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DRAGON'S BREATH The Official Newsletter of Heroes and Dragons http://www.heroesanddragons.com ________________________________________________________________ From: [email protected] v7.9: November 28, 2001 ________________________________________________________________ CONTENTS: >> An Eventful Week >> Personnel Dept.: Farewell to Brett Lord >sniff< >> New H&D Web Site for 2002 >> Draw Batman, Save 10% on DARK KNIGHT STRIKES AGAIN >> A Note about Mail-Order Subscriptions >> Call for Work >> "Increased Energy Levels" Junk Mail >> Lost & Found (With a Reward): Help Us Find a Missing Dog >> New at Heroesanddragons.com This Week: Why It Works the Way It Does ________________________________________________________________ >> AN EVENTFUL WEEK ________________________________________________________________ Hello again, everyone! There's a *lot* going on at the Dragon this week. Having sent out the previous issue of DRAGON'S BREATH on the day before Thanksgiving, I had planned to skip this week's issue and get back to our regular schedule this coming weekend. But there are *way* too many developments for me to make you wait until Sunday -- so let's jump in feet-first, shall we? >> PERSONNEL DEPARTMENT: FAREWELL TO BRETT LORD >sniff< ________________________________________________________________ You read it right. We're saying good-bye to long-time friend and co-worker Brett Lord this week. Brett, along with his wife and two children, is moving to Kissimmee, Florida as a general manager for Coliseum of Comics. Coliseum is a great chain in central Florida, and we wish Brett all the best. Brett's been with the Dragon since 1994, when he was an employee (and eventual manager) of our now-defunct "North Store" in Irmo, South Carolina. From there he moved to our central location in Boozer Shopping Center, then known as the "South Store." In late 1996, the South Store became the focal point for a company reorganization, as the other locations merged into a new, larger location -- known as the "Mega-Store." Brett served as general manager of the Mega-Store until we began to diversify, hiring new staff members with management specialties to help run an ever-growing company. At that point, Brett became our chief financial officer -- paying bills, making sure the paychecks were cut on time, hassling the boss about benefits and health plans, and generally refusing to let us buy things we wanted for our departments. During his time here, Brett made a lot of friends in the H&D community. He hired me (twice!) -- as well as David, Chad, and Matt G. We'll miss him -- but we wish him all the best at Coliseum! Beez'm skeez'm, Brett. ____________________________________________ A COUPLE OF RELATED NOTES ____________________________________________ We've deactivated the e-mail account [email protected]. Anything you would have addressed to Brett should now come to our central e-mail address, [email protected]. If you have good-bye wishes or other messages for Brett himself, send those to [email protected], too. I'll make sure they get to him. And no, we will not be hiring a replacement for Brett. Instead, we'll be absorbing his duties into other departments and outsourcing them as necessary to other agencies. However, we *do* have a part-time position coming available in another department. Check out the "Call for Work" section of this newsletter for more details. >> NEW H&D WEB SITE FOR 2002 ________________________________________________________________ On a happier note, I've finally finished the long-promised redesign of heroesanddragons.com! You'll still find us at the same URL -- http://www.heroesanddragons.com -- but there have been a lot of changes to the Heroes and Dragons web site this week. For starters, we've removed the "Intro" page with the spinning logo. Now you can access the home page directly by typing www.heroesanddragons.com into your browser. If you have the old home page (http://www.heroesanddragons.com/entrance.htm) bookmarked, don't worry -- it still exists and will automatically redirect you to the current home page. As you'll notice, we've completely redesigned the site. The navigation is clearer and easier to use than ever before. You can now access any of our site's eight major sections from *anywhere* within the site. If you've browsed deep into a directory to read old interviews or articles, you can get back to "New This Week" with a single click of your mouse! Even more exciting, we've added lots of new features to the site. Some have been in development for a long time, just waiting for a major site overhaul that would allow us to implement them. And many are the direct result of customer suggestions -- so if there's something you'd like to see on the site, please let me know! (If you've helped beta-test any of these new sections or features, please drop me a line sometime this week! I'll be giving credit where credit's due here in the DRAGON'S BREATH, and I fear I'll leave out some of you super-helpful customers who made this possible.) There are far too many changes to list them all in a single issue of DRAGON'S BREATH. Instead, I'll be giving you a "virtual tour" of the new site in the "New at Heroesanddragons.com" section of this newsletter, over the next several weeks. Each week, we'll