blog: product announcements

At any given time I have about four to six new products for the Wondermark Store in various stages of completion. Occasionally I’ll have one or two ready for launch, but I’ll hold off making an announcement until I can announce several other things all at once — the logic being, that way I spend less time overall harping to you about the store and merchandise. The downside is that if some things end up taking really long to complete, earlier products end up languishing un-announced, sitting in boxes in my house instead of being sold.

In an attempt to solve this problem, I’m going to start announcing “Featured Item(s) of the Month.” This establishes a system for rolling out new products on a regular basis. Because I know that’s what you’ve been clamoring for.

The inaugural Featured Item for May is the Expendable DVD! (If you haven’t seen the movie I released earlier this year, you can watch it on YouTube here.) The DVD version of the film looks and sounds great, and the disc also includes over 30 minutes of bonus features including deleted scenes, A.R.A.C.H.N.I.D. promotional videos (some of which are previously unreleased), and footage from an early test shoot. I should also mention that these DVDs are FREE to film-industry types or financial types that might move us an inch or two closer to our ultimate goal of making a feature film — but to everyone else, they’re a great way to help support this independent project. All revenue goes towards reimbursing our production costs. Click here or on the picture!

What’s this?

It’s my new book! This 96-page hardcover will be hitting bookstore shelves in June, courtesy of Dark Horse Comics. It picks up where The Annotated Wondermark left off, and includes 131 comic strips (including many that have never appeared on this site) as well as Treachery!. I’ve also written loads of fun extra material especially for this collection, including a Dispatches from Wondermark Manor prologue chapter.

And the best part is…it’s available on Amazon now for pre-order!

The last few weeks have been a bit of an education in publishing for me. Typically, the way I’ve sold books in the past is: 1. I design the books. 2. I print the books. 3. I sell the books to you. This model has worked well for me so far, but for the new book, I’m having to change tactics.

The revised model goes like this: 1. I design the book (done). 2. You pre-order the book. 3. Dark Horse looks at those pre-order numbers, and decides how many books to print and how much of a promotional effort the book deserves. 4. The book is a resounding success, and Dark Horse and I go on to make more books -OR- the book does poorly and I go back to the previous model of bookselling.

In other words, pre-orders are extremely important. In addition to encouraging individual sales, I’ll be urging as many bookstores and comic stores as I can to order copies for the shelf. You can do the same in your area! The book will be solicited in the June Previews (which comic stores will receive next month), and it’s already in the Dark Horse Summer Catalog, which bookstores should have a copy of. The ISBN is 978-1593079840.

Another new way that you can help support Wondermark is by making general Amazon purchases via my site, by using the search box just over on the right, in the sidebar. Anything you buy on Amazon after clicking through from Wondermark earns me a commission, and it doesn’t cost you an extra penny! I see it sort of as a tip jar. Feel free to use my site as a portal for your general Amazon searching — or, if you think I’m being crass, then don’t! That’s fine too.