanta, GA
• 8/13: Asheville, NC (signing at Comic Envy)

There will be much more information coming as plans solidify, so keep an eye on this space! I can't wait to come visit so many of you!