look at a different section, function, or feature of the web site -- and how you can get the most out of it. This week in "New at Heroesanddragons.com," we'll talk about how the site's arranged and why we chose to go with a frames format instead of full pages. >> DRAW BATMAN, SAVE 10% ON "DARK KNIGHT STRIKES AGAIN" ________________________________________________________________ THE DARK KNIGHT STRIKES AGAIN arrives next Wednesday, and the Comic Book World is abuzz with excitement. I can't remember a more eagerly-anticipated sequel than this, and I'm betting Frank Miller isn't going to let us down. (If he does, he'll never hear the end of it!) DARK KNIGHT STRIKES AGAIN is a three-issue mini-series in the Prestige Format (or Bookshelf or Perfect-Bound Format, depending on when you started reading comics). Each issues is $7.95, and believe me when I say this -- we at the Dragon know just how much a $7.95 comic can hurt your wallet during the holidays! (Oh boy, do we know ... !) So, to help you out, we're offering a way to save 10% on DARK KNIGHT STRIKES AGAIN #1: Draw Batman, save 10%. Really, it's that simple. Draw Batman, bring it to the store with you, and give it to the person at the front register. Your drawing is your own personal coupon for DARK KNIGHT STRIKES AGAIN #1! Here are the rules: -1- You can't draw Batman in the store. That's just no fun. You have to draw him *before* you come and bring the drawing with you. -2- *YOU* have to *DRAW* *BATMAN*. You'd think this would go without saying, but some people just love to be killjoys. This means that (a) you have to be the person who drew Batman; (b) you can't just photocopy a drawing and bring it in; and (c) the drawing must be *of* Batman. -3- Buying multiple copies of DARK KNIGHT STRIKES AGAIN #1? You can save on all of them with a single drawing. However, you must bring a *new* drawing each time you come back to the store for more copies! -4- We reserve the right to post these drawings and use them for promotion. That means your Batman could end up on the web site or on display in the store! >> A NOTE ABOUT MAIL-ORDER SUBSCRIPTIONS ________________________________________________________________ Starting December 1, I'll be normalizing our shipping schedule for mail-order subscriptions. Instead of shipping erratically, depending on the size of your sub, H&D will ship during the first week of every month. During the first few days of the month, you will receive an electronic invoice by e-mail. If your invoice is accurate, don't do a thing. Simply kick back and wait for your package to arrive in the mail. If you have questions, changes, or special requests, e-mail me immediately. I'll take care of the problem or process your request, and we'll ship all mail-order subscriptions out together, before the 10th day of the month. If you don't have a credit card on file, you'll be expected to send payment after receiving your electronic invoice. If for some reason you can't send payment, we will make a second attempt to contact you. If that attempt fails, we'll have no choice but to cancel your subscription. (We take no joy in it, but it must be done!) >> CALL FOR WORK ________________________________________________________________ As someone told me at McDonald's the other week, "Working is good for your mind." And as a customer told me tonight, "Store credit is good for buying toys." Work and store credit: Two great tastes that go great together. Chad is looking for a part-time assistant to help out with new comics on Wednesdays, and possibly at other times during the week. The position is 5 to 8 hours per week, mostly (if not entirely) on Wednesday. Duties include stocking, counting, and inventory, as well as some light lifting. Employees may be called on to perform other jobs, as the discretion of management. The new employee would qualify for a store discount and be paid in store credit. We'll list you on the web site, so you can tell all your friends you're part of the Dragon family. One word of advice: This isn't a job for people who want to see the comics before anyone else in town; you'll be doing more counting than looking! If you're interested, contact Chad at (803) 772-9198. Please be ready to submit a resume, so we can contact you when the hiring decision is made. >> "INCREASED ENERGY LEVELS" JUNK MAIL ________________________________________________________________ Some of you may have received a piece of junk mail from me yesterday with the headline "Increased Energy Levels." If so, please accept my apology. I have *not* sold your e-mail (and will *never* do so), nor have I sold advertising space on our mailing list. The "Increased Energy Levels" e-mail was a mistake. I was experimenting with the configuration of DRAGON'S BREATH on Arrow Mailer, trying to prevent the multiple copies that have been going out. I had temporarily configured the mailing list to accept posts from subscribers and distribute them to everyone on the list. Of course, that was the *very* moment [email protected] decided to send me a note about "Increased Energy Levels." I caught the e-mail and switched off Arrow Mailer before the message went out to everyone, but a handful of you received them at random. I am not spamming you, and I am not hawking dietary products. I promise! >> LOST & FOUND (WITH A REWARD): HELP