Surveys On Their Way (Sorta)!
9 months ago – Mon, Aug 14, 2023 at 08:58:11 AM

Hello all! Caytlin here!

The surveys have been created through BackerKit and are currently being reviewed by the BackerKit team! Once they've been approved, we'll send it to a small portion of the backers to test for mistakes, and then send it to everyone else. So keep an eye on your email! They should arrive in your mailbox this week.

Apologies for not getting them sent out earlier. It completely slipped my mind to get that done on time. My bad! There are reasons for it, but they don't really matter; it just matters that it was a bit late and I have gotten it done now. Yay!

In the meantime, some continued updates on the books:

• All 5 books (Books 1-4 and the Omnibus) will have upgraded paper quality even from what we had budgeted for from the original printer
• The Omnibus will have gilded edges of the paper, as well as some debossing on the cover

I signed the quotes for the new printer the other day so we are officially getting printed by Artron (repped by Lakeshore Printing)!

Some More Goodies

Book progress got briefly stalled the last week or so, sort of. We had been adamant about no major art changes, but there were two sticking points that have been making future story very hard to concoct: the character Penny dropping off the face of the earth after Chapter 2, and the cautionary storybook tale in Chapter 4. After much hemming and hawing, we decided to put Penny into more of Chapter 4, and we completely rewrote and reillustrated the storybook, which added a whole extra page to the book. 

We'll talk more about what that means and why we changed what we did in the annotations of the Omnibus. But have some scenes I spent the last week touching up!

There are many more pages that had edits of this magnitude, but I just wanted to give you a little sneak peek! 

If you want to keep track of book progress, I have been doing public streaming on the Foxglove Comic discord every day while working on these pages, during the work day. There's still a lot to do -- I massively underestimated the work putting the book together would take (because we're being so picky about quality, tbh), and also I am not as spry or healthy as I was the last time I put a book together, so I can't do as much as I used to. Alas! Chronic health issues and regular ol' aging out of my 20's have taken their toll.

I hope you guys enjoyed this update! To reiterate, all surveys will be sent out via BackerKit, NOT Kickstarter. Please be sure to whitelist emails from backerkit.com and keep an eye on your spam folder if you don't get anything by the end of the week.

Have a good one, and thank you again for your enthusiasm and patience!

Caytlin and the TamberTeam

Printer Updates, Big News, and Fun Previews!
10 months ago – Sat, Jul 29, 2023 at 12:01:43 PM

Hello hello, friends!

Thank you for your patience during this period of quiet. We’ve been hard at work finalizing all of the work for the books! As it turns out, due to wanting to really make everything the best it can be, we've wound up taking a *lot* more time than we initially budgeted for. (Kickstarters. Amirite?) We spent all last month completing final edits and creating supplemental bonus content, such as Q&A illustrations as well as the Trissol dictionary. 

In addition to the brand new Q&A questions we've illustrated, we also went back and edited/redrew the original Q&A's from Chapter 1, like this one:

  The Omnibus will have a small Trissol dictionary, so I've been drawing those as well. Here’s Tamberlane signing “Abroad” and “family”

I also drew a handful of headshots to use for the annotations in the Omnibus. Here's an idea of what a page of annotations looks like:

I mentioned we're wanting to make this book the best it can be, and we've been making a (hopefully) final QA pass on all of the pages. I'm absolutely thrilled as we've been doing everything from smoothing out speech bubbles to tightening up characterization...

...to bringing dialogue in line with current lore!

We're into Chapter 4 edits now. I suspect we'll be done with them...soon. I don't want to put a date on it lest I curse us yet again. (When this pass started I said it would take a day. I was WRONG.)

Delivery Deadline Moved

Understandably, however, due to all of these edits and changes -- in combination with the month we lost due to health issues -- I am sorry to say that the books will not arrive by November. I promise we're making it worth your while; we're taking a lot of care and pride in delivering to you the best possible product, so we appreciate your understanding!

I won't be able to give you a new deadline until we've sent off the files to the printer and received a schedule from them. Sit tight! We'll keep you updated!

Big Printer News

Speaking of the printer...

I have some great news and some somewhat neutral news to share with you. I mentioned in our last update that we were going to be looking into a local printer. And I must say, I am very excited to announce that we have changed printers and are going to have our books printed through Lakeshore Printing and Publishing. (Changing printers is another reason why the November deadline isn't happening.)

Though, that's not quite the whole truth: the truth is that Lakeshore is actually a local company with 40 years of experience in the industry, acting as an agent and middleman for a couple of high quality printers, including the one we're going to work with: Artron, a printer in China.

That's the neutral news here. I have done my best to avoid printing product in China in recent years, due to personal feelings about avoiding the environmental impact from freight emissions.  At first, I was a bit iffy on whether to go with Artron for that reason, but I met in person with the owner of Lakeshore and got to discuss these issues with him.

Here's the great news! 

• Artron is one of the biggest and longest standing industry printers in China, focusing on fine art books and graphic novels -- the perfect cross-section for this project! 
• They have engineered their own process that results in brighter colors.
• They use a binding process (smyth) that will help the books stay together for a very long time as standard policy rather than an extra charge.
• The quality of their books was absolutely phenomenal!  
• They send proofs for nearly every step of the way, so there's ample time through each step of the process to get things tweaked and changed.
• Their company focus is on aiding artists and getting their work out there to enrich the world. 
• Because I can work with Bob personally, I can be really picky and have in-depth conversations about what I'm looking for and what we can achieve. 
• And even better, they put environmental concerns high on their list and have been working as a company to move towards carbon neutrality. They also use FSC-certified paper. This means it's been certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, an organization that works to promote the practice of sustainable forestry worldwide.
•  AND BEST OF ALL, because we're printing in China, the cost savings is so dramatic that we can afford to print the Omnibus, a larger run of Chapter 4, and reprint large runs of Chapters 1, 2, and 3 as well!! 

