Comic Genesis Forums

I just received word from Chris Crosby that we're going to need a title and a pagecount for the Comic Genesis Free Comic Book Day book for 2008, so it looks like the whole project has been given the green light to move forward. I have deadlines now for cover art and comic pages for the book as well, but it looks like Diamond is going to need our page count and title by THIS FRIDAY, so we're going to need to brainstorm and come up with a title ASAP to get this show on the road.

We had some ideas tossed around in the last FCBD thread. If anybody would like to nominate a few titles (and themes, naturally) for the book, let's hear them now and put them to a vote. For page count, 48 pages worked rather well for last year's book, and we could probably put together that many pages again for another edition, though if I recall, we were considering having fewer artists drawing longer stories for the book this year rather than dozens of one and two pages samples.

I know I've been MIA here on CG for some time now, but I'm still happy to coordinate this project as best I can. If anybody else would like to step up and be editor for this book, though, I'd be more than happy to step aside. In the meantime, though, I'll do anything I can to make sure we have a book again for 2008, one even better than last year's.

So now, let's go to it. Title suggestions, anybody?

Heya, CGers! If I could add in my two bits...

For the title, I'd probably go with something simple like COMIC GENESIS 2008 to get a bit of consistency going, which a lot of people appreciate.

For the pagecount, do you think it would be possible to go with 32 pages? 48 pages is fine, but 32 would be even better in terms of setting a more affordable per-copy cost for retailers. The less it costs to print and ship, the larger the readership it'll ultimately have.

Thanks!

If this turns into another three pages of semantics, I'm gonna hurt somebody.

I do think something simple would be best, you can always add a subtitle if you want to later.

I suggest 33 pages.

So, 32 pages leaves room for 5 5-page stories and seven pages for Table of Contents, ads, etc.?

As I recall, the theme people were ready to go with was Water. If we want to broaden it a bit, we could do the 4 elements (earth, air, fire, water) as a theme. I really don't care and hope we don't argue again, so we can just decide and get the contest started.

Water. Just plain, ordinary water.


Laced with LSD.

You had better make damn sure its the 4/5/6 best artists and writers on the damn site or I give up on this place grrrg.

mcDuffies wrote:I suggest 33 pages.

I'm fairly sure that's a joke but in case it isn't (or for the benefit of those who don't get it) For printing purposes, I believe the page count needs to be a multiple of 4

The Neko wrote:

theSuburbanLetdown wrote:Water. Just plain, ordinary water.


Laced with LSD.

Wow, I ruined that joke with my typing prowess. Oh well.

Yeah, it should be called "Comic Genesis 2008." Also the page count, I think, should be like 48. That's a good number, and excess space could be used for Ads, and a couple of shorter stories if they're good.

kaloo wrote:Yeah, it should be called "Comic Genesis 2008." Also the page count, I think, should be like 48. That's a good number, and excess space could be used for Ads, and a couple of shorter stories if they're good.

After some of the retailer feedback from last year's, I think we want to make the book as cheap to order as possible. 32 pages is probably the way to go. Are we still going with the contest where everyone who wants to participate submits a 5-page story based on the theme?

mcDuffies wrote:I suggest 33 pages.

That's a good title. Very post-modern.

You guys are hilarious!

Remeber the biggest criticism of the last one was it looking like a book of ads instead of a comic book to enjoy. Make it cheap, short, and with no ads if at all possible!

We are such a lovable bunch of forcefully irreverent goofs.


But seriously. 32 pages isn't too much, but to be honest, I am cynical as to ComicGenesis' collective ability to find competent enough artists and storytellers to fill up much more than that. If you give each artist 5 pages, we'd have 6 contributors with 2 extra pages for an introduction to the contributors (and theme?) and "sales" page to direct people to the main hub, which this book is ostensibly supposed to do.

Seriously, if we can't muster up even that, then we should just quit right now.

Jeez, quit with the optimism, Neko! You're just so peppy and fun these days.

Komiyan wrote:Remeber the biggest criticism of the last one was it looking like a book of ads instead of a comic book to enjoy. Make it cheap, short, and with no ads if at all possible!

hopefully participants should think of this as a creative exercise for a short, self contained story, and not as a chance to shamelessly plug one's comic.

I think 32 pages are best. where we could fill up 48 pages, I'd rather see a lower priced end product. Last year no comic retailer even carried the CG free book in my area. So I'd sacrifice a few extra spots for a few number of expert strips, that would have more people look at us, and come to the site, where they could find all the quality (ha ha) of the collective site.

Like wise, I think that short self contained stories as apposed to "single and double" paged ads for comics is the way to go. in my own opinion, five would be the max I'd like to see. truthfully a mainstream model might be an idea. two stories, then some pages with ads for other comics we want to support in the last few pages.

the title CG '08 works well for me.

so are we limiting it to 6 five page comics? or are we just going to choose the best of the comics submitted whose pages total up to 30? (+2 for index and what not)


I'd also like to know what the print size/page specifications will be.