https://www.createspace.com/6878496
Or buy on Amazon (where I make a piddling fraction of the total):
https://www.amazon.com/Sheen-Bug-Tim-Rocks/dp/1542679915%3FSubscriptionId%3DAKIAILSHYYTFIVPWUY6Q%26tag%3Dduckduckgo-ffab-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3D1542679915
Sorry for the long link... I guess they have a lot of "merch" they need to unload.
Here's the high-powered sales pitch; see if you can resist my powers to craft compelling catalog copy:
Don't "bug out," but it's GoldBug time --- time, that is, for 3 CLASSIC tales of the world's least favorite parody superhero!
These short stories, created from 2013-2016, feature the ever optimistic and naive gold/ insect-themed hero GoldBug; his side-kick Ingot Lad; their arch nemeses Dr. Dollar Dump and Peppa Money; and a motley crew of assorted hangers-on.
Despite the absurdity, a few serious themes creep in here and there --- so rationalize it to yourself that way, if you decide to shell out cash for this decidedly low-end cruise through the swamps of contemporary culture.
The Sheen of the Bug was waiting on me, when I arrived home, this evening. It was hiding in a large envelope.
ReplyDeleteThe physical dimensions of The Sheen of the Bug are different from GoldBug: The Bug's Big Jungle Jam. I'm not a fan of that approach. I just don't get what one gains from going that route. I don't collect comic books, anymore (not in many, many years), so it isn't a life or death issue of criticality for me, but it is an annoyance.
I like the lettering in GoldBug: The Bug's Big Jungle Jam better than the lettering in The Sheen of the Bug. It's easier on the eyes, and especially since I don't have the option to zoom in on the page, as I would with a digital PDF version - which you didn't bother to offer a choice of.
Yes, that is a repeat of a previous lament - but it is a particularly relevant one for me.
I like the feel of the cover pages for The Sheen of the Bug better than I like the feel of the cover for GoldBug: The Bug's Big Jungle Jam. As for the interior pages, I like feel of the interior pages of GoldBug: The Big's Big Jungle Jam better than I like the feel of the interior pages of The Sheen of the Bug.
The little bug that occupies a a small portion of an entire page that is predominantly empty space in The Sheen of the Bug, is that the pin-up? If so, then two big thumbs down on that! Visually, it ends up looking more like poor quality control than anything else. Just not grasping what you were aiming for, where this one page is concerned. The bug is barely big enough for one panel much less an entire page.
Neither of your print copies on those two titles have persuaded me that print copies are better than digital copies. The would look nice on a table in a barber shop or a doctor's office, somewhere, or a coffee table as a conversation piece or just to give someone something to read. I find myself sitting here, today, wondering whether I shouldn't just subscribe to Marvel's Unlimited digital subscription option.
Not having some kind of better online presence, whether it's a Facebook page or a Facebook fan page or a forum or something will likely translate into me buying less copies in the future, rather than more. Your current marketing approach is never going to serve you well, I don't think.
You do great artwork, and your lettering is decent (even if it comes across on the light side, on the black and white comics in print format). Your variety of comic books on offer, though, is pitifully small. You have a mastery on the dialogue end of things, and you are a capable story teller. But in spite of all of your artistic skill and ability and prowess, you don't generate enough (or haven't, at least, if what is on display here is any indicator) material to build and grow a fan base of note, anytime soon. And this is truly a tragedy! Such a shame.
It's easy to justify buying your comic books. It's not easy to justify having so little to chose from. You're either a very busy man, and simply have no time to create comic books, or you hard them and don't share them with the world, or you just haven't made it a priority to transfer much of your imagination into the comic book form. It's like being in a store, with next to nothing stocking the shelves. The result is that the eyes are starved by empty space.
Hi Charles, thanks for your comments. I have not seen a physical version yet myself (I proofed it using CreateSpace's online reviewer) so you have the advantage on me there.
ReplyDeleteThe dimensions were difficult because those stories were drawn over several years, with different aims in mind. I tried to choose a size that worked for all three stories.
I hope the interior paper is matte. That sounds bad if it's different than the "Jungle Jam" paper. My aim was to try to improve the cover paper and keep the good interior paper. It's difficult working long distance with these print-on-demand places, and their limited options.
Re: the blank/ bug pages--- I had 42 content pages, hence 2 extra pages to make 44 total. I decided to use the 2 extra pages as visual breaks (pauses, "intermission") between the dense story pages. That seemed like a good way to clarify the different "chapters" or story sections.
You may not agree with these choices but I hope you see that I was doing my best within the constraints on hand.
I hope you'll keep reading whatever meager output I can manage... and letting me know your thoughts on it, good or bad.
Oh, and on the PDF version: I did try to set it up on Kindle, but ran into some difficulties. Planning to try again. Sorry for the delay.
ReplyDeleteThe paper isn't bad on either comic book. I was just explaining my preference, one compared to the other.
ReplyDeleteAs for your choices, I just don't see any actual value to having several blank pages in a row at the end of the comic. It adds nothing, and it detracts visually from the overall product.
I don't get by here (this blog of yours) nearly often enough, but life has its ways of distracting me - sometimes for extended lengths of time. Make no mistake, though, I enjoy your work immensely, plus I enjoy the back and forth banter and dialogue, as well. Very satisfying experience, it just comes in rationed portions.
