Many of you may already know me.  I’ve already made dirty junkies out of you.  You’re addicted to Siglerism.  Now get ready to be hooked on my comics!

For those of you who are new to my world, here’s my modest bio (written in the 3rd person like a Football Player!  Hoo-ya!):

Scott Sigler is the author of INFECTED and CONTAGIOUS, major hardcover thrillers from Crown Publishing. He landed his book deal by giving away multiple novels as free, serialized podcasts that generated a large online following and saw over 4 million downloads of the individual episodes.

Scott reinvented book publishing when he released EARTHCORE as the world’s first “podcast-only” novel. Released in twenty weekly episodes, EARTHCORE harkened back to the days of serialized radio fiction and picked up 10,000 subscribers along the way.

His next podcast novel, ANCESTOR, drew 30,000 listeners and saw 700,000 episodes downloaded by fans. The buzz caused Sirius Satellite Radio to pick up the novel, making it the first audiobook serialized on the satellite network. When ANCESTOR was released in print from a small independent publisher, it hit #7 overall on Amazon.com despite no marketing, no advertising and no media coverage. 

Scott’s innovative use of technology puts him at the forefront of modern-day publishing, and has garnered brand-name exposure among hundreds of thousands of fiction fans and technology buffs. He’s been covered in the New York Times, NPR, Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Entertainment Weekly, Publisher’s Weekly, The Huffington Post, Business Week and Fangoria.

Michigan native, Scott lives in San Francisco with his wife and dog.

Scott is responsible for many inventions, including podcasting, the Internet, and the internal combustion engine. And trees, those were his. Okay, so he worked with Al Gore on the Internet, but Scott did most of the work. He made his first podcast in 1978. It is a well-known fact that he has podcast every Sunday, without fail, since that time (with the exception of Super Bowl Sundays, which Scott claims as the ultimate holy day).

Scott is 6-foot-10, can juggle four kittens and can hop on one leg for, like, over 10 minutes without falling over. That’s rad. Don’t lie to me, you know it’s rad, you just don’t want to look uncool in front of your friends. Fine, Mister Cool Guy, go ahead and act disinterested.

We know you’ll be back.

Scott

Want a close-up? Click on the image to see it mucho larger.

Tweet This

Yesterday we posted about our plans for the site overall.  Today we want to address a few of the Launch and Early-Time things you will see.

SOFT OPENING

Keep in mind that — as we have said all along – we are taking this VERY slowly and trying to get it right.  This is new territory for us.  We hope to conquer it — although we’re already fighting over who will be King — but we have a long way to go. 

With that in mind, know that this is what offline businesses refer to as a “soft opening.”  It’s where you quietly unlock the doors and invite family and friends to come in and help you work out the bugs.

You guys are our Family and Friends online (in some cases, literally.)

The vast majority of everyone reading this post and visiting Addictive Comics in the first few weeks will have learned about us from Scott’s website and Podcasts or from Decoder Ring Theater and the fans of Black Jack Justice on AudioDramaTalk. 

You are already fans of these stories and we are looking to you to help us get our business on the right track.  We know we can count on you.        

THE SITES

First off, everything on the site should work.  All links, all photos, all text — EVERYTHING — so feel free to look around and try everything out.  What’s there at the beginning is NOT everything we have planned for the future — but everything there should work.  If you see something that is messed up, please let us know. 

NOTE — Please understand that all the sites and blogs were designed and tested on IE with Vista.  They may not look right on other systems or browsers.  If you have any concerns, please email us.

ADVERTISING & OFFERS

Everything we have produced for Addictive Comics is 100% Free for you to enjoy.  And we intend to keep it that way.  We do, however, hope to make a little money off of this (at least enough to pay the artists and writers.)  Our business plan does not call for a donation box (as so many webcomics have) or a Member’s Only area (at least not immediately.) 

Instead we hope to make our money off of advertising and, later, off of publishing Graphic Novels of our comics.  Scott has proven this business model works with his novels and there are a handful of webcomics using it successfully – most notably the wonderful Girl Genius by Phil Foglio.  Not an Addictive Comic (yet!) but well worth checking out.  (Mark wishes Phil still did Xxxenophile.  Anyone else agree with him?)

