Yes indeed-- as Crimson Flag nears its conclusion, over the past few years I've also been putting together a print book to go along with the online comic. This is mainly a personal project since I like the idea of a physical book to go on my shelf, but maybe some other people want a copy too!
Here are some pictures of the most recent test printing.
Wait! Crimson Flag is ENDING?!I get this reaction sometimes-- It's not "ending", I'm finishing it! I've been working towards this ending since day 1. I always find this reaction a little strange, but I suppose there is a sort of webcomic mentality that these things should just keep going and going. This story was never intended to be that way-- rather I had a novel-sized read in mind and we are getting close to the end! (It just turns out that creating one page per week makes this process take 12 years... oooops.) I'm thinking it will take another year or so to finish the comic up. CF as a story and an idea are very old, and while I'm very glad to complete it, I'm also really excited to get started on my next major webcomic too!
What will happen to the chat and forums after CF is done?Very little. I will probably re-theme the forums to match my next comic project eventually, but that's about it.
When will the book be available?I hope to have it ready for purchase soon after the final comic page is posted. Roughly a year, give or a take a few months.
How big will the book be?The page count will be the total page count of the online comic, minus about 60 pages (since multiple early strips fit on one printed page), but plus a few pages for extra stuff like the cast profiles, map, etc. So roughly 550 pages. This is being printed "manga sized" at 5"x7.5". I quite like this size since the book is easy to carry and hold and my panel-count generally isn't very high anyway so we don't need super huge prints.
Will it contain exclusive content?No. I generally don't want to put anything in the book that's also not available on crimsonflagcomic.com. I do have a handful of very minor early concept sketches I might throw in, but it's nothing super secret and I'll probably put them online at some point too.
Will there be a Kickstarter?No. I'm going with a print-on-demand service. Some artists do Kickstarters for their books so they can print tons of them upfront at discounted rates. But they also sell them themselves, mail them themselves, go to conventions, etc. I don't want to mess with any of that stuff.
(But I will do a small batch of pre-orders available exclusively to CF forum members which I sign and mail myself. I will post details when the time comes!)
How much will it cost?Probably in the $40-$45 USD range, but I'm not sure yet.
