There’s been much conversation amongst Rick, Eric, and myself in the past couple weeks about our impending first trade, which we’re hoping to release once Chapter Four is completed. Conversation has been centered on two points, really – how to release it and in what format(s). We’re discussing a digital version that would be available for free, as well as printed trades in – as of now – three variations. The digital and the first trade version would be roughly identical, with all of the comics included and, perhaps, some of the ancillary material from the site. The second trade version would be nearly identical to the first, but in hardcover. A third possible would be a “prestige” – for lack of a better word – hardcover, signed and numbered, and with a sketch, remark, or similar addition by Rick.
As of this moment, the plan for distribution is pretty straightforward – available online or in-person, and that’s it. Meaning, if you want a copy of the trade, you’ll need to either order it from the site, here, or buy a copy from Rick, Eric, or myself, most-likely at one of the shows we’ll be attending. This, like all other aspects of the trade, may change.
One of the guiding principles when we started work on this project was to divorce “screen” from “page” – thus a screen from the site would not necessarily reproduce identically in print. If you look back at Chapter One, for instance, the reveal of the Regent’s Zep is clearly better served by being a double-page spread in a trade edition. This means that Rick is spending a lot of time this week playing the cutting-and-pasting game as we begin trying to create our book map. Or, to put it another way, our experiment is continuing.
These are early days yet for the trade aspect, and we’ve a lot of choices ahead of us regarding its creation and distribution. Bearing that in mind, we’d love to hear from you, Dear Reader, about what you’d like in a trade, and what options you think we should be exploring that we have not, perhaps, considered. I make no guarantees as to the implementation of any such suggestions, mind you, but who knows? You all tend to be a rather clever lot, and we’d much rather produce something you’d actually be interested in owning than, say, printing up five hundred doorstops.
To this end, we are asking the following questions:
1) What would you like to see in a Lady Sabre trade?
2) What would you like to distinguish between “regular” and “deluxe” (or “limited”) editions?
3) Any other suggestions or wish-list items? Any other requests or matters we may have overlooked?
Hold fast!
Greg
Especially for something like Lady Sabre, as far as trade extras go I think some of the world-building material would make an excellent addition. What Tolkein called “appendices.”
Just reprinting the Almanac pieces? Or additional pieces?
More is always better.
Hi Greg,
In the trade, I’d like to see characters studies or various objects from the Lady Sabre world. Why not, some short prose stories.
Difference between a regular and a limited edition, well there’s softcover and hardcover but a sketch would be a real motivation to get the limited edition.
And don’t hesitate to start a Kickstarter project, I’d be happy to support it.
Best,
Mathieu Doublet
I’ve actually been working on-and-off on some short prose ideas; would love to get the time to write them.
Kickstarter has been considered. Depending on how in-depth we go with this, it may be a route.
You know what might be cool? Maybe get some fanfic short stories to put into a deluxe edition. You could have a Lady Sabre Expanded Universe, if you will.
I’ve actually toyed with an “open universe” idea for a while, as far as that goes. Figured it might be best to wait until more of the universe itself is established – what’s been released thus far is a bit lean. But hopefully, perhaps by our second year, we’ll have covered enough ground, enough of the Sphere, that people will feel armed (and even inspired!) to scribble some short stories of their own.
I second the Kickstarter idea, so long as you avoid the pitfalls Alex De Campi has fallen into. Yowch.
It also gives you a better idea of what sort of print runs you’d need for the various tiers (SC, HC, deluxe HC, what have you). Might help to produce fewer doorstops that way.
I must confess, I don’t know what the pitfalls are of which you speak; I knew Alex had undertaken a Kickstarter, but I hadn’t heard much about how it was going.
I’d love remarked hardcover editions. It adds a bit of uniqueness to each book.
1. Almanac entries, and other dispatches (including “Good Stuff”), a history of the creation of Lady Sabre. Character design/creation stages & notes
2. I would love a HC for the deluxe editions.
Definitely planning an HC edition. Conflicted about including the Dispatches, however; seems that including the “Good Stuff” entries in hardcopy might be counterproductive, at least to me.
