Spilled Milk is PUBLISHED!

After about a month of waiting I finally got the preview issue delivered to my garage. And YES these are available for purchase. I’ve got a few orders, which unfortunately I won’t be able to get to until AFTER the Con. They’re available for $2.50 (plus shipping - approximately $1.80 and packaging $1.00). I still don’t know about the packaging though. I may find a good source for stiff envelopes and the packaging price may come down. I just don’t know yet, because I really haven’t had that many orders to warrant looking into that.

I was surprised at how well the preview issue turned out. For an “ashcan” it looks damn good. I know some companies charge over $6.00 for their “limited” ashcans, but I feel that I’m charging a fair price. The proof had a bunch of scan lines in it and the actual issues came out clean. About three of the balloons were clipped, but I don’t think that it really hurts the book that much. You can still figure out what they’re saying or you can go to the preview area (explained below) on the site and I’ve got a “corrections” page that fills in the missing words for you.

We have some winners ! ! !

Yes people actually do win with Spilled Milk. I used the RAND( ) function in Excel and it generated 10 random numbers from 1 to 89 (people on the mailing list). This means you had a better than 10% chance at winning. I cross referenced those numbers with an alphabetical list and generated the winners of the first drawing. I didn’t include the retailers because they’ll get one anyway. All they have to do is ask.

I have already e-mailed the following winners:
Andrzej B. - Michael D. - Michael G. - Nick J. - Kevin K.
Edward M. - John P. - Carl S. - Frank S. - Katrina W.

They really should reply in about 30 days or else their winnings will get thrown back into the pot and there will be another drawing for the remaining 10 preview issues.

For each issue published I will do a drawing for free issues, and then at the very end I’ll do a drawing for all four issues and possibly the preview issue (if there are any left).

FREE online Preview…

I mentioned this briefly above, but I just want to stress the fact that there are a few pages complete with TEXT out in the Preview Issue area. If you check the Images #1 page or Release Notes you should be able to find it. I added a page cache so you can click on that and then the pages will load in about 7 minutes. So you can go grab a snack or something while the pages are loading up. Then you can browse through them much faster because they should already be stored in your Internet file cache.

I hope this will get your curiosity flowing and you’ll want to buy a preview issue. If you do buy one, you’ll not only get a great collectible but you’ll be helping me defray the cost of sending them out to retailers and reviewers. Once you do receive the preview, I’d really love some feedback, good or bad. More character information is coming soon so stick around.

San Diego Comic Con

Well they came through! They added the link to my site. Hopefully this will draw in some much needed traffic.

http://www.comic-con.org/Pages3/exhibit2000f.html

Monte is listed in Artists Alley:

http://www.comic-con.org/Pages3/artistsalleyf.html

Monte, you owe me BIG for this one.

I guess I’ll be off to San Diego on Wednesday. The plan is to first get there. Monte’s already got about 600 preview issues loaded up in his truck as well as the 3,000 posters that will be given away. He should be picking up the stickers on Monday unless he already picked those up on Friday. I packed the remainder of last years promo cards which most of you already have, because I did that huge mailing last year. I’ll take a couple of preview issues on the plane just in case I run into an obvious Comic-Con person. You know who you are. You’re wearing your favorite character or book on a T-Shirt. I’ll be doing the same thing so no worries there. I hope the printers get me some extra stickers on Monday or by the latest on Tuesday. I’ll take some with me to patch up a huge crack in the ThinkPad. That poor thing’s got enough problems… It’s only a 133. I feel sorry for it, so I’ll patch it up as best I can.

I’ll be going to Kinkos later today to make some backdrops for the booth. I should have time to at least color the Spilled Milk logo with some watercolors or something. I don’t think I have enough felt tipped juice to do an entire wall hanging. I’ll probably copy Jason’s page 6 of issue #2 for another large backdrop. The slideshow is coming along pretty good, but I’m thinking I want to lengthen it. I don’t want it to be too short, because I don’t know how many people will want to go “interactive” and browse through the website. I’m bringing along a mouse so people don’t have to fumble with the ThinkPad’s “eraser” pointer. That pointer has seen better days too.

GES (the company that rents out equipment for the Con) assures me that I’ll have the backdrop that I ordered and the booth comes with power so I can keep the ThinkPad going and make sure my phone and camera are fully charged. I STILL DON’T KNOW WHERE MY BOOTH IS!! I’ve talked to the Con people and GES and have asked nicely for a FAX of the layout with my booth marked. Nothing so far. It’s probably sitting on the FAX machine at work. I know what my number is (236) but I guess I’ll just wander around on Wednesday night until I find it.

Wow, two more days until I fly out. I think I’m ready. It still feels like I’m missing something, but I hope it’s nothing big. You always forget SOMETHING on a trip and I hope I can live without it.

Throw another pinup on the bar-bee

Thanks to Mike Patterson for sending in his pin-up. I saw his pinup in the June issue of Diamond Previews. I requested his e-mail address from Diamond and they forwarded it to me. He’s got a fixed set of prices, but they’re pretty reasonable if not downright cheap. I thought he’d waive his fees in exchange for the posting, but the guy stands by his work. Money back guarantee if you don’t like it. Just send the original back, no questions asked. Well I thought it was pretty good so I’m happy to send him the money and display his pinup.

The standard removal policy if you should ever need it. Just reply to this message with the word remove in the subject and you'll be deleted from the mailing list. You might make it in ALL CAPS or else I might not take you seriously J.