Christmas Giveaway!

My latest book is out just in time for Christmas. To celebrate I'll be giving away five personally signed and dedicated copies of the book to five random contestants. Here's how you enter.

• Comment on this post.
• React, follow, or comment on the Facebook post.
• Like, follow, comment or tag on the Instagram post.

Each action will increase your chance to win. The contest ends tonight at midnight. I'll announce the winners tomorrow. Please be sure to include your name on any comment to this post to ensure your vote is counted. 

If you're not the contest entering type, you can always just buy the book. (You can also purchase the Scripture Power Activity Book or Mission Daze--they, too, make great Christmas gifts to good girls and boys.)

Good luck.

UPDATED: Congratulations to Barbara Howell, Matthew Owen, John Zemp, Kira Thygerson, and Doug Kirby. They are the winners of the Christmas giveaway. 

Leaving the MTC and a Contest Winner

Congratulations, Evan Haglund, you're our contest winner! Please send me your address and I'll ship your book in the mail. And thanks to everyone else who participated. Remember: you can always purchase the book on Amazon!

Now, onto today's strip, it looks like Elder Van Dyke and his MTC companions are finally ready to enter the mission field. Now it's going to get good!

Win a Copy of Mission Daze

I'm still giddy over the publication of Mission Daze (order your copy here). To share my excitement, I'm running a little contest here on the blog. Simply share a mission story (either one of your own or one that's been shared with you) that would be worthy of Elder Van Dyke to this post and you'll be entered into the drawing for the book.

The contest runs until I post my next missionary strip Labor Day Monday. Good luck.

Not the Mansion He was Expecting

Congratulations to Kate, she's the winner of a copy of The A-MAZE-ing Book of Mormon! Kate, please send me an email with your address and the name you'd like me to dedicate the book to and I'll get your prize in the mail right away!

Like Kate, the guy* in today's gag is a winner! Only his reward isn't all he thought it would be. This gag raises an interesting doctrinal question, just what does the Savior's promise of mansions in heaven constitute? Here in the 21st century we have quite a different opinion of what a mansion looks like than the people of 1st century Palestine. To them, anything bigger than a ten by ten single room must have seemed like a mansion.

In the end, I doubt it really matters. One of the vices we're trying to conqueror here on earth is our longing for material things. I suspect no matter how small our mansion in heaven--should we qualify for that reward--it will be sufficient for our needs.

*The guy in today's gag is totally this guy. When I came up with a gag set in heaven, I knew I wanted to honor Kevin Beckstrom's Good Heavens strip--just another one of his many side-projects.

Five Years!

This blog is five years old! To celebrate, I’ve selected my five favorite gags from the 250 plus I’ve published over the years. I’m also giving away another copy of my A-MAZE-ing Book of Mormon, but you’ll have to read to the end of the post to find out how to enter the giveaway.

Number 5

I cheated a little on this one because I’ve never run it on the blog before. It’s from my first book Mormon Life which you can occasionally find deeply clearanced at Deseret Book.

I’m including this in the countdown, in part, because it’s new to the blog. One of the things I am most proud of with this blog is that I’ve managed to provide something new each and every week for five years now. When I started I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to come up with another month’s worth of gags, let alone five years’ worth (to tell the truth, I’m still not sure month to month if I can come up with new stuff).

Number 4

No top five list could be complete without this one. To understand its importance to this blog and this cartoonist, read up on it here,  here, and here.

Needless to say, I fully expect my obituary to mention the fact that I published a pinewood derby gag in the New Era.

Number 3

I love a gag that requires a little thought from my readers. I easily could have gone with another one in this spot, but I think I’m partial to this gag because it celebrates a couple of my favorite Mormon artists.

Number 2

At the time I published this gag, I declared this my favorite gag I’d ever done. I still really like it. I think there is something telling that the mother snowman shaved her carrot nose for the jell-o salad. (I’m a little offended, frankly, that some Mormon intellectual hasn’t written a 10,000-word essay on it.)

Number 1

It’s so elegant and simple. I wish all my stuff was as good as this one.

Now, it’s your turn. Share in the comment section your favorite comic of the week featured on this blog and you’ll be entered into a drawing for a free book. Contest ends the moment I post on Thursday, January 30, 2014.

It's the 500th Post of This Blog!

Today's gag (which I'm awfully fond of) marks the 500th post to this blog. Considering that by my sixth post I was openly wondering if this thing would take, I'm rather proud of that fact.

To celebrate, I'm giving away a signed copy of The A-MAZE-ing Book of Mormon. Just leave a comment to this post and you'll be entered to win. The contest will close Monday morning when I post the 501st time.

UPDATED: g is our winner. Please send me an email at arie@mormoncartoonist.com with your name, address, and the name who you'd like me to sign the book to. Thanks to everyone who participated. 

Contest Winners

Congratulations to Kristen and Karen, their names were drawn out of a hat by my two oldest children and now they have won a copy of the LDS Coloring Book. Please send me an email, ladies, and I'll email you back the instructions for claiming your prize.

Now here's a strip because that's what we typically do on this blog.

Win a Free Copy of the LDS Coloring Book!

Let me give a few more details about the LDS Coloring Book app for the iPad and iPhone.

Last week I mentioned a $2.99 price, the price for the app is actually $1.99. With your purchase of the app, you receive 12 Old Testament pages to color. If you subscribe to the LDS Coloring Book newsletter (look for the banner at the bottom of the app), you'll receive 12 missionary-themed pages to color illustrated by me (look for the Elder Van Dyke cameo appearance). Additionally, you can go to the app's store and purchase 12 New Testament pages (also drawn by me) for another $1.99.

Every month, the app will introduce another 12-page coloring book. Future coloring books include a Book of Mormon-themed book, a Church history-themed book, and an Articles of Faith-themed book (with an extra page thrown in for free!). You can purchase these coloring books individually for $1.99 or you can set up an ongoing subscription for the app and receive each additional coloring book for $0.99 each with the option to cancel at any time. Seeing as how you'd be getting two books for the price of one (with an extra penny to spend on whatever you want), I'd suggest you subscribe. Details on how to subscribe can be found here.

To celebrate the launch of the app, I'm giving away the codes for two free copies of the LDS Coloring Book. Simply leave a comment with this post before Monday, September 26 and you'll be entered to win. I'll draw two names randomly and announce the winners Monday morning.

Good luck!