Perhaps you could include the almanac in the trade edition, along with a few extras about the universe this takes place in. Maybe even a layout of The Pegasus?
Deckplans of the Pegasus are on the agenda, but they’re a very long-term project at this point. One of those things I want to do well, rather than quickly. Ideally, I’d like to have blueprints.
1.) Everything so far; specifically the art and the almanac entries.
2.) Signed and sketched is always a nice option to me.
3.) I’ll let y’all know if I think of something.
I would love to see:
1. The script included, obviously edited for spoilers, but maybe a little more fleshed out than what you currently post, if possible.
2. In lieu of that, or maybe in addition if it’s not redundant, a “commentary” by the creators. Darwyn Cooke did one for the Absolute Edition of New Frontier that I thought was brilliant. That REALLY added a certain something to the reading experience.
3. I always love seeing pin ups by other artists in collected editions.
Oooh! Commentary! That could be both cool and all the more difficult to execute!
The Almanac for sure. The script as well. Maybe also some of the Process posts Rick and Greg wrote might be a nice addition.
I may be in the minority in this, but I think foregoing the paperback altogether and just sticking with hardcover for both the regular and deluxe editions would be a good idea. I know Bendis is doing that, and I love how they look on my bookshelf. And they last longer.
I like that HC idea, but I don’t know if we’re in a place financially to manage it. Worth looking into….
Greg,
I understand that self publishing a pile of HC’s is probably pretty expensive given that you don’t likely have a clue how many you’ll sell.
So, to help with the upfront cost why not consider advanced orders? I’ll gladly send you the money upfront for mine and I’m sure others would as well.
This is an interesting option, Dan, and one I’d toyed with but had yet to suggest. I always get leery of asking for money in advance of product, but it is a definite possibility once we’ve decided on our formats.
And on another note…getting any sleep?
I get why you’d be relectant to do that. What it also serves to do is get you a better idea of how many you may sell. I imagine Marvel and DC establish print runs based on preorders for Diamond. So maybe you don’t ask for the money upfront, but at least taking preorders will give you a better idea of what to publish.
As for a free digital version. Would you put it on comicology or something of the ilk? That would kick ass!
As for sleep, she’s the best baby ever! From the time she was 2 weeks old she has basically been sleeping 10 to 6:30 every night. Its unreal. However, the man upstairs owed us one as our other 2 baby’s were the up every 2 hours types. Kaden was waking up to eat until he was 2. So this is just Karma.
No idea about distribution for a digital format yet, or even method. PDF is the obvious choice, available through the site. I haven’t spoken to anyone at Comicology or the like, so that would be a whole new frontier.
Delighted to hear that you’re both getting your sleep, man! My best to your better half!
It would be great to have the almanac pieces for sure. I think the Stumptown HC would be a good model to go by- including the poster and tshirt images, maybe some prelim sketches and WIP by Rich of you guys working out the concept. I don’t think you need to include the full scripts like the website, but maybe if you have something like an outline/proposal/pitch for the series in genreal? Regarding the above mentioned, this is your guys’ baby so I don’t know about having misc pinups or stories by third parties (besides an introduction). For the HC, a different cover than the TP and maybe a bookplate or sketch by Rick?
VERY excited for this. Please don’t hesitate for Kickstarter too.
It’s an odd thing, the pin-up idea. Kyle did that terrific Sabre piece, but outside of that, I’m unaware of anyone else (well…one exception, but it was for my birthday, by this talented fellow…) who’s done one. it’s the kind of thing I’m frankly uncomfortable asking people to do, you know?
The scripts that are posted are actually pretty close to the ones that are written, as far as that goes – they get “scrubbed” slightly to avoid plot spoilers and the like, but otherwise, they’re almost identical.
Hmmm….
