Travel Update
over 3 years ago
– Thu, Nov 17, 2022 at 07:14:39 PM
I emailed our printer this morning to check in and see if the books were on schedule. Before I go much further, it looks like our contact is on vacation for the upcoming Holidays, so I didn't (and likely won't) get that confirmation.
But we can go by what the original schedule was supposed to be. And at that point, books were supposed to arrive at the port of entry in Long Beach, CA on November 8th. If they got through customs immediately they would be moved to a warehouse about November 14th, and from there it would be about 10 days across the country to me.
I'm hoping against hope they do arrive around then. If they do, I will start delivering soon after.
Of course, since I don't have confirmation that they are through Customs, this continues to be a best case scenario.
One thing I can confirm is that we will be launching the Tart 15 campaign very early in 2023. I'm working on the page now, as Ludo has completed 100% of the line art. I found a page that isn't too spoilery to share with you.
I am VERY pleased with it.
I said this on twitter today, but you can only be comfortable with a comic book script before you see the art. Now that I see what Ludo did with the script, I am confident this will be a very good chapter in Tart's journey.
But we're only getting our ducks in a row on that campaign until the hardcovers arrive. Fulfillment comes first!
If I don't update next week, I hope any who celebrate have a Happy Thanksgiving. And if you don't celebrate, I hope you have many things to be thankful for even if you don't have a Turkey Day reminding you to think about them.
Kevin
Sending 1,500 books on a voyage across the sea...
over 3 years ago
– Thu, Nov 03, 2022 at 04:38:23 PM
... and their coming, they're coming to you and me (not in that order).
It is OFFICIAL!
The Tart Submerged Hardcover Edition exists. It is in the world!
Where in the world? I asked, and the only answer I got from the book was...
That's good enough for me. I'm putting my nautical themed pashmina afghan on in celebration (just kidding, aside from this line in the song, I do not actually know what pashmina is).
The schedule as I understand it is the boat will arrive at the Long Beach port in California in mid to late November. When they get through Customs, it will be about another two weeks as they are loaded onto either a truck or train and shipped across the country to me.
Note: Long Beach was one of the ports that had some dramatic delays early in the year. Our printer looked into bypassing it when we were planning our strategy, but in the end it didn't make sense to do so. First of all, the major issues seem to have calmed down. But as importantly, the workaround (shipping the books to Miami) would add about five weeks to the boat trip. It didn't make sense to guarantee an extra month to our schedule in order ward off the worry of losing a few weeks at a different port.
When they arrive we'll start packing up your rewards and getting them to you as soon as possible. It is too early, and too unpredictable to say they'll arrive at any particular time, but in my mind...
Please just remember that that is more my most optimistic hope, and not a promise. Plenty of snags can come up which might slow that down. But I AM feeling mighty confident in our March 2023 delivery promise : )
Hope this message finds you well!
Kevin
The books are likely printed
over 3 years ago
– Wed, Oct 19, 2022 at 03:24:44 AM
Based upn y last communication with the printer, October 11th was the date we were scheduled to have printing completed on the Tart: submerged Hardcover. We were originally supposed to be completed on September 16th, but the region they are being manufactured in was shut down for Covid concerns.
I had baked in months and months of delays in our delivery schedule, so that doesn't actually hurt us for delivering on time.
I'll, of course, keep you abreast of the best estimates of when the books will get to me when they are on a freighter and moving my way.
While we wait, I'm continuing to make small, steady progress on the thank you notes. I can usually only write personal thank yous to our first day backers because we print in Florida and I strive to be delivering within about 4 to 6 weeks after a campaign is completed. But with international shipping adding 6-12 weeks onto the timeline, I am writing one to every single backer who is getting a physical reward.
i say this in some of the notes, but I'll say it here for everyone. Writing these is good for me because it forces me out of whatever is happening in my head or in my life for about 30 to 45 minutes a day (the time it takes to write 10 notes), and into a conscious state of appreciation. It is really good to shut up my mind about a bill that is due, or a family member who is sick, and just sit in a place with the people who helped us make this book exist.
Just another thing backing the campaign does for the psyche of creators.
