This is a followup to my previous article, “Creating Your Own Characters is Creating Your Own Future“. It turns out there’s much more to say about the matter based on a few things I’ve read online.
It’s well and good to create your own characters, but great care must be given when looking for a publisher. There are still plenty of “old world” beliefs in the world of Philippine publishing including the belief that the publisher owns whatever you create.
For many decades creators simply were not aware that they were entitled to such ownership, considering what they do simply as a “job”. They write, they draw, the draw a paycheck and that’s it. A few creators probably don’t even think about it. They’re happy enough to have a paying job. And I think that’s perfectly all right. People didn’t know they were entitled to so much more for such a long time.
Now in 2014 though (and for many years now), creators can demand the right to own the stories and characters they create. And I think it’s really up to them to demand such things from their publishers. You can consider this a job if you want, but if you want a legacy, you have to demand it. I understand that you might not want to ruffle feathers, you just want things to go on as they are, but if you want something more for yourself, buckle up, ride the storm, and grab what’s rightfully yours.
For my entire career I’ve always avoided working for publishers who demand ownership of my creations, even if they say they simply own only 50%. I always refused. I own my work, 100%. In my view, the publisher only has the right to exclusively publish and distribute your work. All other rights belong to you. This includes movie and tv rights and other adaptations to other media.
There are publishers out there who are willing to accept such terms, but there are others who won’t. More often than not, I end up publishing my own work because that’s one of the ways I can ensure that I have complete control over what goes on with my creations.
And if you ever do find the right publisher for you, make sure you scrutinize your contract very well. It might help to consult a lawyer to help you understand completely what’s being offered.
Just make sure that the publisher only holds publishing and distribution rights. Other media adaptation rights belong to you. Make sure that you ask for a time limit to how long the publisher has your work. Three years, six years… whatever works best for you. Just make sure it’s in there.
Also pay attention to what’s written down with regards to their commitment to promote your work. Do they schedule signings, panels, and invite you to join conventions, festivals, etc? Promotion is one of the things that the publisher needs to commit to. You can help by doing promotions yourself. Every little bit counts.
And lastly, the contract works both ways. If they do their part, you also need to make sure you uphold your commitment to the terms of your contract. I think that’s only right and fair.
Showing posts with label publishing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label publishing. Show all posts
Friday, October 10, 2014
Sunday, March 16, 2014
Komikero Publishing, Print Comics and Surviving the Digital Age
Last Saturday’s signing at Comic Odyssey went pretty well. All the copies of “Where Bold Stars Go To Die” that the store ordered were all sold out even before I arrived. Admittedly, I arrived a bit late, which is frustrating because I’m never late. Thing was, the van we rented ran into problems and it took a couple of hours to fix.
But anyhow, I’m glad people stayed around to get their books signed, and pick up the first 10 Wasted Box Sets that were finished.
Signing Photo Gallery 1 (Danry Ocampo)
Signing Photo Gallery 2 (Comic Odyssey)
It is the Wasted Box Sets I wish to talk about here. That box set is the ultimate expression of Komikero Publishing’s reason for being, and that is to not only share stories and art, but to give readers an EXPERIENCE. That experience of actually holding a comic book in your hands. An experience that is slowly but surely being eroded by our transition into the digital age. More and more comics are now being downloaded and read on screens. That is now a fact of life. And I for one won’t stand on a pulpit frothing at the mouth railing against it. Everyone else can go digitize their comics and that’s perfectly cool.
My stories, however, will remain in print and some of my work will ONLY be available in print. I feel that touching comic books with your hands, physically flipping the pages and reading is an experience too valuable for us humans to do away with. And that is an experience everyone can still count on with Komikero Publishing for as long as I’m alive.
The other day I saw a comment on Twitter by a fellow pro. I won’t mention him anymore because that isn’t really the point. He said that two page spreads in comics should be abolished because it does’t work with digital. Deep inside my heart I just had to laugh. I didn’t want to argue so I didn’t, but I thought I’d talk about that here.
