Progress on print prep and supplies are coming in
4 months ago
– Tue, Dec 09, 2025 at 09:47:55 AM
Good Morning everyone,
So I got good news from myprinter on Friday, he said the new files looked good, but on the downside the final size was a little off. Let me explain, but this is going to be kind of technical.
So, I have always heard that comic artists work traditionally at 11 x 17 ", ad then the pages getscaleddown forprint at 6.625 x 10.25 ". Art supply stores sell 11 x 17" paper for comic artists, and so I was working at that size for mydigital pencils, printing mypencils out on 11 x 17" paper, inking it, coloring it, and scanning at that size, getting the lettering done, and then shrinking it down to 6.625 x 10.25" Pump the brakes! It turns out that'sthe size the final printed book comes out- but it needs to be slightly larger than that because part of the paper gets trimmed off during the process. If you line things up wrong, you could lose part of the art or even the text, which would be infuriating.
So I'm having conversations with myprinter, and the size I actually need tosend them is 6.88 x 10.5". Okay... here's the thing- 11 x 17 doesn't scale down to 6.88 by 10.5". It scales down to 6.88 by 10.63". That might not seem like a lot, but at this point we're not just scaling the size, we're changing the proportions. What would scale down to the correct size would be 11 x16.79"- almost a quarter of an inch off! I push my lettering right to the edge of the safe zone to make more room for the art, but because of this on many pages my lettering was in danger of being partly trimmed off.
So that's what I've been working on, and I'm happy to say I have just completed the fix on the third story, In the Forest of Villefere by Robert E Howard. That leaves about 12 pages left to go through, but I'm 75% of the way through.
In other news, I got some more reward supplies in yerrsterday! The bookmark sleeves, but I can't print anything yet because I don't have the vinyl film orglow in the dark paper, although I'm hoping that will get here tomorrow. What was really cool though, was these:
I'm super happy with the way the glow in the dark stickers came out, I had them printed at Sticker App and I'll definitely be using them again. I'll be posting some process shots of the bookmarks, and of course I'll be plugging away at the formatting of the comic, so stay tuned for more good stuff on the way. Thanks and have a great day,
Tyler
Final Print Prep!
4 months ago
– Fri, Dec 05, 2025 at 10:43:29 AM
Hi Everyone,
So I sent the file to my printer, and I'm getting great customer service from them. Unfortunately, sometimes that means telling me something I don't want to hear. Specifically, the letters looked fuzzy. So in talking with Rich, I told him I'd used Microsoft Word to export the PDF and word has funny ways of changing resolutions around and it also converted my file to 8.5 x 11 ", which is mildly infuriating. But, it turns out that I can use the same program I use to do the pencils and lettering, Clip Studio Paint, to make a pdf. I shall file that under Items I wish I knnew months ago... I'm just waiting on a final confirmation that the files on the sample pages I sent look good now, and then I'll redo the pdf in Clip Studio. If he says the lettering still looks fuzzy, it means I made a mistake when I lettered and I'll have to redo that. Ihope that's not it, but if it is I will push hard to get that done. I expect to learn by the end of today, so I have my fingers crossed. Also- a word on color profiles. RGB (red, green, blue) is a digital color profile for screens and can produce millions of colors. CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, and blacK) is for printing, and I've always heard it had to be in CMYK. It turns out my main printer can use either, and the printer for the glow in the dark covers needs the files in RGB, so I do have to go through and make a seperate PDF for that, and save all of those files as RGB. It can be a little frustrating learning how much I didn'tknow about print, but it will make all of my future comics go smoother. I think that's it for now- Have a great day everyone and I'll keep you updated,
Tyler
Backer Acknowledgement page is almost ready
4 months ago
– Tue, Dec 02, 2025 at 11:37:21 AM
Hi Everyone,
I'm in the process of creating a backer acknowledgement page in the back of the book, and I've contacted a few of youwho were either listed as initials,first name only, etc tosee how you'd like to be represented on that page. I'm still just waiting on two responses, I'll give it a few more days and then I'll use the names as they appear to me when you back.
I had discovered another page, # 8, which is part of The Statement of Randolph Carter that was formatted wrong, the trim areas were off sosome of the lettering would have been cut off and there were some other lettering issues. That's all fixed now and I do believe that's the lastof it, but it has convinced me that I need to order a physical proof of the book. That's the only way I can rest easy that I've caught every issue and that the book I send out to youwill be as good ad as it possibly can be. So right now I'm just waiting on my last two responses, and I'll be sending the print files off by the end of this week!
In other news, I do believe that my shipping supplies will arrive today- Gemini stay flat comic mailers, acid free bags and boards. I'll bbe putting those in mystorage unit for safe keeping until the books arrive- can't wait! That's about t for now - Thanks again and have a great day everyone!
Tyler
Happy Thanksgiving! And Progress!
4 months ago
– Thu, Nov 27, 2025 at 10:17:30 AM
Hi everyone!
So, kickstarter released the funds tome asof yesterday! I have ordered the Gemini stay flat comicmailers, as well as bags, boards, and the glow in the dark stickers. AsI have been going through the comic, I did find more errors on resolution and lettering,and I am still making some adjustments. The Edgar Allan Poe story, The Facts in the Case of M Valdemar, looks MUCH better now- When I did the first version of the pdf I used Word for that, and it looked... janky. The font had no personality, and the way it assigned page breaks was inscrutable to me. I'vebeen reding the story in Clip Studio, the same program I use for the lettering and digital pencils, so it has a more cohesive look now. It occured to me this morning that I could make the title looka little cooler, so I'm going to make that tweak and then I'll be posting a private update for backers only that has a dropbox link for the pdf's- one full page comic style and one panel by panel vertical scroll if you prefer.
I thought I had the comic ready to print, but I've realizedI didn'thave the pagesset up at the riight size, and I didn't have everything saved in the correct color profile for printing,but after some communication with the printer they set me right and I'm getting the entiire thing uniformly correct. As soon as that's done, which should be in aboout one week, I'll be ordering all the printed comics. The glow in the dark covers and the bookmarks are coming from one printer, all the other printed comics are coming from another. As soon asI'm done tweaking thePoe story I'll put up a before and after shot.
I apologizefor the slight delay, and I pledge tolearn from this formatting mistake for future projects. And in honor of Thanksgiving, I of course am thankful for all of you who supported my passion project here on Kickstarter. Have a great day,
Tyler
We hit 50 percent!
5 months ago
– Thu, Oct 30, 2025 at 10:49:43 AM
Hi everyone,
We hit 50% of our goal this morning, and therefore unlocked the Lizardman mini print (The Lizardman will be featured in The Curator's Cryptid Corner of issue #2) for all physical backers:
We've been weathering what's known as the Kickstarter Dead Zone, where virtually all campaigns slow down drastically in the middle. As we head into our final week however, I'll be making a big push to get across the finish line, I can't wait to get this book printed and shipped out to everyone! As always, any shares are appreciated, and thank you all again from the bottom of my heart for your support!
