THE JEMINI KILLER pt.3
As the chase for Jemini continues let us now discuss another chase that’s been going on for some time now: the chase for new SCAPULA books!
A few months ago you fine readers cast your votes for the complete series in book form, and I was more than happy to oblige. I went about laying out both volumes and was ready to go when I hit a wee little snag: the print service I had been planning to use turned out to suck balls (if you’ll pardon my technical jargon). The company in question, a lauded and successful print-on-demand site, simply could not get on the ball with making these books into decent merchandise. After some wasted proof copies (and time and money) and an almost insulting amount of errors made I decided to call it off with the company lest I end up with a ton of defective books and a major headache.
The crappy print service (whom shall remain nameless) did make me realize a couple of things: first, that I really do want these books to be the best they can possibly be (play the national anthem while rereading that sentence) and second, that print-on-demand is not the way to go. While these services can be beneficial to creators who are just getting themselves acquainted with selling their work, in the end it’s actually a lot of money lost by both the creator and customer (since the cost of print-on-demand books can be quite high, leaving the creator no choice but to either screw their customers or screw themselves in the final deal).
For those of you who have used and stand by print-on-demand, please feel free to debate the matter in the comments section. I’m not bashing it (except that one printer), I used POD for years, but now I’m looking for a way to give readers the best book at a fair price (“Ohhh, say can you see….”).
Thankfully I have since found a publisher that looks reliable, and as soon as the new proof arrives I’ll let you know when you can get these awesome collections. Sit tight, my friends, and you shall be rewarded. I want these as much as you do (well, I hope you do!).
Ouch, and I’ll bet the ice cream hasn’t even had time to thaw yet. It’d be like getting hit by a large vanilla brick.
Hoo yeah. Some ice cream brands take forever to thaw, so that carton must have packed a wallop. French vanilla concussion!
I reread that sentence as you said to … but without warning the A-Team theme (the original TV version) played in my head instead.
Is that wrong? 😀
Oh … and while we’re on the subject: how much should I add to my preorder purchase to get you to include a sketch of Mira inside vol 1 and BC in vol 2? :wags eyebrows::
Hey, America is America, whether you think of Abe Lincoln or B.A. Baracus. Let freedom ring!
The exact deals with the books have yet to be worked out, but up until now I’ve offered character drawings with purchase of the larger collections, so that will probably still stand. You’ll get your Mira Mira and Bone China soon enough, as long as this new printer doesn’t give me a hassle like the last one did!
My sympathies with the PoD miseries. I was stuck like that until lately when I discovered a small, traditional printers (doesn’t even take plastic payments) who could do me a 24 page, high quality, colour book for the equivalent of $2. No minimum order as long as they didn’t have a rush job form a bigger company. I was floored.
So I guess my only advice is screw PoD websites, go and raid the phone books.
Exactly. Like I said above, print-on-demand is really best suited to creators who are just getting started, and this was also true of me. I was happy to make the first edition of the SCAPULA book, but at the time I doubt I could have moved over a hundred copies.
That said, I very highly doubt I’ll ever use print-on-demand again (and ESPECIALLY not the aforementioned company), but let’s just see what happens with these new books.
My experiences with a certain explosively-named PoD website were less than sterling. Living abroad compounded the issue, as they had no guarantee I’d even get my own books inside 4 months of paying.
Some Google-work laid bare the pains of other artists in similar positions, and I decided to cut my losses before they were indeed, losses.
Books are definitely a gamble for anyone involved, author, artist, printer, etc. It can be very difficult to balance quality merchandise and a balanced budget, so all you can do is make sure you’ve ready and prepared, then it’s all up to you…and a bit of luck!
Using a half gallon of ice cream as a projectile weapon? Man, that’s cold.
D’ohhhhhhhh, that pun was even colder!
Oh chill. It was cool. 😀
Well, the ice cream is gone. All these efforts to escape, and still no good ice cream.
The real tragedy of the night will be that everyone will go to bed with no dessert.
I don’t think I’ve ever uttered the words “please don’t tie me up again”! …I need to get out more! [grin]
I would react to that statement with shock and contempt…except I don’t think I could honestly disagree with it.
Geez, cartoonists are a dirty bunch!
