The Topato Corporation, or TopatoCo for short, is a company started in Oklahoma by street-smarts, country boy cartoonist Jeffrey Rowland, who has been making internet comics since 1999, back when online was just some bees carrying 1s and 0s flying back and forth. In about 2004 the government made him he decided to create TopatoCo to legitimize the sale of merchandise related to his internet web-comics. Soon, he became addicted to putting labels on things and handing them to the post office lady.

One day he got fired from his job so he talked with some of his internet cartoonist friends and said “hey I can ship your things for you if you pay me” and his friends decided to give it a shot. This was working fine for a while but then it started getting confusing and the entire process was all discombobulated because while all the t-shirts and stuff were being shipped out of the same big room, all the stores were on separate websites.

In December 2007 Jeffrey asked all his shipping friends if they wanted to put all of their stuff on one site where people could shop for everything and save money by mixing and matching orders with everybody else! Jeffrey’s friends said, “okay let’s give it a shot.” And that’s basically how we got to where we are today. It seems to be working so far!

Nowadays, TopatoCo is in Easthampton, Massachusetts! We have two main goals: pay our artists what they deserve, and make sure the stuff you get is of the highest possible quality. Everything we ship out is carefully inspected by actual people, and we’re here to help you in case anything goes sideways!

We also publish books! Some of your favorite internet artists have been approached by publishers who said, “Your work is so amazing that we would like to publish it for you, and pay you pennies on the dollar for the privilege of selling to your existing audience.” The artists, being clever, said “No thanks I’d rather make a living.” TopatoCo Books are just as nice as any book you can find anywhere, except the person who made it — not Amazon, not Barnes & Noble, not Diamond Distributors, not anyone else who did not make the book — actually earns money from the sale. We know! What a concept.

 

Who or What is a Topato??!

TopatoCo is named after Topato Potato, star of the Magical Adventures in Space animated television series and line of incredibly dangerous toys. Topato's best friend is Sheriff Pony, a rare, blue Space Pony who poops ice cream. Topato is made of poison. In Butter Dimension 360 Topato and Sheriff Pony "spring into action" to have adventures. Butter Dimension 360 only exists because Earth Children and Adult Earth Children casually believe in it. Nearing irrelevance, Topato blackmailed creator Jeffrey Rowland into creating this company as a means of continuing his existence.

You can see some of the people who work at TopatoCo in action at Jeffrey Rowland’s journal comic, Overcompensating. There are cusses on Overcompensating so don’t go there unless you’re old enough to know about cussing.

Where Does the Money Go

That's a very good question. When you buy from TopatoCo, you’re patronizing independent creators who are using the internet to build sustainable careers from their creative work! We think that is a tremendously cool thing and we thank you so much for your support. We’re absolutely doing everything we can to hold up our end of the bargain too, by making great stuff that you will love and making sure everything goes as smoothly as possible with your order.

All of the TopatoCo member artists are directly supported by your purchases. As a company, we keep the lowest commissions in the industry, which means that the largest portion possible of your money goes directly to the creators of the products you buy. We’re pleased to report that quite a few of our artists are now able to concentrate full-time on their creative work, thanks to you and us working together to support them.

We are also committed to environmental and social stewardship. We use recycled materials in packing whenever possible, and source our apparel and other items from US manufacturers whenever possible. We are active in our community, provide jobs to a variety of shady ne’er-do-wells and our CEO rides his bike to work even if it is raining.

 

Contact Info and Common Questions

Chances are, if you have a question that pertains to the status of your order, sizing information, shipping, returns, or exchanges, we have probably already answered it over at our handy-dandy Support Desk Knowledgebase. If you're really having Problems and need to talk to a human being, you can fill out a Support Ticket, and one of our friendly staff members will take a look at the problem for you.

Would you like to know about wholesale ordering for your retail store? This sentence links to information on wholesale orders for your retail store. We can wholesale most items, including shirts and books.

If you have a press, business, or commercial inquiry, please write to Topato [at] topatoco [dot] com. This includes interview requests and promotional inquiries. Please do not write to pitch your Shopify app, he will block you. Sorry.

And if you're interesting in becoming one of our member artists, well, that leads us to...

 

Who Gets to Sell Stuff on TopatoCo?

TopatoCo is exclusively for established, original, independent internet creators with a proven record of solid updates and a considerable existing audience. If you think this is you, give us a holler!