Sketch Cover Pros

[PeasOfCrap]

It seems with any exclusive, such as Ultimate Comics, Larry or a convention variant you need to sell ALOT of copies to recoup or make a profit...at least for a mainstream title.

 

Without the exposure of a show (anyone friends with a show promoter?) or a website, I don't think our idea has legs unless its a self published title as Dan did for the blank he produced for the show.

[Celestial Comics]

Are you guys really serious about this? How many copies would everyone combined take if you really had to place an order? 1000 copies? 2000 copies? I know Marvel's minimum order is 4000 copies of a book. And that did not even get you an exclusive because LCS dealers were able to get 3 copies each. But I believe Marvel has changed it's rules and now won't even let a con or a LCS order a custom cover anymore starting in 2011. I know because I have had a little experience with this and I am working on something now as well.

[Jonesin4Comics]

What will $20 get me?

 

 

[dhurley]

[N/A]

Well looking at WD I would guess 1,000 copies given The Ultimate Comics version. We would also have to pay for an approved cover artist.

 

I'm not initially concerned with making my $$ back but more to learn the ropes and be part of the opportunity. WD 100 would be very nice and is far enough off that it should be a possibility.

 

Anyone want to start taking names of who wants to be involved and then start a group PM??

[toysmania]

Some food for thought: If you were to create a blank cover for WD, wouldn't you have to seek permission (and perhaps pay some royalties or smth) from the WD creators? I'm pretty sure there're some copyright infringements..

 

It's true the WD creators benefit from this in terms of greater exposure and free advertisement, but if they can get some money and still reap the benefits, wouldn't they?

[N/A]

I believe we are all talking about going through Image for a blank cover. Their cut is the biggest part of the expense.

[RockMyAmadeus]

Its not as easy as you may think

 

How easy do you think I think it is...?

 

and its pricey.

 

Absolutely. But not "out of the question" pricey. And that's the key.

 

The promoter of Florida SuperCon (FSC) is a good friend of mind and jumped on the skertch cover bandwagon pretty early in the game. He was able to create a variant blank for the FSC 2009 program done and in the last min the printer messed up on the stock.

 

Lady Death Creator Brian Pulido was also willing to produce blanks of his Lady Death #1 issue but it came to $6-$8 per book for orders less then 200 copies.

 

Right, which is why I was suggesting a pool. Less than 200 copies gets verrry spendy. With a pool, there's a supply out there, of say, 1,000-2,000 copies, so that people don't have to pay a premium for them, or have a difficult time finding them when the opportunity comes up.

 

In fact, you specifically were in my mind when I posted this, because it would be very nice for sketch fans to have an easily accessible source from someone(s) who do this on a regularly basis...and I don't know anyone who does this more regularly than you.

 

[RockMyAmadeus]

I was amazed at the quality of the Mid-Ohio Con blanks. They were pretty limited, but still giveaways at the 2010 show.

 

Does any one know the print run and how much they are going for?

 

I do not, but I would estimate between 500 and 2000. I couldn't tell how many were in a case and they had between 5 and 10 cases of them.

 

I sold several right after Mid-Ohio for (I think) $10 each and they went like 24k hotcakes.

 

See, but that's the thing. It would be nice if there was a "made to order" sketch (it could even be a REPRINT) that wouldn't cost $10 each.

[RockMyAmadeus]

let pool our money together for a Walking Dead 100 Blank!!!

 

I would allocate $500 to that in a heartbeat.

 

 

This is an interesting idea!! I say make it a "CGC Forum Board" Exclusive blank variant cover - I'd be in for a few hundred!

 

Me too.

 

Just as long as everyone can get in on it without having to spend a premium for them.

[toysmania]

I believe we are all talking about going through Image for a blank cover. Their cut is the biggest part of the expense.

 

I see. Just wanted to be sure everyone's on the same frequency

[Menace]

I am working on contacting the people at Image right now. One of my writers works on Image titles and has given me contact info for them.

