Progress Report : December

That’s right I didn’t do a November Progress report. October and the start of November has been filled with manically trying to get the Judges book to print and then getting the printed books out for the backers.

Pretty much everyone in the UK should have theres now, and the rest of the world should receive them in the next week. 

Joshua

However during November I have been storyboarding the whole book of Joshua so I can tell you now it will be 128 pages, the same as the Judges book. I’m actually quite surprised, but I have storyboarded Joshua with an average of three lines per page, unlike Judges which had four. I hope this will give the text and the action a little more breathing room. 

It will be interesting doing Joshua and I hope a lot quicker than Judges as it its one long story with the same recurrent characters, spanning 30 years, unlike Judges which was several short stories with few recurrent characters spanning over 300 year. 

This is a picture of the whole book of Joshua in sketched thumbnail format. I have to thumbnail the whole book to ensure themes from the end are foreshadowed in the beginning and set up from the beginning are concluded by the end. 

I’ve allowed a little room for action scenes where the Bible briefly states things like "they had a battle”, "they took a city” or "they defeated the Anakim” 

Prayers 

One our key concerns is still finding a good publisher. This is something I’ll be really hammering in January, sending them printed copies and chasing them. It’s not worth sending now as Christmas is a very busy time for publishers. So please pray that in January we can get signed up ready for the Summer. 

PROGRESS REPORT: OCTOBER AND NEW ENDORSEMENT

Progress 

Well, the pie is finally all green. That means all the pages are drawn, inked and coloured! You will notice there are also little ticks on thirteen of the chapters. This is where I have opened up each page and made sure all the text is correct, the boxes are consistent and in good order.

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I've added little bits to the images to clear up confusion based on feedback I've received or errors I've noticed. For example, I noticed that the tabernacle was not drawn correctly so I had to adjust it quite significantly. 

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It's a good example of the sort of thing I'm doing. They are often minute details that "no one will ever notice" but due to the aims of this project to be as accurate as possible I've had to adjust these things to ensure their validity. 

Backer Rewards

Having completed the last three chapters today (Judges 19,20,21), I now need to add them to a pdf and send them out to the backers who are due to receive them (in the next few days). This includes all the new backers from last month's successful Kickstarter and they will therefore get the whole book of Judges in one go digitally in October as promised.

The hard copies are due to be received by the end of November and I have just been negotiating some of the final points with a the printer, including way to make these limited edition copies even more special for all the wonderful backers who've have made this graphic novel series a possibility. We are looking at a local printer which is ethical with use of materials, is obviously closer and therefore reduces the transport environmental issues, and is nearby so I can go in and see them if necessary. 

Endorsement

If you missed the update on social media the project also picked up an amazing endorsement from the world of comics... 

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...I am so happy that John Wagner has agreed to endorse the work and I hope this will really help to reach a broader readership among comic fans who might give it a go, but might not have otherwise. 

Publishers

I am still pursuing publishers through connects and applying direct. This has gone on the back burner somewhat in the last few weeks with Kickstarter, but nevertheless I have a big Christian company viewing the proposal at the moment, so please pray they like it and get in touch with me about it, so I get a chance to answer any questions and handle any objections they might hold. With the new endorsements and second successful Kickstarter (thanks to all my supporters) I hope they will take note. Especially since The Action Bible (an abridged comic of the whole Bible) announced that it has sold one million copies to date!

Newsletter

I plan to start an email newsletter, so if you'd like to sign up to that please use the link below. It hasn't started yet but should do so in the next week or two.

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HAVE YOUR SAY: Typeface used - Readability

Recently, I had a friend who is a graphic designer read through and check the comic over for usability and design, to find errors and quality check it. 

One of the points raised was regarding the typeface used in the narrative boxes, he said that where there are several lines of capitalized text it's not that easy to read. 

In the illustration below you can see a panel which is the worst offenders when it comes to having a lot of text on the panel. This is not typical of the comic at all, but in a few places there is a lot of text which is important but doesn't need a great deal of illumination in pictures so you get a few of these panels in the book. 

Anyway, typeface number 2 in the example is the typeface I currently have running through the whole book. The question is : Is it going to significantly improve readability to use one of these alternatives? 

