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BLACK COMIX RETURNS - African American Comic Art & Culture

Created by Neurobellum Productions

A hardcover collection of art and essays showcasing the best African American artists in today's vibrant comic book culture.

Latest Updates from Our Project:

Shipping has begun
about 6 years ago – Sun, Mar 04, 2018 at 11:09:28 PM

Hi all,

Some of you may already have gotten shipping notification and tracking info. The big haul has begun!

 

 

We spent many hours organizing all of the shipments into segments to make packing and shipping easier, and have started knocking out groups one at a time. After a full weekend, we estimate we're knocking out about 17-20 boxes per hour, so at that rate, we've got about 25 man-hours of  work left. That means if we focus our nights after work and all of next weekend, we should have everything out in the next 10 days or so.

So far, the first 111 packages are done, going to the post office tomorrow morning. That's a full carload, so we'll be doing multiple trips as we knock em out. You should get tracking info by email when your package group is sent.

A few notes:

  • Each book is handwrapped in newsprint to hopefully protect from scuffing.
  • The bonus mini print is tipped into each book's front cover.
  • The postcards are tipped into each book's title page.
  • If you are receiving a single 8.5x11 print, that is also tipped into the book, a page or so later.
  • As mentioned in a previous update, we are sending out the books and 12" prints included in the Black Ink DVD edition, even though the film and discs are not ready yet. If you ordered or upgraded to this bundle, you'll receive the disc later, once it is finished. Everything else is going out now.

I think that's it. If anyone ever tells you fulfilling a Kickstarter is easy, they either don't know or are lying to your face! But we're excited to get these in your hands!

All goods are in! Digital downloads sent!
about 6 years ago – Fri, Feb 16, 2018 at 07:19:44 PM

Hi everyone!

What a busy week -- we got the books from Lion Forge! All 2400lbs of 'em! You read that right... over a ton of books!  Just check out the photo of the (dangerously overloaded) palette as it was being delivered...

Fortunately nobody was hurt...! Somebody at the trucking company needs to learn how to stack a pallet safer...
Fortunately nobody was hurt...! Somebody at the trucking company needs to learn how to stack a pallet safer...

 We also got in all of the Tee Shirts --

 

So with all of the other reward items showcased in the previous update, plus a huge stack of 600 unfolded shipping boxes, and a brand new printer to handle all of the label printing, we're finally ready to start fulfillment...!

...just as soon as we get back from a quick vacation next week. 

Wait! Before you get mad, please hear me out...!

We really expected to have had books in January and been done with everything by now, so my wife and I had booked travel arrangements to celebrate our 10th anniversary and valentines day at the same time, arrangements made far in advance.  Seriously, we really thought this would have been done by now, but the previously mentioned, unexpected delays getting the books from Lion Forge didn't work out as originally hoped. And we can't really change or forfeit these travel plans (or my wife might literally kill me). So we'll be gone next week. But trust me -- the NUMBER ONE PRIORITY when we're back is getting all of these orders out!  (It's a top priority so we can get our house back... it looks like we're living in the warehouse from Raiders of the Lost Ark now...!)

imagine walls of boxes like this in every direction...
imagine walls of boxes like this in every direction...

So with that humble admission, hopefully this good news will make up for any disappointment --

Digital download links have gone out!

We're distributing the digital version of the book to backers through Backerkit, so you should get (or may have already gotten) an email with your link to download the full book as a PDF.  This is our first time using Backerkit for digital distribution, so we're not 100% familiar with how it is communicated, but if you have any Qs, let us know!

Thanks, everyone! Its comin'...!

Book pix and more!
about 6 years ago – Sat, Feb 03, 2018 at 12:32:48 AM

Hey everyone,

Hope you're all having a great 2018 so far, and avoiding the crazy flu that's going around! I wish I could say I was so lucky... returning from recent travel laid me out pretty hard with some full-blown illness, but that's not an excuse for the lack of updates. In fact, everything is arriving now, and it looks great.

