Rich Morris' Comics - YAFGC and The ComixBlog

My vote's for plot arc books, and I'll tell you why.

For me? Yearly, 200-strip, plot arc, whatever. I love this strip and have read it on my Nokia N800 while sitting at the car dealership waiting for my oil change, squinting all the way. Heck, I'd probably drop a donation via PayPal if I heard you guys had hard times, for nothing. You've sold me. I'm easy.

But it's selling other people that's trickier, and given the very campaign-arc structure of YAFGC and the importance of in-arc continuity, I'd hate to show a friend a book, only to have it start in media res on one adventure, and end in media res on another. It seems ever the much more satisfying to include adventures start to finish, perhaps with an introduction quickly setting up the cast for new readers and setting the stage for strip one of the volume.

I think that format would best help me share your comic with others, and make new fans. I've happily pushed it to everyone who doesn't run away quickly enoughshows an interest, but I get a lot of 'Wow, that's a lot of backstory reading..." murmurs. For some people, reading a hundred stripss on the web is tedious in a way that reading a hundred strips in a book wouldn't be. (I don't get it. I love digital copies. But to each their own.) But if the books start in the middle of the action, it'll further alienate the new audiences.

YAFGC is very much an arc-based serial, and I would recommend distributing it such a way as to preserve its arcs.

Rancourt: That's an excellent point, and something I will definitely keep in my head when we set up book 2. We're currently doing Volume one as an annual, but it works out well that way - the arcs within year one ended before the anniversary, and there were a couple of filler comics to bring us to the end of the year. The other two anniversaries fell in the middle of story arcs, so it's not as neat, but we have a bit of leeway while we finish setting up volume one for the printer before having to divvy up the rest of them.

So?

the release date is...?

Right now it's looking like we'll not be in time to get in on the Christmas rush at the printer's (everybody and their mother is trying to get books printed and out to be bought for Christmas presents, and the wait times are hideous), so I'm hesitantly saying January. Buy YAFGC as a Valentine's gift for someone you love!

Announcements will follow when I have a firmer date in hand. We're still in the layout process, and since I'm working more than full time & doing my MA, and Rich has a huge amount on his plate as well, it's going slower than we'd like. Such is life, unfortunately.

Still no book, huh?

Yeah, I'd like to support the book. I logged on today with the intention of ordering one. Now I've registered, so I can request that there be a book. So, well done you.

For the record, whatever you're selling for whatever you charge.

Surely a book is possible....

It is possible, it is in progress, but we suffer from a serious dearth of time in which to work on it. For the record, beyond the comics and managing the websites, I'm working full time and in grad school, Rich works full time and does extensive freelance, and we have a preschool-age child. Time is in very short supply and unfortunately the book(s) is one of the things that's fallen by the wayside. We've spoken to a friend of ours about subcontracting the layout work, but she hasn't come back to us with a quote. We have every intention of getting it done, it just won't be this month.

Have you considered ePublishing, say by PDF or some such, rather than dead trees?

I regularly by stuff via DriveThruComics.com, and they have a interesting automatic watermark system to discourage "widespread sharing"
And, much more of the purchase price goes directly to the creators, which I'm all for

Just to keep all y'all updated, as promised... Strip layout for book #1 has been completed, thanks to a little help from a good friend of ours. We're picking the extras for the back tonight, and - if all goes well with the proofing pass - should have the files to the printer for a proof from *them* by June 14th. That's the goal, anyway! Volume 1 contains strips 1-366, black and white interior, and right now the price point is set at $19.99.

I'll do a real announcement later!

And the price for SIGNED ones will be???
And the price for SIGNED AND NUMBERED ones will be???

(Though assuming you do offer either version , you may want have a minimum order size for such "special handling" for the signed-only....)

- Bun

We *will* be doing an Artist's Edition (signed & a sketch of character of choice) on a pre-order basis. I don't have an official price point for you yet on that, but if the book stays at $20, then the artist's edition will most likely be $30 (plus shipping, of course).

The book itself is being done POD (print on demand) at first, since we don't have the funds to do a big run on spec. We'll be printing the Artist Editions and getting them shipped here for art & signing first before sending them out, so there will be a bit of a delay.

I will be very happy to support this great web comic w/ a purchase of one of the artist copies. Maula Bloodhand will be my character of choice unless some other character from the current arc should steal my heart instead. Keep us posted. Sounds like you've got a good marketing plan going to keep it profitable enough to keep it going.

Looking forward to yearbooks 2, 3, and 4. And all the ones that we'll be getting after that.

I guess I will just have to order several, because I have several favorites and cannot pick just one...

- Bun

OK, I lied. Now that we've sorted through the extras it looks like we're going to come in closer to 216 pages, but we'll see what happens once that's all scanned in and compiled.