Please view the examples below and comment below or on the social media post your saw. 

Please say which typeface you believe is the most readable and also if you think it's significantly easier to read or only a little easier. Alternatively, (Option B) if I space the original font with more room between the lines ("leading") it may be a little easier to read - compare the second boxes on each map. Clearly, if it is not significantly improved with these typefaces or spacing, I will be able to leave it as it is, so please say if you think it is fine how it is too. 

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Example from Judge 1:16-21

The images are "zoomed out" on the blog to help you see the fonts as if from afar, but you can click on it to see it larger. 

I look forward to your comments. 

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Progress Report: September and New Endorsement

This month has been a month full of Kickstarter promotion. It launched on the 15th of August and is roughly half way now. Due to this my part of the creation process has not progressed a great deal (the pencilling and preparing for colourists) but as you can see the colourists, Leslie and Ryan have powered on and the pie is looking very full of dark cyan now. 

Just over a week ago the family and I, were at Westpoint, it's a regional Christian weekend away. I was promoting the comic and it was very well received with lots of interest. 

This weekend I was at ICE comic con in Birmingham letting people know about the comic and learning from the professionals in the second day's talks. Generally, all the delegates I spoke to were encouraging about the idea even if it wasn't their cup of tea, which was kind of suprising as I thought some would be dead against it.  

I had some great talks with publishers from some of the biggest names in comics, with greater or lesser degrees of interest in taking on the project, but all were positive in the concept and the artwork which is good stuff coming from professional editors.

Next week I have a stand and even get to introduce the project on stage at the Catalyst Men's one day conference in Bristol. 

Please pray those who were keen to support the project at both events get behind the Kickstarter sooner rather than later, and the publishers that I will be following up with will take on the project.

New Endorsement

This month we got a new endorsement from an Old Testament scholar. Dr David Beldman, Assistant Professor of Religion and Theology at Redeemer University College (Ancaster, Canada). His doctoral research was on Judges, he is the author of the forthcoming book Kingless in Canaan: The Book of Judges (Lexham Press), and is currently writing a commentary on Judges for Eerdmans' Two Horizons series.

His full endorsement statement was... 

I have researched the book of Judges for a number of years and enjoyed its stories since I was young, so it was exciting to discover that Judges was the first installment of the Word for Word Bible Comic. Judges seems designed for the graphic novel format. Adventure, warfare, intrigue, betrayal, tragedy--Judges has it all! A surprising feature of Old Testament narrative is that physical description--of people, places and objects--is often quite sparse if it is not important to the purpose of the narrative. This leaves readers guessing about what the landscape looked like, what people wore, and so on. On the basis of careful archaeological, historical and cultural research the WfWBC not only tells the story of Scripture using Scripture's own words, it also gives readers an accurate window into the Old Testament world in its ancient Near East context. In the WfWBC, the ancient narratives of the Bible are creatively and freshly portrayed in a modern visual format.

Cut down version for the website and Kickstarter. 

What I am really please with is that David has also read through all the completed sections of the work and did not find anything that was in error, but there are a few more chapter for him to see so I guess there is still time.  ;)

In regards to the project, the plan is to finish the work on the project by the end of the month, prepare it for print in October and have it printed and sent out in November. 

This final stage is so important to get done on time so please pray that nothing gets in the way of completing everything on time, especially the Kickstarter being successful or it could impact this a great deal if it does not reach it's goal.  The funding is currently 38% so it is a little behind the curve but we are confident it will make it in the end, however to do so we do need quite a few more backers. So please tell your friends and back it now if you haven't already. 

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Kicktraq Graph: From today's graph you can see the projection is close to the wire. It is common for much of the funding to be in the last week, but please get in there now and help it keep rising.  

NEW Video Blog: Judges 1:1-12

I have just started creating video blogs to add to the blog. These videos are to inform people about the creative choices made in the process, comments of the Bible verses, a little about the story and details to do with the historical aspects and geographical locations. 

This blog is about Judges 1:1-12

It's actually a pretty good way to tell people about the work because it's more engaging, less effort to "read" and quick to create. It's a bit rough 'n' ready but I think they came out pretty well. 

