Ok! Links are starting to show up on the various ordering sites! The cover is now up on these sites and the ordering links are good to go!



Road can be ordered on Amazon.com right here!

Here's the Barnes & Noble link!

Canadian links and more will follow as the book slowly enters into various databases. I'm not going to do any type of media push until all that happens, but getting things rolling didn't seem like a bad idea.

Yay!

Von

P.S.: full disclosure: we do earn a few cents if you use those Amazon.com links I've listed. You don't need to do anything special and there's no extra cost to you at all. Just to be clear!

Well, it's taken some doing, but road has now been moved off of GaM's site and onto my own. With new artwork, completely revamped lettering, and quite a bit of new writing, too. I think all of these changes make it that much stronger and I kinda consider this the "remastered" version.

The new url is at http://the-road-to-god-knows.blogspot.com/

Will it ever be perfect? Nope, 'fraid not. I've fixed what I find really glaring, but there's still things I'd like to correct. I'll probably always feel that way, but it's time to move on. It's a rookie project and I think it's still fairly green despite the changes. Flaws in artwork aside, I also really underwrote it - that meant the storytelling was weaker than it should have been and scene to scene transitions didn't work all that well. I think they work better now.

The book version will be coming out in the not to distant future and the same goes for free ebook versions, too. Right now it's still a webcomic but hopefully the site navigation works well.

Let me know what you think, ok?

Von

quietdarkness was nice enough to do an interview with me for Collector Times (for the December/Christmas issue, no less). It's just over here.

I yabber on about the art corrections to "the road to god knows...," mental illness, Diamond Distribution, and other blather in general. And there's some side by side comparisons of old RTGK art and new RTGK art, too.

Von

Jen Contino over at The Pulse was nice enough to do an interview with me. It's right here.

A sample:

THE PULSE: Speaking of tough, in these economic times it must be a challenge to find the funds to self-publish your own work, especially considering how hard it is to get potential readers to try a new book. How long did it take you to save enough to collect your short stories "the road ...," Li'l Kids?

ALLAN: Well, the costing and expense tends to be a subtle thing. The main expense has been lost income as I gave up a full-time job to do art. So there's been part-time and freelance work, but I definitely lost money doing art full-time. I consider it an investment in my future, though, so that's not a big deal. In terms of actually self-publishing, though, I've done things in a bit of a different way than traditional offset printing. I printed "Li'l Kids" using Lightning Source (LSI), a print on demand company owned by Ingram. The reason I went with LSI over other POD companies like Lulu is that they have an unparalleled ability to feed data through a variety of channels. That's meant that my little book is available in many more places than it would have been if I had done it through anyone else. And what's amazing about it is that it's done in an extremely cost-effective way; in a nutshell, I'm using a short discount publishing model that's more closely aligned with academic book publishers than it is traditional small press comic book publishers. With very little effort on my part, my book is available through retailers like Amazon and Barnes & Noble and also distributors like Ingram and Baker & Taylor. And on and on.

Where my book is not available is with Diamond and thus Direct Market retailers. That probably won't change anytime soon. Why I chose this model and my rational behind it is probably something we just won't have time to get into now. I do think, however, that the next decade or so is going to change fundamentally how graphic novels are delivered. While I'll never fault Diamond for what they do (they are a remarkably efficient distributor), the problems for small press that deal with them are daunting (discounts off cover to the tune of 60%-65%, short discounts to retailers (to the tune of 45% and lower), the re-order penalty if a retailer sells out, and the lack (for the most part) of any type of stocking support over and above initial retailer orders). The math is pretty simple and straightforward and it's not good. A publisher needs to really understand what they're getting into when working with Diamond and, on top of it, what Direct Market retailers will need to make sure they try a book (always remember that when dealing with non-returnable material at less than ideal discounts, retailers will always order cautiously if there isn't a proven track record and other clear marketing interest from their customer base).