Your "choices" are difficult for me to reconcile, since I don't see how at least some of them are advancing your cause. Instead of blank pages, create some decent looking ads for yourself. You're like a drawing wizard that has sworn off the magic that is your drawing. You should be prolific - and you are prolific, in fact, you just choose to not share it - but, instead, you're just plodding along, kind of like an Eeyore meets Carl Banks cloning gone bad. Your stuff is brilliant laced with a smattering of boring. Intellectually, it's overripe, but delicious to look at and ever-tempting to nibble.
How are you - with your choices factored into the mix - going to persuade people to herd themselves over to this blog and begin consuming your stuff? You worship obscurity, it seems. You're like a villain in one of your GoldBug books, only you forgot to draw yourself into the story.
What are you working on? Who knows? What is coming down the pike? Nobody has a clue, especially me! You're starving your fan base, Tim. It's a famine, here in Fan World, yet there you are, all aloof from the Peasants of Readerville.
You should be churning stuff out, left and right. Instead, it's the world's slowest artistic drip.
DRIP.
DRIP.
DRIP.
It drives one mad! Bonkers! Yet, you assure me that you're doing your best.
Really?!
I just sit here, shaking my head and mumbling your name under my breath.
...mumble...mumble...Tim...Rocks...mumble...mumble...nothing...mumble...new...mumble...to...mumble...read...mumble...mumble...
Well if nothing else, we could print your comments on all those blank pages... I certainly enjoy reading them, it cracks me up to get taken to task for not giving the world more of these comics that I can't PAY people to read. You do realize that nobody else really cares for this stuff, right? Okay there's one guy commenting on my thread over at DigitalWebbing, out of 224 views... to give you an idea of the staggering sales potential it would have if it just had a Facebook page..
ReplyDeleteAnyway, just to be clear, I was not aware of blank pages at the end of the book---that was not in my files I uploaded, nor was it in the digital proof I viewed. It seems to be something they do with the print books, for mysterious reasons. I gave them 44 pages, so there's no reason to add blanks at the end. However, I don't think it's going into the cost calculator, so it seems like a minor issue, to me.
I am drawing some stuff, there will be new stuff along hopefully fairly soon. You may be surprised at the quantity of it, turns out I do have "vaults" of material "horded away," that I had forgotten about...
"hoarded away"
DeleteEh?? What's that? I can get paid to read your comics?
DeleteWhere does the line form, I wonder?
EGAD!! What a cad! You think evil thoughts - about your own handiwork in the comics realm.
ReplyDeleteTsk...tsk...tsk...
I haven't been to the Digital Webbing forum in a long while. I got tired of their penchant for petty censorship. It used to be one of my favorite website destinations in all of the In Ter of Net. That's a good place to go to learn and to be energized with the art that gets put on display there, but it's not the place to go, if what you're after is to sell comic books.
Sometimes when we talk, it feels less like a Dan Hill song (He said touch, I said talk - Touche!), and more like learning to communicate with aliens. Hail, Sloboid! I come in peace.
What I take you to task on is not that you're not creating more of these particular comic books, but rather, your whole quicksand approach to comic books and marketing of the same. How is anybody going to buy them, when virtually no one encounters them? Doctor Strange, Master of the Mystic Arts, would have difficulty finding them. What do you expect of mere mortals, eh?
If you honestly feel that nobody cares about this stuff, then what if you're right? Is your plan to get as rich as GoldBug by giving people what you know they don't care about?
Most people - the absolute vast majority of people in this world - do NOT buy comic books. Period. They don't buy any from anyone, not just from you.
One of the things that you're doing wrong is that you have no audience to speak of. Have you considered growing your audience, first, and then selling them comic books?
Your comic books are intellectual mints. They are tasty to munch on. But for regular feast fare, mints don't cut the mustard. You're too busy using your comic books to teach, that they have little time to entertain. Your comic books are fit for the intellectual elite. How about producing something for the common man, like me.
What is staggering is your talent - as well as your potential. The people want Spacely Sprockets, and you're Hell-bent on giving them Cogsworth Cogs. Come down off the high mountain of intellectualism, and entertain the masses with something like...oh I don't know...Unca Scrooge.
Only not Unca Scrooge.
He is who I first thought of, when I first encountered your GoldBug character. However, GoldBug went off the end of an intellectual cliff. You've made him less fun - less entertaining - than Unca Scrooge. How come?
I've always suspected that you hoard vast quantities of artistic delights, much like an artistic version of Willy Wonka, only no chocolate.
Give us a cross between Donald Trump meets Spy versus Spy, or something that plays to your strengths. Your hoarded artistic ingots of golden comics unseen aside, whenever I visit this blog site, there's usually nothing new here. You can't build and grow an audience, that way. You must be...Ta-dah!...Mister Prolific!
Never make the mistake of thinking that you're stuff isn't magnificent! Magnificent isn't the same things as entertaining, though. Give us a Tim Rocks version of Ducksburg, a place where comics and reality meet and get all tangled up together. If nothing else, place yourself at the center of it all. Use animal people, like Barks did. People like animals more than they like people, after all.
You're clever. You're hyper-witty. Your intellectualism is more dense than a dwarf star, though.
Come up with something - or a thousand somethings. Quit trying to sell the world Edsels.