Brawl in the Family Ultimate Edition + Dededoll!

The Finish Line! And other little announcements
2 months ago – Wed, Dec 31, 2025 at 09:10:33 AM

Happy New Year! As 2025 wraps up, I'm happy to announce that all packages have been packed and shipped! And Great Mother 'o Spain, what a marathon!

Friendly reminder!

You all should have your books on the way if they haven't reached you yet.

If you need a tracking number, just message me. If you got a duplicate order, please check your email and/or message me--I made this mistake for like 35 people [the US-based set with unsigned book+Waluigi, and the US-based set with book + doll + 2 cards] and I'd appreciate getting them back (I'll cover the return postage). And of course, if your book got blasted up in the mail let me know. These are major purchases and I want to make sure you all get your money's worth.

I will be offering these items for sale while supplies last! They should last me through 2026 at least, probably longer. However, by January 31 2026, I will no longer sell these internationally. I love my intl fans but I think the reasons should be obvious by now! The market is just way too volatile, packages get lost, shipping prices are astronomical with tons of hidden fees, it's just a mess. Tell your non-USA-based buddies to order soon if they want them. That includes Canada!

Annnd...I guess that's it! Thanks for joining me on this crazy journey! It ended up being far more involved than I ever would've guessed, but I'm glad I was able to give these comics one last big blast of life.

Here are some links if you want to keep an eye on what I'm up to:

• BitFinity YouTube - it's been pretty modest lately but you can find all the BitF, BitMusical, and Waluigi stuff here, now and forever
• The new website - work in progress! I'll update it soon. Will have a functioning store with all the goods from this KS. The comic archive is up and working thanks to Comix Cleric
• @MatthewPTaranto on X/Twitter - I'll be posting my submission today for the Mega Man Robot Master contest, and I think it's a remarkably stupid idea so tune in
• BitMusical Patreon - mostly inactive, functioning as a "tip jar" of sorts but has lots of fun behind-the-scenes stuff and occasional updates

Here's to 2026! My first project will be Paper Plates, a Paper Mario themed cookbook that's been a blast to work on and led to me meeting a great new friend with lots of talent. My second project will be revealed in (hopefully) a matter of months, and I'm super-mega-hyped to show it off but it must remain secret for a little longer. I will say it is not BitF, but it is BitF-like. I'll keep you posted!

I appreciate everyone's continued support and understanding as I navigated all this trickiness! Not just the shipping surprises but the mechanics of cobbling together a 780-page book from old PDFs proved far more difficult than I'd ever expected. But through it all you've been patient and sympathetic and for that I'm grateful.

Alrighty, that's it. Have a Happy New Year!

-Matthew

Shipping 95% done, Important Update on International Customs & Import Fees
3 months ago – Tue, Dec 23, 2025 at 08:02:28 PM

Hi everyone! Real quick--if you have a signed book, the signature is on the spine, not the inside! 

I’ve been working around the clock, and I’m down to the final stretch with about 50 shipments left to print and send (and half of those go out tomorrow)!

If yours didn’t arrive in time for Christmas, my sincere apologies, but everything remaining will be mailed out this week.

First and foremost, a huge THANK YOU to everyone who generously chipped in to help with international shipping costs. Those contributions were used exactly as intended and truly made a difference. In the interest of transparency, just under $4,000 was contributed, and every dollar of that has already gone directly toward offsetting unexpected international shipping and carrier fees. I’m incredibly grateful, and it helped soften a very real hit.

As fulfillment ramped up, I gained a much clearer and unfortunately more painful understanding of how international fees actually work. While this first came to light with Canada, it's become clear as more packages get transferred that the issue was not limited there. Many international shipments come with additional charges applied after a package ships, and the frustrating part is that these costs are often not visible or knowable in advance, especially with the variables of current events and just how heavy these books would turn out!

To be clear and avoid confusion going forward, there are two different kinds of costs involved with international orders.

Shipping related fees include postage and carrier handling fees charged by organizations like UPS or USPS. No one should have to worry about these charges!

Government mandated charges include VAT, GST, customs duties, or similar taxes depending on your country. These may affect you!

