#592; A Strategic Retreat

Comic Transcripts

PHOEBE: I want to become a recluse.
I want to suddenly and mysteriously wall myself off from the world.
Everyone will WONDER: “What’s HAPPENED to her since her disappearance? What’s she been UP to?”
But nobody will know.

PHOEBE: People will become OBSESSED with the lack of information. They’ll try to hunt me down, and write BOOKS about how they got OH SO CLOSE.
MIKE: So you’ll never talk to the public again?
PHOEBE: Oh, I’ll grant an interview once a decade or so. But each appearance will only DEEPEN the enigma.

PHOEBE: For I’ll reveal the strange principles I live by! I’ll make cryptic references to half-completed masterpieces!
By playing hard to get, I’ll become a LEGEND–in a way I NEVER could by shoving myself in people’s faces and letting them see my flaws!

MIKE: But why would anyone CARE that much about you? You’d have to capture the people’s ATTENTION first.
PHOEBE: First I will ASSASSINATE A KING.

#592; A Strategic Retreat transcribed by in

Bolted! games have been shipping to backers over the last couple of weeks! The non-US orders are (mostly) done and some folks have been reporting receiving them already!

@davidmalki.com My game arrived today!! It looks gorgeous 🙂 Hope you are well 🙂

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— Lar deSouza (@lartist.bsky.social) April 2, 2026 at 2:52 PM

My US inventory of games is now in-country, but still being staged at the fulfillment centers. It’s being distributed to regional warehouses, so the actual shipping to backers happens more efficiently. I hope the bulk of US shipping will start next week.

These are what the cartons (and games) look like!

bolted! games BOLTED! GAMES (pounding the table) B O L T E D ! G A M E S

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— david malki ! (@davidmalki.com) April 3, 2026 at 10:37 AM

I am also waiting on the bonus cards to be finished printing! I ended up needing many more of those than I had anticipated, so I decided to have the game factory print those too, for perfect matching with the base game cards.

Most people will be receiving two separate mailings: the game itself, and “anything else” (bonus cards and/or add-ons) which will be sent by me personally.

As of today, 86% of backers have completed their surveys so far! That’s pretty good, but it’s not everyone. I know YOU PERSONALLY have already completed YOURS though, so no worries!!

We have now moved OFF of Kickstarter and ONTO BackerKit for any new orders. You can bundle a game with basically anything else I sell on that there website, it’s pretty nuts!