The Life In Hell 2008 Fun Calendar

I tried to order the Life In Hell 2008 Fun Calendar from Amazon.com several weeks ago. I was told that while it had been released on October 2, 2007, it was currently backordered, and would not be available for several weeks. Today I received notice that it was not available at all.

That's just great. So instead of spending the intervening weeks looking for the calendar from an alternate source, now I have waited to the point that it may not be available anywhere anymore.

Life In Hell, in case you're not familiar with it, is a weekly comic strip drawn by Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons. Life In Hell preceded The Simpsons by several years, and The Simpsons are basically humanized, toned-down versions of his Life In Hell rabbits, who have occasionally made momentary cameos on the TV show.

I have a long history with this calendar. Since I don't live in an area where the Life In Hell weekly strip is published, the calendars and the books are my only way of accessing Life In Hell on paper. Eight years ago my search for the calendar led me to Allison Hanna's Life In Hell fanpage. A few years later, after Allison's bulletin board page had been "acquired" by Yahoo in a manner which stole control of the site from her and the site was subsequently infested by spammers and spam-bots, I received a copy of the calendar from the personal stash of a person at Bongo Comics in exchange for working to get the Life In Hell Yahoo fanpage rebooted as a moderated, spam free-version. (I am one of the moderators. Allison is the site owner and primary moderator.)

I have bought this calendar from Waldenbooks, from mall kiosks, from Amazon, from Browntrout, and from Calendars.com. I have chased it all over the internet. I'm currently seeing release dates ranging from October 2 through November 28, but I'm not seeing any retailer who is saying "I have this calendar and will sell you a copy." I've posted a message at the Life In Hell Yahoo site requesting information. Maybe this year I won't be able to get one. Who knows?

UPDATE, 11/26/07: From my contact at Acme Features Syndicate:

I am in the process of finding out who else is distributing the calendar and will post the info just as soon as I receive it. The irony is that we have THOUSANDS of calendars in a warehouse - just sitting there!!!

By the way, I have modified some of the settings on the Life In Hell Yahoo Group so you don't need to be a member to read the messages that are posted there. But if you are interested in Life In Hell, please sign up for the group. Mention that you read about it here!

UPDATE 11/27/07: From the same contact:

Great News!!! A big order of calendars shipped to Amazon yesterday - so they should be available soon!! Thanks for your patience!!!

Hooray! Now, I'd better make sure I get myself a copy!

UPDATE 12/1/07: Amazon is finally selling these calendars for real!