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3/05/07
Something I've been meaning to mention for the past couple of days, now.
Some of the people who've ordered a book don't, won't, or can't use PayPal, so they've been snail-mailing me the money. And when I receive money for a book, I email the sender to confirm that the letter has arrived safely, usually within a couple of days.
I think everyone's accounted for, but just to be safe: If you mailed me money for a copy of the Templar collection a while ago, and have yet to receive a confirmation email, I never got the letter. Please email me so I can look up our previous exchange and we can figure out what to do. Thanks.
On a lighter note, I'll probably start posting some of the sketches that'll be going in collection pretty soon, just for the heck of it. Some of them date from 2001, so be sure to wear protection when viewing. I'm not responsible for melted eyes.
2/25/07
I've avoided updating for a while, because I hate updating with bad news. But I owe you guys an explanation, so here goes.
The front cover and back cover have been drawn and colored. This is what they look like without text.
The footnotes are finished. As I previously mentioned, the art's been retouched. All that's left to do to get the comic to the printer is choosing/refining the sketch section and compiling the whole mess in InDesign.
Oh, and the ISBN number. Which brings me to my point.
Printing has been pushed back to early/mid-March.
Yeah. I'm not thrilled about it, either. I'm sitting here and staring at a 95% complete book that has nowhere to go.
The story goes like this. One night, not very long ago, I couldn't be bothered to multi-task and I asked my husband to buy the ISBN number for me while I worked on another part of the book. That's what he tried to do.
Now, the people who sell ISBN numbers sell them in packs of ten only. I had no problem with that, since all those numbers would eventually be used. The barcodes were extra, but I told him to click the box for those as well. The last bit was about how fast I could get the numbers. There are three speeds over as ISBN-R-Us: NOW (twenty-four hours), Decent (forty-eight hours) and Excruciatingly Slow (three business weeks). I told him to check the box for the 48-hour turnaround.
Guess which one got checked instead.
Yeah. That was a fun little confirmation email to receive.
Two phonecalls, two emails, and over a week and a half of waiting later, and the ISBN people still haven't contacted us. It's safe to assume I'm fucked.
I really am extraordinarily pissed off about this. Really. But it was an honest mistake, so destroying Matt probably isn't the answer. In the future, I'll just make sure the only person I have to blame for my fuck-ups is myself, because my anger is basically an extinction-level geological event, and that's not really fair to inflict on people.
So, Templar's very first anthology will head to the printer in early/mid March instead of the end of February, despite the fact that it's pretty much done and ready to go. Please don't hate me. I did what I could. Shit just happens sometimes.
On the bright side, I guess this gives me more time to tweak and refine the final product. But I won't be happy while I do it, because I can hear you guys tapping your collective foot.
2/06/07
I've finished re-drawing what needed re-drawing in "The Great Outdoors."
Like I mentioned I was gonna before, I tweaked the art in Templar's first chapter to give the collection a more cohesive look. The faces of the characters changed quite a lot over the course of the chapter, and frankly, some of the old art just plain sucked. I couldn't sell that crap to you guys with a clear conscience, so I went back a fixed what I could.
Feel free to roll your eyes and stuff, because I know I deserve it. But really, see for yourself. Here are some examples. Old shit on the left, new shit on the right.
Some changes are subtle.
Some, not so much. (How this panel slipped by Quality Control, I got NO IDEA. Someone's gettin' fired.)
A lot were simple corrections. Perspective, anatomy, that sort of thing. That hand's been driving me crazy for the better part of a year. (Old version on top, new on the bottom.)
Anal? Yeah, a little bit. But I guess that's just me. Hey, when you guys get your copy, you can put it in your lap, load up the site, and check out what's different on each page! What a great idea for a party game!
Anyway, this was probably the biggest job I had on the move-to-print to-do list. And it's over! What's left? ISBN numbers, footnotes, sketch compilation, and assembling everything for the printer. I'll keep you guys posted. I'm still on-target for an end-of-February deadline to hand it over to Lebonfon.
1/30/07
Yesterday was Harass The Printer Day.
As I've mentioned, I'm going with Lebonfon, a printer in Quebec. They print books for VIZ, if I'm not mistaken, and came highly recommended by Dirk Tiede, who printed his second collection of Paradigm Shift through them.
The site used to be French-only, but it looks like they've got it translated for the stubbornly monoligual anglophones among us, now. If you're curious about what printing something through them yourself might cost, they have a quick quote form you can fill out.
My contact at Lebonfon is a very patient guy named Patrick, who not only provided my quote for the print job, but the specs for printing and other various and sundry answers to obnoxious little questions. The Templar collection will be put together in InDesign, so the files will be in PDF format. 300dpi cmyk spread for the full-color cover, 600dpi single pages for the two-color interior.
I'll be making a new cover image for the collection, too. Better get going on that.
1/29/07
Wow.
I can't believe that worked.
The Templar, Arizona Pre-Order Project raised over $3,000 in thirteen days to finance the offset printing bill for the very first TAZ collection. The money's in the bank, but there's still a lot of work left to do.
This page is now a production journal, kind of. It'll cover the progress from web to print, the commissions, the bumps in the road, and all the tedious little bits that go into making a comic on paper. I can imagine other webcomic creators might want their own comics in print one day, and maybe the project can be useful by showing what needs to be done.
The pre-press production entries will start soon, folks!