Funnily enough, even before I read it, ‘Ba-Doof’ was my first choice as well for the sound of a brick-frozen tub of sweetness smacking at high velocity into a human skull (speaking from experience here – she said she wanted strawberry flavor).
I think I need to go see my therapist again for the shakes and reminiscent pain I got reading that. 😎
Now I’m wondering if “ba-doof” was the proper sound effect. Right now all I can think of is the old ‘Cheesecake’ song: “Ohhh, cheesecake, munchin’ on a cheesecake, munchin’ on a cheesecake…ba-doof, ba-doof”.
Okay, maybe it doesn’t go exactly like that, but you get the idea.
Ice cream, sadly, is not the solution to life’s problems (no matter how much you inhale), so maybe getting a sledge of frozen confectionery in the face is a bit of a wake-up call.
What a tragic, tragic waste of perfectly good ice cream… (unless it is generic ice cream).
Eh…it’s just vanilla. Probably not even one of the fancier kinds, like ‘vanilla bean’ or whatnot!
I hope they retrieve the ice cream… it’ll still be rock hard… no harm done… yah? The incident might’ve even softened it up a bit… dang, now I want some soft serve.
… And I like Ba-Doof. I just like the word… Doof.
BTW… did you know that “poof” is in the Scrabble dictionary, but not “ew.” THAT is SO not right!
Imagine if Knuckle Sam had gotten frozen yogurt instead; not so much a ‘ba-doof’ as a ‘splut’. Tonio wouldn’t have been incapacitated, but he still might have been a tad annoyed.
“Poof” either qualifies as a sound effect of British slang for a gay person, and I didn’t think either would be allowed in Scrabble. But hey, put down whatever you want in that game; it’s not like there’s the Scrabble police around.
152 points for KWYJIBO!
Ha… KWYJIBO… a type of nut in Ookadubi. Did you ever see the movie “Snow Cake” with Alan Rickman & Sigourney Weaver…? There’s a good Scrabble scene… it’s a good film.
… I do prefer the Fro Yo… but admit, it won’t make a good weapon should I need it.
You know what they say: “No Poofters!”
Now if I only knew what a poofter was…
Ask the Bruces on Monty Python.
“Rule #1: No poofters!”
Jeez, talk about being caught between a rock and a hard place. I really feel for ol’ Jem. Although I do love that line about robbing a mugger. I like when a character is scared and aggressive.
She may be spooked and on the run, but she hasn’t lost that killer’s edge! Unfortunately she’s being pursued by even bigger killers, so the law of the jungle dictates that she run like the dickens.
Tom Richmond had his books done by someone overseas.
Who was the bad company in question. We need to know.
A lot of cartoonists I know have had their books printed in China. The cost of printing deal is usually good, but it’s the shipping and handling fees that will kill ya.
…and yes, I have Tom Richmond’s awesome caricature book (and have I already bragged incessantly about being in his ME Gallery?).
I wont say anything regarding the identity of the lousy company in question, except that their name rhymes with Ka-Flam. That’s all the clues you’ll get.
That’s what you call hard serveice cream! Good luck with the new printer, Aidan!
Thanks, Mark! The only thing harder than skull-cracking ice cream is finding a reliable (and affordable) print service. But hey, it will happen soon; maybe even before dessert!
Imagine having a late night snack and suddenly Sweet Cheeks shows up and plays hard to get. Love at first sight, ain’t love grand? I can see that this can only end in tears.
Man, talk about your ice cream headache !
Isn’t that always the way? You go to the frozen food section of the supermarket, and ba-doom, the love of your life is running away from you in an over-sized T-shirt!
…okay, maybe life doesn’t always imitate comics, but it would be darn interesting if it did!
Bleeeh, bad week at work so forgive the late appearance hun.
So, let’s see…… Tonio and Rod, chasing Jemini’s clone who Throgor has insta-crushed on and Knuckles Sam is protecting/keeping prisoner?
Eh, not a lot going on this week, I’ll check in tomorrow!
(Although Tony’s expression when he gets beaned in the noodle with a jug of ice cream? Yeah, that’s priceless!)
Oh, come now! There’s plenty of action to be had! Here’s hoping you check up on this comic in a few hours when the new page posts.
I have made a bit of a discovery. Throgor seems to have a thing for ladies fleeing in panic, doesn’t he?
Since they all do, doesn’t that make him a bit of a ladies’ man?