You will NEVER be required to buy anything to enjoy Addictive Comics.

That doesn’t mean we won’t put some “bonus material” in the graphic novels (to make them more desirable) or that we won’t eventually offer printed only comics or books or a Member’s Only area for special offerings.  We’re not sure at this early stage what may happen.  But rest assured that there will always be 100% Free Webcomics at Addictive Comics — as long as we are around.

Naturally, if you see an ad that interests you…

OUR SCHEDULE

This has been much discussed by us and we expect in may change somewhat. 

It is our present plan to offer The Rookie, Black Jack Justice and most of our other Addictive Comics on a page-a-week schedule.  When we really get rolling we hope to have between 20 and 30 comics coming out simultaneously (we told you we had BIG PLANS) which should give you 4 to 6 new pages to enjoy every weekday — even though each individual story would still only update weekly.

Naturally, at the beginning with only two books the output will seem very sparse. 

We have many reasons that we have come up with this planned schedule – which we may get into on the blogs later on if anyone is interested.

We do hope to very up the schedules somewhat (if the creator’s can do it) and have some twice-a-weeks, some 3-times-a-weeks, and even some daily strips.  Occasionally we may hold back and release an entire story all at once. 

OPENING DAY PAGES

However, even though our plan is to release one page a week, most books should open with several story pages to (hopefully!) hook you.  For our first offerings — Black Jack Justice opens with an Episode Cover (Justice Served Cold, by the way) and 2 pages of comics and The Rookie opens with a Chapter Cover and 5 pages of story.

The Justice Served Cold cover by Mark Hester can be viewed now on the New Talent Page of this blog.

AS ALWAYS –

Please always let us know what you think about all of this and what you like.

Mark & Scott

Don’t forget — You can follow Addictive Comics on Twitter by visiting — http://twitter.com/AddictiveComics

Tweet This

Hey there. 

Thank you again for visiting the Addictive Comics Blog (now in New & Improved “COUNTDOWN” Version!) 

We wanted to take a moment today and tomorrow to let you know what to expect from us when we launch on Tuesday.  This isn’t required reading to enjoy the comics — but we tried to anticipate a few of the questions you may have.  That doesn’t mean we don’t want you to ask any more.  By all means if you have a question, comment or request PLEASE use the comment box on this blog or send us an email.  That email address is always addictivecomics (at) gmail (dot) com — and as always put in an “@” and a “.” where they should go.

Tomorrow we will address specifically what to expect on Tuesday and in the next few weeks. 

Today let’s get the broad overview.

WHAT TO EXPECT FROM THIS BLOG & THE EMAIL AFTER THE LAUNCH

This blog and the email list will continue to be ground zero for everything Addictive Comics.  If you want to know what’s happening and what’s new, visit here first.  Better yet sign up for the email list if you haven’t already.  It will always be free, always be spam-free and always have the first news on Addictive Comics. 

Down the road we also have some email only plans and offerings that you won’t want to miss — including a Full-Color, Full-Sized, Completely Free Addictive Comics Magazine.

For more info read this post — EMAIL / NEWSLETTER  (you can read it right now — it opens a new window.) 

IMPORTANT NOTE — We’ve had a little trouble with the email signup box not showing up on Firefox and moving around on XP.  If you don’t see it in the top left corner, look at the bottom of the page.  If you still can’t locate it, please drop us an email and we’ll get you signed up.

WHAT TO EXPECT FROM THE ADDICTIVE COMICS PAGES

For those of you who are old fans of webcomics – you’ll feel instantly at home on Addictive Comics.  We’ve tried our best to keep the “feel” of the best comics (why fix it if it ain’t broken) while putting our own spin on things.  There’s the Nav Bar below the artwork, just as you would expect.  A click on the page takes you ahead one page — just as you would expect.  You may not expect that we have added our comments below each page and several other cool features spread about.