So because it doesn’t work with digital, it HAS to be abolished? From my point of view, for print to survive, there should be MORE 2 page spreads, because as it turns out, there are strengths in print that digital comics cannot possibly replicate. And one of those are 2 page spreads. And that is true. The magnificence of opening a comic book with a 2 page spread is quite an experience, and it’s one of the things that make comics such a pleasurable reading experience. I remember Alfredo Alcala’s Voltar 2 page spreads… oh man… or how about those glorious Jack Kirby two page spreads in his comic books for Marvel and DC? How about Frank Miller’s 300 where every single damned page is a 2 page spread? Even better… how about those multiple page spreads in Jim Lee’s Wildcats? In Alan Moore’s Promethea? In Frank Miller’s Ronin? Or how about those multiple page drawings by Alex Niño that, put together, form one gigantic panel? Digital can never hope to replicate the experience those kinds of things print comics can do. It’s something print comics can do best, and it’s something that will help keep it alive.
At Komikero Publishing, aside from keeping my comics in print, we also produce specially made box sets in cooperation with my wife’s paper crafting business.
In 2009 we made box sets of my comic book ELMER:
Each box set contains a hand bound hardcover of the comic book, original artwork, photographs and facsimiles, a certificate of authenticity, a CD with videos, all packaged within a special hand made box.
Check out my original post about it:
https://komikerodotcom.blogspot.com/2009/03/elmer-gift-set-batch-1.html
A close up of the hand made hardcover from my wife’s blog:
http://paper-basket.blogspot.com/2009/03/hardbound-elmer.html
It’s our version of an Absolute book or Omnibus, but much more special and lots more extras.
This year, we’re releasing a box set of my comic book WASTED:
Check out my wife’s post about the Wasted box sets:
http://paper-basket.blogspot.com/2014/03/wasted-box-sets.html
We do these boxes because as we previously mentioned, we want to share an EXPERIENCE when people read my comic books. It’s something that’s important not only to me, but to my wife as well who has devoted a significant portion of her life creating art from paper.
How in the world can you digitize this? The answer is YOU CAN’T.
However, I’m not completely closed off to the idea of digital comics. My comic book Wasted can be read completely for free online from this website. It can be read in various forms: html, cbr, mobi, pdf… it even has a special digital edition complete with videos from me.
So yeah, it’s best of both worlds.
Thursday, March 6, 2014
Digital Comics and Komikero Publishing
I’ve talked about this before, but it’s worth reiterating. I can definitely see the future of comics as being predominantly digital. It’s inevitable, I think. I’ve had so many offers from local and international companies to digitize my comics stories for distribution on mobile gadgets. I have made my concessions with digital by offering a lot of my work online, mostly for free. Wasted remains free to read online, along with a lot of my other work.
I’m no longer interested in debating the issue. I’ve had my fair share of “discussion” about this in the past. I’ve heard all the arguments and you know what? I throw up my hands and say all the arguments for digital comics are completely valid. You wont find me ranting and railing against it, because that would just be counterproductive. And futile.
But as far as Komikero Publishing is concerned, I will continue to do comics in print, and I will continue to resist translating most of my work into digital.
I know that the goal of any storyteller is to share his stories with as much people as possible, and digital is certainly a big way of doing it. I reach a far greater audience online than I do with print.
But you know, to me it’s more than just sharing stories and art. It’s about sharing an “experience”. That experience of holding a comic book in your hands. I think that it’s an experience that’s valuable and important, and that as human beings, it’s something that we should never lose.
As the world speeds hastily into the digital age, that experience will become even more rare and valuable. I want to be that publisher that gives people that kind of experience. I don’t care if I end up on the losing end of the financial stick. It was never about the money for me.
I don’t need to further explain myself. Those who don’t understand this never will. But those who understand it will understand perfectly. I’m not here to sway anyone to my way of thinking. I’m just laying out my publishing company’s reason for being.
I’m no longer interested in debating the issue. I’ve had my fair share of “discussion” about this in the past. I’ve heard all the arguments and you know what? I throw up my hands and say all the arguments for digital comics are completely valid. You wont find me ranting and railing against it, because that would just be counterproductive. And futile.
But as far as Komikero Publishing is concerned, I will continue to do comics in print, and I will continue to resist translating most of my work into digital.
I know that the goal of any storyteller is to share his stories with as much people as possible, and digital is certainly a big way of doing it. I reach a far greater audience online than I do with print.
But you know, to me it’s more than just sharing stories and art. It’s about sharing an “experience”. That experience of holding a comic book in your hands. I think that it’s an experience that’s valuable and important, and that as human beings, it’s something that we should never lose.