I must say, I am somewhat interested in a limited edition hardcover. I would love it and call it Captain and, well, probably lend it out to people and make them read it as well. I think it would be nice to have the Almanac pieces in there as well.
Something that has occurred to me, is as this has been a relatively open process (what with the scripts and running commentary) is I would like to see commentary on decisions you might have done differently now, what has turned out differently than you expected and just general tidbits.
Also, I’m a sucker for those statistic types of books. So and so’s armor is made out of such and such and is capable of this and that. It would be interesting to get schematics.
And way out in left field, maybe in the future there can be papercraft ships. Cuts outs for a mobile or something. That would probably be later trades though.
Oh papercraft! Oh that would be AWESOME, Kat!
*wheels spinning*
…I might know someone who can actually help with that, too….
Glad you like it! When I think zeppelins and airships, I always want to actually /have/ one, you know? And I know some people who will love that and they’re the steampunk-y sort.
I have long wanted comic collections to follow the sometimes DVD/Blu-Ray model.
Option 1 – The bare bones edition. The comic and nothing more. Softcover and as inexpensive as possible.
Option 2 – The Special Edition. Hardcover with almanac entries, sketches, deleted or otherwise altered pencils (if available), commentary (I’ve always though that text by the creators running across the footer of a page would make for a nice read, but that requires and over-sized book so YMMV), and production notes. The backmatter should be extensive and the price should reflect it. It’s the equivalent of that three disc Blu-Ray of Avatar that also had the entire move as it was shot against green screens.
Option 3 – The same product as Option 2 but signed and possibly remarked. Hand numbered, very limited. Personalized if you keep the number low enough.
All that being said I’ll buy whatever you come up with. Keep up the good work.
A TPB would extras would suit me down to the ground. I also really enjoy introductions by the writer, artist. Intros by other pros who are fans can be fun, but more often than not are just two pages worth of praise, I already know how good it is, that’s why I bought it!
Pin-ups by other artists are always welcome too.
I don’t know if it has been discussed so I have to ask, are there any ideas of doing the TPB/HC in a different format than the usual comicbook one? Mouse Guard benefited from this and I think Lady Sabre deserves some kind of square or ‘italian’ format. The pages make me think that.
As for different editions, I could go the easy way and say “do it as Freakangels and their 3 different editions” or the hard, long way.
SC – no extras, as cheap as possible.
HC – pinup gallery, script or comments below every page, characters design, a story in prose.
Deluxed HC – everything I said + sketch, signings, slipcase(?), a newspaper with a written and design style from that era.
If you go the Kickstarter way it’s even better because you can do several variations with the same things. For instance, for a higher price a person could buy the deluxe HC with a personalized sketch and message. Add merchandising and it’s perfect.
We’ve gone back and forth on format. My initial instinct was to try and stick with a “traditional” TPB format, mostly because I’ve been privy to countless retailers complaining about “non-standard” formats.
But then I thought, wait, we’re not looking to sell through comic/book stores. We’re looking to sell online and by hand.
So… it’s a definite possibility.
Would a landscape style format work? My copy of the Elseworld’s “Batman: Nine Lives” by Motter & Lark works well. The IDW Library Series is also in landscape format (of course these are reproductions of newspaper strips — Bloom County is still great).
Square or landscape format fits perfectly with the pages format that’s why I was recommending the italian format (which probaly you know better if I call it landscape format:P ).
How about a pop-up book later on?
I think the Almanac is a must for the trade. The map of The Tanitin Frontier would look great in the beginning pages. My first favorite book, The Phantom Tollbooth, had a map included and I’ve had a soft spot for them ever since. Any extra, previously unpublished Lady Sabre prose material would be welcome, also. And if Pegasus plans aren’t possible at this time how about an illustrated crew manifest?
A TPB and HC version is a great idea. Fans from all tax brackets can own a copy this way. You could distinguish the HC from the HC prestige with a numbered edition and signed/sketched. If you are unsure of the print run you could offer incentives for advanced orders such as a bookplate or tipped in sheet.
