You read that headline correctly. Last Monday we uploaded our pdf files of "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" to the printer's ftp site. The proofs should be arriving tomorrow or Tuesday and once we approve them we will be GOING TO PRINT. 

The print of the Frontispiece should be done this week. Artist Denise Devine will hand sign each print and ship them to us where they will be either packaged with the Robot Jims or mailed on their own.

Speaking of the Robot Jims...we just got back from a Robot building party at Chad Meserve's where we were sanding, painting, and glueing Robot Jim's in various stages of development (see pics below). Several are already finished and will be packaged and shipped just as soon as the illustration arrives.

We've also booked a date for our launch party: December 19th at 7pm in Los Angeles. More details to come but mark your calendars now!

And if you are in LA and are interested in seeing the LA Premiere of our movie THE SELLING this Friday, Nov. 11th at 7PM tickets are available here. There is also a second screening on Saturday, Nov. 19th at 10pm. Here are some of the great reviews the film has been getting.

 "The Selling proves to be a laugh out loud success." Aint It Cool News

"...terrific sketch comedy acting from an ensemble radiating chemistry..."Filmmaker Magazine

Also, please enjoy this picture of Robot Jim that won't be in the book. Turns out the character was not Jim as we originally thought but actually the Duke. If you look at the original it certainly does look like Jim though. It's a same to not have it in the book because Denise did such and amazing job but we want to be as accurate with our altered classic as possible.

Hey Mechanical Peeps,

Can you smell the coal tar burning in Robot Jim's chest? Because we're almost ready to go to print! The design is finished and being proof read as we speak. We're narrowing down our search for a book manufacturer and will hopefully start the printing process next week!

Denise Devine has done a new version of the frontispiece (see the before and after images below) which will be used for the print we will be sending out to everyone who contributed at Illustrated Level or above. We think you'll agree it is fantastic. 

The Robot Jim assembly line is rolling along and Chad hopes to have them all painted, polished, and boxed up within the next few weeks for inclusion with the book shipping.

The whole process has been a lot of work and a lot of fun for a lot of people working well below their normal rates. Many thanks to artist Denise Devine, designer Lee Thompson, and copy editor Emily Wilder for their continued hard work and support. This book wouldn't be happening without them!

Things have taken longer than we anticipated but to be fair we've never published a book before and have been learning as we go. We were laughed at by a book manufacturer when we told them we felt bad at how long it was taking. Apparently, she thought we were actually moving pretty fast. In any case, we thank you for your patience and are still aiming for a pre-Christmas delivery for all those wanting to give the gift of robotic literature this holiday season.

In other news, our film "The Selling" has been making the film festival rounds in Singapore, Seattle, Arizona, New York, Indianapolis, and will soon be in Wichita, Spain, Illinois, Atlanta, and Wales. We also won the both the "Audience" and "Jury" awards for Best US Narrative Feature at the Friars Club Comedy Film Festival and have received fantastic write-ups at Aint It Cool News, Filmmaker Magazine, and Fangoria. More screening info for those interested here.

Best,

Team Huck

Dearest Roboteers,

Some exciting things have happened since last we talked. Our little project was mentioned in a New York Times Magazine article about kickstarter.

We know your circuits will be filled with almost as much joy as ours to learn that the illustrations for the book are FINISHED. A huge round of applause for the Herculean efforts of artist Denise Devine for painstakingly altering some forty or so illustrations to seamlessly replace Jim with Robot Jim in E.W. Kemble's original illustrations. It has been a long road for her and she deserves heaps of praise and adulation. It is difficult for us not to post every one of the illustrations for you to enjoy but we want some of the book to be a surprise. In the meantime, please "oooh" and "ahhh" at the attached illustration.

We are now in the hands of our esteemed designer Lee Thompson who has already done a mock-up of the cover and first half of the book. Once he is finished we will plop in the final draft of our introduction to the text and send the completed design to our copy editor for a final proof. From there it goes off to the printer who will send us a galley copy which will again review for any errors before doing our full print run, having our launch party, and shipping out to you our wonderful backers. Shouldn't be too much longer now. We thank you for your continued patience and support as we work to make the best quality book we can for you.

We've had several requests from folks wanting to order more copies of the book. We are still working on getting a pre-order button up on our website and will let you know soon.

For those of you who have asked about our film "The Selling", we were featured in an article in Fangoria and have several announcements about festival screenings coming in the near future.

Talk soon!

Gabe and Etta

Greetings Robot Lovers!

Lots of movement on the altered classic literature front. Illustrator Denise Devine brought us a flash drive with all of the original illustrations and the altered versions she had finished which we sent off to our super designer Lee Thompson over in the UK.

Next, we got the text back from the copy editor last week and finished going over the changes this afternoon. No sooner had we sent the finished text (minus prefatory material) than we got back this mock-up for the cover of the book!

SPOILER ALERT: 

If you do not want to see some magnificent altered classic illustrations do NOT look at this update!

Our fantastic illustrator, Denise Devine, surprised us with three of the finished images of Robot Jim and Huck. We promise we'll save some of the other 37 illustrations she's working on as a surprise when you get the book but this is too exciting not to share. We think you'll agree she's done a brilliant job of matching the original style and line work.

As for the rest of the book, the text should be back from our fantastic copy editor later this week and then design work can start. Things have been taking longer than we expected but we're still on track for a late Summer/early Fall release! 

Don't forget to fill out your surveys! If we don't have your address or know what incentives you want we can't get them to you!

Thanks for your patience and enthusiasm. We're working hard to make the classiest piece of altered classic literature we can. Oh, and Chad's Robot Jim army continues to grow as well!