TNegovan

Jeremy Bastian. There's a piece of his up on eBay now. It takes him forever to do a page of Cursed Pirate Girl, you never see them in the wild.

It took Jeremy three years to create the first three issues- we're expecting that since now he is doing CPG full-time we can get that number down to two. He takes an average of a week per page (of course longer on some of those really detailed ones!), and instead of reducing age counts like the major publishers, he insists on 30+ pages of story per book. It looks like Vol. 2 will be approximately 108 pages, so it's two years of solid, solid drawing board time. The plan is to use this time to build the audience for the finale of the story. (That last sentence is another shameless plea for help.) I'm really excited that out of the 800+ people on the Kickstarter campaign, nearly 2/3 hadn't been into a comic book store in the last year. It shows that this book can create new comic readers. And having the radio play with movie actors will certainly help it get some attention in non-comics media...

Oh! One other thing... I am trying to corral a one-shot type book out of Jeremy, Katie Cook and Dave Petersen with all stories about secondary characters... I would LOVE to see Katie do a Pook Tarantula story! But for the moment, Jeremy is finishing a few pages for The Guild at Dark Horse, and hard at work on the fourth issue...

I have to laugh (to hide my tears!) in agreement, because I feel the VERY same way!!!!! It's almost doubly painful that Jeremy gives me bits of the stories to come, because they just CAN'T get here fast enough for me!!!!!! One of the things that Jeremy likes about what we are doing together with this book is that instead of saying "can you hurry that up?" we ask "do you need more time?" I've seen a lot of artists develop a shorthand style in order to meet deadlines, and I want the work that Jeremy produces in ten years to be even more impressive than the work today- not less so. What matters in ten and twenty years is just how good the book is, not the date it comes out. At least, that's what I keep telling myself- because I want Jeremy to be able to work faster than a page every two weeks!!! But that's what it takes, and in the meantime we are just doing things like releasing art prints to try to draw the attention away from how long it's taking to make the stories. The next trilogy that finishes this story line will be released once the whole thing is done, so we're talking about two years. But what makes Jeremy's art SO special is that he takes soooooo much time to create the art! We blew some of the pages up three feet tall for the Challengers event, and it was only at that scale that some elements of the artwork became visible- Jeremy even has scenes clearly carrying out on the COINS for God's sake... and remember that when we print the book, we are printing 1:1... NO reduction from the original art. Buy a big magnifying glass and go through the comics again! You will be rewarded!!!

I don't think you'd be pleased with what Dark Horse or anyone else would do with the book. One publisher asked a top comic artist what it would take to get the book, and they responded: "Well, Tom doesn't care if the book makes money, he's only concerned with the quality of the product." The publisher in question opted out. And logically so! Publishers have to make money. We are not a real publisher. Our only goal is to make something that- once you get it in your hand- you will cherish forever. With Century Guild, we've had the opportunity to place in museum collections $90,000 Alphonse Mucha books and dozens upon dozens of other Symbolist masterpieces of printing from the Turn of the Century. In those days, it was a handful of wealthy patrons who commissioned these editions, and this attention to detail is a lost art. Both Dark Horse and Image have published books that were copies of our designs, but with more "affordable" materials. The difference to eyes that can tell is night and day. (This is why when Michael Zulli was looking for someone to publish the unbelievable book he's been working on since he finished his work on The Sandman he only brought it to us. The man wears blue velvet shoes and carries a silver-headed cane, to set the proper stage for his character.) So the things like test stamps, etc., are a necessary evil to getting out the book with the right- dare I say it- vibe. These are all done by hand- every single one! And we do experiment to get it perfect. Should we have sold these? Should we have responded to the emails asking about what "weird" misstamps and what-not were around the art studio? I would be lying if I didn't say that the chances of us selling anything from the side door is probably slim to none. It's proven- as you can see from these recent posts- more effort to deal with five "collectors" than five thousand fans. But!!!!!!!!!! The fact that there was a printing error was a HUGE train wreck. It needs an adjective to express how big a deal it was to us. It's the first time anything like this has ever happened here, and I hope the last time...

