That's A Wrap!
about 3 years ago – Wed, Mar 10, 2021 at 11:01:52 AM

Well, a wrap on this part of things anyway. There's still a lot of work to do, but "if" is no longer a part of that equation. In the next 2-3 weeks I will be working with the printer to finalize some details, and finish the cover files for these books (I created the designs, but I need the actual dimensions of the spine now to create the final file to print from). I'll also be working to get us set up with a pledge manager so that anyone that wants to add on items to their pledge can do so, and I can get an overall look at how many of each thing we need to make.

Most importantly though, right now in this moment, my priority is expressing my gratitude to each and every one of you for making this project a success. Especially considering how I bungled the launch, it was a stressful start to the campaign, but seeing how quickly we reached our goal (and beyond) was an incredible and touching validation of the many months I spent working on not only putting these books together, but on the countless hours that went into making the comics themselves.

Some people here and in Discord have mentioned that I have a habit always underestimating the probability of success for the projects I undertake, and perhaps that's true. But many years ago I promised myself to never take what I do for a living for granted. So I prefer to approach these things braced for the possibility disappointment and be pleasantly surprised and deeply appreciative if it turns out that the work I do continues to bring people enjoyment.

When it comes time to make the second volumes of these books, I will be back in full-on "oh gosh, I hope we can make it happen" mode, but for now you all have once again put your support behind me and my work, and I am happily in "let's make this happen" mode. I look forward to getting these books into your hands later this year, and I hope you will enjoy adding these stories and silly pictures I make to your collections.

I'll have more updates for you soon and will keep you informed throughout the whole process from start to finish. For tonight though, from me and my family: Thank you.

Only Four More Days Left!
about 3 years ago – Sat, Feb 27, 2021 at 01:50:46 AM

What Happens Next

We're in the home stretch for the Kickstarter campaign, and I'm excited to hit the finish line!

Once this Kickstarter campaign ends, there will be a short gap period while I get set up with a pledge manager. Once the pledge manager is open, you will be able to add additional items to your order: pin sets, extra stickers, extra copies of books etc. I know there are a lot of people that wanted two of the three books, and so this is the part where you'll add a book to whichever single book you pledged for on Kickstarter.

Then, once that initial wave of pledge manager orders is in, I'll have a good idea of how many books we need to make and we can start printing them. Things are a little quiet for a while during that time, and then once the books start making their way towards their fulfillment centers, you'll be asked to confirm your shipping address and pay for shipping. This means that A) You'll have a little break between pledging for the books and paying for shipping and B) If you might be moving soon, you don't have to worry about it just yet, you'll have plenty of time to update your address later.

As I mentioned in a previous update, we have enough orders from around the world to justify shipping allottments of books to various warehouses in different regions. This lowers the total shipping costs for those backers. However only books ordered during this pre-order period (the Kickstarter campaign + Pledge Manager phase) will qualify.  So if you live overseas, this is the opportunity to save on shipping. If you order a book later, it will ship from the US, along with associated overseas shipping/customs costs which are no fun for anyone.

A Closer Look at CAD 2.0 Volume One

The books for The Starcaster Chronicles and Analog and D-Pad were fairly easy to approach. After all, those are ongoing, narrative stories, and it makes sense to collect them together to be read in order. But what about the rest of the comics I do? As much as I love telling ongoing stories, a lot of the time I just want to make silly jokes about things. 

The Console Wars are a lot of fun to make, but there aren't enough of them to justify a book on their own. Same with The Campaign. Even if I waited until I had enough for a single book, how long would it take before I had enough for a second book? Would I ever? What if I did a book of 100 Console Wars strips, but then only ever created another 5. Do those extra five just get orphaned, never to experience the glory of being printed on paper?

(That is an example only, by the way, I have no intention of stopping the Console War)

In the end it made the most sense to tackle collecting the rest of my comics by stretches of time. For CAD 2.0 Volume 1, the book houses comics from November 2012 (when CAD 1.0 ended), through December of 2014. Volume 2 will start at January 2015 and end in December of either 2016 or 2017, depending on how many pages that ends up being. Nice, neat, chunks of time.

In this way, each volume of CAD 2.0 can house a healthy book's worth of material, and each different category has a home within that, regardless of how many strips there are.

Speaking of categories, rather than simply arranging the comics in the exact order they appeared on the website, I chose to separate them to make the reading experience more coherent. So if you feel like perusing the Console Wars, you can flip right to that section and enjoy Xbones and Pissfours battling out in eternal conflict. Each section also has color coded corners to make flipping right to different chapters even easier. These colors will be consistent throughout future volumes as well.

