Good News, Bad News, and Good News

by on April 8, 2019 at 12:52 pm
Posted In: Blog Entries

Just an update on the printing of my colored RUNNERS Volume 1 book: there’s good news, bad news, and good news again.

The Good News: about a week ago, the printed books were delivered!

The Bad News: Upon reviewing the books, I was super disappointed to see that a lot of pages were oversaturated, throwing the look of the characters off and making those pages too dark overall. I’m not crazy-nitpicky, but it was certainly something that made the art less than it should be, especially as the volume that’s supposed to launch the entire series. And for a year of coloring work and as the book that I’ll be selling for years to come, I just wasn’t happy with the results. For the past week, I’ve been waiting as the printer reviewed their files to see if it was a problem on their end or mine (although I already knew it was not mine).

The Good News: I talked to the printer today and they did acknowledge that it was a saturation setting on their end. We discussed options, but ultimately I want to have the run reprinted with the correct color settings. Unfortunately, since they’re schedule is pretty packed, the new run won’t be until June. They suggested that I could fulfill current orders with the books in hand and they’d reprint the remaining, but this didn’t seem fair. I didn’t want the earliest supporters (Kickstarter backers and pre-sale buyers) to get the “inferior” version now, just to have a better version later. So I guess we all wait.

I feel terrible about this on many fronts. I really hate the idea of pulping an entire run of books, but they really fall short of my expectations for the art. I really hate the idea of making people wait even longer to get the books. But I hope everyone will be understanding and find the wait worth it. I want to get people the best possible version of the book, and I hope this next print run will make that possible.

On the plus side, the printer has been nice to work with. They also printed my Vol 2 color book a number of years ago, and that was spot-on perfect. I don’t know what happened with this one, but they have been willing to make it right, which is great.

More updates to come…

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Patreon-Bound!

by on March 28, 2019 at 2:55 pm
Posted In: Blog Entries

Just wanted to give RUNNERS fans a heads-up. Apparently Patreon will be making some changes in their rates in early May, but any creators with live projects will get grandfathered into the current rates. I was planning to launch a Patreon at some point this year, but in order to get in on the better rates, it looks like I will be launching sooner rather than later.

So I will officially launch a Patreon page in April! It will most likely be a soft launch with only a few tiers, and once Vol 3 enters actual production, I’ll be pushing it much more since I’ll be generating much more content at that point. But in the meantime, for those of you who would like to support RUNNERS in an ongoing way, look for the Patreon in April. I’ll be sure to post more about it here, as well as what I will be offering backers as rewards.

Generally speaking, I will be offering a lot of behind-the-scenes content. All the actual comic pages, along with commentary, will still appear here on RunnersUniverse. But the majority of the concept sketches, along with associated commentary, will move to Patreon. I may also be offering higher-res images of the comic pages, as well as some fully-layered color PSDs, for those artists who’d like to see how I color a page. Other rewards may include voting privileges for certain aliens, color schemes, etc. Maybe even the written scripts, if people are into that sort of thing. It will definitely be a balancing act between what I offer here for free (always the story itself!), what I post on Instagram and other social media (for promo), and what I reserve for Patreon as paid content.

I’m excited to finally get a Patreon account going and I hope readers will support RUNNERS there. For those who aren’t familiar, it’s very much like Kickstarter but in on ongoing format. So while Kickstarter generally funds the production of a physical graphic novel at certain intervals, Patreon funds the creation of the series itself over time! Once you create an account, you can choose projects to back on a regular basis, paying either by the post or by the month. For me, it would be a way to bring in some sort of dependable income while I continue to work on RUNNERS, which otherwise only gets funded sporadically with Kickstarter projects. I hope those who really enjoy the series will consider backing the Patreon. Basically, for the cost of a comic a month, you’d be able to show support for the series and allow me to continue to do it (which I’m going to do anyway, but the more I earn means the more freelance I can turn down to solely focus on the comic.)

In the meantime, if there’s anything you’d like to see in a RUNNERS Patreon, feel free to chime in here! I have a number of ideas settled on already, but I’d love to consider some additional offerings as well.

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Khoruysa Brimia 3-D Printed Ship Now Available!!

by on February 28, 2019 at 3:42 pm
Posted In: Blog Entries

I’ve been waiting a long time to see my RUNNERS ships in 3-D (as have some other people), and now, it is done! Working from my various drawings, my good friend and amazing 3-D artist David White has sculpted the Khoruysa Brimia, Roka’s smuggling ship from my series!

It’s been done for a little while, but I needed some time to order my own copies to check them out before posting about them. But they look amazing, and if you’re interested in having your own physical version of the ship, you can now order your own from https://www.shapeways.com/shops/mecha-zone-toys

The ship is available in 2 different sizes and multiple material options. The smaller one is 4.75″ long and starts at $35. The larger one is 7″ long and starts at $99. I think the details really shine at the 7″ size, but it looks nice at the 4.5″ size too.

The basic material is Versatile Plastic, and the white color comes in Natural, Processed, or Premium finishing. The Natural is a bit rough and grainy, like a fine sandpaper texture, which I’m not crazy about. The Processed is the next level up and is a smoother texture. The difference between Natural and Processed is negligible, so it’s pretty much a no-brainer to go for Processed. Premium is smoother still, but honestly, I don’t necessarily think it’s worth double the price of Processed.

The colored plastic is available in Processed finish only, but as I mentioned above, that’s probably my top pick anyway for look and price. There are even fancy Steel options but those are currently outside my budget! Ha ha! I opted for the 4.75″ in white (to review all 3 finishes) and the 7″ in blue. I think the color versions really shows off the detail more than the white. White might be better for painting, but I have not played around with that so I have no idea how the material accepts paint.

For each size, the stand is sold separately and plugs into a rectangular hole in the bottom of the ship. For the stand, I think the Natural finish is fine.  If you do place an order, it will give you a long delivery time of maybe a month, but in actuality, the turnaround time is much shorter.

It’s super cool to be able to finally see my ship in 3-D and hopefully it won’t be the last. David really knocked it out of the park with this sculpt! And if you want to see more of his work, which consists mostly of intricately articulated 3-D printed robots, check out his site at www.mechanauts.net!

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Vol 1 at Printer!

by on February 7, 2019 at 11:38 am
Posted In: Blog Entries

The files for Volume 1 are now at the printer!! We’ll see what turnaround time is but I expect it’ll be a few weeks. In the meantime, I’ll be ordering the reward items, like prints and character cards, and starting to sign the Vol 2 books  that I already have here. So once I get the new books, I’ll already have most of the other stuff ready to go.

Kickstarter backers should also be on the lookout for download links to the digital edition! Those will be sent out very shortly. Woot woot!!

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RUNNERS Vol 1 Color Page Swap

by on January 28, 2019 at 12:55 pm
Posted In: Blog Entries

I am now just about done with all the random work for the book (bonus content, ISBN info, reviewing all artwork and lettering, etc), so it’ll be going off to the printer very shortly.

I’ll also be looking to swap out all the old b&w pages here on runnersuniverse.com with the new color pages. All the old commentary and comments will stay, but it’ll be nice to have all the story content in color on this site!

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