Hallelujah!
over 10 years ago – Fri, Jun 26, 2015 at 11:26:25 AM

The grand news, for those of you who may have missed it in mid-week social media postings:

The.

Books.

ARE.

HERE!!

Ahem. And they are beautemous. Behold the video proof:

Voilà!

So now I just need to find those few foolhardy souls who so naiv-- I mean kindly volunteered to help pack envelopes at a ship party, and lure them into my clutches with pizza! Yes, there will be pictures. I may even pop champagne. ;-)

Another major piece of news: it's official, the money has changed hands -- I will be tabling at APE (Alternative Press Expo) in San Jose this year!

That's October 3-4, folks, so if you're in the Bay Area then, get you a ticket and come see me. :-) I'm excited and terrified: my first con as an exhibitor!

On other fronts, I have gotten more or less past the wickedly detailed scene-setting bits of the initial sequence of Volume 2 and more into the FUN stuff to draw -- you know, like vampires suffering miserably for your cruel amusement. And I am almost done with a bit of a surprise bonus for those of y'all who ordered handwritten vampire proverbs from Signor Ambrogio, but you'll have to wait till next update to see that. ::evil grin::

It's really happening, you guys! And it's you I have to thank for it all. Give yourselves a good solid Snoopy dance for me!

Guess whaaaaaaat... :-)
over 10 years ago – Fri, Jun 26, 2015 at 11:25:42 AM

I only have one announcement today, but I think it's a doozy. :-D

THAT'S RIGHT KIDS!! It's outta customs purgatory and getting loaded on the truck! Pop the champagne -- bake the cake -- tell the chorus line to get their well-toned butts into it! (In that order. The order is important there.)

Now, they actually had to break my print run into two shipments so as to cram their shipping containers with maximum efficiency :-D, and I have no idea if the shipments will be closely spaced or not. But I'm not worried, because unless they split it into one HUUUUGE order and one itty bitty one, the first shipment should contain all the books I need to fulfill Kickstarter orders.

You psyched for this? I'm psyched for this! My cats will freak out and my husband will give the massive stacks of boxes doleful looks, but I'm psyched!

Signing off gratefully from the land of "we now understand why print-published books so often release late"...

Watch your head, a lotta things are flying together!
over 10 years ago – Fri, Jun 26, 2015 at 11:25:29 AM

Some of you will already be hip to all this because you're on the weekly or monthly email newsletter, but for anybody who hasn't joined the cool kids yet ;-) (I kid, I kid!) --

Buttons came in! I ordered them from PureButtons.com and they came out great:

So that means we've got all the non-custom merch in except for the darn books. However, those are on the way!

Last I heard, the books had made it to US shores, which allowed PrintNinja to give me an estimate of how big the shipment is physically going to be (like 40 boxes! Whew!). However, they must still be stuck in customs or something, because I haven't yet gotten word that they've been handed over to the ground carrier. I'm expecting that notification any day now. When I get it, then I will have a more specific ETA on when the books will arrive, and y'all will be the first to know. :-D

Again, I will be shipping out everybody's non-custom rewards first, and then send along the custom art later as it's finished, so that pledgers don't have to wait for portraits, comic cameos and such to be done before they can get the rest of their stuff!

Meanwhile, I am gathering the materials that I didn't already have for the custom art -- that's mainly the calligraphy pens, sealing wax et al for Ambrogio's "vampire proverbs." Just missing the seal itself now...which will be just as classy as you would expect from an elder undead, I assure you. ;-)

Aaaaand I am working very hard on the initial pages for the Volume 2 launch! Some of my making-of I'm saving up for the Patreon, but here's a little taste for you...this is from page 1:

Monica knows how to make an entrance. I've been struggling a lot for the last couple weeks in terms of art production...for those of you who missed it, there was a whirlwind of work involved with a household move that we THOUGHT we were going to be doing, and then ended up not doing, and now there's another whirlwind of work involved with staying, like, buying real furniture -- real as IKEA makes anyway -- and assembling it and stuff. Also, lots of piddling annoying business tasks like getting my seller's permit and business license set up so I can do things like vendor at APE later this year ;-)...many fees and forms to that, of course. But hey, that stuff is boring!