I wanted to get a desktop recording program but my PC is so old none of them will work so I came up with the idea of using my phone, which has come out better than expected. The colours are not very accur so please look at the page as it is supposed to be, attached below.

I plan to do some more. if people like them so be sure to "Like" them on YouTube and on the social media platform you found it on if you want any more. 

On YouTube you can subscribe or you can use the RSS to subscribe here as I will always post them in the official blog too.

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Also tag people who might like and share it it to help the project grew.

As you'll see the videos are also to promote the Kickstarter. If you don't know what that is, it is a crowdfunding website where I set a funding goal to create something (The Book of Joshua) and backers get rewards. If the goal is not met backer's pledges are not charged and the project gets nothing. Our funding ends on Sunday September 27th, so please give a little support and help us reach our goal. 

Also check out the website for more info, examples, image and endorsements like this one. 

https://wordforwordbiblecomic.squarespace.com/

Progress Report: August and Kickstarter update.

Progress 

As you can see from the pie chart there is not much left to do now. 

• The white and light coloured areas represents only 6 pages left to draw.
• There are about 20 pages left to colour but these are being worked on by my two wonderful colourists.

After it is all complete I need to go over the pages to remove and continuity errors (missing earrings etc) and make a few corrections (like turning all the speech bubbles opaque). 

Then I just need to prepare it for print. Once it is sent for print there is quite a long time before they are received one company had a lead time of 3 week another 8 weeks, so this is why I'm putting November as the fulfilment month for these. 

Kickstarter

The Kickstarter launches this Saturday (Aug 15th), the page is all set up with the video, again produced by the wonderful and talented Jamie Donne-Davies. It's looking good with it's official endorsements.  If you are planning to bless the project by backing it again for the new rewards please do so at the start if possible so that you can get the limited items and to give it some initial momentum. 

I have several places I'll be advertising the project (inc. Soul Survivor, Momentum, Alpha and Omega Con (a Christian Comic Con in California), Ashburnham (A big Newfrontiers event),  the CVM website, two Christian Metal Music radio stations and Premier Radio) and a few notable bloggers have agreed to post about it this year. I will also be having a stand at 'Together at Westpoint', Catalyst: Men's Day on Bristol and  ICE Comic Con in Birmingham.  

If you have places where you think you can help me advertise the Kickstarter between Aug 15th and Sept 27th, please let me know. I'm interested in churches, christian or comic conferences, blogs, websites, radio shows, online magazines etc to have a poster or advert or show the video. 

Any ideas or contacts please email me: wordforwordbiblecomic (at) gmail.com 

All your help will be gratefully received and I will try and sort out some treasure in heaven for you. (Receipt of treasure will be on arrival in Heaven, subject to availability and the management's approval).

Prayer Requests 

Please pray for Leslie, our wonderful colourist, for financial aid, help finding the right place to live and the move.  

Please pray for the success of the Kickstarter and that lots of people are reached with God's Word as a result. Please pray it will be a "staff Pick" this time and get a lot more attention that way. 

Also if you'd like to be part of a prayer team for the project please also email me as I will be sorting out how this will work soon. 

Official announcement and New Social Media Profiles

Announcement 

On August 15th I am launching a new Kickstarter campaign for the second book of the Word for Word Bible Comic series. This will be the Book of Joshua, which will serve as a fantastic prequel to the Book of Judges. I will also have a stretch goal to create the Book of Ruth as the third book of the series.

The campaign will run until September 27th, and it will make available to backers a limited edition pre-release copy of the Book of Judges, in addition to many other exciting digital and physical rewards, and of course another chance to get your face in the Bible.

Please help...

To successful hit my funding target on Kickstarter I'm really going to need your help. In the run up to the launch please Share, Like and Comment on the social media posts from the comic so that your circle of friends may see them too and get involved. Aside from the backing of my friends and members of my wonderful church, most other backers were people who had heard about the project through social media or your referrals via email or word of mouth. 

If you backed the project before, obviously I'd love you to come alongside the project again but if you can't afford to or you gave a uniquely generous gift last time don't worry, but please do tell people about it. 

