Progress Report: June and News!

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Joshua Progress

The progress on Joshua has been going on steadily, but its completion is not looking like it will be timely for our planned September launch. Particularly as organising a big launch and preparing everything for then will take much of the time between now and then. Here's how it stands... 

Hence, we put our heads together last week and came up with an exciting new plan...

The Book of Ruth

We are going to create the Book of Ruth ready for the September launch so that we have two titles ready to go and Joshua waiting in the wings already half complete.

Why? Ruth is a very short book, I storyboarded it last weekend and the comic will be 24 pages and the book 32 plus covers.

I've already produced 4 of those pages ready for colours and both colourists will be brought onto this project to help it get completed as soon as possible. However, they will also continue to work on Joshua when the ready pages of Ruth are complete.

I hope you're as excited as we are about this, even though it will push Joshua back into 2017.
 

September

As mentioned, we now plan to launch the comic officially in September. It will then be available on Amazon and other outlets and hopefully Comixology and other digital comic providers too.

In order for it to be successful, I need to get the news into all sorts of magazines, blogs, radio stations, a big social media presence and also forums. If you have connections to any of these or write your own blog, please help by posting about it then and helping me get in touch with those news outlets. Contact me at wordforwordbiblecomic [at] gmail.com if you have anything you can contribute to this.
 

Have your Say : What Translation, NIV?

People always ask me what translation I will use (in English). At the moment, I use the World English Bible (WEB). The WEB is very much like the ESV as it's an updated version of the American Standard Version (ASV) but it is public domain and therefore completely free to use.

However, I've always been keen to use the NIV (New International Version) as it is one of the most well-known modern translations available and one of my favourites. However, to use it would cost money if I self-publish. Below is a survey where you can help me by giving your opinion on if this is worth doing.

To give an idea of the cost if a book sold for £10, the profits received from that would be about £1.50p, and if I paid a royalty to the NIV that would be about 30p lost from that £1.50. So it's a big slice of the profits that I don't have to pay if I use the WEB. But, the fame and official nature of the NIV may make the project more legitimate and allow it to be successful where a relatively unknown translation could tank the potential of the project. It is the Bible after all.

Please click here and complete this 3 question survey...

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/VRSY2K7
 

Prayer Requests

If you are a praying person I'd love you to look at these areas we are seeking the Lord for, and either give a quick amen or to add them to your list for ongoing prayer support.

Promo - Please pray that the magazines and other media that we contact are keen to report about or review the comic in September so we can get the maximum coverage and that it will miraculously snowball so everyone can here about it.

Events - I have a men's event that I'm selling at this month, called the Gathering in Swindon and the huge New Wine event next month, as well as a comic con in Shrewsbury. Please pray the book sells well and I make good contacts there.

Financial- Since the start of this project we have been living by faith financially, we've been really blessed with the Kickstarters and gifts we've been given, but please pray God continues to carry us through as this time ahead is critical to the ongoing full-time nature of the project. 

Video Blog: The Long Day of Joshua Study

A study of some of the details within the Biblical story of Joshua 10. Approx 20-minute video, with links below it. 

Word for Word Bible Comic website...
http://www.wordforwordbiblecomic.com/

Monthly News Letter
http://eepurl.com/bzpR9f

Chuck Missler - Science Behind Joshua's Battle of Beth-Horon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9uyH...

Look at the passages side by side on BibleGateway.com
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/...

Progress Report May

Welcome to May's progress report and newsletter...
 

Last week I sent this out as a newsletter, I've you follow the blog please get yourself added to the mailing list as next month I believe the blog version of the progress report will be just the chart and info about that. For all the news and updates please sign up to the newsletter here... 

http://eepurl.com/bzpR9f

Colourists

During the Judges production I had two colourists working on the pages, but as I went on to the new book I only required one until I had enough pages to keep two people busy. So now that I do have enough pages, I'm welcoming back Ryan Esch to the team.

In the past couple of weeks, both Leslie and Ryan have produced some truly excellent work rendering landscapes with amazing skill. The project if very blessed to have their outstanding digital painting enhance its pages. Here are a couple of examples.

Ryan has rendered Ai, the town which I have recently been blogging about.