No one should be jumping on Julio! We think that his love of the book is great. We never minded that he was getting CPG rarities from us and reselling them for such markups- sincerely. We love dealers, and respect their right to find creative ways to make money. I'm sorry that you are perceiving anything that we are doing as shameful. We just want everyone to love Cursed Pirate Girl! We were happy ourselves just to get $5 a book from a ten year old kid who loved the idea of a Cursed Pirate Girl and a talking parrot, that's where our mindset is. We're also happy that you heard about the book from Julio, kudos to anyone who spreads the word. Some people heard about it when Mike Mignola mentioned it in interviews as his favorite new book, some people saw it when it was a Diamond Previews Staff Pick, we're happy to have as many people know about it as possible. In what way are we not happy with Julio, in your mind? I've only mentioned that I wish that Jeremy was seeing as much profit from this book as the ambitious resellers are. That's nothing personal against Julio. And what was Julio's rather creative idea? Was it the talking parrot, or the Swordfish Brothers? The part about the voice from the shark in issue one? Or was it a money-making idea? Don't lose the plot- none of this functions without the creation of the art, don't you think? There was never a disagrement over anything except that my offer of refund or exchange at our expense wasn't acceptable, and we held firm- and still do- that these two options are reasonable and fair. I hope that most of you agree.

Julio- Whew! Ok, I am glad that this is all worked out then. You are happy to keep the books, I'm sure you'll be able to make a profit on them, and my magic 8-ball predicts that for all the drama that went into getting to this point that you will find a way to make being stuck with 60 error copies into an even more profitable position than you had hoped. We have habitually priced the books based on breaking even, for no reason other than we want to use top materials and hand-worked details that would normally be too expensive for many people to afford. The only other comics-related work that we published were two Dan Brereton books, but we're really proud of how they turned out: Nocturnals: Volume One, which is a really deluxe hardcover and has super-cool cobwebbed endpapers. It's also printed on high end art paper, with top-notch reproductions. We priced them at $29 because they were made just to support his fabulous art, but we only printed 3500 copies so are sadly long sold out. But copies are floating around. If you haven't read the Nocturnals, it's in the same league as Hellboy and Sin City, and was one of Dark Horse's "(Un)Holy Trinity" back in the day. It's a comics masterpiece. And from a "printing" point of view, lay Volume One side-by-side with Image's Volume Two, and you'll see what I mean on a hundred fronts. A Nocturnal Alphabet is a children's book- signed and numbered in an edition of 800- that is made like an old 19th century schoolbook. It's on super heavy stock with spot varnishes, and an antique looking cloth cover with metal place foil stamping, just like books were made back in 1900. We have also printed exhibition catalogs for our Nitrate and Kinogeists exhibition (Dave McKean paintings based on early cinema) and a Grand Guignol exhibition (tons of great antique art, but new artworks by comic artists Michael Zulli and Dave McKean were in the show). Probably our best-looking book is the Gail Potocki monograph The Union of Hope and Sadness. Grant Morrison is a fan and said "Brilliant... more than just paintings, Gail conducts seances on canvas." So if you like weird metaphysical stuff and Symbolist Art, this one will be up your alley, just devastatingly beautiful paintings. Mentioning Grant makes me think to mention that if you guys weren't aware, in the radio play version of Cursed Pirate Girl, the two Swordfish Brothers were read by Grant and Dave McKean- it was funny having two brothers where one had a VERY Scottish and the other a VERY British accent, haha! Very Monty Python. If you're interested in the Cursed Pirate Girl radio play, I can't tell you the new actors who have committed yet, but to see which friends I've got on tape so far, check this link: http://centuryguild.wordpress.com/category/cursed-pirate-girl-radio-drama/ We expect to have the play done by the Spring! The goal is to make it available to libraries and schools for read-a-longs, to make people come together publicly and enjoy reading comics... instead of just at home, as we all do now that we're grown-up! Tom ps- Fastball, the popcorn thing literally made me laugh so hard I spit water out onto my computer.