Despite rising costs of the first category, all shipping related costs on my end have been paid. Nothing is being held, delayed, or rerouted due to shipping fees. However, VAT, GST, and other government mandated import taxes are set by your country, and these are normally paid by the recipient upon delivery. What I misunderstood early on was the scale and scope of how often carrier fees and import charges appear, and how quickly they multiply with hundreds of international orders.

Some countries ended up seeing import-related fees of €40 or more per package depending on location and carrier. Even Canadian fees--which I initially thought I could predict--varied wildly. In one extreme case, a single order incurred a $120 “brokerage” fee, which is more than the book itself (on top of the $30 shipping)! With hundreds of international shipments, this ballooned far beyond what I could reasonably absorb on my own.

Depending on your country, you may see an email or even receive a phone call from your local post office about import taxes, VAT, duties, or other fees going forward. These country charges are typically paid by the recipient if and when they are assessed.

I really am sorry if anyone is stressed by these costs; do not hesitate to reach out to me via email or Kickstarter message if your book seems lost or it gets rejected by customs. International shipping has gotten significantly more complicated and expensive in the last year alone. I’m sorry for all of this and I really genuinely wish we could all share our creations more freely, easily, and cheaply with everyone across the globe. I deeply appreciate everyone’s patience, kindness, and generosity while I worked through it in real time. Check your email and spam, everyone should have a tracking number by now or by the end of the year.

I’ve learned some big and honestly painful lessons about the realities of international shipping and the current global market this month. If you have specific questions about your order or delivery details, you know where to find me.

I know this may be more than some people were expecting. If you’re truly stuck or distressed, please contact me privately via email or PM and I’ll do my best to help where I reasonably can.

Thank you again for sticking with me. I truly appreciate it more than I can say.

-Matthew

Dec Update 3 - Over 80% Done!
3 months ago – Thu, Dec 18, 2025 at 08:18:53 AM

Hi all, it's been a week since I started shipping out books and if my estimates are correct, we're over 4/5 fulfilled (once I get today's packages out)! That's some 1200-1300 orders. My apologies in advance to many of the intl and special orders--you guys are a little later since I've tried to mass-mail batches first to get as many out as possible.

Here's a fun little video of my family(17 people total) all helping out last Friday! Courtesy of Mom recording us. Hopefully this works; the BitF site is on the way out.

Forgive my disheveled appearance. It's been a whirlwind of cardboard, packing tape and bubble wrap over the last few days, but I've lost a few pounds and my arms are a little less noodley!

My goal is to have them alllll sent out by the end of this week. Many of you should've already gotten them by now though so I hope you enjoy!

Lastly but certainly not least-ly, thank you so much for your generous support after last week's update! Many of you pitched in for the Christmas season despite not even ordering internationally and it warmed my little bun heart. I feel like George Bailey at the end of It's a Wonderful Life~ 🎄 You guys have always been so supportive and I'm excited to reveal what's coming soon--Paper Plates plus a secret project--so I hope you'll join me on those future ventures as well!

That's it for now, another update coming next week but until then, enjoy the holidays!

-Matthew

Update & A Humble Ask for Optional International Shipping Help
3 months ago – Fri, Dec 12, 2025 at 08:14:20 AM

The first batch has been packed and shipped out! Still plenty to go but I’ll stay on top of it! The days are long but I have help so it’s not so bad.

I do need to be frank and honest about an issue that’s causing me a lot of stress, however: international shipping has gone up significantly since I set the prices last year. Due to a myriad of factors (holiday season shipping, tariffs, Canadian postal strike, and prices simply shooting up since 2024), nearly every international package has gone up at least $10, and sometimes as much as $60 more in the case of some areas in Australia and Brazil!

The big one is shipping to our friends in Canada though, thanks to the large number of customers there and particularly UPS’s hidden fees. UPS (my cheapest option) prices a book to Canada at $30, so that’s what I listed as the shipping cost when setting up this Kickstarter. However, as I just found out yesterday, once the book ships, they hit you with an additional $27+ “import fee” i.e. “brokerage fee” on top of that initial postage! That means that the 90-or-so Canadian orders for BitF are suddenly going to cost me almost $30 apiece, for a bone-crunching charge of $2500 overall!

