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Update #32: Stay on Target… Stay on Target...
Just wanted to check in and let you all know that I think I'm still on schedule for a July release of the thumb drive and main book.
All the dialogue and cataloguing should be set. All 3,000 web strips are proofed, corrected and split up for book view. I just got to the 2,000th comic in the first draft book file. Whew! (I wish I could automate the book building, but it's not possible in iBooks Author. C'est la vie.)
I have a few pieces in for the guest comic book and everyone else sounds on target. I may wind up shipping the thumb drives with just the BIG Kickstarter-only book and the personalized stuff on them in order to get you your drives faster. (with the rest as updates you can copy on yourself.)
How big is a 2,000 comic strip iBooks file? Mine is currently about 2,200 pages and clocking in at under 150 megabytes. Looks like there will be tons of space left over on all your Red Robot USB drives. (they're 4 gigs)
More details as I have them!
Update #31: Many Formats and Much to Do
Howdy! I've had my head down building out the massive book in iBooks Author, which I am both loving for its simplicity and cursing for its lack of automation. The good news is that I figured out how to keep the file size off my books down, meaning there will be space left over on your Red Robot thumb drives for HD porn.
My book of comics for February is now updated with PDF and CBR versions. You folks get first dibs.
OK, back to the grind! I hope to get at least another hundred pages in the HUGE book done today.
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fluffy on April 25
I think Kindle also supports CBZ/CBR, so there's no reason to put out a Kindle-native version if you do that. (Also I was actually referring to the KF8 format, which is ePub/HTML-derviced, not the .mobi format, which is... a giant pile of stupid, frankly.)
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Taint on April 26
I seem to remember there being a bit of a Hoo Ha about something nasty Apple left in the Ts&Cs of iBooks (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/01/20/apple_ibooks/)
I hope this doesn't affect the work your doing!
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Update #30: Mama, Don't Let Your Babies Turn Out to Be Diesel Sweeties
For backers only,
Posted on April 10
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Update #29: Greetings From the Land of Numbers
Hoy hoy, my intrepid travelers. I have been a little heads-down crazy person quiet lately doing my comic cataloging. It's funny how no matter what I do in life, March seems to be when I live in a spreadsheet.
I hit a bit of a milestone last night– 2,600 comics down, 1,000 to go. The plan to stay on schedule involves being done with this first draft by the end of the week. I'm sure that it'll get all kinds of tweaks during the book layout process. I keep finding themes and storylines to tag as I re-read all this stuff. Apparently, "mortality," "farts" and "pathetic" are major themes in my life's work. I also discovered oddly prescient strips that refer to future events I did not plan to write at the time. (PSYCHIC??)
(The 3,600 comic total is my Happy Round Number while including 592 syndicated strips.)
The good news is that somewhere around the 2,000th comic… my wrist evolved like a Pokémon and my carpal tunnel pain seems to have majorly faded. I have no explanation for this phenomenon.
April is going to be dedicated to research, experimentation, writing and creating a spec to build the books on. That is to me what Disneyland would be to a five-year-old.
Here are some weird panels I found in my excavation!
How did I get Creepy Sex Santa into the newspapers? Elementary, my dear Emma Watson. I was always so behind on deadline that no one paid attention.
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Laura Eleanor Jefferson on March 27
There was a thing in England when I did the archaeology there (back in the last century. We wore sola topees or derby hats constantly back then, of course) called Troweler's Wrist (I have never heard of it here, but then maybe no one here is cleaning Roman pavement). It felt like my writ was a block of wood, no moving parts, it just hurt. And by gad, if you went on trowelling, it got all better. Perhaps you had that. I am glad it is better.
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Update #28: Survey time!
For backers only,
Posted on March 16
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1,520
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Funding Successful
This project successfully raised its funding goal on March 9.
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Months of Bathroom Reading: You'll get a digital download of a special donors version of the entire ebook collection before the general public. Low-cost reward or not, you get 3,000+ pages of comics. Score!
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The Tinkerer's Delight: You'll get a digital download of the donors edition of the entire collection, plus the source files to remix your own versions. (A .zip of all the comics in PNG format + metadata.)
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The Archivist: All of the above, plus a PHYSICAL copy of the entire project on a signed thumb drive. I'm counting on you to hoard this drive just in case the internet becomes sentient and turns on us. (please add $5 outside the USA)
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The Archivist +1: The archivist package plus a second blank, unsigned 4gig Red Robot thumb drive.
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The Producer's Credit: You get all the digital downloads, plus the signed thumb drive PLUS I will make you a custom ebook with "This book belongs to…" embedded in the cover just like in grade school. You'll be listed in the credits and on my site along with your favorite comic. (please add $5 outside the USA)
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The Producer's Credit +1: The Producer's Credit package plus a second blank, unsigned 4gig Red Robot thumb drive.
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Are You A Repli-Can or a Repli-Can't?: You get the full signed thumb drive package, plus a signed print of the art from my Electric Sheep shirt. Yes, I picked '68 because that's when the book was published.
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The In-Canon Slash-Fic: You get the full signed thumb drive package, plus a signed print of any two Diesel Sweeties characters you'd like to see in bed together. Fictional characters only, we are not creeps. (please add $5 outside the USA)
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Coffee, You're My One and Only: You get the full signed thumb drive package, plus a 12" x 12" record album sized signed print of my coffee love Twitter icon.
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Breakfast Battle! You get the full signed thumb drive package, plus a sized signed print of The Most Important Grudge Match of the Day.