The next issue to tackle for this books were all of the gaming one-shots. While most are pretty self-explanatory,  a lot of them are topical, and require a bit of context to understand. So in any instance where I felt the game being discussed was not obvious/directly mentioned, or a strip was referencing a particular event that, at the time may have been common knowledge, but eight years later might require a refresher, I've added unobtrusive notes to the bottom of the strip.

This way, decades down the road, anyone curious what the hell I was talking about with a specific strip can perform a quick google for additional context, and it helps the comics function as a sort of historical record/trip down memory lane of what was happening in the industry.

Bookplates, Addons and Reprints, Oh My!
about 3 years ago – Thu, Feb 25, 2021 at 04:34:41 PM

I like to try and strike a balance with these Kickstarter updates; somewhere between "keeping you informed" and "annoying the hell out of you with a ton of update emails."

So in that spirit, I've collected a handful of things to talk about in today's post!

Bookplates

If you've never seen one before, a bookplate is an adhesive label typically applied to the inner cover of a book. Often these are identifying Ex Libris ("from the library of") labels of ownership. They are also useful for authors to provide a signature when it's not possible for them to be in the same location as the books themselves (as is the case here).

The bookplates I'm designing will be unique to each series; I want them to be fun and thematically appropriate additions to the books should you decide to add them.

For example, I approached the Starcaster bookplate using some of the same graphic design found on some of the pages of the book, playing into the idea of it being a document from the Federation Central Archive.

The signed and numbered bookplates will be available in a set of three (one for each book) as a post-campaign add-on for $2. Anyone who pledges for a three book set during the Kickstarter campaign will be eligible to purchase the bookplate set via the pledge manager after the campaign. I'll unveil all three finalized bookplate designs before the end of the campaign.

Add-Ons

There has been some interest expressed in Kickstarter-exclusive add-ons, and while I don't want things to get too out of control, I do like the idea of offering a few unique collectables to the people that helped make this campaign a success.

So I'm excited to announce The Starcaster Chronicles Kickstarter Exclusive Pin Set, available now as an add-on for $9. (I presume you'll see it as an option if you manage your pledge, but this add-on feature is apparently not in full release yet so I'm not 100% on how it works)

The set includes two 1.25" pins; a soft enamel color pin featuring everyone's favorite acid-covered snuggle buddy  and a silver die-struck Federation logo pin, like an Officer might wear on their lapel.

Depending on the feedback/success from this set, I would definitely be open to exploring another thematic pin set or two; perhaps some Console War pins?

Reprints

Finally, since launching this campaign, I've had a fair number of people message me about the possibility of purchasing the original CAD 1.0 book set. The Omnibus set has been sold out for a few years now, and while I feel like we may have sold enough of them to make the chance of sufficient reprint demand unlikely, I am willing to at least explore the option of a small, softcover reprint of those books for anyone that missed out.

Part of me feels nuts for even considering it while still in the middle of this campaign, however if (big if) there were enough interest in a reprint, it would actually be more convenient to tackle it with a short campaign immediately following this, and then just managing the shipping of everything all at once.

The first step is figuring out if there are even enough people out there that still want a physical set of the CAD 1.0 Omnibus to make a reprint campaign possible. The set would be $65 for three softcover books (no slipcase) plus shipping. If this is something you want, you can let me know by sounding off on this poll.

Stretch Goal!
about 3 years ago – Wed, Feb 24, 2021 at 01:29:20 PM

I was trying to get these done as a stretch goal for $80k, but that came and went and I wasn't finished. Then $85k, and that came and went and I wasn't finished. You guys were moving the numbers faster than I could work!

But they're done now, and so if we hit $91,500, I'll include a set of exlusive bookmarks with each Complete Book Set, so you don't lose your place while enjoying these collections!

I've also just about finished the designs for the Signed Bookplates that will be available for these books. These will be offered as a set of 3 for $2. You'll have the opportunity to add these on after the Kickstarter campaign (I'm no longer doing any add-ons within the Kickstarter campaign itself, because I feel like their system isn't clear and I don't have enough control over tracking what's being added here. So everything additional, including adding on solo books, will be done in the post-campaign pledge manager).

Stickers!
about 3 years ago – Wed, Feb 24, 2021 at 01:29:02 PM

If the campaign reaches $94k, each Complete Book Set will come with this set of three, adorable Console War stickers! Lookit how cute they are!