Why a Doctor Fun book?
As one kind person told me when they learned there was going to be a book, "You'll finally have something to justify your existence." I was a little sore about this, but then after I thought about it I decided it might be handy to have something in hand to justify my continued existence. You never know. Anyway, that's a good a reason as any to publish a book.
Who is publishing the Doctor Fun book?
Plan Nine Publishing is doing the book. They specialize in turning web comics into ink and paper comics. And they do a great job. It's quite something to go to a convention where they have a booth and see a big rack of web comics turned into books, and then to see people dressed like giant teddy bears and kitty cats walking up and buying those web comic books, sometimes an armload at a time.
Plan Nine Publishing's web site
Why isn't there anything on Plan Nine's website about Doctor Fun?
Keep looking. My old excuse was that I hadn't given them the cover art. But I have given them the cover art - for the front cover. My new excuse is I haven't given them the cover art for the back cover.
Wasn't the book supposed to be last year?
Sort of - sorry if I ruined everybody's Christmas shopping. Things slipped a little and we decided it would be better to get the book rolling in 2003 instead of 2002, since "ten years of Doctor Fun" sounded better than "nine years of Doctor Fun". So, things start for real in January, and the book will be out sometime in 2003.
What's going to be in the book?
The book will be between 120-140 pages, tall format, with two cartoons per page. Probably 115 pages will actually be cartoons, so that's sounding like 230 cartoons. By the time we start there will be about 2000 Doctor Fun cartoons to pick from, so this (hopefully the first of many) book will be a greatest hits. The book will be printed in CMYK color. There are some translation issues between the gamut of colors in the online images, and what can actually be printed, but that is my problem to fix, not yours. The resolution of the cartoons will be the same as what's online, because that's what there is, however, I have clean copies of the files in a non-JPEG format, and some images will be tweaked on a case-by-case basis to look better in print. All the captions will be typeset, of course. I've seen other color work Plan Nine has produced, and it will be a quality book.
Since many black and white cartoon books have a special color section in the middle, I'm thinking of doing a special section, maybe 20 pages, of black and white pen and ink cartoons, just for the book. I haven't drawn off the computer, other than doodles, for years, so it would be fun to clean out the Rotrings (more likely, buy all-new Rotrings) and go at it again. These would be all-new cartoons, not redraws of old material.
How much will the book cost?
Plan Nine hasn't set a price yet, but it will be in line with similar books they publish.
Where can I buy the book?
Most likely directly from Plan Nine's web site, but their books are also now available in selected comic book stores, and I'm planning to be at their booth at a couple conventions (Dragon*Con in Atlanta looks likely). That's the big marketing plan so far.
I don't live in the United States? Will I be able to order this interesting book?
Plan 9 has sales offices in Canada and Europe (look over at the right side on their home page) - I don't know about other places.
Why won't the book be a giant coffee table size printed on a seven-color press?
Hello, real world. It would cost too much to produce and nobody would buy it, even the people who say they would buy it.
Can I preorder the book?
That's up to Plan Nine. Better wait until I least do the cover art.
Which cartoons are going to be in the book?
Well... it's probably going to be easy to pick the handful that everyone would agree absolutely have to be in the book, and then picking the rest is going to be the hair puller. You can help - e-mail me your favorite ones. No formal poll here (we know from the last poll about the book how much y'all hate polls) and no guarantee that everybody's favorites are going into the book, but I'll consider every suggestion I get. Why not take some time during my Christmas break to browse the old ones? Basically we'll take what I want in the book, what Plan Nine wants in the book, and what I've heard from you, and hash it all out. And in the end I'll pick all the cartoons I want - so there. Just kidding.
I really hated that poll...
Yes, we know that everybody hated that Doctor Fun poll.
Is there any relationship between Plan Nine and ibiblio?
Other than they are both way cool and located in North Carolina, no.
Is there going to be other Doctor Fun stuff I can buy?
Maybe - that's still up in the air. Stay tuned.