For those of you new to the world of webcomics — we think you’ve pick a pretty good one to start with. ;)  And we haven’t forgotten you either.  Chances are you will pick up on the “flow” immediately — after all, this style has been tried and proven on 1,000’s of webcomics before us — but if you have any trouble at all, we’ll have a How-To-Enjoy-Addictive-Comics page on every book we do.  Right from day one (it’s already there, in fact.)  Just look at the bottom of page one of any book and you will see a short mini-course and a link to a more detailed page.

BLOGS?  YEAH, WE GOT BLOGS!

One of Mark’s no compromise requirements when he pitched the idea of Addictive Comics to Scott was that the readers should be able to comment on every page.  Luckly, Scott’s no dummy and he agreed immediately.  You can see by his site, Scottsigler (dot) com, that he actively encourages interaction.   

The original idea was to put a comment area on the page below the comic artwork.  But through some of our page trials (yes, we weren’t just goofing off!) we determined that that was impractical for several reasons — that I may go into…later…somewhere else. 

Since our plan, all along, was to have at least one blog per comic (or comic-group) and it became obvious to us that THAT was where the comments should be.  Blogs are made for interaction. 

So when we launch, you will not only get TWO cool comics but also a blog for each one that you can visit, read more and communicate with the creators and other readers.

IS THAT ALL?

Isn’t that enough?

Well, actually – No, it’s not all.  But we’ll let you discover the rest as we go along.  Trust us when we say… WE HAVE VERY BIG PLANS!

So glad you could join us.  See ya tomorrow when we warn…uh…TELL you what to expect during the launch and coming weeks.

Scott & Mark

Note - the Addictive Comics Magazine is not part of the email newsletter and will include advertising.

Tweet This

Be here on Tuesday, December 16th as we present the first pages of The Rookie and Black Jack Justice.
 
—————————————–
 
But don’t wait until then — All week we’ll be counting down the days until launch by posting on the Addictive Comics Blog and Sending Emails to our newsletter subscribers (if you haven’t signed up yet — do it NOW!)
 
So check back everyday for undates as we count down the minutes.
 
Scott and Mark

Tweet This

If you visited yesterday, on Thanksgiving, thank you.  Always glad to have you drop in.

However you saw a couple of posts, Scott’s and Mark’s Bio’s, that we weren’t quite ready to post yet.  Just another example of how bad we suck at this whole “tech” thing.

Our Tech Expert, Paul, is back from his honeymoon and working feverishly on getting the site up and running.  As soon as we have a definite date for launch, we will start a “countdown” here  — and put back up the creator bios you saw plus ones for the Black Jack Justice Guys.

So… if you did visit yesterday — Forget everything you saw and don’t tell a soul!  Your FDO commands you!

And check back soon for us to do it all again. 

Scott and Mark

Tweet This

Hi again,

Here’s the deal — Although Scott has done a fair bit of writing and Mark managed to pass the 6th grade on the 3rd try, neither of us has ever really done what you might call “personal blogging.”  So we’re kinda learning as we go here.

Our goal with this main Addictive Comic’s Blog is to try carry on a conversation with you readers — we want to talk with you, not at you.

But occassionally (like today for instance) we might have to talk about ourselves in the third person (like football players do) because that is the easiest way to keep things straight.   Rest assured that for the forseeable future Scott and/or Mark will be writing most of the posts you read here.

We want to always use this blog to let you in on the very newest happenings at Addictive Comics and introduce you to some of the talented creators we have lined up.

Please ALWAYS feel free to leave a comment on EVERY post.  

For today and tomorrow, we thought it might be good to talk about the two comics we are opening the Addictive Comics site with — The Rookie and Black Jack Justice. 

THE ROOKIE

Many of you are, of course, familiar with Scott’s Science Fiction/Gangster/ Football story — and right now those who are not are going, “WHAT?!” 

Yes, The Rookie is all those things and more.  And since I have already written this once and can’t improve on perfection – and we are busy and lazy – here is the description from ScottSigler.com –

Imagine a story that combines the intense football action of “Any Given Sunday” with the space opera style of “Star Wars” and the criminal underworld of “The Godfather.”