 

I am producing a blank cover of Red Angel #1 through WTFlux comics. Larry, my co-producer is very good at the publishing buisness. I should have a mock up of our blank cover soon. If you want details on what the issues cost and details on what I am working with send me a PM... let me tell you the numbers you guys are throwing out there would be more than enough to print a blank comic book.

 

I am limiting Red Angel blanks to 20... Russ Leach has agreed to sketch them when we get things figured out with overseas mail away events.

 

Can someone tell me what paper to have the Red Angels printed on? Is there a paper code?

 

I will have Larry get the comics listed under 'Great' in the other thread in general thread so he can get something similar. But if anyone has specific info please message me.

 

I am willing to organize things if people are interested, if noone else more qualified wants to organize this I can, PM me if your ACTUALLY interested in doing something like this.

 

[Celestial Comics]

Menace,

 

If you want to organize it that is fine. A couple of items that you must be aware of. You must have a relationship with Diamond Comic Distributors because ultimately the transaction goes from Image to Diamond to the "BUYER". The money needs to be in place before you place the order. You need to have a place for the books to be delivered to. And you don't want it shipped where you can not handle a pallet of books. 2,000 books will come out to half a pallet of books. You don't want the books handled by the Diamond staff unless you want to deal with damages therefore the books need to be "drop shipped" directly from the print house to a receiving location. Then you need to be able to seperate the books into the smaller orders and have access to the shipping resources to ship them all out. All I can say is dealing with 200 books is one thing, but dealing with 2,000 books is a whole other situation. And Image won't even want to talk about this until about 9 months to a year from now. A blank cover does not take long to set up from the production aspect of things. That is if you are talking about a true blank cover that only has the title and other legal tags on it. If you are talking about having some form of actual art on the cover then that is a whole different thing but still a long ways off. There are a couple of people over at Image that I have relationships with that could get the ball rolling once the time is right to start the whole ball. So if you want or need any help just let me know.

[Menace]

I could not guarantee anything at Image, I have a writer who works for them and a few contacts with artists there. I can guarantee publishing from at least two of my personal publishing contacts. I forsee any real attempt will be set off for a time, and that will allow everyone to witness my work and such. I want my RA sketch covers to come out great, I will only offer them to board members. So we can all be the judge of what they look like. These books are already paid for.. I would not have advertised the Megacon variant without solid footing. I paid yesterday for the entire print run and the blank covers.

 

I really need help to get the right paper for this book.

 

If people are after Walking Dead stuff thats something different, and I can speak with Mr. Adams and others about contacting Image. Although I might not be best situated for that. I am not a 'Sketch Cover Pro' for sure and I only want to state exactly what I think I can do... anyone want to see 'collectors society exclusive' on the blank Red Angels?

[toysmania]

If you're asking about what paper stock to use, I don't have the exact technical terms but so far, the best cover stock for sketching and coloring are those such as marvel projects 1

Blank, avengers 1 1st print blank and x men 1 blank.

[Menace]

If you're asking about what paper stock to use, I don't have the exact technical terms but so far, the best cover stock for sketching and coloring are those such as marvel projects 1

Blank, avengers 1 1st print blank and x men 1 blank.

 

I am gonna have Larry get an X-Men #1 and do paper of similar style and quality I think. Any more specific info or other suggestions would be appreciated. I got most blanks I have felt them all and looked them over, but as yet have gotten anything done on them. I guess I will see what they look like soon.

[A-DONIS]

I'll chip in the cost of a cover

[NYComics]

it is gonna cost me like 30K just to get all the asm blanks I just bought commissioned.....so count me out.

 

 

best of luck guys! If you set it up I could pledge buying like 50 or something.

[Buck Biggins]

I would love to have a blank for our show or have some of the comic sized programs be a blank. Last year we did a blank with a small publisher and the cover stock was all wrong.

[chainnball]

i'd be in for $500