Wannabe Pirates Graphic Novel now Available!

[largento]

Hey Everybody,

 

Just got in the copies I ordered of the print version of The Wannabe Pirates and the Curse of Greyhawk Island and they look amazing!

 

SOOO cool to see this in print! 208 pages (full color)! (That doesn't include the outside and inside covers which includes a full-page ad for Animation:Master!)

 

I had my doubts about the quality of Print On Demand, but happily they were unfounded! The colors look great and the high resolution art lets you see more detail! Very happy with how it turned out!

 

Here's the link to it!

 

Go buy copies for everyone you know! :-)

 

PS-->I can't see anywhere on the site if sales are limited to the US. They prefer PayPal, though, so I'd imagine they ship everywhere. So you non-US folks can take advantage of the weak US dollar! :-)

[largento]

Since I currently don't have a decent camera, I modeled a 3D version of the book to make a display photo:

 

 

Better in a way, since you don't have to worry about gravity. :-)

[Rodney]

Congratulations Mark!

 

I've got your book on my wait/wish list. I would love to have a copy of that book.

I would so be the coolest guy in my neighborhood with that on my bookshelf!

 

You've got me very interested in the whole pricing structure.

My personal thought is that you should print a dozen or so of these and hit the tradeshows.

Not only might you make a few dollars you might find a publisher interested in mass publishing your book.

 

My initial thought was to try to bring the price down but I understand the problems associated with that.

The more I think about it the more I want to suggest keeping the value high while you look for a name-brand fatcat publisher willing to mass market for you.

Perhaps you could target one of those bookseller tradeshows or comiccons?

Seeing your high quality book might be enough to interest them in your book.

And if not the education and contacts you'd make might be worth the effort to you.

 

I do hope you get a fair return from the printing of the book.

Support for you effort would be the primary reason I would purchase the book.

That... and I know those silly characters personally.

 

You are in a position to exploit a very unique, high quality 3D computer generated book.

Not a lot of other comic book creators can do that.

[largento]

Thanks, Rodney.

 

The pricing is definitely a penalty of doing Print On Demand. Sadly, the reality is that there simply are not enough Wannabe Pirates readers to warrant doing a press run. (Not that I could afford to do one anyway.) I would have to be in the position where I could sell thousands of books before I could go that route.

 

I think I'll be lucky if I sell a couple of hundred of them.

 

The POD place I went with (Ka-Blam) has the online outlet (IndyPlanet) and one that distributes to Comic Shops. They have a minimum price associated with the one that distributes to the comic shops and you can't price the IndyPlanet one for less. This was the lowest price I was allowed to charge.

 

I could have split the book up into two books to lower the prices (although they'd probably end up costing more for two than for one) or gone with black and white interiors, but I wanted to have the whole story collected into one volume and I think a black and white version would be a let-down.

 

Like you mentioned, the Print On Demand option does give me a great prototype to show to people for potential business.

 

But at this point, it's mostly just wish-fulfillment on my part. So cool to finally have this in print. All the time doing the original strips and then all the work reformatting them into comic book pages was made worth it when I got to open the box and hold the books in my hands. :-)

[robcat2075]

Looks good, Mark.

[TheSpleen]

Awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Rodney]

But at this point, it's mostly just wish-fulfillment on my part. So cool to finally have this in print. All the time doing the original strips and then all the work reformatting them into comic book pages was made worth it when I got to open the box and hold the books in my hands. :-)

 

Living the dream Mark! Living the dream.

You've got a lot to be proud of in 'The Wannabe Pirates'.

More power to you.

[KenH]

Well done Mark! Feels good doesn't it.

[itsjustme]

Great stuff, Mark!

[largento]

Thanks, guys!

 

After giving it some thought, I've decided to start a "The Wannabe Pirates" comic book! I've got plenty of material (at least a dozen issues so far) and I think it would be fun. It would also offer a lower-price alternative. It's still a little pricey ($3.99 for a standard comic), but it's not outrageous.

 

It will also give me a bigger footprint in the online stores. Of course, it means a whole bunch more work, but time is the only thing I'm not short on these days...

[TheSpleen]

Go get it

[largento]

 

Cover for the first issue of the regular comic book!

 

I was going for a very nostalgic feel, but looking modern, as well. I think "dialogue" covers aren't done anymore, but I still dig them. The "movie poster" cover works well for the graphic novel, but for individual issues, I like being able to take a sequence in the comic and do a new gag with it. I think it's more representative of the actual comic, too.

 

Checking on advertising with local comic shops and businesses.

[Rodney]

Cool. I'm going to get me some Wannabe Pirates comics.

[largento]

I'll let you know when they start going up, Rodney!

 

I'm going to put in some puzzle pages in the comics and started working on one today with a maze. Never did a maze before, but it was cool that I could do it in Illustrator and then use the AI plug-in to bring it into A:M and make it 3D.

 

[NancyGormezano]

neato!