I quite enjoyed the Swan Collapsible Blade schematic. Any chance you could include schematics of the weapons in Drake and Drum’s chapter?
You will, I hope, be quite delighted by the upcoming Almanac on the Marshal, then.
For back matter, as other people have noted, the almanac material and the posted scripts would be what I vote for (the letters commissioning the collapsible blade is still my favorite back matter piece). I think the scripts are a tremendous value and should not be left out. I think you should also include your Collaborator page — possibly as the back cover, since this would be a direct sale, as opposed to a mass market sale. I could do without pin-ups from other artists.
As for trade/hc, I think at this time I would, personally, favor an all-inclusive trade. However, if you were to distinguish a bare-bones trade from a deluxe hc (as a poster above suggested), I would be in for the hc. Granted that $$ is an important part of the production process, but would you consider an oversized hc? The one size I would not recommend is the 6×9 format currently used by DHC and Oni for many collections. I think it would be a great disservice to Rick’s art to have it reduced to that size (although it works for many others, such as Q&C).
Whatever the format, I look forward to it.
Collaborator page noted; I had actually thought we wouldn’t use it, but now I’m thinking we need to do a new one. Basically, modify the current version to include the Mysterious Mister Newsom.
Great to see a fellow White Pawn roaming the Aether!
Just a thought here; I would like Lady Sabre’s collected edition(s) to reach a wider audience than the fine folks who already read it here and whomever you guys run into at conventions. I realize that getting into bookstores comes with a plethora of problems and risks, but it would be a shame not to expose to the “mundanes”.
Speaking of preaching to the choir, would you do banner ads for the book on other like-minded sites to widen the current fanbase?
I don’t know about banner ads. I don’t know about ads at all, honestly. Rick, Eric, and I have gone around and around on what we can do to get the work out in front of a larger readership, and in the end we keep coming back to “doing the best work we can and letting things grow naturally.” We’ve been at this for just over six months, after all – patience is required.
The issue of distribution is its own headache, I must confess. This is one of the reasons why we’ve actually toyed with trying to partner with one publisher or another – it would allow a much wider distribution, but could conceivably lead to its own legion of complications.
Having working in retail (both comics and at B&N) I’ve heard plenty on the problems with distribution, so I understand your reluctance. Of course, you could always do a “book store” edition down the line assuming someone gives you agreeable terms. Either way, I’m looking forward to it!
Greg and Rick:
1) As to what I’d like to see in a trade…the strips obviously, but I also am one of those dorks who love to see the process. It would be cool to have scripts, sketches, pencils, prelims, an essay about the process. That kind of stuff.
2) Regular edition is probably softcover with JUST the story in it. Deluxe is hardcover, with all those extras I typed in answer #1. A SUPER Deluxe might have a sketch or remark by Rick and be signed by the creative team!
3) I like the hardcover idea. I’m willing to put my money where my mouth is, too. All the extras, like sketches, pencils, scripts, etc. are worth the money to me because I view that as a learning experience from two of the best working professional storytellers in the business. I’ve treasured EVERY project you two have worked on and am OVERJOYED that I get to see original work every week from you both. Thank you so much for doing this.
MPH
Thank you, Matthew – not only for the reply and the suggestions, but for the compliments, as well.
Coming in late to the discussion, sorry.
I would love to have a hardcover collecting not only the story, but also commentary, sketches, and absolutely all the almanac bits. A signed, remarqued, numbered limited edition would also be nice, but I would prefer such an edition not have additional story/world building material that’s not also available in a less expensive hardcover (for us fans on a budget).
And a paperback edition for folks on a more limited budget would be nice, too. But for something like this (it’s a genre I love) from creators whose work I also love, I would be getting the hardcover for myself.
I saw that Battlepug Vol. 1 was solicited by Dark Horse for May. Maybe you could get in touch with Mike Norton to see what kind of deal he has and see if it fits your desires.
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=36914