Free Comic Book Day 2007

[Cortland]

As many of you already know, STrRedWolf has put me in charge of putting together next year's Free Comic Book Day comic book for Comic Genesis. Last year's book suffered from a few issues, mainly because it was unable to be put fully together until the last minute and so few artists signed up to contribute to the book. With the open communication I've managed to achieve with Chris Crosby, I believe we have time on our side and can start preparing to make a real kick-ass book. We have plenty of talented artists here on Comic Genesis and I'd like to show the rest of the world what we can do!

Our first order of business will be rounding up everybody who wants to be in the book. The book will be a maximum of 48-pages in length, which I'm guessing will give us room for 20-30 artists to contribute a page or two for the book. For the last two books that were produced, we asked contributors to pay $50 per page ($25 for half a page) to be included in the book. I don't feel that this is necessarily fair, because many talented members of our community can't afford to buy their way into the book... and excluding them just because they can't pay shouldn't be an issue.

What I propose we do is assemble artists for the book and then solicit donations from readers, fans, comic enthusiasts, and others in the industry who would like to show their support to independent comic artists. I will set up a PayPal account to collect the money and include the names of everyone who contributes in a specially-designated "sponsor page" of the book. Those contributing a significant amount will be placed more prominently as "gold sponsors," those with smaller but still significant amounts as "silver sponsors," and everyone else as "bronze sponsors." Also, we will offer to sell full-page advertisements to anybody who would like to contribute a certain amount to our effort. Of course, if your work is good and you would like to pay $50 to have a page in the book, we certainly won't say no.

We also need to decide who gets to do the cover artwork. I have already approached Humbug, the creator of Tales of Pylea, and she has agreed to do the cover artwork if we consent. I want to leave the floor open to anybody else who would like to do the cover, but I know Humbug would be an excellent choice based on her previous work. We will have to decide on this very quickly, because we'll need to have the artwork finished by mid-December, which gives us about six weeks or so to get it together. It would be ideal if we could assemble our menagerie of contributing artists in time to have Humbug draw some artwork that includes most of them.

The format will be the same as previous comic books, which you can read more about on the CG Wiki here:
http://cgwiki.comicgenesis.com/index.php/FCBD_2004

We will have a minimum of 10,000 copies of the book printed and distributed to comic shops around the country for Free Comic Book Day on May 5, 2007. They will also be available at the Keenspot booth at Comic-Con International in San Diego (July 25-29, 2007) while supplies last. This is a great opportunity to get some exposure for your own comic and get it out in print to show to the rest of the comic world. It's going to take a lot of effort to get this thing put together and off the ground. We need artists, money, and help keeping everybody organized and on task. If you'd like to help, please post and let's get this thing started!

[Rkolter]

I would like to suggest that some of them be made available at the cookout (early June 2007) for people who don't want to pay shipping; I'd be willing to handle collecting the money and sending it back to CG or wherever it belongs.

I'm also willing to do a page.

[Perk_daddy]

I hope I don't sound too fanboyish, but this is absolutely the coolest thing ever in the history of the world. My desire to contribute is as great as that of life itself. I'm in if you'll have me.

[Keffria]

You can count me in. And even if I don't end up in the book, I don't mind throwing down a bit of money to help support it, anyway. :3

[Garneta]

I'd like to be in the book (either a page or half page would be fine). I like the idea of people donating for this, as I'm one of the artists who wouldn't be able to afford it otherwise!

[Dotty]

I'm in. Is there a place to see examples of previous work, too?

I want a full page, btw, got an AWESOME picture in mind. :3

[Turnsky]

well, if y'all are in need of a colorist, you know how to reach me

[Dotty]

well, if y'all are in need of a colorist, you know how to reach me

You shouldn't have said that. Now I'm going to harass both you AND Robin.

I just realized I'm going to have to split my page in half though, cause I have two comics.

Or maybe I'd buy two pages...but something tells me I should wait for everyone else to pick up pages first. It's just the nice thing to do. <3

(but at the end if theres room for more, I want a second page ;p)

[Phact0rri]

I like how this is well in advance. I might try to do something, and at least donate, a little something to the cause.

[Ryuko]

I'd love two pages, just for some wiggle room, but one is all right with me too. And I'd be willing to toss in some dough and put a donation button in a significant place on my site.

[Glambourine]

I'd totally love to do a page, if you'll have me.

[Robin Pierce]

You can count me in. And even if I don't end up in the book, I don't mind throwing down a bit of money to help support it, anyway. :3

Also, if you guys need me to colour (tdot, I'm lookin' at you), give me plenny of time, just in case.

[MaskedLioness]

I was really sad last year that my local comic book shop didn't have the CG sampler. So, I was thinking about buying some to take down to the shop myself for free comic day. Does anyone know if this is possible?

(And I might be interested in doing a page, but I'll have to check with the author.)

[LibertyCabbage]

I'd totally love to do a page, if you'll have me.

Holy shit, he's back.

[Spqrblues]

I'd love to have a page in a book with a cover by the Tales of Pylea artist Plus, this'll take the pressure off me to distribute a Free Comics Day comic on my own, so count me in, for 2 if there's space, for 1 if you'll have me.

[Ataraxia]

I'd be interested in a page as well.

[Glambourine]

I'd totally love to do a page, if you'll have me.

Holy shit, he's back.

It's the truth! I finally have some free time, thanks to having given up sleeping and all.

[Turnsky]

You can count me in. And even if I don't end up in the book, I don't mind throwing down a bit of money to help support it, anyway. :3

Also, if you guys need me to colour (tdot, I'm lookin' at you), give me plenny of time, just in case.

doubly so for me, give us fair warning, k? :p

[Lando]

I'm in for sure is there a theme at all? I hope there will be PM's sent if we are accepted or something of the like, I'm kinda absent minded sometimes...

[McDuffies]

It's an excellent move to make participating free, Cort. I mean, sure, advertisement is usually not free, but as I gathered lots of previous books were full of fillers because there wasn't enough paying participants.
I would love to participate and add a page on my own, but as you know, I don't have a serious running comic on CG now. And I certainly wouldn't want to bog down standards with "Grumpy the fat hamster".
Good luck.