Leslie has rendered this view of the cliffs on the east side of the Jordan as the Israelites prepare to cross the river.

Progress

With two colourists working you can see the pie start to fill with “Completed” pages in two areas, as I have started Ryan in Chapter 7, just less week.

I realised that this pie chart is good in some ways, as it shows the proportion of the verses completed from the book, but is weak in regards to the proportion of pages to complete. For example, I am closing on half way through the pages “Drawn ready for colours” but the pie chart barely reflects this. Today, I am working on page 58 of the 122 pages of the comic but the pie appears only one third full. Oh well, never mind.
 

Events

Last weekend I exhibited at a small event in Weston Super Mare, called Stars of Time and it was held in a helicopter museum of all places! It was probably more of a film con than comics as I was the only comics exhibitor there, but never-the-less it went well, I made a profit which is good for indie comics exhibitors. I added a few new people to the mail list too (Welcome if that's you!).

I have a few more events booked over the summer, the first is at the end of June at The Gathering hosted by CVM (Christian Vision for Men). They have been very supportive of the project since the early days, so it'll be good to be there with the books to sell.

I just had confirmation that I will be exhibiting at New Wine this summer (end of July). It's going to be a big organisational challenge as it's two stints of five days, basically back-to-back, probably camping and being at the stall all day and evening throughout. It's a huge event though and so I am really praying it will help me release the capital in the last limited edition prints that remain, and get the project out into the world more.
 

Endorsement
 

To help me along at the Gathering I got in touch with Carl Beech about an endorsement for the comic as I know he is very keen on the project, having met up with him a few times now. Carl is one of CVM's founders and hosts of the Gathering events, a previous Elim senior leader and now UK director of the Message Trust). I'm very pleased to add his positive words to our endorsements page and to have with me at the next Gathering.

Prayer requests

If you are a praying person I'd love you to look at these areas we are seeking the Lord for, and either give a quick amen or to add them to your list for ongoing prayer support.

Guidance – Please pray the Lord would guide us on the right path in regards to publishing and distribution. Our options being whittled down, but if He has unexpected plans and methods to make them known, in order to help this project be as beneficial to His Kingdom as possible.

Progress – Please pray the work progresses smoothly, without blockages or obstacles like poor health, and that the Spirit continues to bless us in trying to depict the events how they really happened and were. That we can get the work done by the time we need to to launch well.

Financially – That ol' chestnut. Please pray the events we exhibit at will provide all the money we need to see us through to the best possible time to launch the project officially and have the capital to do it right.

Blogs

Below are a blog and a video I posted this month you may have missed...

Creating a map of Ai

Video Blog about creating a map for the comic.
 

Making Comics

A video about shortcuts and new ways I create a page.
 

Get your copy and more...

If you'd like to support the project by buying one of the last numbered limited edition copies created for Kickstarter backers or you want to get other exciting rewards, even become a big backer and have your likeness drawn into the book of Joshua, then please click below and check out our Mega Founder page. (It's the same as Kickstarter but there is no time limit and no waiting for your fulfilment.) 

Support on Mega Founder

Creating a map of Ai

Today, I created a new video showing how I made a map for the comic of the settlement of Ai, based on the real world location. View it below.  

The story is featured in Joshua 7-8

The previous blog researching Ai can be found here...

https://wordforwordbiblecomic.squarespace.com/blog/researching-ai

Progress Report : April 2016

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Heading home.

This update I'm writing after an exciting weekend at a local comic con where I had a stall. The event had about 3000 attendees, and was bursting with amazing cosplay, from Transformers to orcs, and Iron 'men' of every colour to Super Saiyan.

The responses I got from the people there were very positive, very few I spoke to dismissed it out of hand for being the Bible as you might think many people would. People were interested and could see the point of the project even if they didn't think it was for them. Interestingly, several times I was telling someone about it who'd seem pretty disinterested, but then at the end they'd pipe up with “It's not my sort of thing, but my sister/father/cousin would love this” and merrily carry off a leaflet.

We made a small profit selling the books, which is was pretty good, because as many indie comic creators will tell you, they more-often-then-not make a loss and the events are more about the exposure and making connections as striving for a profit. Plus, I'm also hoping a few extra sales from this my come in online over the next couple of weeks.

