Tuesday 8 November 2016

CEREBUS ARCHIVE NUMBER SIX READY FOR LAUNCH

Sandeep's working at home today, getting the Kickstarter for CEREBUS ARCHIVE NUMBER SIX ready for launch now that he has all of the pieces in place.

I've written a 14-part (one part a day for 14 days) series that (God willing) will be starting here on A MOMENT OF CEREBUS alongside the new Kickstarter under the blanket title "CAN WE KEEP GOING? THE TMI ANSWER", addressing, in depth, the "Cerebus-Ending Crisis" we've been in since July of this year.

I'm hoping TimW will run the usual AMOC content alongside it since 14 uninterrupted days are apt to be "a little much".

Included in the later instalments will be my answers to the Top Four Survey Questions posed by our Pledge Partners.

Whenever you're ready, Sandeep!

23 comments:

Travis Pelkie said...

OK, cool, another Archive already! Woo hoo!

I picked up #5 at my PO last Friday (and it was there at least a few days beforehand). You all will be pleased to note that when the lady at the desk handed me the package, she commented on how well it was taped up and packaged to avoid damage in transit. Go you guys!

And other than the rip I made when undoing the tab on the thing (argh!), it all looked good to me when I opened it up! (I ought to open #4 at some point too...)

Two (or three) things while I'm thinking of it:

I'm completely fine with not having the PO tracking emails that Funkmeister used. Usually, I'd get a few updates once the package got from you in Kitchener to the border in the US, then nothing for a friggin' week until the morning it was at the PO. D'oh! So that's fine, although you may wish to send a Kickstarter update saying that the packages have shipped. I don't think you guys sent one, unless I missed the email from Kickstarter.

That said, if you aren't using PO tracking, you may wish to put some sort of return address label on the package somewhere. Knowing the PO, it's entirely possible that the packages can get lost in transit and not make it to the addressee (or something be wrong with the address so the PO deems it undeliverable). It'd be a shame for someone's package to get lost that way.

Anyway, looks good and now I have to find that one credit card of mine and activate it, so I have somewhere to charge the Archive to!

Sandeep Atwal said...

Okay, CA6 is basically ready for launch...I'm going to show it to Dave tomorrow, we'll make any final corrections and it will be ready to go. Probably Friday. Weird that 25 years ago I bought Cerebus 139 and now I'm doing this. No good deed goes unpunished!

Sandeep Atwal said...

LOL...those packages were a pain to put together! Glad the work was appreciated by a professional! Weird that you didn't have a return address on yours, they should have all had one, I'll double-check this time and make sure they all get one. Yeah, don't know why I didn't post an update saying they had shipped out. Dave did one here, but I'll make sure to post it on Kickstarter this time. If anyone has any other shipments, let me know!

Margaret said...

Sandeep - I agree with the lady at Travis' PO. That had to be the best packaged CA kickstarter package yet. It was easy to open, and there was no damage to the contents - neither during transit nor while I opened it. I like the pieces of cardboard (hate foam / styrofoam peanuts).

Travis Pelkie said...

Yeah, that's right, the little cardboard pieces that held the portfolio in place were good too. I managed to get the package partly open, enough to get the portfolio out without damage. Didn't quite get it back IN right, but hey, it's mine now!

Jeff Seiler said...

Opened up my #301 today, in pristine shape. My packages also did not have return address on them. One looked like a label up there had been ripped off.

BTW, Dave, amazing deconstruction of those pages, as well as spot-on psychology. For a guy known as a "M-word", you sure are extremely observant of the psychology of the gender across the aisle.

Sandeep Atwal said...

Ah, I think I know what happened, we dropped them all off at "Packaging Too" who handled the actual mailing, so it went out from them, and the return address would have been them instead of A-V. Glad to hear the packaging held up!

Damian T. Lloyd, Esq. said...

Note to readers: The viewpoint expressed in Jeff S.'s last sentence is not one shared by all, or even most, individuals with familiarity with the subjects involved.

I look forward very much to Dave's "TMI" series. His willingness to divulge actual facts and figures about Cerebus is helpful to both Cerebus supporters and other creators, as well as those with an interest in the comics business.

-- Damian

Jeff Seiler said...

Damian, don' be a jerk. I have never claimed that my opinions represent the views of anyone but myself. Sheesh.

Damian T. Lloyd, Esq. said...

Jeff: Not only are you a reactionary sycophant, but you are not honest in debate. Look at what I wrote; you know or should know that my words do not say or imply that you are speaking for anyone but yourself. A reasonable reader would not derive the meaning you impute from the words I said. You're making it up out of your head. It's a straw man -- which, if you really do view Dave as your mentor in thinking (as you said a couple of posts ago) is entirely unsurprising.