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The Sandcrawler: You get the full signed thumb drive package, plus a Class of '77 limited run signed print of my favorite droids from the original Star Wars. The Jawas selling robots scarred me for life and that's why I draw machines with feelings. (please add $5 outside the USA)
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The B.F.F. (Bespin Friends Forever): You get the full signed thumb drive package, plus a limited run signed print of the 1981 Solo Hunting Varsity Team, AKA my favorite bounty hunters from The Empire Strikes Back. As fellow Scum outside of the Empire, I feel a kinship with those self-employed dudes.
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Robot Rock: You get the full signed thumb drive package, PLUS a signed print of the glowing, pixel heads of heroes Daft Punk. (See update #15!)
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'83 RED LUFTBALLOONS: Do not ever talk smack about the Ewoks in my presence. This print depicts the galaxy's finest metaphor for "the little guy fighting back against the entrenched technocracy" this side of Zuccotti park. There will be Ewoks and they will be celebrating with balloons, as you do. Also includes the "Producer's Credit" package. (please add $5 outside the USA)
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The Tree-Killer: All of the above, plus a signed print of any comic (or single panel) from my archives except for $1310 because that sucker is 54 panels long. I'll even help you find the comic if you don't have a link. (please add $5 outside the USA)
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The Lover Who As Yet Is Still Not A Fighter: You get the full signed thumb drive package, PLUS I will build you a red, pinky purple and white Pixel Heart out of Lego. (Perma-glued and signed, approx 100 pieces.)
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The Death's Head: You get the full signed thumb drive package, PLUS I will build you Metal Steve's Pixel Skull out of Lego AKA Nerd Gold Bullion. (Perma-glued and signed, approx 121 pieces.)
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The Death's Head REDUX: You get the full signed thumb drive package, PLUS I will build you Metal Steve's Pixel Skull out of Lego AKA Nerd Gold Bullion. (Perma-glued and signed, approx 121 pieces.) I had no idea this would sell out before I even posted to my site.
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The Death's Head Re-Redux: You get the full signed thumb drive package, PLUS I will build you Metal Steve's Pixel Skull out of Lego AKA Nerd Gold Bullion. (Perma-glued and signed, approx 121 pieces.) These KEEP selling out. This is the last round.
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The Virtual Pet: You get the full signed thumb drive package, PLUS I will make you a life-size pixel cut out of any kitty, computer or appliance character from my comic. (If s/he sits on a countertop, it counts.)
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Leg-Oh, Canada! You get the full signed thumb drive package, PLUS I will build you a red and white Canadian maple leaf just like in my Pixel Canada shirt.
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The Trilogy: You get the full signed thumb drive package, plus the Sandcrawler, Bespin Friends Forever and '83 Red Luftballoons prints. Droids, Ewoks and Bounty Hunters, oh my! These are the last six.
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The Mr. Mostly-Toasty: You get the full signed thumb drive package, PLUS I will build you a Johnny Toaster out of Lego. (Perma-glued and signed, approx 250 pieces.) He is smaller than actual size, but will have removable toast and pixel flames.
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T-SHIRT TIME MACHINE! You get the full signed thumb drive package, plus I will bring back any t-shirt I have ever made for Diesel Sweeties that I have the rights to. I'll sell it on my site for two weeks and you can have a DOZEN of them in any sizes and styles that I can get. (colors permitting)
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The Baco-Vegetarian: You get the full signed thumb drive package, plus I'll give up my almost unbroken 2-year stretch of vegetarianism to cook and EAT A POUND OF BACON. I will also make a video, cursing you for how sick this will make me. Bonus: I will hate myself. Double bonus: My ghost will haunt you.
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The Puny Mortal: Crushed by Red Robot! You get the full signed thumb drive package, plus I'll draw you into a comic strip during 2012 where Red Robot will kill you on-screen. Comes with a signed print of your death. I choose the manner of death, but promise you'll suffer.
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The Holodeck Romance: You get the full signed thumb drive package, plus I'll draw the cast of your favorite Star Trek crew and send you a signed print. This Star Trek crew will be declared The Best and anyone who disagrees with you will hereby be Wrong. (I cannot draw the 2009 movie actors for moral reasons.)
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The Apocalyptical: You get the full signed thumb drive package, plus I will PERSONALLY prevent the end of all life on Earth if the Apocalypse occurs on December 21, 2012. No refunds if by some off chance a religious prophecy was misinterpreted and winds up being bullshit.
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DON'T CALL IT A BOOK TOUR! All of the above, plus I'll come deliver up to ten of the signed thumb drive editions of the book in person. Need a day of icon consultations at work? Want to do an event at your local book or computer store? I'll bring coffee. (USA only)
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THE WINDOWMAKER: I have never, ever, ever in my twenty years using Photoshop drawn a comic on a Windows computer. I have turned down jobs with benefits because they didn't have Macs. Choose this reward and I will draw my comic strip using a Windows computer every night for a month. THERE WILL BE SUCH CUSSING… unless you prove me wrong, Mr. Billsworth J. Gates.
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I will give up coffee for one month. No Red Bulls or energy drinks, either. Tea and soft drinks stay in my diet.
Project By
Connected as Richard Stevens (1834 friends)
I draw robots and girls and music snobs in pixels. I was briefly tricked into drawing comics for newspapers, but it almost killed me. I'm glad I had more faith in the internet than in a big company.
only 150 megs for a 4 gig drive? Time to redraw/vectorize the whole series!
@sam It'll probably be a gig or so of books when all the files are complete, but this is much better than not having enough space!
I can store my extra robot porn.