Exact parallels to the softcover bundles, just heavier.
Sketched Hardcover Omnibus: all the books, signed, with original art drawn inside. Plus the digital version of the omnibus, the bonus “Being Q&A” ebook (now with spoilers!), and your name printed in the credits.
Hardcover Omnibus + Merch Bundle: all the books, with a Patrick pin and a cute new sticker set. Also comes with the full ebook set and the credits.
These two have such a good friendship. Bianca is the “don’t be so guarded and suspicious that you shut down what could be really strong connections” one, and Sparrow is the “don’t beat yourself up over stuff that’s obviously not your fault” one.
That said, we might not make enough to print extra stock. Which means, if you miss the campaign and then want to buy the books later on, there’s a good chance there won’t be any left. The only way to make sure you get your own boxset is to back now.
Plus: as usual, Kickstarter backers also get a bonus mini-print with their books. And these are exclusives, which means they absolutely won’t be for sale later.
Which art are you getting on the print? Well…
I went through 10 years’ worth of chapter covers, wallpapers, anniversary art, and other bonus illustrations, and narrowed it down to these 10 candidates:
Chapter 1 – Puppy Dog Eyes
Chapter 18 – Snow Night
Pride looks wallpaper
Chapter 20 – This Never Got Discussed At The Career Center
Anniversary swing
Chapter 28 – Let’s Go Steal A Shapeshifter
Wedding wallpaper
Favorite characters
Chapter 29 – REVELATION
Final page
(The actual print will be clean art, no title text or word balloons. Don’t worry about the exact dimensions, either — whichever one wins, I’ll make a version of the art that fits perfectly onto the print.)
And here’s a poll! Pick up to 3 favorite illustrations from the set above, and we’ll find out which one is…top dog. (*rimshot*)
All print volumes of But I’m A Cat Person are on sale for 20% off! So if you only got the first few copies and haven’t been able to round out the set…now would be a great time.
Just use the coupon code “ITSHERE” at checkout. And don’t put it off too long, because the sale ends May 8 at 11:59 PM. (Possibly earlier, depending on your time zone…)
In other news, the BICP Art Collection has done a great round of sales since it was launched — enough that I decided to send TLDEF the first $70 contribution this afternoon. (With a little add-on of my own to cover the transaction fee.)
If you didn’t get the artbook during the opening-weekend rush, don’t worry! It’s still available — and I’ll make more donations every so often as the proceeds add up, so whatever you pay will be bundled with the next one.
Good news first: I’m doing an omnibus release of But I’m A Cat Person — still pondering what to do with the covers, but I know it’ll be a three-volume set — and the interior files are almost done!
Basically, it’s all over but the bonus material. And yeah, that’s a significant “but”, considering that’s the part that needs the most new drawing. Still good progress.
I decided to lay out the book interiors from scratch in Scribus, a freeware alternative to Adobe InDesign. Wanted to see how well it handles all the functions I find myself needing in the course of a real, active project.
Long story short, it works great. Minor differences, but I’ve found everything I needed, and the program has not once crashed while exporting a PDF. (Which you might think should go without saying…unless you’ve used InDesign.)
First pass at a layout for the start of Master’s Edition 1. (The post header image shows the layout I revised this into.)
Less-good news: I’m not setting a firm date for the Kickstarter yet. Partly because of the global economic chaos, partly because the Post Office is so busy delivering everyone’s groceries and toilet paper that they don’t have a lot of time for books right now.
Better news: I’ve been working on a little digital somethin’ somethin’ in the meantime, and that will be ready to drop next week.
Digital artbook layout preview.
See, BICP has built up a huge catalog of ancillary material over the past decade. More than I’d realistically be able to print, even in the Master’s Edition.
But a PDF artbook? I can make that as loooong as I want, forget about conserving space and make everything full-page as often as I want, and still afford to give it a “pay as much as you want” release.
So I’m gonna. Proceeds will go to a good cause. Stay tuned.
If you run into any problems seeing new comments or loading new pages, let me know!
…I realize this is complicated with BICP, because the problem might be “the update is late.” Could’ve tried it on Leif & Thorn first, but that site has more visits and more updates, so the fallout from breaking it would be bigger
And I’m already using And Shine Heaven Now to test a competitor plugin, WP Super Cache. (Which will come out on top? Place your bets now!)