The danger, I think, that both Diamond and retailers face is that other avenues of publishing and distribution have opened up over the past 10 years or so. Webcomics being an obvious example. By side-stepping the Direct Market channel and using a short discount philosophy for graphic novels, creators and publishers can be profitable by selling far fewer copies then they'd need to in comic shops. If new talent can't find a way onto store shelves, then the intelligent ones will look elsewhere. They'll develop their talent elsewhere and then, down the road, when they're more established may not look at the Direct Market at all. I think the danger of being stale is actually something that more retailers as well as Diamond should consider.

Hopefully I'm not yabbering like a mad man. :)

Von

Well, the last update for the main story is now up on GirlAMatic. That means the entire 142 page story can finally be read. Three short stories will follow starting next Monday (though some of you will have seen them before) and then that will be that.

It's a somewhat bitter sweet feeling. But a very, very positive one.

( Cross post from GaM plus news on books is in the cut! )

Von

Y'know, I read Seth Godin's blog pretty regularly. He's a smart guy with a nice turn of phrase and I hope I've learned a few things from him, too. Today's post is the first one I really felt like sharing, though. For this bit in particular:

"A few years before that, I had published a book about a political issue. An activist's handbook. I had 20,000 copies in my garage when I found out about a large march in Washington. I bought an outdoor booth and trucked the books down to DC. I stood on the Mall in my little booth and watched more than 250,000 people walk by in less than two hours. Every single one an activist. Every single one a demographically perfect match for my handbook. After 100,000 people had walked by and we'd sold only one book, I lowered the price from around $10 to $1 just to prove my point--that it wasn't the book and it wasn't the price, it was the ability of the audience to listen that mattered. This group, in this moment, was there to march, not to shop.

Most people, most of the time, steadfastly refuse to pay attention."

Some of you may recall a four part series I wrote last year on exhibiting at conventions (Part 4 (with links to Parts 1-3) is right here). It's funny thinking of what Godin wrote above since I felt exactly (and I mean exactly) the same way about exhibiting at to both the Alternative Press Expo and the Small Press Expo. He dropped his prices to $1.00. I gave my books (well, galleys and ashcans) away for free. To no avail. His audience was there to march. My audience was there to do many other things than buy comics from unknown creators. Huh.

As I write this, many, many comic book and webcomic folk are about to descend on Southern California for the truly massive San Diego Comicon. And while some artists will do far better than break even, I really doubt that will be true for the majority.

"Most people, most of the time, steadfastly refuse to pay attention."

Exactly.

Von

I've just set up a new webcomic voting button over on buzzComix. So if you're enjoying the road to god knows..., please vote for it right here.

Thanks!

Von

Just wanted to give a nod to charlotte2004jd, the winner of my little road to god knows... contest. As it turns out, she used her own first name for the winning guess. A few of you did, but in her case her name was the right name.

charlotte2004jd lives in New Zealand, so it's kinda neat that some of my art will be winging it's way down that far from here. The drawback is that it'll take a little while to get there. Ah - the ol' slow boat! She's also co-owner of a bookshop in the Whangarei (y'know, I have no idea how to pronounce that) area of New Zealand. If you happen to be in that area, please do drop by and say "hi."

So wish her a big congrats for a good guess and a very lovely first name! :)

Von

Yes, it's true, my little contest has come to an end - right on the eve of Canada Day, too.

The correct answer to the question "what is Marie's middle name" is Judith. For those who are curious, Judith was my mom's given name and I wanted to pick a middle name that gave a nod to her.

I'm just getting in touch with the winner and then I'll have more details for you! But a very big thank you for everyone who took part. I hope you guys had as much fun as I did with it! :)

Well, no winner yet but I thought I'd list some of the more frequent guesses so far. Here goes:

Jeanne
Jean
Joanne
Jane
Joline
Julianne
Justine
Jesse
Jacqueline
Joy

None of those are correct but they're all very good guesses! Please keep trying by emailing me (rtgkcontest@gmail.com) and try to put "RTGK Contest" in the subject line! :)

This is fun!

Von

Well, we haven't quite "gone fishin'" yet and since today marks the launch of a wee little contest for the road to god knows... on GirlAMatic, I thought I'd cross post the details here, too.

This is a lottery-type contest and is open to pretty much everyone (well, save any friends and family that will know the answer. If you know the answer right off the bat then you're disqualified! And I'll know who you are! :) ). Aside from that, it's open to pretty much everyone. With that out of the way, here is the question:

What is Marie's middle name?

