In commemoration of our recently-announced Ultimate Pimp My Bookcart contest, this week we are re-running the original 4 strips that started it all. Enjoy! Again!

In the old days people found out about comic strips by opening up their newspapers. These days a friend or coworker sends them a link. You, our readers, have been absolutely fantastic about evangelizing Unshelved in this way. So much so that Gene and I have decided to make it A Fun Thing.

Today we’re launching the 2010 Unshelved Membership Drive. From today through the end of September, if you can get seven (7) new people to subscribe to Unshelved we’ll send you a thank-you postcard with a character of your choice drawn by Bill, and signed by Bill and Gene, suitable for hanging in your workplace, as seen below:

Here’s how it works:

1. Find seven people who do not already subscribe to Unshelved by email, RSS, or Facebook
2. Get them to subscribe to Unshelved by email, RSS, or Facebook
3. Email Jana and tell her your name, your mailing address, and which character you’d like Bill to draw. Optionally, tell her the email addresses of the people you signed up and we’ll send them a friendly welcome message (we won’t otherwise use, save, sell, or share their addresses)
4. We won’t check up on you. This is all done by the honor system. We trust you.
5. Wait for your awesome postcard in the mail!
6. You get a new postcard for every seven people, so keep spreading the love!

Here are some hints:

• Don’t limit yourself to Library People. It’s all about the sense of humor. Unshelved is enjoyed by thousands of snarky civilians every day.
• Use our search engine to find a strip that you think they’d love.
• Print out strips and post them with a sign saying, “Ask me how!”
• Tweet about us! Blog about us! Skywrite about us!

Thanks in advance for spreading the love.