A hardcover collection of art and essays showcasing the best African American artists in today's vibrant comic book culture.
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Hi everyone!
Last weekend John, Damian, and myself were at the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo (C2E2) talking up and signing the book, and it was really exciting how much attention and praise it has been getting! John and Damian were on a few different panels, and were even interviewed for SyFy's live stage coverage -- check out the full video interview at the link below!
http://www.syfy.com/syfywire/watch-c2e2-black-comix-returns-with-john-jennings-and-damian-duffy
We also discussed some other ideas and outstanding issues, one in particular being the status of Craig Rippon's BLACK INK documentary and the DVD bundle... While we know for sure that it is still coming together and looking as great as promised, it is admittedly taking much longer to finish than expected. So until there's an end-date and a solid plan for DVDs to be made, we decided to take the bundle off the table. We're still going to support Craig's effort, but we're going to close those open-ended upgraded pledges and pre-orders from our Backerkit.
If you had upgraded your pledge to the DVD bundle tier on Backerkit, we will be refunding that $20 add-on charge back to your original payment method. That only seems to affect 28 of you, so those of you should see that refund go through back to you this week. And hey -- you still get to keep the nice 12x12" cardstock print that was sent with your book!
Once the documentary is done, we'll certainly start shouting about it and promoting it as best as we can! And if DVDs do become available, we'll work with Craig to make sure you all are at the head of the line for those.
One other thing John, Damian, and I discussed over the weekend was the future of Black Comix as an evolving destination and ongoing gallery for new and upcoming comic talent. One idea was to build and manage Black Comix as a content website full of portfolios and galleries for not only the talent featured in the book, but to have it grow over time with more galleries added weekly or monthly. Ideally it would be great to build it into something curated like Artstation.com, Behance, CGSociety, etc (although it would certainly start out a lot leaner and more streamlined than those massive, automated, user-generated sites). We're looking into the tools necessary to build that sort of site now, but will definitely let everyone here know about any plans as they come together. We all absolutely want to keep this spotlight burning, even if the prospect of a third volume (some even asked about making it an annual...!) seems pretty daunting and exhausting right now... we just got this second one done, and that took over 18 months! A website seems like it might be easier to maintain on an ongoing basis...
So stay tuned, these things can take time, but we're serious about keeping the public conversation going!
John and Jordan. Just hanging out with an awesome book.
Heads up, everyone! I just got back from the third trip to the post office today, where we dropped off the last of the domestic backers and pre-orders. By my calculation, that was literally a ton of books. (Okay, about 1950lbs, to be more exact, but still... my aching back can't tell the difference!)
All domestic backers should have received a shipping confirmation by now with tracking info. Tracking might not show movement just yet today, as they were just delivered, but know that they are on their way...
We're jumping on the 44 remaining international backers now, which we hope to have out by the end of the week, but everything seems to be going smoothly now.
Thanks for your patience!
Hey all,
A lot of you should have gotten shipping confirmation by now -- these go out when we print out the shipping labels, not exactly when they go out the door to the post office. It takes time to go from printing a label batch to getting those boxes packed. So if you got a confirmation and it shows an address you needed to update, please let us know immediately! We may still be able to catch it before it is packed or sent out the door. Your confirmation should have included a tracking number that links to actual tracking status, so you should be able to click on it to see if it has reached the post office. If so... well, let us know. Hopefully they can forward it correctly. If it hasn't reached the post office or moved yet, we should be able to update your info.
If you haven't received a confirmation email, also let us know.
(Frankly, all domestic orders should have received a confirmation by now; international orders will be processed immediately after this big domestic batch is done.)
We spent all weekend stuffing boxes, and have been putting in 3-4 hours each evening after work, so at that pace we're hoping to get them all done and out by the end of this coming weekend (fingers crossed). So please let us know ASAP if you need something changed!
Thanks!