As for other rewards, we are steadily shipping the Bookplates around the world to be signed and individually numbered. Since only Ludo and I worked on the Adrift hardcover, that one is simple. Ludo got it, signed, or signed and sketched depending on the need, and shipped straight to me.
Ludo shipped the Submerged bookplates to DC Hopkins, who will be signing them this week and shipping them on. Eventually Karl Moline will get them and sketch alongside Ludo's.
If you pledged in the Submerged Kickstarter campaign to receive a bookplate, you will also be sent an Adrift bookplate in tandem. So if you were the fourth backer to get it signed and sketched, you will get the Adrift Signed and Sketched bookplate 4 of 100, and the submerged signed and sketched bookplate 4 of 100. If you were the 8th backer to get it signed only you will receive both bookplates signed, and both will probably be in the vicinity of 29 of 100 or so.
We'll work hard in the future to match those numbers. I can't promise it outright, but every effort will be made.
If you didn't choose a bookplate in the campaign, but would like one, the same rules basically apply. If you add on both the Adrift and Submerged bookplates in Backerkit, you will receive matching numbers. Your Adrift sketch will depend entirely on if you added on a Submerged sketch or not. I've worked hard to make sure that the add ons in Backerkit are actually the same cost as they were in the Kickstarter. So you you aren't paying more or less for the Submerged stickers than people in the campaign did. But backers who want the Adrift sticker (and who did not back at the bookplate level in the campaign, will need to choose the $15 add on for it. The sketch will be free though, if you choose to add on the Sketched Submerged option).
SPEAKING OF BACKERKIT
I'll be going through Backerkit next week to lock orders and charge credit cards for add ons. I don't want this to come as a surprise if you added books on a month or two ago. But with the books coming and some shipping supplies to order, I want to start getting those ducks in a row.
So if you received a reminder today about filling out your surveys, please do so. And if you want to go in and make changes (like adding sketched bookplates : ), you have this week to that as well.
ONE TREE PLANTED
One incredibly cool thing some Kickstarter creators have started to do is use One Tree Planted to honor each of their backers who supported a campaign. Kickstarter is big about Charity not being part of the deal, but when I spoke to Blake McCarthy and the people at Onishi Press who were doing this, it felt like a really good thing to do.
I have completely and totally stolen this idea for the Submerged campaign. Over the next year, I am contributing $27 a month to One Tree Planted in honor of each of you. If you are interested in this, the site is:
https://onetreeplanted.org/
FAIRYTALES FROM MARS
My friend Shane reached out to tell me about this sci fi anthology. And I'm glad he did. The art on this Kickstarter page looks so vibrant and fun. I'm ready to blast off into whatever stories they want to tell me.
I'm stealing the description whole hog from the Kickstarter page because the concept behind it is so interesting, I don't want to mess it up:
A quote attributed to Albert Einstein states, “If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.” Imagination breeds innovation. And as we colonize the fourth rock from the sun, the kinds of stories we tell our children will develop from the experiences we have pushing into that final frontier.
Fairytales From Mars is an anthology collecting the fables, folklore and, of course, fairytales from the colonies dotting the red planet. It is speculative mythology at its finest and we’re challenging creators to imagine the kind of stories that might emerge when humanity finally starts calling Mars its home.
If you have any interest give it a look (and check out more of the art) here:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pubcrawl/fairytales-from-mars
(okay, I had to show you one more image)
I'll hit you up in a week or two when I have estimated arrival time of the books!
Kevin
Surveys are out
over 3 years ago
– Fri, Sep 09, 2022 at 06:18:43 AM
We just made, what I believe will be, our last decision on the Submerged Hardcover. The foil stamp that will be used for the printing on the actual cover of the book (not the dust jacket).
We chose the deep, dark blue 983. This stuff is kind of weird because, you're guessing at what will look the coolest, but to my eye there are 7 foils that would work on that one page (I'm not here for the purple tones with this particular book, but maybe in a future edition).
With that down, I'm very excited to get to the next phase of the Kickstarter. The surveys. I sent out the Smoke tests Wednesday night, and so far haven't heard that anything is wonky. But if you run into anything on your survey, do not hesitate to let me know about it and I'll try to get it fixed for you.
