Coming Tomorrow: New Cerebus related KICKSTARTER! *YAY!*

Hi, Everybody!

Go back and look at yesterday's post, Sean sent in a bunch more of the UNDEVELOPED, unfinished covers he made while making the new Living the Line edition cover for The Strange Death of Alex Raymond.

Speaking of the New Strange Death of Alex Raymond, the Kickstarter is all out of the #301 signed and numbered editions with the fancy-schmancy bookplate signed by Dave and Carson. But you can still get a copy signed by JUST Carson. Or, buy The Strange Death of Alex Raymond from the Diamond if you want it and don't want it "ruined" by having the artist guy's signature on it. (Weirdo...) Or give all your money to Bezos and buy it on Amazon!  No matter what, follow Living the Line on the FaceItBooks.

Speaking of the Kickstarters...

A new one is starting at (hopefully) noon tomorrow.

"WHAT!?! THOSE RAT BASTARDS AT THE WAVERLY PRESS ARE STARTING ANOTHER ONE BEFORE I GET MY REGENCY EDITION!! THIS IS SO UNETHICAL!!! I'M CALLING DAVE!!!!!!!!!!!!" -an "anonymous" commenter (I presume...)

Geez calm down. It's not the Waverly Press.

It's not Cerebus #2 remastered and expanded , and it's not Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #8 either.

Damn you "guys" "trigger" easy...

No, it's:

Yay! Benjamin Hobbs has a Kickstarter! His first one. So be nice.

The good news?

Volume 1 is printed and at Ben's place. So if you back, and select volume 1 as a reward, you're pretty much guaranteed to get it.

The Kickstarter is for twenty-one days. Volume 2 is at the printer, and should be to Ben by the end of the campaign, so turn around should be pretty quick.

The whole campaign is pretty streamlined. 

Three tiers. Volume 1, Volume 2, and then both books together.

Three stretch goals: A trading card, another trading card and a tip-in bookplate signed by Ben.

You've probably noticed I haven't mentioned dollar amounts yet.

That's because there's a little bit of a sticker shock.

Each book is $70.

And the two volumes together are $140.

Now, before you go off on Hobbs in the comments, this isn't a "shameless cash grab"!

The books REALLY are this expensive.

Ya need to understand that Swords of Cerebus volume 1 sold 350 copies through Diamond. The MINIMUM order through Marquis is a thousand copies. And, yeah, Dave & Co. could have shopped around and found another printer that could have handled a smaller print run, but then they'd be dealing with all the printing issues that they've already fixed in their dealings with Marquis.

So Dave was gonna "eat" the 650 overprint copies. Enter our lovable friend Hobbs. He got the genius idea to do the hardcovers. BUT, hardcovers required different binding. And the WHOLE run had to have it. Hobbs paid for it. And 150 hardcovers. So his cost per unit is a lot higher because of all the rigamarole going in to these things.

"But Marvel and DC sell similar books for a whole lot less..."

Let me introduce a little thing I call VOLUME.

*One of Matt's sorta pointless stories about his Dad you guys all "tune out" during Please Hold For Dave Sim*

Many years ago, my Dad came across a woman selling funny novelty buttons. One of the buttons said "Mustache rides: a nickel". My Dad tried to argue and say that they were a quarter. The lady responded: "What you lose in profit you make up in volume..."

And that's how Marvel and DC can afford to sell their books for so cheap.

They print thousands of their books.

Ben has 150. But he had to pay the extra to bind a thousand, plus for the actual 150 he's got.

And then he did it again for volumes 2 and 3.

He's not looking to recoup those costs, as much as fund the printing of volume 4.

(At this point I feel I need to point out that I haven't heard anything about the sales on volumes 2 and 3 of Swords of Cerebus in Hell?, so I have no idea if Dave's making money yet. Probably not...)

The campaign is looking for $200. If one guy buys both volumes, and somebody else buys one volume (either one), the campaign is funded. Yay!

The stretch goals are first trading card at $3000, second trading card at $6000, and the tip-in plate at $9000.

By a SHOCKING coincidence, if Ben makes $3000, he limps on to print volume 4. And if he gets $6000, volume 4 is printed comfortably, and if he gets $9000, he ALMOST makes a profit. (Anything after that, and his fiancée, the wonderful Laura McFarland (writer of The Unethical Spider-Vark, I've read a preview copy and it's hilarious, order yours today) won't have to spend her honeymoon in a fort made of  Swords of Cerebus in Hell? hardcovers... She can just do that for fun before they get shipped out to all the nice people who back this Kickstarter...)

"Okay Dow, but I got a CAN#, can I get that on my Hardcover?"

That's a good question, my astute friend. And the answer is...maybe.

The books are printed XXX out of 150. Dave got 1 2 and 3. Hobbs has 4-150. He's offering a hundred through the campaign, so if your CAN# is between 4 and 150, "Bob's your Uncle".

"But my CAN# is higher than 150? *WAH!*"

Well, sucks to be yo...I mean, maybe Hobbs can write it in with a marker or something. I dunno, ask him. Jesus, I'm just the Hype-Man. I ain't running this train. I'm a passenger just like the rest of you.

Okay, I think that's everything...

Wait, Hobbs is offering a sketch in your book. I THINK it's fifty bucks, but check back tomorrow to see if I'm wrong...

Alright, I did my duty.

Next Time: Cerebus & Hobbs Kickstarter Edition!