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hey everybody!

I was thinking- how cool would it be to have a brand new CCAS promo book for Comic Con San Diego this year?  Wouldn't that be awesome?  But there's only one way- if we get together and do it!

Here are some ideas I have:

1. Anyone who is part of the CCAS can contribute- i wouldn't want this to be about only the best work but about everybody's work!  Not that I wouldn't want everyone to do their best- but art quality is so subjective and i think that everyone should have a chance to showcase what they've got right now.  Maybe some editorial encouragements could be made, but I wouldn't want someone to be turned down because someone else didn't consider their work quality.  I don't think we're about that...

2. I would like this to be given away for free.  The hang up for free is that someone has to pay for that and usually that is us!  So we need to determine a couple things- first get an idea of how many people are in and how many pages they will commit to.  Once we have an idea of that, we need to decide on what that group can fund- but hey, as Christians, we're good at fundrasing, right?  I'm sure that if we try we could get something raised.  Also- i'd totally be up for seeking adds from Christian groups who would fund it.

3. i'm thinking we probably want to go with about 32 pages at a mini comic/digest size (or regular size, depending on printing price).  If tons of people pledged pages, I'd say we could up that- i'm not sure what interest there would be.

4. lets stick with black and white, since honeslty- it's just cheaper and it is pretty standard for indie comics.  if the work was originally done in color- make sure your grays are at levels that look good in b&w

5. let's keep this G rated.  I think there are reasons for Christian comics that are not all ages, but I think a project like this should be all ages- so we can give it to anyone in any context and hopefully to families!  (also- keep in mind that all ages should apply to every age, not just kids!  i think too often "all ages" means "young kids"- when really i think it should mean "appropriate for kids but appealing to any/every age")

6. let's keep this NEW work.  i'd say stuff you've done since the last san diego con- that would not have been available last year.  Let's show the san diego crowd that the CCAS has some awesome new stuff coming out from its members!

7. I'd say that if you already have a property- use it!  got a comic, book, or webcomic coming out? throw a preview of that up!  Just make sure you own the rights or whatever.  of course, you could make something just for this.  But i would say this is good promotion for the CCAS and for you!

8.  Story length!  I'd say that 10 pages would be too much- but perhaps up to that.  Also, let's STAY AWAY FROM STAND ALONE IMAGES.  Let's have story- i hate when anthologies end up being pin up after pin up.  Have an image for a cover to your story, but maybe not on its own.  Maybe we could have a page rate as in, for every page you have in the book, you pay whatever portion of the total print cost that would be.  But still, 10 or less pages.  And never forget of the beauty of one page stories!  think of those old comic adds for gum or whatever- you had a whole story in like 8-12 panels on one page!  Any story- no matter how long, can be cut shorter.  I once did what had been originally submitted as a 4 issue mini series in a 1 page story in an anthology- you can, too!

9. I'd say to make this your Christian content as is.  Don't try to over or under spiritualize it.  Seriously, i don't think anyone is going to read this and "get saved" so dont try to pretend like that's the case!  But also, I wouldn't want to pretend like this isn't a work by Christians.  Just have something with your Christian themes in it- now if you want a to directly make it about the gospel, i'd say that is good- but please, make sure it is real and not forced.  not that it would be, but i don't think anyone wants to read that.  Bible adaptation?  Good!  Christian context super hero?  good!  Christian characters story?  good!  allegory?  good! just make it real- if it is real for you, the readers will pick up on that.

10. how many should we produce?  like 1,000 or something?  comic con san diego has 140,000 ppl i think.  so even with that amount, we'd barely be getting them to a fraction of the people- but then not everyone is interested in getting a copy- but if we could do 1,000 it would probably be pretty cool.  We could print thru like comixpress or something like that- there really are lots of options.  i just looked up 1,000 copies of a 52 page full size comic- which would be like 45 bucks per page if we pledged like that.  so if we went thru comixpress- that would be as big as we could go there.  now we could probably find a better deal than that- and it would be cheaper if it was shorter (overall, tho maybe not by page).  and if we do many less copies it would be muuuuch cheaper.  we do 300 copies, it would be only 13 bucks a page- and that is pretty economical, i tell you what...

so any ideas?

I'd say first- reply on here, if your interested and how many pages you'll pledge.  between 1 and 10- realizing you may be putting in between 10 to 50 bucks for each page you submit, depending on how many we print.

let me know what you think about all these factors- and let's work quickly to get it printed soon to have for comic con and they get plenty busy before the summer conventions!  so we can do something if we really want to and try to! and tell people you know who may not have as much contact on here...