It's that time of years again. Doesn't it seem like people put Christmas decorations up earlier and earlier every year? Place third cliché holiday time intro here. But along with all the other hustle and/or bustle the end of the year is a time for the Web comics and video games communities to rally behind two of our biggest heroes and show the world that we're not as anti-social or greedy as they say we are. Of course, I'm talking about Child's Play.?

For those of you who are new to the Internet, Child's Play is an annual charity event put on by the guys behind Penny-Arcade. Each year as Christmas approaches they hold a series of events to raise money to buy toys and video games for hospitals around the world. It's a good cause and the guys have been making it bigger and bigger every year.

I bring this up now, not only because I think everyone out there should donate, but we're coming up in the closing hours/days of many of the eBay auctions that they have put up to raise money. Some of these are video game related while others are a rare chance to own some of Gabe's artwork, including a rare behind the scenes sketch of a recent comic. There's no other way to get Gabe's stuff people, if you can, you should jump on this opportunity. You'll help a lot of kids and be cooler than me.

I wish there is some way I could afford to offer to match all donations from Digital Strips listeners. I can't, but I will give what I can. You guys should too. They've already raised $50,000 according to the thermometer on their homepage but they're looking to crush the amount raised last year of $605,000. I'm going to be following closely in hopes they make it.