Backerkit survey correction: Dallas #1 METAL edition
almost 3 years ago – Tue, Feb 15, 2022 at 04:42:57 PM

This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.

Printing, new rewards, surveys, Flipsnack, bloopers, and more!
almost 3 years ago – Thu, Feb 10, 2022 at 04:37:08 PM

We are printing

Good news: By the Time I Get to Dallas #3 and The Trinity Project #3 are both complete and at the printer. I've even gotten hard copy proofs of Dallas #3 and it looks fantastic. Bad news: there is a paper shortage in the US so printing will take a while. After what we’ve been through in the last two years of Covid, this is not a big deal. Sit tight and before you know it I’ll be packing your mailers.

Survey coming via Backerkit--be sure to open it!

Soon you will get your survey to finalize your pledge, shipping address, etc. Things will look different this time because I’m using a service, Backerkit, that allows customization of your order and makes the fulfillment process easier for me. So if you see an email from Backerkit, please open and respond--I can't fulfill your rewards without your response.  Backerkit can help you with questions right from the survey if you need (hit the help button), and feel free to reach out to me at [email protected].

In the survey I ask for everyone's mailing addressing, including digital backers. This is so I can send the Early Bird Postcards to everyone who earned them. If you weren’t an Early Bird don’t worry I won’t use your address for anything else.

New Rewards!

Be sure to check out the Add On menu in the survey because there are some new items we didn’t have during the campaign. In addition to some stickers and stuff there is a whole range of METAL covers to feast your eyes on. Backers who pledged for Dallas #1 METAL during the campaign got the best deal, but there are limited number of #1 still available, plus all the other metallized standard and variant covers offered at an introductory low price. I’m very excited about how they came out. If you’re a collector, you ought to collect these.

Flipsnack

I’m super excited about this. I just invested in a document delivery service called Flipsnack that lets me present these comics digitally in a way that is much closer to the real comic experience and is  easier to share, open and read. You’ll get a link to all the Flipsnacked books as part of your digital rewards, but I want to give a preview with Dallas #1 here:

https://www.flipsnack.com/9A56DD77C6F/by-the-time-i-get-to-dallas-1/full-view.html

Note if you’re on a laptop with the sound on you can hear the pages turn. Very satisfying. If you are still old school with the PDFs don't worry, you'll have options to download the old fashioned way as well. 

Comics bloopers!

We don’t get comic book bloopers very often but this one cracks me up. Some text bubbles found their way into the wrong panel and it created an Eyes Wide Shut sort of situation. The correct panel is below, it's not quite as creepy.

Next up: surveys!

Colin

Update about non-US shipping of By the Time I Get to Dallas rewards--all others can ignore
almost 3 years ago – Thu, Feb 10, 2022 at 04:35:25 PM

This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.

Production Update #1: Hello, 2022. It's okay to meet you, I guess.
almost 3 years ago – Thu, Jan 06, 2022 at 10:18:01 AM

Hello friend,

Just a quick update on where things stand with By the Time I Get Dallas #3 as we limp into the new year. Not gonna lie, after the campaign closed I was burnt out and enjoyed staying quiet for a while, for all our sakes. Then moving apartments, a bit of travel, the holidays, a lot lot lot more Covid around us and at work, a million other real life things, and before I know it it’s 2022. Not to worry, this comic is still coming along fine, albeit a bit slower than I had hoped. Here’s the state of things:

• By the Time I Get to Dallas #3 is lettered, and all but the inside cover is ready to format for the printer. As with the first two issues, the inside cover is a Photoshop collage I make myself, it ties into what’s going in the companion book of the Trinity Project. I’m a little slow with that stuff, but getting there. I start with staging a photo, then I’ll make a mock up newspaper page and photos to insert into it, and work the credits and other fine print stuff around it. That's a picture of me and Ethel at our wedding rehearsal. Aww!

• Trinity Project #3 is colored and lettering is about to start. Most of the back matter stuff is done.
• I have learned that the final steps of preparing the books for print always take more time than you expect but I’m hoping to have both books to the printer by the end of the month.
• Early bird postcard: I have them, but getting the addresses and filling them out is the labor intensive part, which I‘ll do once the books are at the printer. I’m scheduled for knee surgery in early February, and with a week out of work I’m hoping it’s good chance to get these postcards done. No binge TV for me, people, I’ve got fulfillment to do!
• Digital rewards: I don’t want to over promise but I’d love to get these compiled during my post op time also, fingers crossed.

