Chapter 2 planning & Ch1 KS thoughts

Couple of panel previews from Ch 2 for y'all!

We are 10 pages in at the moment and I've still got couple of months to finish this chapter off before it starts running online. I'm not quite sure how many pages this one will end up being yet. More than CH1 for sure though, I've estimated around 46. I'm quite excited. A lot happens in this chapter and there's a LOT of new characters to introduce.

I'm going to start sharing the pencil process with you in the near future.

I'm going to use this space to jot down some of my thoughts about the Kickstarter. Things I've learned, things that went to plan and bits that didn't go quite as I had hoped.

Overall I was really surprised we reached the main goal. I couldn't even dream of reaching 1k, let alone 5. So I'm very pleased with that!

So that's a big big plus. Things I could've done better?

• Maybe a video? I wasn't comfortable with this because I've been ill and frankly I looked thin and sick. I'm not great at keeping my Tourettes ticks at bay either so I think this one is out.
• Instead of a video of myself, I could've maybe got the physical proof copy to show. I'll definitely do this next time.
• I'm not comfortable with podcasts and things, so that's an advertising outlet I missed out on.
• Same reason when it comes to advertising in general. I'm a bit weedy when it comes to pushing my product so more people can see it.

I was advised to keep my extra content simple and few in numbers. And I'm glad I did. It's hard to keep track of 3 different things, let alone any more than that. I'll keep that in mind in the future.

Another big plus was the preparing for print. I spent a fair amount of time making sure the pages were the right size before I sent them off to my printer. And they went through on the first go. 

Things I could've done better? 

• Maybe I didn't need to worry so much or need to check every page 20 times to make sure colours, bleeds and sizes matched. 
• Less time could've been spent on that. A lot of the time artists don't really take bleeds and cut lines into account and spend huge amounts of time amending their art to make it fit. I went the otherway round and had everything ready art wise, but kept doubting myself.
• A5 cutters have less space to move than A4. I probably could've made my bleeds SLIGHTLY bigger but it really wasn't as big an issue as I made it. I need to remember this with future chapters.
• CMYK doesn't like my greens.
• CMYK likes high contrast.
• Maybe do full greyscale of the pages first for values.

Overall campaign wise, I'd like to try to do another one for Chapter 2. But before that, things I want to consider:

• Get a printed proof copy of the comic to show before the campaign. Means finishing the whole comic first but that's not really an issue.
• Communicate more. I had to push the deadline of sending out the PDF and proofs because I had a relapse. These things happen, but it's something I worried a lot about and it probably didn't help my recovery.
• Find more ways and plugs to advertise the product. This is hard. Research is fun though.
• Consider another provider to deliver the goods. Shipping is by FAR the most expensive thing in the whole campaign and while it didn't bite me in the arse, it's still a lot of money. I'm just glad that shipping from UK isn't anywhere near as expensive as some other countries.
• Keep traditional art tiers. I really enjoyed them.

That's all I can think of for now. I'm a bit sad I was a little late to deliver the goods, but it's something I can learn from for the future and do it better next time. I'm still waiting on the actual main product to arrive so I can send it off. Not long now!