As the world speeds hastily into the digital age, that experience will become even more rare and valuable. I want to be that publisher that gives people that kind of experience. I don’t care if I end up on the losing end of the financial stick. It was never about the money for me.
I don’t need to further explain myself. Those who don’t understand this never will. But those who understand it will understand perfectly. I’m not here to sway anyone to my way of thinking. I’m just laying out my publishing company’s reason for being.
Saturday, March 1, 2014
To help fund the printing of “Rodski Patotski: Ang Dalagang Baby“, we’re now accepting pre-orders!
Rodski is being released in FULL COLOR on matte paper, 100 pages, 8″x 8″ dimensions and perfect bound. It will retail for P450. If you wish to reserve your copy now for pick up at Summer Komikon on April 12, you can send your payment to my BPI account. Send me an email at gerryalanguilan at yahoo.com so I can send you the information. If you are not attending Summer Komikon and you would prefer that we ship it to you via courier, you can just add P150 for shipping and handling. We will ship the book in between illustration boards via LBC or Air 21. Send me an email at gerryalanguilan at yahoo.com for further information. Unfortunately, I can only accept orders from the Philippines at the moment. But I will make it available for international orders once the book is out.
Don’t worry that you won’t get your copy. We plan on printing a lot… as in a lot of copies!
To everyone who will help out with the funding of the book by pre-buying it, you have my (and Arnold’s) utmost thanks and appreciation!
The cover above is illustrated and colored by Arnold Arre. Title design is by Cynthia Bauzon-Arre.
Saturday, February 22, 2014
Bold Star, Elmer
“Where Bold Stars Go To Die“, a comic book I wrote that my late friend Arlan Esmeña illustrated was finally published in the US via SLG Publishing. If you’re in the US or anywhere outside the Philippines, you can just order it directly from the SLG website here. If you’re in the Philippines, this edition is being sold by Comic Odyssey. It will be available February 26. After February 26, you can just buy it from their stores in Robinson’s Galleria, Fully Booked at the Fort, Greenhills and Robinson’s Malate.
Since this is published by SLG Publishing, I don’t control the stocks of it so I myself don’t have copies to sell. You won’t be able to buy them directly from me. It will be a bit more expensive than the Komikero Publishing edition, which has since been sold out. Content wise, there’s very little difference. The new edition has a new pinup by Harvey Tolibao and an Arlan Esmeña tribute, but that’s it. Format wise, I actually have no idea yet how different it is with regards to printing and paper. I will know only when my complimentary copies arrive.
I will be having a Bold Star book signing at Comic Odyssey, Robinson’s Galleria on March 15. I will also bringing a lot of original artwork with me, plus a surprise release (more details soon). This is to raise funds for the printing of Rodski for Summer Komikon on April 12.
I will most likely reprint Bold Stars through Komikero Publishing later in the year. I’ve written a lot about the book on this blog.
Serge Ewenczyk, my French publisher of ELMER sent me this image:
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Komikero Publishing’s Survival Plan in the Digital Age
From September 13 to 14 will be a huge conference in Quezon City on the “Future of the Book” organized by the National Book Development Board (NBDB), Filipinas Heritage Library and the Vibal Foundation. It’s going to be held at the Ayala Techno Hub in Commonwealth Avenue.
I was supposed to be a speaker on DAY 2 where I will discuss how self publishers can survive in the Digital Age. Unfortunately, circumstances beyond my control have forced me to bow out of the conference. It was a difficult decision to make because there were plenty of things I wanted to say, specially in a program that made it seem that going digital was a forgone conclusion. I felt it was an obligation for me to offer a dissenting voice.
Nevertheless, below is the complete transcript of the talk that I would have had.
**********************
Komikero Publishing’s Survival Plan in the Digital Age
by Gerry Alanguilan
I have been self publishing my own comic books for the last 12 years. I started out as many comics people are starting out today….by making multiple photocopies of our work and then sell them ourselves. There are many ways to do this. We can deliver copies to sympathetic stores and comic book stores, sell them at local comics conventions, or sell them via mail.
In recent years I decided to legally establish my own publishing company, the sole purpose of which is to publish work that I wrote and/or drew. Instead of photocopy I went to an actual printing press. My output is sparse, with just one or two comic books a year since 2006. It is by no means something I can exclusively make a living out of, but I can honestly say that through selling the book myself, each publication has been quite profitable in comparison to the money I spend in printing them.