If you wanted to get a copy you can do so using this link...

• https://www.megafounder.com/the-word-for-word-bible-comic

 

PROGRESS

Well, the last month has been somewhat of a bad month. In my last update, I mentioned that I was just starting to get unwell, but as I had antibiotics from the doc I was hopeful it would be short lived. Unfortunately, I was off my feet for about 3 weeks! So things are a little behind for the Book of Joshua now, but there's nothing I could do about it so I have to just write a line under it and move on. Thankfully, is was well again this weekend just gone to get to the comic con. Phew!

Blog 

If you missed the research blog last month about the ancient city of Ai, you can find it here...

• https://wordforwordbiblecomic.squarespace.com/blog/researching-ai

Researching the City of Ai (Joshua 7-8)

In order to draw a place, I have to research where it was and what it might have looked like.

In this video, I briefly describe how I collected together some of the information to get a picture of the location of Ai, that shows up in Joshua 7-8

The Book of Joshua is under construction but Judges if available as a special prerelease copy to backers at ...

https://www.megafounder.com/the-word-for-word-bible-comic

Progress Report March 2016

The last month has mostly been characterised by illness, unfortunately. This has had some impact on the progress as I took a week off to look after the children and a poorly wife. I'd managed to dodge the bullet in regards to this virus until now, but am hoping it will be short lived. Please pray for good health for us all. 

I've had a few new leads in regards to publisher which will probably be the last ditched attempt before accepting that it will need to be self-published. These are a few big publishers so again please pray they see the potential of this project and sign me up. 

I've booked into several comic cons and Christian conventions that will be happening over the next few months, the plan is to sell off the remaining limited edition copies. So lastly pray this goes well and we don't loose any money on any of them. 

Pie Chart

Here's how the progress pie chart is looking. 

Feedback

I had a few great responses from asking for feedback last month so if you didn't do so and you are a backer and you've received a hard copy of Judges please get in touch and tell me what you thought of it. It's always good to get feedback, encouragement and critique. 

wordforwordbiblecomic [@] Gmail.com

Megafounder

I also discovered a site which allows you to basically continue your Kickstarter campaign and offer rewards for donations to the work.  So please refer your friends to buy the limited edition copies of Judges and they can even still get themselves drawn into Joshua. 

• https://www.megafounder.com/the-word-for-word-bible-comic

Thank you for following the progress please keep praying for the project.

Progress Report : Feb 2016

This weekend my wonderful wife has taken the kids to granny's and I have been working non-stop trying to keep on target with the book of Joshua's progress. It's slightly frustrating as I just hit a bunch of pages which needed a lot of work! That is the fall of Jericho (Joshua 6), so lots of falling bricks to draw and tiny soldiers climbing up the ruin to attack the city and all the dead bodies everywhere. 

A few months ago I upgraded my computer from a Windows XP(!) machine to a new Mac, thanks to the kind donation to the project by two lovely families in my church for the purpose. But, there has been teething issues as some of my old peripherals have not been compatible. A couple of weeks ago I said to my wife "Right, I think I need a new graphics tablet, scanner, printer, monitor and keyboard." (as my graphic tablet also broke that day). She said "Great, where are we gonna get the money for that?" , "God(?)" I replied tentatively. Since then I've had a graphics tablet lent to me, a new monitor and keyboard given to me and one Sunday someone anonymously gave us £100 in an envelope, which I have used to buy a graphics tablet for £65 on eBay. Now I just have to figure out the scanner and printer and it will all have been taken care of. Amazing. 

Pie Chart

Here's how the progress pie chart is looking. 

At the end of January I sent off a few copies of the book to possible publishers, so please pray that come back to me soon and are keen to get it out there this summer. 

Feedback

If you were a backer and you've received a hard copy of Judges please get in touch and tell me what you thought of it. It's always good to get feedback, encouragement and critique. 

wordforwordbiblecomic [@] Gmail.com

Megafounder

I also discovered a site which allows you to basically continue your Kickstarter campaign and offer rewards for donations to the work.  So please refer your friends to buy the limited edition copies of Judges and they can even still get themselves drawn into Joshua. 

Thank you for following the progress please keep praying for the project.