I understand that this might be a dealbreaker for some of you, so I will be allowing folks to cancel their pledges for a refund if they were strongly swayed by the fact it wasn't printed in China. Please contact me at [email protected] if you'd like a refund.

What are we going to do with all that savings?? Well, first off, we're going to up the quality of the Omnibus. Some things we're currently looking at adding (although not guaranteed yet, still getting quotes back): a texture and debossing to the cover, adding ribbon bookmarks, gold foil on the edges of the pages, a nicer raised UV gloss on some parts of the cover, and more.

(The softcovers don't need upgrades! They're already pretty great as it is. But the chance to make a really lovely hardcover is alluring!)

Secondly, we're going to take some of the money and pay our team those bonuses! I still have to do the full math, so I'll have to figure out how much everyone gets, but they'll be sure to get some! That thrills me, because there's nothing I love more than getting to throw money at talented people. and they've put so much hard work into making this campaign and book and comic happen!

Whew! Thank you everyone for taking the time to read all of that! I've got one more small announcement:

BackerKit Closing Soon!

We’re about to close our Backerkit shop on the 31st, so if you know anyone who missed the Kickstarter, feel free to point them here! Thanks so much to everyone who grabbed something!! We no longer need folks to help us reach a goal to get those reprints.

I am going to amend the survey dates we offered last week. The final survey should be sent to you by August 11th. I am still not positive whether we'll be using BackerKit or Kickstarter for your surveys so, just in case, make sure to whitelist emails from Backerkit.com in your spam filter. They get caught there often!

When the surveys do go out, no matter which platform the survey is on you will be able to amend your pledge, and add additional add-ons if you so desire.

Alright! That's it for us. Back to the grindstone!

~ Caytlin and the Tamberteam

Omnibus Progress Updates and some extra goodies!
10 months ago – Wed, Jul 19, 2023 at 04:33:41 PM

Hey, everyone! Got some exciting updates for you all!

First off, thank you all so much for your patience as we continue preparing the Omnibus for printing! Caytlin's rest did her a lot of good and she's feeling much better. As it currently stands, we are full speed ahead and on track to have the full document submitted to the printer by the end of July. Not only have we completed the edits to bring the comic to its full potential, but the annotations have been an absolute blast to compile and we think you'll enjoy all of the insights and behind-the-scenes goodies. Caytlin is also looking into a local printer as a potential alternative to our original printer, which would hopefully allow us to produce the same quality as before, at a better rate! We're still waiting on the quote, so we can't say for sure, though we will only go with this alternative option if we are 100% confident that it will produce at the same quality as our original printer. 

A super important deadline to keep in mind: Backerkit is closing 11:59pm PST July 31st; after that, surveys will go out within the next week and you will be able to edit your pledges/add extras/etc. If you know anyone who might enjoy getting their own copy of the Omnibus or Chapter 4, now is the time to remind them! Within a week after the Backerkit has closed, Kickstarter backers will receive their survey via Kickstarter, while Backerkit preorders will receive their survey via Backerkit. If you end up having any issues, be sure to let us know when the time comes! 

As a last little treat, have some Q&A art created exclusively for the Chapter 4 and Omnibus collections, as well as samples from the refreshed and revamped Q&A from Chapter 1 (which will be included in the Omnibus)!

Thank you all again so much, and we hope you've been enjoying your Summer!

Ari, Caytlin, and the Tamberteam

Thanks for your patience!
11 months ago – Wed, Jun 21, 2023 at 11:10:20 AM

So it's been a wild couple of weeks! Wild, or mild, depending on your definition. I caught my first bout of covid -- I've been very cautious since I'm immunocompromised, but it got me in the end. I was pretty bad off to start -- narrowly avoided the hospital -- but I've been improving ever since. I've been on a strict no-work, no-stress regimen to try and recover. However, two and a half weeks later, I'm still testing positive and showing symptoms, which sucks!

Anyway, all this to say, I haven't been able to get the files finished in as timely manner as I wanted to, and I won't be able to get a firm estimate on book delivery until I can actually sit down and work again. I'm doing my best to get things a-goin!

In the meantime, I've had such wonderful, supportive messages from folks, and I wanted to thank you guys so much for your encouragement, your demands I take it easy, and your well wishes. I'm close to getting back on the horse. I can feel it!!

<3 Thanks y'all,

Caytlin & the Tamberteam

Rest & Small Delays
12 months ago – Fri, Jun 02, 2023 at 08:36:33 AM

Hello, lovelies! Caytlin here!

The excitement and incredible outpouring of love from the Kickstarter has been utterly amazing -- and unfortunately for me, also utterly exhausting! I have been a bit flattened in the aftermath of it all, and so getting back to work on the comic edits and such is a bit delayed.

I'm going to take some time to rest and get caught up, and then public book editing streams will resume on the Foxglove Comics Discord. (You should come join our lovely community! Foxglove is a collective for similar graphic-novel-quality webcomics, and we have a well-moderated and active community of kind-hearted, art-lovin' folks!)

As of now, I expect to be back at it for Kickstarter/book-related things around June 12th. Thanks for your patience, y'all!