Introducing Susan: the Penquisition Tornado Exclusive Retro 51 Rollerball

We are so excited to finally be able to show you the pen that we have been working on for months with Retro 51. We’ve been fans of Retro since the 90s, so it is surreal to have a Tornado tube sitting in front of me with my own website and logo on it.

We chose the name “Susan” for this pen because of the Black-Eyed Susan on it’s top disc: the state flower of Maryland. We also thought the name had a resonance that fit in with the pantheon of Tornado names that came before it, such as Stan and Marco and Betsy and Albert. There was also a push from my three-year-old daughter to name the pen “Flowery”, so that’s become its unofficial nickname.

Richard at Retro 51 did all of the art for this pen based on the concept that we provided him, and it looks absolutely gorgeous. We made sure that the pen conforms to Maryland flag protocol for a flag being hung vertically in terms of the orientation of the top left quadrant of the flag. We are also excited to be offering a matching Rickshaw Solo Pen Sleeve (sold seperately) and we intend to expand the range of Rickshaw products that we carry with this pattern in the future. We are also introducing today our MarylandQT pen rests, available in a variety of colors, and shaped like the state of Maryland. These rests are a great match for your Susan rollerball, or for any other pen you need to set down.

We are launching with 500 pens today, and we are limiting customers to no more than 3 pens each (please be mindful of this) but because we hate the idea of closing off a state flag permanently, we are making this an opened numbered edition. As such, there is no total edition number printed on the pens, and if the pens sell particularly well we will produce another batch in the future.

For every pen sold, Penquisition will donate $3 to the Living Classrooms Foundation, which provides access in the Baltimore and Washington, DC area to more equitable education, workforce development, community safety, and health and wellness opportunities that enable individuals to achieve their aspirations and build safer, stronger, and healthier communities for all.