-- Damian

A Moment Of Cerebus said...

Damian & Jeff,
Just a quick "FYI" for you both... Somebody just emailed me to ask why I put up with you two squabbling in the AMOC Comments section. This is how I replied:

Hi XXXXX,
The last time the 'Jeff & Daimain Show' kicked-off (about a year ago) I was about ready to walk away from AMOC. I concluded trying to referee the AMOC Comments was a thankless task where, inevitably, someone will remain unhappy. Changing the sites comments policy to make it an 'anything goes' zone transformed my life and I now have a sunny, positive out-look on life... so I'm very reluctant to get involved at all. I do agree with you though. You'd think they'd both have better, more positive things to do with their lives.
Kind regards,
Tim

iestyn said...

Tim
you LITERALLY just made my day 100% better

Travis Pelkie said...

I think we all know they just wanna kiss, anyway ;)

I'M JOKING, GUYS! CHILL!

A Moment Of Cerebus said...

Back to the topic at hand... my copy of Cerebus Archive 5 arrived (in the U.K.) today! Thanks Dave and Sandeep!

Lee Thacker said...

Mine arrived today too (UK) - just about to check it out.

Bill Ritter said...

On a note of the Archives...
An attempted ordering of:
CEREBUS ARCHIVE DIAMOND EDITIONS:

Cerebus Archive Number 1 - SEP140947
Cerebus Archive Number 2 - FEB150878
Cerebus Archive Number 3 - JUL150858

resulted in Diamond notification these were not available.

Maybe a "not yet in stock" issue; LCS will try again in a few weeks. Nevertheless, these do not appear to be orderable at this time.

Jeff Seiler said...

Hey, I don't like the squabbling either, but D.'s passive-aggressive just gets under my skin sometimes. To quote the leader of the free world (well, leader-elect), he's just "such a nasty woman". ;)

Lee Thacker said...

Travis - 'And other than the rip I made when undoing the tab on the thing (argh!)' - same thing happened to me! The 'tabs' were a bit more 'snug' this time. Still, looking forward to CANS (or CA6 or CAN6):))
P.S. Jeff and Damian - get room! :)Seriously, I DO enjoy reading your AMOC disagreements.

Damian T. Lloyd, Esq. said...

Tim W: I would like to apologize if I have made your approaching this blog less pleasant. Please accept that any such conduct came from thoughtlessness rather than malice. I add my thanks to the many who appreciate the work you put in here.

Jeff S.: My 19:37 comment was going for understated or sarcastic rather than passive-aggressive, but I'll watch out for that in future. I believe that your 23:58 comment misinterpreted my words (and not for the first time), but I think upon reflection that my 01:49 snark was intemperate, incommensurate, and unnecessary.

Readers: I think Dave's series of "TMI" posts will be most interesting.

There was a guy who ran a website about self-publishing and ethics in comics and stuff. (Does anyone remember this? I'm blanking on names. He was kind of a prickly asshole -- Oh! Sorry, that's a mirror. But he was, though.) He put up Dave's contract with DC for a Fables story they wanted Dave to draw. It was very interesting to see what they wanted and for how much, and what Dave thought was reasonable in reply.

Or skim the posts about the "Cerebus Archive" portfolios. We see the actual facts and figures about sales and expenses. For some reason, too many creators are reluctant to share this information too specifically. I guess it's gauche or something. But this information is gold to newer creators, who can tailor their expectations to something anchored in reality.

The "TMI" series should be most illuminating. Dave is struggling to keep a long-form work in print and available at a time when attention spans are dropping, "content wants to be free" makes it increasingly difficult to make money from creative endeavours, and the absorption of the "mainstream" comics business into Hollywood makes it harder to sell a comic that's only a comic. His willingness to share TMI might benefit Cerebus; perhaps some astute reader will see an avenue that Dave did not. And TMI might help other creators avoid the pitfalls and follow the trails that Dave has already checked out.

-- Damian

Kit said...

Al Nickerson.

Unknown said...

Travis - That torn tab is going to stick with you the rest of your life. If you want to send it back for a replacement, we can make a special note to include it with your #6.

I'm SURE you're going to be a lot more careful with your tabs in the future. :)

Unknown said...

Lee -- ditto on your torn tab.

Unknown said...

Jeff and Damian - I don't really see a problem with this. Obviously Jeff thinking I have a good understanding of women is going to rub Damian (and Barry Deutsch and other feminists) the wrong way.

I think the way forward isn't ad hominem attacks, but to cite a couple of examples: "Here's an/a couple of example(s) of a comment(s) in the CAN5 NOTES that I thought was/were astute".

But, accepting the fact that feminists are just not likely to see anything I say about women as being anywhere close to astute.