Posters, Postage, Paper Supply & More, 2023

Greetings once more, Nintendo Force fans! I hope the summer is finding you well, and that you've been able to beat the heat – potentially by enjoying reading an NF issue in the shade! 

And if you've been reading a thicker book, perhaps you've been marking your place with one of the snazzy new Pikmin bookmarks we included alongside the print copies of our latest issue? Their flowers/buds/leaves pop up right out of the top of your book to mark your place. And when you're ready to read again, you simply pluck the Pikmin just like Captain Olimar would do!

That bookmark set, along with the 12 different wall posters also seen above, were made possible thanks to everyone's continued support here on Patreon. I posted just over a year ago about how the Covid-19 pandemic had impacted both the physical magazine industry (through increased prices for the paper supply) and the postal industry (through increased prices for shipping). One year later, those higher prices have not yet gone back down (and probably never will, let's be honest), so I'm once again asking for you to carry on with your NF patronage in order to keep this journey going into our second decade of publishing!

No change from last year, though. This Patreon page isn't going to start charging monthly or anything like that. Patreon will continue to run charges only once for each new issue that's published, and then just one more charge per year beyond that to help cover the increased paper and postage costs, as well as allowing us to keep going with double-sided wall posters and the occasional bonus item with our physical issues.

We're also going to be looking into doing custom cover art for our issues more often, when it makes sense to do so! If you all haven't already fled from the sinking ship that is Twitter (or "X" now, I guess), then you may have seen that the custom-commissioned cover art for our upcoming NF #67 went viral over the weekend! https://twitter.com/ujiidow/status/1684984698924085269 

Nintendo and Sega really do need to make a Mario & Sonic sidescrolling crossover game at some point. That brand partnership is wasted when just held back to Olympics games!

But I digress. 

As with last year, I'll also be sending a big bunch of NF digital issues to all of your email inboxes soon as an extra thank-you bonus. Plus I'll include the PDF version of the Pikmin bookmarks we just sent out with NF #66, so digital-only NF patrons can print their own at home, and everyone else can print extras if you like. (Just make sure to use a fairly thick stock of paper, so the Pikmin's stems don't end up being too floppy.)

Thanks again, NF fans! Make sure to stay hydrated out there. It's hot!

~ Lucas M. Thomas