Cura Te Ipsum – A Digital Comic by Neal Bailey and Dexter Wee

On Monday, I got the first test books from Ingram Spark, and put them up next to the original Cura books. The only thing that gave me pause was the cover, but that’s because I had accidentally gotten the matte cover instead of the gloss. Even so, it looks to be an improvement. This is good news. I have a gloss test coming in two days, and if it is close enough to a match for the original covers to satisfy my standards, we are good to go. A few pics:

Same size, same image. (New printer on the right.)

Only variation is the ISBN.

Pages don’t have printer cuts, and are matte instead of gloss. Looks cleaner in many respects, and easier on the eyes in sunlight.
(The one with the visible cuts are the old printer.)

The pages are matte, as opposed to gloss, which was the original plan for the Year Two trade that fell through. It was a cost-cutting measure, but we canned it when we learned that it would only save one to two dollars a book. In this case, it’ll save four times that, and now that I’ve seen the matte pages in the trade, it actually improves readability for me. With that in mind, and what I’ve examined thusfar in the process, I sat down and made a pro/con list for moving to the new printer, to share with you all my process here:

PRO
Trades cost 1/3 what they did before, same/better readability.
Faster order fulfillment.
ISBN (We can get in stores once the Kick is done.)
Fits on the shelf with the other Cura books.
Updated gutters for better splashes and readability on Year 1-3.
Matte over gloss for interiors.

CON
Previous printer was a really, really awesome group of people.

I think that pretty much settles it for me. As always, I’d love your input. There are also an existing number of original trades, the first editions, which we will sell at cons and through the store until the end of the Kickstarter, if you still want to purchase them.

The hardcovers will go through the old printer, and be gloss in the interiors, with a matching cover, limited to fifty, matching recurring purchaser’s numbers, etc. The basic trades, however, will get new editions to match with the Year Four trade, and after an extended period of time after the Kickstarter (assuming it is successful) we will release the books to stores, giving you guys the exclusive first whack at it.

Given this information, and that Cura will reach the end of Year Four on August 20, we will launch the Kickstarter on August 19th, with more details forthcoming soon!