Cover concepts for the BICP Master’s Edition!
Playing around with different accents, scales, and “how hardcore minimalist do I want to get.”
Favorites? Suggestions? Ideas?
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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.)
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.
A couple months ago, I had a vague idea of doing it in May? But now…yeah, I’m definitely not doing it in May. (I’m not even billing my supporters on Patreon in May.)
Better news: I’ve been working on a little digital somethin’ somethin’ in the meantime, and that will be ready to drop next week.
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.
I’m giving WP Optimize a trial run on BICP.
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!)
But I’m A Cat Person had overactive caching issues this past week, same as Leif & Thorn did — it just wasn’t as obvious, because this site doesn’t have daily updates for readers to notice when they’re missing.
More background in this post, if you’re curious about the technical details.
Good news is, it’s fixed now! Any pages you loaded since Friday the 6th, you’ll have to refresh them one more time — but that’ll get you a non-sticky version from here on out.
Other good news: the proof copy of BICP Volume 7 arrived, and I got my cat to pose with it!
What a stunning model of grace and elegance.
(His name is Marshmallow Fluff. He’s still nervous about being petted or touched…but he’s come a long way from his “squeeze into the smallest corner possible and don’t move” stage, thanks to almost 6 months in a stable home, with regular meals and all the toys he can swat.)
Volume 7 is the one that opens with here’s what you missed on BICP, which means less space for bonus material in the back. But I added an extra 4 pages and managed to squeeze a few cool things in.
This is also the volume where I started putting full shading on the original pages — which made the art-updating process go a lot faster.
Chapter 23 (along with the recap that preceded it) was edited to the audiobook of Good Omens. Because I wanted to revisit it after seeing the Amazon miniseries…and yes, there’s a physical copy on my shelf, but I did not have time to sit and read it.
Chapter 24 was updated to the 4th season of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow. That show started rough, but boy has it hit its stride by now.
Chapter 25 was touched-up to the 2nd season of Mindhunter. Which…was awfully short. Possibly I needed something else to ride through the last few pages, but it wasn’t long enough to remember.
Chapter 26 — the first one where I didn’t have to add a new credit line, move a single word balloon, or add padding for a 2-page spread — was finished off during half the audiobook of Hollow Kingdom. Just half! Then all the work was done!
(I listened to the rest of it while doing other print-prep stuff. And queuing the next round of single-issue PDFs to release on ComiXology and DriveThruComics.)
This…might actually be the last of the page-redrawing efforts. Chapters 27 onward might just be released as-is.
But that’s a decision to save for Volume 8.
As for volume 7: Watch BICP’s Lulu store for the print version, BICP’s Gumroad storefront for the ebook, or BICP’s regular comic feed for the release of both!
Your artist will be a vendor at this year’s Flaming River Con, a one-day convention for LGBTQ geek culture!
It’s September 21, 2019, from 10 AM to 6 PM, hosted at the Cleveland Public Library.
I’ll be doing on-the-spot sketch commissions, and selling Volumes 1 of both BICP and Leif & Thorn, along with mini-prints, pins, and a whole heap of fanart.
Here’s a quick preview of the panel schedule:
Follow Flaming River Con on Facebook or on Instagram for vendor details, volunteer opportunities, and anything else you want to know.
See you there!
The mini pin Kickstarter was funded — in the last six hours before deadline — thanks to all these backers!
Fancy bundles
Simone Spinozzi
Clara Danao
JasZ
Beth Domholdt
Pin packages
DialMforMara
Judith Owens
dani, the geek
Alienea
Tom Allman
Inahc
Amanda
Lielac
Angie
Jennifer Priester
anna
Digital bonuses
Svirdilu
Eva S
Because of them, the Tiernan pins are in production — and the Patrick pins are already here!
(The part of Monster Cybele is played by a bunny planter I got in a post-Easter sale. Cheapest BICP-themed accessory I’ve ever gotten.)
The colors in the photos are a little washed-out by the flash — in real life, he looks like he popped right out of a BICP page and into your hands.
Unlike with the books, the pins aren’t going up online for general sale. If you missed getting a preorder, they’ll be available on Patreon eventually, and will be used as extra rewards in future Kickstarters. Stick around!
Follow this link to get your cute enamel versions of Patrick, Tiernan, or both.
(Shipping for 2 pins is the same as for 1, so you might as well get both!)
They come with free ebooks to sweeten the deal, and there may be other digital treats posted for backers along the way.
This is a Quickstarter, which means the fundraising goal is low ($650) and the deadline is near (July 11, at 11:59 PM, US Eastern). Good news is, there’s no limit on backers, and no rule against overfunding.
I have this same poll running on the Leif & Thorn site, but if you read both comics, feel free to vote in both! I’d love to know if the answers are different between the two audiences.
(Also, if you can’t afford to support the comic right now, feel free to answer “if I could, here are the rewards I would like to get.”)
What kind of Patreon rewards do you find most appealing? (Pick as many as you want, and/or add your own!)
This is the first book where I’ve had to print any really high-stakes two-page spreads. (The Patrick flashback in chapter 19, and the new cover art for chapter 20.)
In the print-ready file, I arranged it so part of each 2-page image is duplicated on either side of the fold. Hopefully the duplicate art is what gets swallowed up by the center margins, and we’re left with a passable image where all the text is readable. Cross your fingers!