And finally! Please tell all your peeps that missed the Kickstarter that the Deluxe Digital Edition of Vol 1 is now available to purchase on Gumroad! BTW, Gumroad also takes care of all the pesky VATMOSS stuff for you EU folks. Stress-free shopping. Here's that link!

https://gumroad.com/l/ADV1

Or if you Tweet, you can just click the tweety bird here. How I spoil you, eh? ;-)

Hope everyone's having a most lovely late-spring!

And now, for your friends who missed the Kickstarter!
over 10 years ago – Fri, Jun 26, 2015 at 11:24:22 AM

Happy allergy season...::achoo::

This week's announcement is for all your sad friends who missed the Kickstarter! If they want a lovely hi-res digital copy of After Daylight, Vol. 1, well, they can now order one from Gumroad! This is available to customers all over the globe, btw, not just the U.S. -- Gumroad figures out all the pesky VATMOSS stuff, it turns out. So that's one hurdle, er, hurdled.

And here's that link! Trumpet it far and wide: https://gumroad.com/l/ADV1

I have not yet heard from PrintNinja that the physical books have hit our shores, but I do expect to be getting that news pretty soon now. ^^ Once they arrive in port I am supposed to be getting an ETA on the ground shipping arrival date.

I am also happy to report that the "Feelin' UNSparkly" buttons are underway, and the first sequence of Volume 2 is shaping up nicely! If you ordered custom art that is to appear in Volume 2, by the way, once Volume 2 launches I'll be contacting all of you to get your reference photos, preferences, etc. And then, in the order the pledges were made, I'll go down the list working y'all into the story! Marker portraits are also being handled in the order the pledges were received, btw.

Hey little vampires of mine, you may think I do you wrong an awful lot in the comic, and maybe you're right, BUT you'll always have one advantage over us mortal folk: no allergies. So count your blessings!

--Sarah

A-Wandering I Go
over 10 years ago – Fri, Jun 26, 2015 at 11:24:04 AM

Just a quickie today, I fear, because I am traveling this weekend and haven't even finished laundry yet! It has been one craaaazy week, y'all. :-)

Still, some necessary things got done in the funny-vampire biz this week:

I am now a Business (TM) with San Francisco! Fees were involved...and penalties for late filing that I did not realize was late until like last week... :-/ Oh well. IT'S A LEARNING CURVE! (Next step is to make sure I'm square with the state.) This allllll has to be straightened out before I start hitting cons OR putting Volume 1 and other merch out for pre-order for my non-Kickstarter fans. So it's unpleasant, but a Gotta Gett'er Done.

I scoped out Big WoW as a potential con to vendor at next year. Right now it's a bit of a "maybe" (as opposed to, say, APE, which I'll definitely table at) -- partly because the whole outfit just got bought by Steve Wozniak and Stan Lee and God only knows what they might do with it. YES, THAT STEVE WOZNIAK. (And yes, that Stan Lee!) Hopefully more information will come out over the following months. I am planning to be very selective about which cons I vendor at for the first year or two, and probably mostly stick to the West Coast, because the advice I hear from all corners is that vendoring is its own Art Form, and it's best to polish your act in the little houses before you sink too much money into playing the big houses.

Cat's groovy 1966 apartment got designed, despite some annoying software trouble, and the parts I need for the opening chapter of Volume 2 are fully finished and groovified. I've also finished all the 3D prep work/lighting/storyboarding for the first two pages, and now it's on to pencilling! I am planning to show more of the Making Of on that after the Patreon is launched. :-) Yes, I am lavishing a little more time than usual on these pages because they are going to be Atmospheric as All Get Out, and things like the lighting are crucial. Hey, when you're doing a vampire story, you gotta lead with Atmosphere. That is simply not optional. Even old Varney the Vampire knew it!

So when I get back, the two things sharing top priority are getting a pre-order portal out and getting those pages done. After that...it's only about ten zillion other things. :-)

Should be getting an ETA on the arrival of the pallet o' books soon!

--Sarah
[email protected]
http://www.afterdaylight.com