If you would like to back the project, again of for the first time, please do so at the start of possible please as people like to support projects that look like they are going to hit their goals, and it'll be good for my sanity. ;) 

Why do another Kickstarter? 

I had hoped I would not have to do a second Kickstarter. Of course in my mind it would have been ideal for the book to reach a publisher and they'd immediately agree to print it the next day and sell a million copies but, but God has a different pathway for the project. As expected, getting a publishing deal has been a hard road. Also, creating the comic has taken a little longer than originally projected.

The plan is to crowdfund a smaller amount to support our family through until next summer which will give more time to negotiate a deal with a publisher or plan for self-publishing, whilst creating book two.

If we self-publish it will be around this time next year, hopefully, with two (or even three) books ready for sale. The reason for not self-publishing now is that the emphasis has been on creating the comic and self-publishing has not been built up to or planned for to a level which the project deserves and a poor launch would hurt the series' prospects for the future and signing a deal with a good publisher. 

Using Kickstarter, I can provide the book as promised to the backers from last year's successful Kickstarter and to the many people contacting me eager to get a copy , whilst still reserving the big launch into the general marketplace until we are prepared.

We don't plan to use Kickstarter again. After this all our efforts will be on self-publishing from that point on, and with two or three books as a base we hope the project will be a success and support itself. 

How to help

To get the word out even more I've just set up additional social media profiles (below). If you use these please come and join me there. Then repost and Like the posts as much as possible. I can't reach your friends any other way. 

In addition I plan to set up a prayer team which I will post about tomorrow, so please keep an eye out for that. 

DeviantArt (NEW)

http://word4wordbiblecomic.deviantart.com/

Tumblr (NEW) 

wordforwordbiblecomic.tumblr.com

LinkedIn (NEW) 

uk.linkedin.com/in/wordforwordbiblecomic

Pinterest 

https://uk.pinterest.com/wforwbiblecomic/my-artwork-wwwwordforwordbiblecomiccom/

Google+

google.com/+Wordforwordbiblecomic

Facebook 

http://www.facebook.com/wordforwordbiblecomic

Twitter 

https://twitter.com/WforWBibleComic

Youtube

https://www.youtube.com/channel/wordforwordbiblecomic

GodTube

http://www.godtube.com/wordforwordbiblecomic/

You can even follow me on Kickstarter

https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/word4wordbiblecomic

HAVE YOUR SAY: Glowing eyes or not?

When God gives a prophetic word or decision through a prophet in the comic I have used the device of glowing eyes to indicate that the prophet is seeing something of God's spirit. This blog is to ask if this device it working or sending the wrong message. 

In the comic the bright cyan coloured light represents the holy spirit or spiritual things like angels. Here is an extract from the "use of Colours" blog to explain...

Supernatural and Spirit

One of the most important colour elements is the use of the Spirit colour. This is a bright Cyan/ turquoise and it means there is something of the Spirit or something of God in the story. The idea is to show things that are very real in the spiritual realm but not necessarily the physical. The best example of this is with Balaam and his donkey. When I draw that story the angel that stands invisible to Balaam but that the donkey can sense will be shown in the Cyan colour. When it manifests in a way that Balaam can see it will be in the standard black lines. This colour is also used when Samson is empowered by the Spirit, with a power acting in the spiritual realm depicted as Cyan lightning. Lastly, it is used when God speaks, and for the speech of angels.

So while Samson and Othniel might strike someone with glowing power someone like Deborah the Prophetess has glowing eyes. 

This is something that is extremely common on comic as many superheroes have glowing (pupiless) eyes whether they are doing some mutant power (Storm-Xmen) or all the time as part of their costume (Batman) or nature (Abe Sapien).

It is also helpful to imply when someone is prophesying god's word or a false prophet. 

It was suggested that it might give the impression of possession or the Spirit taking over the person. The reason I have use it thus far is I think it is so common in comic it doesn't suggests possession or anything like that, but if it does even to some people I guess I'll need to reconsider this option. 

Here are examples of where I used it in the comic. 

  I really value your comments here or on the social media post you found this on, please give reasons for your opinions if possible... 

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