All right, that’s where things stand. I’ll let you know as I progress. In the meantime, get vaccinated, get boosted, test if you can, wear masks, limit unnecessary contact, and keep your head up. It’s been a long 22 months but we can do it, I promise.

Colin

Campaign Wrap Up: We did it again!
about 3 years ago – Sat, Nov 13, 2021 at 01:09:13 PM

Where were we?

After the close  on Friday I took two days away from all things comic book and Kickstarter related, and then got destroyed by two tough days at work. Please be kind to the health care workers in your life right now; independent of Covid issues, we have serious staffing, equipment and bed shortages across the whole system, making conditions very hard on us and our patients. But in between shifts I'm back to see what I’m supposed to be doing with this project and life in general.

Quick recap

It’s official, we funded this thing thanks to 287 awesome backers! 210 of you were returnees and 77 are new to the Dallas story. Along the way we unlocked milestone rewards from five of terrific creators. We didn’t quite hit the 300 backer milestone but it’s entirely possible I’ll pretend we did and go ahead with the Flipsnack service for the next round of digital Dallas rewards, I need to play with it bit.

Thank you!

Let me once more say thank you to all of you for backing this crazy thing. And for everyone who spread the word, an extra thank you. And to every one of you who responded to my emails or posted comments and questions, thank you!  

Extra special thank you to my wife Ethel and my kids Virginia and Ezra for being patient and supportive. And thank you to all my friends and family who have put up with this for so long.

I owe a huge thank you to all the wonderful artists who have contributed. This story would be nothing without their work:

By the Time I Get to Dallas: Juanfran Moyano (pencils), Dario Fas Marin (inks), Jay Moyano (colors), Jaymes Reed (letters)

Trinity Project: Greg Woronchak (line art), Jason Finestone (colors), Jaymes Reed (letters)

Cover artists: Joe Mulvey, Chris Sotomayor, Brian Dawson

Postcard artist: Geoff Weber

Logos, web design: Mike Harrington

Printing: Rich Boye at Comic Impressions

Thank you to my All-Star Digital Bundle contributors for giving us all access to their amazing work: Honor Vincent, Drew Morrison, Wes Hartman, Rob Multari, David Taylor. I’m happy to report they all funded their latest projects, so be on the look out for more great work from them.

Thank you Comixlaunch podcast host Tyler James, and Explain Yourself Livestream hosts Kevin Joseph and Will Allred.

What’s next?

• I might officially change my name to Doc Apocalypse. Thank you Tyler James!
• I owe a bunch of thank yous to the backers from the last week of the campaign, I will do those this week.
• About 150 of you were Early Bird backers wand will be getting your reward, a postcard from me. However, I’m going to wait to get your mailing address until I’m close to sending the physical rewards as well, this will make the survey process smoother I think. This could change though.
• The reward survey will be from me via Backerkit. If you aren’t familiar, it is a service that helps Kickstarter stuff work better. I’ll update again about this when the time comes.
•  International shipping will be finalized at the time of the survey when we are close to shipping.
•  What about the book? Oh yeah, that. I need to finalize the lettering script for the final 26 pages, Jaymes it chomping at the bit to finish up book 3. I have the final scene of Trinity Project to script and get to the artists. I have a Dallas inside cover to design and produce, some other back matter. One foot in front of the other.

60%!

This is my fourth campaign and my third book, and I’m just as excited as ever to make this story a reality. Well, not actual reality, that would be not so good. When I think about how many steps are ahead of me to produce, fund and ship the whole series I get vertigo, but then I step back and realize I’m now 60% done with the story (when I ship #3) and this project is all going according to plan. Most important, the books are coming out great, better than I ever had a right to expect. It feels slow, but 50+ pages of quality comic produced per year is pretty damn good if you ask me. So I’ll finally leave you alone for a while, buckle down to make these books real. I’ll update you with important steps along the way. 

Please feel free to ask me questions at 

[email protected]

If you miss me you can always see what's up at 

pitdocpress.com

Thank you again for everything!

Sincerely,

Colin