Ok, right. It's tricky. There aren't any clues in the actual narrative to her middle name (well, nothing overt at any rate) and without giving you any direction it's a complete guessing game. Not really fair, I think. So, here's the only clue I'm going to give. Ready?

Her middle-name starts with the letter J and is just one word (no hyphens).

Since I don't want to be deluged by every guess under the sun, here is how this will work. Each individual (um, that's you) can email me once per day with a guess - just one guess from just one person. I'm not going to answer every single email, so when someone stumbles across the right name then I'll post an update on GirlAMatic, on our blog, and change the automatic response on the contest email address (more on that in a sec) so that everyone will know that the contest is closed. The first person to guess right is the winner. In the event of multiple correct guesses on the same day, I'll use the time/date stamp on my email to determine the winner.

Now, since I know privacy can be issue in this online world there are a few things you need to know. Firstly, I'm not going to sell or otherwise release your email address to the world at large or some scurvy company (hell, I wouldn't even know where to start!). But I would like to keep your email address just so I can let you know about my future projects down the road (for instance, my next story is tentatively called Stargazer and I'd certainly like to let you know about launch dates and whatnot when the time comes). On top of it, I would like to be able to announce the winner to the world at large, but you certainly don't have to use your real name. So if you have a handle you like to use and don't mind sharing (even if you just made it up), I'll use that instead. And if you have a website, blog or other slice of the internet, I would like to post that, too. Though only if you're ok with that, of course. Lastly, I'll need a mailing address from you for the contest prize (and again, I'll keep that private).

So what's the contest prize for all this? Well, it's a framed print of the GirlAMatic 5th birthday card design I came up with a few months back. It measures approximately 11" by 17" and I'll be mailing that out once I have a winner. The card design is below, but note that it won't have the GaM logo - that was digital add on and I don't have the right to use it for my own purposes. But the final image (I'm holding it in the next pic) still looks pretty nifty if I do say so myself.

I've set up a dedicated email address that you can use for your submissions. And again, please remember that you each have one guess per day - one guess, per person, per day. That way I can keep it manageable. The email address is rtgkcontest@gmail.com and is active right now (If you click this link, the address should open automatically for you). Please put "RTGK Contest" in the subject line and then your guess and your name in the body. You will get an automatic reply from that address just to confirm your submission (so check your spam filters). You should only receive this once, though, so on subsequent emails don't fret if you don't receive it. If you don't receive the reply at all than I most likely will not have received your submission; in that case, leave a comment here to let me know. I will also get in touch with the winner for their mailing address and the like, too.

That's it, that's all. I have to admit I'm very curious to see what you folks come up with. I suspect a few will be better than what I chose, but so be it! I'm also not sure how long this will take (it'll depend on how quickly the submissions roll in, I suppose) so I may give further clues if the correct answer isn't hit on quickly. We'll see!

Good luck!

Von

I generally haven't been posting updates to the road to god knows... on ye ol' Livejournal, but I did want to take a sec and mention this week's update. It really forms one of the key plot points of the story and I feel that it's what the story has been building to since it began. And then the rest of the story will deal with the consequences of what happened here.

So if you haven't looked at it in a bit, now would be a good time. :)

Von

Edited by Moggy: I love this birthday card and so I'm editing to bump this to make sure you folks see it. Love it too! I order you! Do it!


GirlAMatic is celebrating it's 5th birthday this week and most of the creators/artists involved have come up with art to celebrate the event. This is mine:



As arcana_j wrote, "For the rest of this week, March 31st through April 6th, GAMmers will be posting their birthday cards to the site. At the end of our anniversary week, readers everywhere will have the chance to vote for their favorites in the following categories:

Most “HOLLYWOOD-SHOULD-TOTALLY-BE-ON-MY-SPEED-DIAL”
Most “I-AM-MY-OWN-EVIL-TWIN”
Most “MADE-ME-SNORT-X-BEVERAGE-OUT-MY-NOSE”
Most “I-TOTALLY-PWN-THOSE-MENSA-DORKS”
Most “ISH-KA-BIBBLE”

The GAMmers who win will actually get prizes! WOO! STUFF! (Hey, we’re five now. Those Pitty Pincess Sparkling Death Ray Kits® don’t grow on trees you know!)"