Unfortunately we found out last minute, Challengers knew the day of the signing. They offered to print the pages out and insert them, no drama. I suppose I will accept the fault on this one. When these guys who were not making a penny on the thing offered to do the work, I took the words about how much you wanted to support the book to heart and mistakenly assumed that you'd want to do the same thing so that we could focus on getting the book corrected for the other 5,000 copies. I accept that this was my error in judgement, and I publicly apologize. These get a little heavy-handed, again. But I'll respond in the interest of clarity: These being stamped as "advance" copies was something we were doing for you as a favor to help you recoup your $1500, not part of the Kickstarter offer. There is nothing short of an Act of God or a Tardis that can remedy that the error affect properly paginated copies being available before the rest of the world gets theirs. Your investors are reimbursed, plus their profits, and you've made a few hundred dollars. This was unquestionably our error. If you want to return the unsold books, I will Paypal you the money today. I understand this. We messed up, and MAJORLY. If you don't feel comfortable selling, donating, or gifting this book further, I am happy to exchange them or refund your money. I can Paypal you the funds today. It was never our intention to put anyone out on a limb with this, and I am happy to do anything- reasonable and above board- to make this right. This happened because we bought Jeremy's ticket to Chicago- but it wouldn't get the books remarqued and in your hands the weekend of the con you wanted to be able to release them. We wanted to accomodate you on this, so instead of applying that toward travel, we overnighted the giant box around the country to make sure you had it. I paid anything over the $280 out of pocket, because it was necessary you have the books for that show. I don't get this part, and I'm being sincere: how did you put your name on the line? And no, I myself am old enough that I've learned that no matter what people say, very few people work for free. But to be clear: Challengers did. I have, for three years. And Jeremy does. I don't begrudge you making a profit at ALL, Julio. I just get confused when you want an award to go along with it. I in no way perceive myself as a victim! Although I drive an old Toyota, and am jealous of your vehicle. I LOVELOVELOVELOVE what I do, and seeing as I haven't been paid on it in three years, I'd be foolish to suggest otherwise. We're coordinating a major library effort in the Spring around the radio play, so I agree that these things are important to get this book into more hands. And you are right: I don't know you, and I assume the best. All I know is: We negotiated a deal on Kickstarter, and I tried to give you above and beyond what the pledge called for. As soon as the pledge campaign closed, you asked if you could solicit the books you bought at a hefty markup to the Kickstarter pledgers. I told you that I would prefer you didn't, and gave you reasons why I thought it wouldn't go over well. You did it anyway. People immediately started attacking you on there- they did the math, and it looked a little, well... financially ambitious... to them: "So you're trying to make 6000$+ off a 1,500$ pledge to give 900$ of it to charity? ...just sounds like a bit too much for a person that did nothing on a book that lost money for everyone that worked on it." And even though- yes- I don't know you, I am an optimist. I stepped in and calmed everyone down by sticking up for you. Was that a good call? I mean, we are talking about putting names on the line, aren't we? Once you start making more money on Cursed Pirate Girl than any of us are, you accept the responsibility to the people you are taking that money from. Our deal is with you- you personally. So: We messed this up royally. You've already said that your investors made a tidy profit, you've made a few hundred bucks. We sent you something incorrect. I want to return these conversations to what's truly important, the thing whose absence would make all of this irrelevant: ART. Not commerce. Reveal your intentions, and we will assist you in reaching whatever your personal goal is for this project. While we acknowledge our error, we cannot accommodate any suggestions beyond return or exchange. It's been one week, and you are already in the black on this. Do you want to return the rest of the books, for a full refund, including shipping costs, so you are no longer in this compromised position, and this way you come out where you made a profit for your investors, and yourself, with no potential for further problems? Please let me know what I can do to make this right for you. And PLEASE- let's get these threads back to talking about how AWESOME THIS BOOK IS!!!!! Tom Olympian Publishing Century Guild