As early as the year 2000, I have been encountering furious discussions on the viability of online comics as a commercial enterprise. Over the years, the discussions have grown to include downloadable comics for reading on portable readers like the Kindle or the iPad. Advocates of digital comics have been quite vocal, I have discovered, and I am very sure there are many of you are here in this audience right now.
I have heard all the arguments. While it’s cool to have an actual copy of a book in your hands to see and smell, such attachments to tangibility is a characteristic that only the increasingly old may have. The younger generation are growing up without actual books so reading online or on a portable gadget won’t be a problem for them. In fact, entire libraries can fit into one of these gadgets giving more space in your house, and in your luggage when you travel. Now this all makes perfect sense, and I’m not here to argue the point.
As a self publisher in this increasingly digital age, how can I possibly survive? I have several answers for this.
Take note that I am speaking only for myself, as publisher and owner of what I consider to be a specialty publishing company, releasing only one or two books a year. What I say may not be applicable to bigger publishers and my experience cannot speak for those that are.
I honestly and truly believe that a third world country like the Philippines won’t be doing away with print books and publications anytime within the next 10 years. Because most of us, if not all of us here in this conference are most likely online, and we are in touch with the biggest and latest news in terms of publishing from abroad, I think we may be getting a skewed notion that all THAT is applicable here in the Philippines as well. Countries like the US or Japan can afford to go digital because majority of their population can afford it. Here in the Philippines, does anyone actually believe that the typical Pedro on the street who can barely make enough money to buy newspapers will be able to buy an iPad or any similar gadget, no matter how less expensive it may be, within the next 10 years, or even 15 years? I seriously doubt it.
Print publications here in the Philippines still has a long way to go yet, I believe. I am 42 years old now. Personally, I doubt that digital will overtake print in this country even within my lifetime. So why would I waste the time I have left in this world chasing after a market that will never be truly widespread until I die? It does not make any business sense.
So as a publisher, I will continue to have my comics printed, and will resist any suggestion to do otherwise.
Of course, I could be wrong. I could be devastatingly wrong. In 15 years, I might be out there, pan handling like a bum in the middle of Quiapo as the executives, students, cops, fortune tellers, florists, evangelists, dried fish vendors and takatak boys blissfully pass by with their iPads and Kindles.
But what is publication but a risk? As publishers, we are ALL taking a risk with the books we publish. As a publisher in the Philippines, to be specific… as a small time specialty Publisher… it is with print comics that I place my bets.
Let us say I was proven completely wrong and the Philippines has indeed gone digital in the near future (if not already) I will nevertheless still continue to have my comic books printed. I will still continue to do it, frustrating the naysayers no end until they scratch their heads and exasperatedly exclaim, “Why don’t you just die?!”
I won’t be doing this out of spite (perhaps partly I will), but only because I love print books. I love making them. And in the future, I really believe a few people will still feel the same way about books as I do.
Indeed, since I, and perhaps a couple of other people will be the only ones left doing it, our work will then become much more valuable. Imagine it. In an almost completely digital world, only a few rare individuals still create their comic books in print. We become a novelty, that’s true, but even among the young generation and the generations that will follow, there will be those who will be looking for the tangible thing. As many things from the old world fade and disappear, I believe the more we as human beings will value them. I’d like to think that I’ll be that TV repairman who still makes housecalls. I’ll be that crotchety old man whose job it is to repair typewriters. I’ll be the old school hippie selling vinyl records. I’ll be that curmudgeonly old shoemaker on the far side of town who will still measure your feet to make you shoes. I’ll be that weirdo who still writes letters by hand and sends them through the post office, no matter how expensive it is. I’ll be that grumpy old man in San Pablo City who draws on paper and prints his comics.
I am, by no means, a complete luddite. I have uploaded a few of my comics online and I have used the Internet considerably to promote my publications. In fact, online promotion has been a major part of my marketing strategy.
WASTED is the title of a comic book that I created from 1994 to 1996. It has gone through several editions in print, the first edition coming out in 1998 through Alamat Comics. In 2000 it was serialized for several months in Pulp Magazine. In 2002, Pulp Magazine published another compiled edition. A few years later, Wasted went out of print. In 2007, I decided to upload Wasted completely online, including a DVD-like commentary for each page at Webcomicsnation.com. It allowed a lot more people to read it, specially those from abroad.