One nice thing about this campaign is we have two tiers of Softcover catch ups which will be delivered asap, since we do not have to wait for the hardcovers to arrive. So that will be 19 backers delivered to before the books probably get put on a boat.
We are using Backerkit for our surveys, which is a delivery software that really simplifies everything on our delivery end, speeding up delivery for everyone.
It also allows you to fill in your collection of out of print, rare, or simply missed issues of Tart that I happen to have on hand for comic conventions and webstore sales. And here's the best part. You have already paid shipping, so the first three items you add on will not cost you any more shipping. I'll simply pack them in with your Kickstarter Rewards and send them on (4 or more and there will be an added charge which depends on your location).
I have double checked this, but one campaign in the past, people were charged shipping when they added one comic. I reached out and refunded that charge to everyone affected. So if this happens to you, hit me up and we will fix it.
I want you to maximize the shipping costs you have had to pay.
There are all kinds of cool swag you can grab, but I wanted to point out our Scout Comics edition of Tart #1 (seen above) is sold out on the Scout Comics web store. You may be able to find one at your Local Comic Shop (and if you can, get it there!), but at this point that is unlikely. I will be selling these at the $4 cover price through this Kickstarter campaign and then raising my prices as I'll be down to my last copies at that point. To be truthful, I usually sell these at $5, but decided to go back to cover price for our backers who might have missed this when it came out.
I added multiple variant comics from Kicksstarters past, and the Scout Comic web store as well.
I also want Digital Backers to know that we have created a tier that would get you the Tart Adrift and Submerged Hardcovers at a price point that is equal to what physical backers paid for both. They paid $80 including shipping, and since digital bundle backers paid $15, we're allowing you to get these at this time for $65. I can't do less than what the Kickstarter backers paid during the campaign, but I can make it equal : )
Finally for the people who want a real piece of Tart history, I went through the Karl Moline pages for Tart 6 that I have and added them. Karl penciled digitally, printed those pages out on blue lines and inked physically on the pages. It is the scans of the inks that he colored to create our book. Interior pages are $350 (down from $400), and the cover shown here:
Is available for $600 instead of its usual $700 cost.
Finally, I hope everybody who wanted to get in on the signed or signed and sketched bookplates takes advantage of this opportunity to get to them at the same price as backers in the campaign did. These will be individually numbered and considered the rare version of the book. There will almost certainly be some left over for later, but prices may go up depending on the number on hand (remember, you do not have to pay for the sketches if you simply want the numbered and signed bookplate. I just think they're so gorgeous I have to share.).
Now, what do you do if you just want the rewards you backed the campaign to get? You fill out your survey and clear your hands like a blackjack dealer leaving the table.
You made this a success already. Anything else is just gravy for us both.
Kevin
Surveys coming in the next week or two
over 3 years ago
– Sat, Sep 03, 2022 at 09:27:50 AM
I am currently working with a Backerkit assciate to get the last tiny details right on your surveys. I expect the smoke screen surveys (they send ten percent of surveys for every tier first, and if a problem arises, you can fix it for everybody else) to go out early to mid week next week, and the rest to go out late next week.
I'm usually in such a rush to get the surveys that I only give the smoke scree a few hours, but with shipping, I'm going to try to discipline myself to use the service the way it is intended.
Ludo has received the Submerged Bookplates and has started signing and sketching.
We ordered 100 of each and I will hand number each bookplate with the earliest backers receiving the lowest numerical numbers. But we also created a small surprise.
We never had the thought of bookplates for The Vol 1 Adrift Hardcover. Since we're retroactively starting a hardcover set with Vol 2, we decided we should retroactively match the 100 bookplates idea so we always have a very specific set of 100 (or fewer) "variants" for these hardcovers.
How much are the Adrift Stickers?
Well, for the backers who backed the Submerged campaign to receive a bookplate, they are free. Ludo and I are adding it as a gift from us.
If, however, you want to add it to your rewards, it will be included in the cost to adding the Submerged Bookplate (sketched or unsketched) Ir is only $15 additional, since only Ludo and I have to sign it (our team was just a partnership back then), and there isn't any extra shipping as they'll just travel with the bookplates moving around to the entire team.
I'll update you next week when the full surveys go out. Have a great weekend!
Kevin