( Black and white version after the cut! )

Von

I just realized that an interview I did with kadymae is now up on the Sequential Tart website. It's right over here. Hopefully I did an ok job! And thanks to kadymae for taking some time to do it with me.

Relevant bit:

ST: Mental illness is a touchy subject to write about. What kind of reactions have you received from readers about your treatment of how it impacts Marie and her mother?

VA: Well, no one is smacking me in the mouth over it and I think that's a good thing. Most people seem to be fairly touched by it, and I'm extremely pleased with that. I was really worried that it wouldn't work for some readers because they either wouldn't empathize with Marie, or just feel that her and her mom's reactions weren't believable. That doesn't seem to have happened, at least so far, and that's pretty awesome.

Part of this may just be that mental illness is one of the last taboos. Most people that I know have had some encounter with mental illness. Either in their family or through a friend of a friend. I doubt sincerely that "six degrees of separation" exist when it comes to mental illness. Probably more like two degrees.

Von

Man, I'm beat. Beat, beat, beat. The last few days have been quite intense - and that doesn't even get into the legwork that went on behind the scenes (press releases, media emails, email exchanges, my begging...you name it!) to get the whole ball rolling.

To recap:

Thursday, December 6th, 10:30 AM: background interview with the CBC's All In A Day production staff. Roughly about 30 minutes long. Really friendly and quite positive. Butterflies are already kicking in...

Thursday, December 6th, 4:15 PM: In-studio interview on CBC's All In A Day, hosted by Adrian Harewood. This was very special for me and I think I came across as a bit of a jibbering fanboy before the interview started. I've listened to All In A Day for years (usually while I'm working away on my drawing board) and I'm a big fan. So I was a smidgen starstruck and the butterflies were goin' something fierce in my belly just before the interview started. That said I think it went pretty well. These things always short and I don't think this one went much beyond 10 minutes, but man it was fun. Update: the interview is now up on the CBC website! Clicking that link should open up the audio file directly. Alternatively, just go to All In A Day's "listen again" and click on the link that way.

Friday, December 7th, 8:30 AM: In-studio interview on CKCU's Special Blend, hosted by Susan Johnston. This interview was conducted by Susan and included both myself and the Parkdale Gallery's James Robinson. The trick to this was that we had to get to CKCU for that 8:30 AM show. CKCU is at Carleton University and that's a bit of a hike from where Moggy and I live. So I had to be out of here at 7:30 AM to make sure I was there on time. This kid ain't no morning person so that was rough. Rougher still 'cuz I had to have the dog walked and a few other things done (cough bowels emptied cough). So I was out of bed at 6:15 AM. 6:15 AM! Sweet jesus that was intense. This all reminded me (quite intensely) of Black Books. Namely Bernard's line, "Half ten? Half ten? I've never been up at half ten! What happens?".

Since this was the first time I've done a "co" interview, I was a little worried that James and I might talk over one another. That didn't happen, though, and Susan kept it together with specific questions to each of us. The interview is right here.

After that James and I took the O-Train back in the direction of the gallery for the next step of the blitz. I had never ridden the O-Train (Ottawa's light rail transit project) and I loved it. 'Cuz, y'know, I love the train and I love subways. And Ottawa, while being a very pretty city, is ass-fucking backwards when it comes to transportation. The O-Train is a big step forward in correcting that. Normally I'm never in the train's neck of the woods and so I've never had an opportunity to give it a shot. But it rocked, as I suspected it would. And it was remarkably civilized. The truly disappointing thing is that Ottawa used to have a full trolley line that ran right through the downtown core. 'Course, that was all torn out a few decades back and buses replaced the trolleys. Sigh...They called that progress. Idiots.

Anyway, we had breakfast at Fil's Diner (man, that was yummy) before walking back to the Gallery. The interview was scheduled for noon and we got there a bit early. So we just chatted for a bit while we waited for Alex, a freelance reporter with both the Ottawa Sun and 24 Hours to arrive. Alex gave us a great amount of his time and it was a fun interview. The odds are probably a little long that it'll make it into the Sun, but it should be in 24 Hours on Monday.