But then, a strange thing happened. I still get letters and emails to this day from people looking for copies of Wasted. I always point out that they can read the entire thing for FREE online. The reaction is almost unanimous and immediate: No, we want to buy the print edition. There is not a comics convention that goes by (and believe it or not, we have something like six or seven of those a year here in the Philippines) that people don’t ask me for a copy of Wasted. The demand has grown so much that I’ve put it in the front burner of my company’s publishing schedule.
My other book ELMER was published through my own Komikero Publishing in 4 issues from 2006 to 2008. The first issue very quicky sold out. And when it did, I digitized it and uploaded it online as both as one HTML file where you can read it in one go, and as a downloadable Comic Book Reader file. FOR FREE. My purpose for doing so was to encourage people to buy the rest of the series in print, and the compiled edition which came out in 2009.
To further entice people to buy the printed comics, I collaborated with my wife’s paper crafting company to create a limited edition ELMER Box Sets which included a hardbound hand crafted copy of Elmer 1-4, photographs, facsimile of some of the objects found in the story, one piece of original artwork, and a certificate of authenticity. These are things that cannot be reproduced digitally, but can be created simply by hand. The minute I made the announcement on my blog about the existence of these box sets, I never had the opportunity to sell them at our local conventions because reservations for it came pouring in through email and quickly sold out.
Inspired by the success of the Elmer Box Sets, I am now currently planning what the WASTED special edition set will contain when I publish a new edition of it next year.
The next book I will publish is entitled “The Marvelous Adventures of the Amazing Doctor Rizal”. To encourage people to buy the print edition, I will be taking another risk and print it in a large format, with a width of 9 and half inches and height of 12 inches. Each copy will be hardcover, full color and printed on matte paper. Unless one has a large vertical monitor, the reader will not be able to fully appreciate the comic book in a digital format.
As a print publisher, I use the latest technologies to promote the work I do that’s available in print. I think it’s the perfect compromise between my personal sensibilities towards print publications, and the undeniable impact that the digital age has brought.
In spite of what I said earlier, I well and truly believe that digital books will and can exist side by side with print books and that both will flourish, and sometimes even complement each other. Not all people are created the same. Not all people will go digital, and not all people will be reading books in print. As we go slowly towards that day, I sincerely believe that technology, as well as us human beings, will find our proper places naturally through evolution and experimentation, and we will find there is a place for everyone, print and digital books alike.
I was supposed to be a speaker on DAY 2 where I will discuss how self publishers can survive in the Digital Age. Unfortunately, circumstances beyond my control have forced me to bow out of the conference. It was a difficult decision to make because there were plenty of things I wanted to say, specially in a program that made it seem that going digital was a forgone conclusion. I felt it was an obligation for me to offer a dissenting voice.
Nevertheless, below is the complete transcript of the talk that I would have had.
**********************
Komikero Publishing’s Survival Plan in the Digital Age
by Gerry Alanguilan
I have been self publishing my own comic books for the last 12 years. I started out as many comics people are starting out today….by making multiple photocopies of our work and then sell them ourselves. There are many ways to do this. We can deliver copies to sympathetic stores and comic book stores, sell them at local comics conventions, or sell them via mail.
In recent years I decided to legally establish my own publishing company, the sole purpose of which is to publish work that I wrote and/or drew. Instead of photocopy I went to an actual printing press. My output is sparse, with just one or two comic books a year since 2006. It is by no means something I can exclusively make a living out of, but I can honestly say that through selling the book myself, each publication has been quite profitable in comparison to the money I spend in printing them.
As early as the year 2000, I have been encountering furious discussions on the viability of online comics as a commercial enterprise. Over the years, the discussions have grown to include downloadable comics for reading on portable readers like the Kindle or the iPad. Advocates of digital comics have been quite vocal, I have discovered, and I am very sure there are many of you are here in this audience right now.
I have heard all the arguments. While it’s cool to have an actual copy of a book in your hands to see and smell, such attachments to tangibility is a characteristic that only the increasingly old may have. The younger generation are growing up without actual books so reading online or on a portable gadget won’t be a problem for them. In fact, entire libraries can fit into one of these gadgets giving more space in your house, and in your luggage when you travel. Now this all makes perfect sense, and I’m not here to argue the point.
