This is a press release on the series I sent out to local papers last week. The short and long versions of it are below. If you're a comic news site (or any other type of news publication) feel free to take and run either one with any pics you need off my site. If anyone has advice on entertainment or comic sites that cover indi comics that I could send this to, let me know.
Press Release (full version)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 24, 2014
Funny Books Get Digital
College Follies is among a growing number of comic books going digital
College Follies has gone from an unknown comic book series with a single issue printed in 2000 to a digital comic distributed worldwide, thanks to changing technology.
College Follies, touted as an “An epic parody of life itself,” was created by Todd Luck back in the late 1990s while he was a student at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. A lover of the comic book medium, he dreamed of one day breaking into the comic industry. The comedy series was one of many concepts he wrote plots for in his spare time. For a senior art project, he wrote and drew one issue of it. He had 50 copies printed at a local copy shop in 2000.
“I printed up some copies to send to comic publishers to see if they’d pick it up,” said Luck, “I also tried to sell them at local comic shops and the Heroes Convention in Charlotte. Unfortunately, no one picked it up and few bought it.”
Luck stopped work on the comic while drawing the series’ second story in 2000. He said he had few options. Printing was out of his price range, as was the high tech tools to scan in, letter and prepare the pages for print. Without a comic publisher to pick it up, he had no way to distribute it.
Luck stopped drawing comics for years, but in 2013 he decided to look into the possibility of producing a comic again. He found a lot had changed.
“There’s been a democratization of publishing with new technology,” he said. “Anyone can create and distribute content online for little or no cost. You can send comics to printers anywhere in the world to get the best price for print comics.”
Luck, who now resides in Winston-Salem, NC, said new technology allowed him to fix everything that was wrong with the first issue in 2000. He said his inking was crude, made more so by the distortions from scanning and compressing the art with the software of the time. The printing was equally crude and expensive. Even printed in black and white on copy paper, it cost $3 per copy to print, not a good thing when $3 was the standard price comics sold for.
Last year, he used the graphics program Photoshop to clean up his inks, color the comic and create the highest quality version of it possible. Using internet sites Amusedom.com and DriveThruComics.com, he was able to transform his work into digital comics anyone in the world could buy. The digital distribution costs nothing up front and the sites only take a percentage of the sales he makes. Even getting copies printed to sale at conventions cost him a fraction of what it used to, with 25 color copies of the first issue on high quality paper costing him a little over $2 a pop.
But the biggest boon was the shot at ComiXology, the net’s biggest digital comic distributor, with comics that can read be online and on mobile apps. Through ComiXology Submit, Luck submitted the new, color College Follies #1, and after eight months, it was accepted and available through ComiXology.
“That was a great moment when I got that acceptance email,” he said. “I’d been waiting for something like that my whole life.”
While he said the first issue was greatly improved, one thing he didn't touch was the story. College Follies #1 stars a college student named Stickboy who goes home to visit his family and his best friend Psychoboy after a school shooting has gripped the country in fear and paranoia. Based on the reaction to the Columbine shootings of the late 90s, the issue takes readers back to a time before “active shooter” became part of the national vocabulary, when Chris Matthews and Geraldo Rivera were both on CNBC airing a string of guests using the tragedy to tout their own agendas. It was a time when there was calls to pull the new hit movie "The Matrix" as a result of the shooting.
“It’s a comic book time capsule,” Luck said. “It represents where the country, the culture and myself were at the time.”
The second issue, which was finally completed this year, came out October 8 on Comixology. The slice-of-life short story revolves around rumors caused by Stickboy walking his ex-girlfriend to her car. Luck said it felt good to finally have that second story done and to move on to new material.
Issue three, a Power Ranger parody, and issue four, in which Psychoboy runs for Congress, are both out on Amusedom and DriveThruComics, and should be out on ComiXology in the next several months.
For more information on College Follies, visit www.collegefollies.com.
Press Release (short version)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 24, 2014
New Comic Series Lampoons Life Itself
Fourteen years in the making, College Follies, is a digital comic series exploring everything from media hyped shootings to the consequence of hanging around an ex.
College Follies, touted as an “An epic parody of life itself,” was created by Todd Luck, a Winston-Salem, NC resident, back in the late 1990s when he was a college student. When the series wasn't picked up by comic publishers in 2000, he shelved it. With the advent of digital comics, Luck decided to give it another go beginning last year, completing the first two stories for digital distribution. Both are now on sale on ComiXology, the net’s biggest digital comic distributor, with comics that can be read online and on mobile apps.
College Follies #1 stars a college student named Stickboy who goes home to visit his family and his best friend Psychoboy after a school shooting has gripped the country in fear and paranoia. Based on the reaction to the Columbine shootings of the late 90s, the issue takes readers back to a time before “active shooter” became part of the national vocabulary, when Chris Matthews and Geraldo Rivera were both on CNBC airing a string of guests using the tragedy to tout their own agendas. It was a time when there was calls to pull the new hit movie "The Matrix" as a result of the shooting.
“It’s a comic book time capsule,” Luck said. “It represents where the country, the culture and myself were at the time.”
The second issue is a slice-of-life story that revolves around rumors caused by Stickboy walking his ex-girlfriend to her car.
Issue three, a Power Ranger parody, and issue four, in which Psychoboy runs for Congress, are both out on digital comic sites Amusedom.com and DriveThruComics.com, and should be out on ComiXology in the next several months.
For more information on College Follies, visit www.collegefollies.com.
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