I thought that was the end of it, but James had lined up a phone-in interview with CHUO. Specifically a show called Teknoturtle hosted by Simon Ears. While I wasn't expecting it, they were nice enough to add me into the mix and I wound up chatting with Simon for a bit, too. I think that will be cut together and aired sometime after midnight but I suspect that it will be one interview I miss. Did I mention that I'm beat?

And that was that. I scooted home, did some sound editing on the CKCU interview, had a shower and did some various other sundry things and basically just vegged out. It was an intense and fun day but I'm a little at a loss with how guys like Kevin Smith can do this for a few days straight. I guess you kinda float into it and get used to it. I just don't think I'd want to do it regularly. Then again, I am a media whore...

What's funny is that it's still not done. I'm back at the Gallery tomorrow for a photo shoot for the Sun/24 Hours article in the afternoon. And I just got an email that there'll be another radio interview coming up, too. Spooky!

The interesting thing through all of this is that it's the first time that all of my work with various media outlets has actually, y'know, worked. I think, of course, that it has a lot to do with the Parkdale Gallery and less to do with me. But it's nice all the same. I actually want to give a shout out here to both librarygorilla and chrisarrant. These two went above and beyond the call of duty in taking the time to give me interviews at a time that no one else would (heh...I almost typed "wood." Have I mentioned that I'm beat?). Ack! And I almost forgot lisaatneptune, too! Lisa has also been incredible through this whole journey of mine. And another tip of the hat goes to ldragoon. You have no idea how often I send the link out to the Sequential Tart review you did. No idea. Many thanks to all four of you. I believe and have always believed that these things, perhaps considered "little" things by these folks, are all pieces of a larger puzzle. The puzzle has always been getting recognized and generating interest in my work. It has taken time and it ain't done, but I'm beginning to solve it. At least the early pieces are falling into place. While I'm not sure yet how the whole puzzle will go, I'm moving forward. And that's something.

I'll take it.






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von allan

road to god knows

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Just a quick note of clarification (mainly because I'm extremely thick sometimes):

"The road to god knows..." will not be updating four days per week on GirlAMatic. Instead, four pages will update every Monday. This is totally my fault for the misunderstanding. So, to be clear: there will still be four pages of RTGK-goodness, but just one day per week - Monday! :)

I can be Mr Thicky Black Thicky Adder Thicky far more often then I'd care to admit. I'll be updating the releases and teaser poster accordingly later on today.

Von








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von allan
road to god knows

As things start to ramp up for the release of the road to god knows... over on GirlAMatic.com, I just wanted to mention that the story now has its own specific url. So, if you're a keener, why not book mark it right now? It's just over here.

There have also been some mentions on the inter-web about all of this. I think the nicest came from Heidi MacDonald over at The Beat.

I also created a Facebook site for the book's launch. This isn't a physical event, mind you (despite Facebook's odd tendency to label it that way) but rather just a group for the book's "go live" date. I've had a lot of mixed feelings about Facebook over all, but it seems to be tailor-made for these kinds of listings. And a proper group listing will probably appear at some point, too.

Lastly, I wanted to say thanks for all of the support I've received from so many of you. That means a great deal to me and it is much appreciated.

Now, time to wander off and find more coffee!

Von









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von allan
road to god knows

I'm very (and I mean very!) pleased to announce that my bookie, the road to god knows..., will be serialized on GirlAMatic beginning on December 3rd. The story will update four days a week (Mondays through Thursdays) and, since the story is complete, there should be no missed deadlines. Barring, of course, personal catastrophe. :)

Very big thanks are owed to ldragoon for all of her help and, of course, arcana_j for approving me in the first place. GAM is a fantastic community and I'm quite happy (and a little stunned) to be rubbing shoulders with some pretty awesome creators.

( Poster and more after the cut! )

Von









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road to god knows

...is now up at Sequential Tart. This is only a review of the galley, but I'll absolutely take it! :)

Thanks a bunch, ldragoon! :)

Von







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road to god knows
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