As a self publisher in this increasingly digital age, how can I possibly survive? I have several answers for this.
Take note that I am speaking only for myself, as publisher and owner of what I consider to be a specialty publishing company, releasing only one or two books a year. What I say may not be applicable to bigger publishers and my experience cannot speak for those that are.
I honestly and truly believe that a third world country like the Philippines won’t be doing away with print books and publications anytime within the next 10 years. Because most of us, if not all of us here in this conference are most likely online, and we are in touch with the biggest and latest news in terms of publishing from abroad, I think we may be getting a skewed notion that all THAT is applicable here in the Philippines as well. Countries like the US or Japan can afford to go digital because majority of their population can afford it. Here in the Philippines, does anyone actually believe that the typical Pedro on the street who can barely make enough money to buy newspapers will be able to buy an iPad or any similar gadget, no matter how less expensive it may be, within the next 10 years, or even 15 years? I seriously doubt it.
Print publications here in the Philippines still has a long way to go yet, I believe. I am 42 years old now. Personally, I doubt that digital will overtake print in this country even within my lifetime. So why would I waste the time I have left in this world chasing after a market that will never be truly widespread until I die? It does not make any business sense.
So as a publisher, I will continue to have my comics printed, and will resist any suggestion to do otherwise.
Of course, I could be wrong. I could be devastatingly wrong. In 15 years, I might be out there, pan handling like a bum in the middle of Quiapo as the executives, students, cops, fortune tellers, florists, evangelists, dried fish vendors and takatak boys blissfully pass by with their iPads and Kindles.
But what is publication but a risk? As publishers, we are ALL taking a risk with the books we publish. As a publisher in the Philippines, to be specific… as a small time specialty Publisher… it is with print comics that I place my bets.
Let us say I was proven completely wrong and the Philippines has indeed gone digital in the near future (if not already) I will nevertheless still continue to have my comic books printed. I will still continue to do it, frustrating the naysayers no end until they scratch their heads and exasperatedly exclaim, “Why don’t you just die?!”
I won’t be doing this out of spite (perhaps partly I will), but only because I love print books. I love making them. And in the future, I really believe a few people will still feel the same way about books as I do.
Indeed, since I, and perhaps a couple of other people will be the only ones left doing it, our work will then become much more valuable. Imagine it. In an almost completely digital world, only a few rare individuals still create their comic books in print. We become a novelty, that’s true, but even among the young generation and the generations that will follow, there will be those who will be looking for the tangible thing. As many things from the old world fade and disappear, I believe the more we as human beings will value them. I’d like to think that I’ll be that TV repairman who still makes housecalls. I’ll be that crotchety old man whose job it is to repair typewriters. I’ll be the old school hippie selling vinyl records. I’ll be that curmudgeonly old shoemaker on the far side of town who will still measure your feet to make you shoes. I’ll be that weirdo who still writes letters by hand and sends them through the post office, no matter how expensive it is. I’ll be that grumpy old man in San Pablo City who draws on paper and prints his comics.
I am, by no means, a complete luddite. I have uploaded a few of my comics online and I have used the Internet considerably to promote my publications. In fact, online promotion has been a major part of my marketing strategy.
WASTED is the title of a comic book that I created from 1994 to 1996. It has gone through several editions in print, the first edition coming out in 1998 through Alamat Comics. In 2000 it was serialized for several months in Pulp Magazine. In 2002, Pulp Magazine published another compiled edition. A few years later, Wasted went out of print. In 2007, I decided to upload Wasted completely online, including a DVD-like commentary for each page at Webcomicsnation.com. It allowed a lot more people to read it, specially those from abroad.
But then, a strange thing happened. I still get letters and emails to this day from people looking for copies of Wasted. I always point out that they can read the entire thing for FREE online. The reaction is almost unanimous and immediate: No, we want to buy the print edition. There is not a comics convention that goes by (and believe it or not, we have something like six or seven of those a year here in the Philippines) that people don’t ask me for a copy of Wasted. The demand has grown so much that I’ve put it in the front burner of my company’s publishing schedule.