We had hoped to get advance copies much earlier in the month to show photos, but frankly, we just received ours this week. Looks great, though! Check it out!

 

 

 

 

 

We also got in all of the printed rewards -- postcard sets, print portfolios, retailer posters, and bonus postcards, etc:

postcard set
postcard set

 

lithograph set
lithograph set

 

litho portfolio with cover
litho portfolio with cover

 

portfolio back cover
portfolio back cover

 

close up of litho texture
close up of litho texture

 

DVD bundle print
DVD bundle print

We're also expecting the bulk order of tee shirts from Threadless to show up by the end of next week. Here's a mockup of the final design:

So really, the only thing left to receive are, well... the books themselves. To be perfectly transparent, when Lion Forge took over production of the book, that included control over the printing process and shipping timetable, and their priority was fixed on getting the book into stores and libraries as efficiently as possible. That meant the books were shipped directly to the distributor warehouse first straight from the printer, and our backer copies will be shipped to us along with retail store orders. So yes, its likely you might see the book on store shelves before you receive yours, unfortunately. That's not the way we wanted it to go, but again... the production fell out of our hands in order to get it distributed into stores. We tried to make special arrangements with everyone calling the shots, but not all desires and expectations aligned, unfortunately.

That said, my wife and I are going to do our best to get all backer packages out by the end of this month. 600 packages is a lot for two (working people) to tackle (in their evenings and weekends), but we'll be motivated by the idea of getting our living room back to normal!

One other update re: the BLACK INK DVD bundle -- Craig is still working on the final cut of the film, which is coming together nicely, but like all good documentaries, the biggest task is nailing that final edit. It doesn't look like it will be done in time for our shipping, and we don't want to hold up your packages, so if you ordered a bundle upgrade, we'll ship your book and print now (and anything else you're expecting), and the DVD will be sent later, as soon as it's ready. John is lending his support to Craig in this final stage, and we'll keep everyone posted on that progress.

Thanks again for your patience!

Happy Holidays!
about 6 years ago – Fri, Dec 29, 2017 at 07:44:07 PM

Hi Everyone!

Just a quick note to close out the year -- apologies for not having many updates since early October, but the book is still printing on schedule, and there haven't been many (well, any) real updates worth reporting along the way as we wait for news from Lion Forge, who is handling that production. They've adjusted the timetable slightly, mainly due to the holiday, but we still expect to get our bulk inventory by the end of January for fulfillment to everyone in Feb.  This will also give Craig Rippon time to finish up the BLACK INK documentary for those special DVD bundles.

Hopefully we'll get advance copies soon after New Year's Day, and we'll be sure to share pix as soon as we do!

Wishing you all the best New Year,

JJ, DD, MK, DD

The next step!
over 6 years ago – Tue, Oct 10, 2017 at 01:27:44 AM

Hi all!

Quick update to say that the book design is DONE. FINISHED. EXPORTED AND PROOFED. OFF TO PRINT.  So the timetable outlined in the last update is still on course, with the driving goal to have the books in-hand (and everything else) at the start of January.  So we're proceeding with the next steps -- all the other reward production: Tee shirts, posters, prints, etc.

To that end, we really need to lock down our numbers on those extra things, particularly any you might still want to add to your order.  There is still time to add stuff!  So we ask that everybody please revisit your individual Backerkit pages to make sure you're set.  (And to the 36 of you who still haven't filled out your Backerkit surveys, please do that ASAP! Reminder emails have been sent!)

We will be locking down the Backerkit orders at the end of this week (Friday 13th), which is when credit cards will actually be charged for any extras that you added. (If you didn't add anything, you won't be charged anything.) At that point, if any credit cards fail, you'll need to correct that info before we can include your order in the final counts. (Don't worry -- if your card does fail when they try to process, they'll send an email notifying you so you can address the problem.)

We really need you to make sure your payment method goes through, as those funds will help us produce these final reward items.

If you have any questions about how to access your Backerkit page, don't hesitate to reach out! We're here to help!

Thanks!