Under normal circumstances I might be okay just eating the cost entirely, but there’ve already been a number of very expensive hurdles I’ve dealt with so far. I didn’t raise my prices for tariffs, for instance, which also added thousands more I hadn’t planned for.  Complicating matters further was Canada's postal strike that led to confusion, lost packages, and just more money disappearing in general.

But despite all that, I still don’t think it’d be right to hold your packages hostage by having you pay these extra hidden fees yourself.

So DO NOT WORRY!! All the worldwide backers will still be receiving their package! 

You do not HAVE to do anything. But given the situation, I would greatly appreciate if you could help me cover these additional shipping costs. The heavy weight of the book (making cheaper shipping options unavailable) combined with the distinctive way UPS pulled the rug out from under me has just led to me taking a massive hit given the number of worldwide orders. The world market is just so volatile right now…

Here’s how you can help!

• 1) Go to the preorder store: https://bitf.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders#store
• 2) Click the “Shipping Charge” icon—it used to be a Tip Jar but I repurposed it.
• 3) Add the amount you’d like to help with! It’s in increments of $10, $30, and $50 so you can contribute multiples (i.e. 2 “orders” of $10 if you want to help cover that). Then just check out.

Please keep in mind that these figures are simply what it costs to export a package of this size/weight from the US right now, and whatever isn’t paid, I have to cover.

I’m sorry to throw all this at you guys so late in the process but the cost is just way beyond what I expected. It's unpleasant that I even have to ask this, especially around the holiday season when budgets are tight. But it's even more unpleasant to be slapped with mandatory hidden fees, which is why—again—everyone will receive their package regardless! No cancelations.

PS: In case you missed it, the old brawlinthefamily.com site is on the way out, and the new site for seeing BitF comics is https://bitf.matthewtaranto.com. Thanks to lots of help from the Comix Cleric guys who rebuilt the archive for me! They've got a Kickstarter going to help get their platform off the ground for aspiring webcomic artists.

Thanks for your time! Back to packing I go...

-Matthew

13,200+ pounds of books are at my house!
3 months ago – Wed, Dec 10, 2025 at 01:38:29 PM

HOORAY! After a stressful several months, and coming in a little sooner than I'd feared, the Brawl in the Family: Ultimate Edition hardcovers have finally arrived at my home!

This was taken after 5 of the 10 (!!) pallets were unloaded off the truck.

Here are the boxes in my garage after I'd brought a few of them in.

Our Christmas decor this year includes plenty of 12 x 10 x 7" empty boxes! Sammy the cat is curious about all the bustle.

The books are out and lookin' good! Time to get signing...

Okay! I've already sent out the high-priority orders so I'm going to be working my tooter off to get rest of these bad boys (and their Dededoll companions) out to you guys over the next week. It's gonna be the packing show over at our house as we open, pack, and send out a ton of books. Or 6.5 tons, rather!

If your order did NOT include a Brawl in the Family book, you should have already gotten your Doll/Cards/Waluigi stuff OR it should be on the way already. If not, please message me! Again, this is only for people whose orders did NOT include the big BitF book.

Thank you for your patience! I can't in good conscience promise that everyone will get theirs before Christmas Day but I can promise you this--I'll be doing everything in my power to get as much done as possible as fast as possible. It's the packing show over here at the Taranto house, with family members lending a hand and me working more-or-less around the [freshly-cleaned] clock.

Lastly, you may have noticed the old Brawl in the Family site is kind of...falling apart and glitchy (if it works at all). The good news is that my buddies at Panel Party transferred all the old comics using their new Comix Cleric engine and moved it to my new (under construction) site. So if you want to get your BitF fix from now on, check it out at bitf.matthewtaranto.com And Comix Cleric has their own Kickstarter to help aspiring webcomic artists make comics that can easily be shown and edited across a variety of devices! Check out the video in the link, and you might even hear me at one point...!

I'll send another update when there's more to say, but for now I gotta get moving! I hope you all have Happy Holidays and a Merry Christmas. (v'.')>

-By Matthew