Hey, guys- It seems there are some misunderstandings on the 200 books that got released into the world with the printing error. I'm posting on here not to stir the pot, but to clarify: When you say you don't agree with the remediation, perhaps you're speaking without understanding... the pin-ups were space fillers in the back of the book. There was a page of story missing when the two pin-ups were placed, and once placed back into sequence, the two pages that were available for those pinups are now only one. Jeremy couldn't decide which pin-up to leave out between his two close friends, Dave Petersen and Nate Pride, and after much deliberation opted to leave both out rather than have to choose, and put an image of his fabulous Little Nemo illustration. Choosing between two close friends is kind of like picking a favorite parent, you know? Plus, the Little Nemo piece hasn't been seen by as many people, and Jeremy's really proud of that art. To further clarify, books are printed four pages up, so to add in the two pin-ups would mean having three more extraneous pages in the back- and filling extraneous pages was how the pin-ups got placed in the first place. See how this goes in a circle? Simply put: the pinups were space holders, for space that the book- once properly paginated- no longer has. This is where it gets a little heavy-handed for me. We have made a high resolution pdf available online for anyone who wants to make sure- as I would- that you don't miss out on a single panel of this story! The 100 Challengers copies were printed out and placed in the book by the employees of Challengers in advance of the signing. Julio suggested doing an offset print run for the forty "White Logo" copies that have been sold, but I don't think he understands how unbelievably expensive that would be. And these are clearly ERROR copies. Any attempts to make these 40 books into proper copies just won't work. Print the page out, but let it be what it is! Embrace that you were lucky enough to land something that was recalled, or exchange it- we will stamp and sign a new book, properly paginated, to match the one submitted. You can send books to: OLYMPIAN PUBLISHING 1658 N. Milwaukee #305 Chicago IL 60647 And we will return the books with reimbursement for your shipping costs. If Julio wants to print out the pages for you and ship them, that is fine- the environmentalist in me would hope you'd prefer to save the shipping materials, costs, etc., but I understand wanting something the way you thought it was when you paid for it. Julio, you are a mensch. Olympian Publishing has got to be a small op because they act like a small operation. QC failed and now their response is lacking. Addendum or errata pages are somewhat acceptable for textbooks, but for a publication where the printing itself is part of the art, taping a page into the book seems (charitably) inelegant. Should it matter to an artist that their pride and joy is so shabbily represented? It is disappointing Olympian is not offering to replace the issues especially in light of the success of the Kickstarter project. $36,000 for them and Jeremy, $1,500 of it paid for by the backers of this edition. It is disappointing because this is their or their printer's problem. Perhaps they don't want to have to go through the pain of having to re-print the issue and then fly Jeremy back out for the sign, remark and stamp. It just seems tragic that Olympian cannot at least make an effort at wanting to do right by Julio, who paid for and negotiated the right to produce these books. Olympian should at least offer to replace the issues as originally intended--stamped, sketched, signed, wholly complete and with the pin-ups. I can't comment on Julio being a mensch or not, but I will agree that you are correct: we are a small operation. We've begged, borrowed and stolen from our parent company to get Cursed Pirate Girl out there, and for three years now we've operated very solidly in the red. Did quality control fail? Yes! For the first time in years, we had a huge operator error here, and it's tragic. But in what way is our response lacking? We are happy to exchange all books at our expense. We are in agreement that addendum pages for an art book are inappropriate. And inelegant. We do not recommend it. We would suggest keeping the book as a separate "error" book, or returning the book for a copy that properly represents the standards we have held for all our previous years of publishing art books. We are in fact offering to replace all the books, so I am assuming that this was an error in your understanding. The first part of our disagreement with Julio was a point that you have said even more pointedly than I did: we felt that the books did not need to have a special print run of papers for something that would literally be a paste-up job, like putting a bow tie on a cow. Let it be a cow. (Although I would actually like to see a bow tie on a cow, now that I think about it. But I am ruining my point.) The second was in the suggestion that we supply complimentary copies for everyone with proper pagination. This was simply met with (1) the response that I believe that offering to exchange the copies at our cost was fair, and (2) with the markup over retail, Julio will at the end have made $5,000 in profit. This is more than ten times what we made on this deal. But that's between him and his buyers, we got the price we were asking, and are happy that the books are out in the world. If at the prices he charged above retail he feels that complimentary copies are necessary in addition to an exchange, I honor his attention to customer service and offered to make more copies available to him at the wholesale price, which is $10 a book. And as for the pin-ups, I also hope that this is now clear as well that the storyline must take priority, and that it would be physically impossible to have both the storyline and the pinups without expanding the book again- making more empty space to be dealt with, in a process that could theoretically never end. The point of the collected edition is the storyline, and the new four page epilogue. I still feel that offering an exchange and having the books marked and signed, etc., to match the submitted copies is fair. It is confusing to me that some people feel otherwise, and want to use this as an opportunity to suggest that we are not doing the right thing in this matter. This is additionally confusing to me by Julio's desire to keep the 60 unsold error books- if they are a problem, then why not return them? We all know that there is a premium value to error books. Keep them, have a part of (ouch!) history. Return them, have a perfect book. We have no problem with either, and I hope that by publicly clarifying our intentions directly instead of through a second party that this makes things clearer. We really, really, really appreciate everyone's support of the Cursed Pirate Girl universe, and hope that this is the VERY best thing under your tree this Christmas!!! Thanks, from all of us here. Very appropriately: Happy Thanksgiving, Tom Olympian Publishing Century Guild