My other book ELMER was published through my own Komikero Publishing in 4 issues from 2006 to 2008. The first issue very quicky sold out. And when it did, I digitized it and uploaded it online as both as one HTML file where you can read it in one go, and as a downloadable Comic Book Reader file. FOR FREE. My purpose for doing so was to encourage people to buy the rest of the series in print, and the compiled edition which came out in 2009.
To further entice people to buy the printed comics, I collaborated with my wife’s paper crafting company to create a limited edition ELMER Box Sets which included a hardbound hand crafted copy of Elmer 1-4, photographs, facsimile of some of the objects found in the story, one piece of original artwork, and a certificate of authenticity. These are things that cannot be reproduced digitally, but can be created simply by hand. The minute I made the announcement on my blog about the existence of these box sets, I never had the opportunity to sell them at our local conventions because reservations for it came pouring in through email and quickly sold out.
Inspired by the success of the Elmer Box Sets, I am now currently planning what the WASTED special edition set will contain when I publish a new edition of it next year.
The next book I will publish is entitled “The Marvelous Adventures of the Amazing Doctor Rizal”. To encourage people to buy the print edition, I will be taking another risk and print it in a large format, with a width of 9 and half inches and height of 12 inches. Each copy will be hardcover, full color and printed on matte paper. Unless one has a large vertical monitor, the reader will not be able to fully appreciate the comic book in a digital format.
As a print publisher, I use the latest technologies to promote the work I do that’s available in print. I think it’s the perfect compromise between my personal sensibilities towards print publications, and the undeniable impact that the digital age has brought.
In spite of what I said earlier, I well and truly believe that digital books will and can exist side by side with print books and that both will flourish, and sometimes even complement each other. Not all people are created the same. Not all people will go digital, and not all people will be reading books in print. As we go slowly towards that day, I sincerely believe that technology, as well as us human beings, will find our proper places naturally through evolution and experimentation, and we will find there is a place for everyone, print and digital books alike.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Elmer Gift Set Batch 1
The first batch of Elmer Gift Sets will be delivered today. Yes, we’d rather prefer to hand these sets directly to those who bought them rather then send them via courier. We don’t want to take the chance that it they will be lost, and that I feel it’s much better to meet with those who will receive them.
I haven’t personalized any of the sets yet because I want to make sure that they will be there to receive it. There is the possibility that one or two might back out, and I would have a tough time selling it to someone else if I had already personalized it to other people.
So to those who had confirmed, see you all later at our secret undisclosed location at our secret undisclosed time.
We’ll be preparing the second batch soon. We have decided to put together no more than TWENTY sets together, and no more beyond that. There is still a chance that you can get a copy for yourself because a few people have have decided to relinquish their reservations.
Ilyn and I have decided to price each set at P2,500 pesos. Yes, it is expensive, but we believe it’s only commensurate to the unique nature of these sets.
To review, each set contains the following:
*A hardcover hand bound collection of ELMER #1-4, bound in a manner resembling Elmer Gallo’s Diary. Due to the availability of paper used, not all bound books are alike in color and texture. These are not new printings. We used the 1st print copies of individual issues of Elmer #1-#4.
*5.5″x8.5″ Original illustration in pen and ink. No two illustrations are alike.
*Facsimile of a page from Elmer Gallo’s original diary.
*Facsimile of a clipping of Elmer Gallo’s “Chicken Scratchings” newspaper column.
*Five 4″x6″ Gallo family photographs
*CD containing “Chicken Joy: Documentary of Elmer and Its Creator” video documentary created by Edgar Tadeo.
*Certificate of Authenticity signed by Ilyn and myself.
*A hand crafted two level nested box that puts everything together in one neat package. As pictures indicate, not all boxes will look alike in color and texture due also to the availability of paper.
*Plus a bonus complete set of Seven San Pablo City postcards published by Komikero Publishing in 2004. Not related to Elmer, but what the heck.
Oh yeah, each book contains a blank page specifically for personalization. I can write anything there that you would like. I can even sketch something. Each book HAS to be personalized to you or to someone you will give it too. We will not be selling any set that will not be personalized to a particular individual.
It is still possible to get a set. If you’re still interested and agree to the terms, please send an email to gerryalanguilan at yahoo dot com and I will put you on the list.
To all those who have already sent in their requests, thanks very much for the support!
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