US FIND A MISSING DOG ________________________________________________________________ Today (Wednesday, November 28) a small black dog was lost from his car in the Boozer Shopping Center parking lot, just outside of Heroes and Dragons headquarters. The dog's owner is a 7-year-old girl who says the dog "looks like Toto from the WIZARD OF OZ." If you have any information, you can reach the owners at these numbers: (803) 892-4568 (803) 788-2814 (803) 353-0772 There is a $500 reward for the return of the dog, so there could be something in it for you -- on top of making a little girl very happy. >> NEW AT HEROESANDDRAGONS.COM THIS WEEK: WHY IT WORKS THE WAY IT DOES ________________________________________________________________ It's all new! There's too much to cover in a single e-mail, so I'll be taking you on a guided tour of the new heroesanddragons.com over the next few weeks. The new site has eight major sections, all accessible from the navigation bar across the top of every page. Those sections (and direct links to them, for those of you who like to bookmark) are listed here: Comic Books for Sale - http://www.heroesanddragons.com/ComicBooksForSale Other Items for Sale - http://www.heroesanddragons.com/OtherItemsForSale (Direct link to our auctions can now be found under these two sections.) New This Week - http://www.heroesanddragons.com/NewThisWeek (This super-popular page has kept the same URL for your bookmarking convenience!) Coming Events - http://www.heroesanddragons.com/ComingEvents (Slightly revised URL.) About Us - http://www.heroesanddragons.com/AboutUs Customer Service - http://www.heroesanddragons.com/CustomerService (Brand-new section!) Subscripton Program - http://www.heroesanddragons.com/SubscriptionProgram (Slightly revised URL.) News & Features - http://www.heroesanddragons.com/NewsFeatures There are two other "main sections" that are *not* accessible from the nav bar across the top of the site. Those sections are: DRAGON'S BREATH - http://www.heroesanddragons.com/DragonsBreath (Same URL, though!) Friends of the Dragon (A page for banner and link exchanges that is still in development. We'll let you know as soon as the URL is finalized and the page is linked to the rest of the site.) The new site relies heavily on frames -- and if you hate frames as much I used to, at least give me a chance to explain! Frames are individual windows that work and interact together to create the look and feel of the whole web page. However, each frame can also function like an independent page -- because it *is* an independent page! This allows you to click on a link in one frame and change the contents of another frame -- while leaving the original frame unchanged. In the new heroesanddragons.com, each page comprises three separate frames -- a top frame (with the logo and nav buttons), a menu frame (on the left), and a content frame (in the center right of the page). When you click on the nav bar (across the top), you go into a certain page of the web site, which you can then navigate using the menu frame on the left. This design allows you to instantly switch views from one frame to another. In effect, you have *three* sets of options to choose from at any one time! As an added bonus, you can move forward, backward, and even sideways in the site with much greater ease. In the "old days," many browsers didn't support frames, and I steered clear of them. Now, however, almost every browser in use supports frames. And if yours doesn't, you can upgrade the latest version for free on the web. So, yes -- it's true. I've sold out and incorporated frames into this version of the site. Next week we'll take a look at the new "Comic Books For Sale" section, and I'll walk you through our ordering process! (If you can't wait, you can view help files via the menu frame at http://www.heroesanddragons.com/ComicBooksForSale!)
--- DRAGON'S BREATH ________________________________________________________________ ABOUT THIS MAILING LIST ________________________________________________________________ DRAGON'S BREATH is written and administered by Scott Simmons for Heroes and Dragons. Send inquiries, corrections, suggestions, or comments to [email protected]. To subscribe to this newsletter, send a blank e-mail to [email protected] with the word "SUBSCRIBE" (no quotes) in the subject line. To be removed, use the word "UNSUBSCRIBE" (no quotes) in the subject line. For a complete list of commands you can use with your DRAGON'S BREATH subscription, send a blank e-mail to [email protected] with the word "HELP" (no quotes) in the subject line. Long URLs may break into multiple lines in some mail readers. Should this occur, please cut and paste the URL in your browser. ________________________________________________________________ CONTACT INFORMATION ________________________________________________________________ >> TELEPHONE (OFFICE) (803) 772-9198 >> TELEPHONE (STORE) (803) 731-HERO (4376) >> TOLL-FREE (ORDERS & PAYMENTS) 1-877-543-HERO (4376) >> FAX NUMBER (803) 772-5010 >> STORE ADDRESS Heroes and Dragons 1563-B Broad River Road Columbia, SC 29210 USA >> E-MAIL ADDRESS [email protected] >> WEB SITE http://www.heroesanddragons.com ________________________________________________________________ DRAGON'S BREATH copyright � 2001 Heroes and Dragons. All rights reserved.