“The Rookie” is set amongst a lethal pro football league 700 years in the future. Aliens play positions based on physiology, creating receivers that jump 25 feet into the air, linemen that bench-press 1,200 pounds, and linebackers that — literally — want to eat you. Organized crime runs every franchise, games are fixed and rival players are assasinated.

Follow the story of Quentin Barnes, a 19-year-old quarterback prodigy that has been raised all his life to hate, and kill, those aliens. Quentin must deal with his racism and learn to lead, or hell wind up just another stat in the column marked “killed on the field.”

Sounds pretty Cool, huh?

ADDICTIVE COMICS’ THE ROOKIE

The Story

The Rookie comic is adapted straight from the script by Scott Sigler.  If it was in the Podcast or Novel, it’s in the comic. 

Quentin Barnes, The PNFL, The Quyth, The GFL, The Krakens, The Creterakians, the Sklorno, the Ki — They’re ALL there.

The Artwork

Mark Hester will be supplying the artwork — both pencils and inks.  Rather than talk about it, here’s a sample.  It’s a character study for Gredok, the Quyth leader who makes his first appearance in the comic on page five –

Gredok - Quyth Leader
from The Rookie by Scott Sigler
Artwork by Mark Hester
Click on the above picture for a Larger Look at Gredok.

IT’S ALL COMING VERY SOON!   

Keep watching the Addictive Comics Prelaunch Blog, Signup for the Email Updates & RSS feed, tell your friends —  and Watch Out!  Because YOUR Rookie Season starts RIGHT HERE very soon on Addictive Comics.

Scott & Mark

Tweet This

We TOLD you we were new at this.

A few of you have emailed us (probably didn’t want to embarrass us with a public comment) asking where the Email Signup Box was.  Some of you wondered if we were even considering a Newletter or not.

Well, yes, we’ve planned all along to have a Newsletter, email updates and — even a surprise or two that I mention below.  But with our excitement over the new blog… 

To tell you the truth — we just forgot about it.

EMAIL SIGNUPS — DO IT NOW! 

Okay, if you will look up to the top left side of this blog you will see the EMAIL SIGNUP BOX.  It’s a little on the Homely side — but it’s very simple to use and get signed up — just enter you name and email address and you are all set.

That’s all there is to it.

WHY SHOULD I SIGN UP?  WHAT ARE YOU GONNA SEND ME?

First off, let’s talk about what we are NOT going to send you.  Most of you guys know Scott or Gregg.  Those two are working with Paul and Mark so you know that we’re okay guys, too. 

So you know we are NEVER going to send you spam.  We also are NEVER going to Sell, Give Away or Trade your email address with anyone, ever. 

But we’ll even go one step further.  Our business plan calls for us to make money from advertising (thus giving you the content for free!) — but we will NEVER place an outside ad on this particular Newsletter.  Ever.  You can feel safe opening it each time knowing that you will enjoy the contents.

OKAY, THAT’S GOOD.  BUT WHAT CONTENTS?  WHAT ARE YOU GONNA SEND ME?

Glad you asked.

Addictive Comics has a very ambitious and agressive plan for our webcomics.  Yes, we are gonna start out REAL slowly and make sure we do it right, but very soon we plan to be offering many different comics, by many different writers in many different styles and genres.  Not to mention all the blogs, forums and additional sites we have planned.  

You won’t be able to keep up with everything without a Scorecard.

The Newsletter is your Scorecard.

Each week we’ll tell you what new with you favorites and what you should check out.  We’ll let you in on the new additions to the family and tell you where to get even more of the good stuff.

BUT, YOU EXPECTED THAT, RIGHT?  HOW ABOUT THIS — ?  

We know the value of a Newsletter for helping us stay in touch with our readers (the web is a big place and we are all very busy.  We wouldn’t want you to forget us.)  So we are totally committed to making it stupid NOT to join. 

Expect Newsletter-Only content and promotions such as extra comic pages, additional artwork, new stories and even Newletter-Only products and discounts on those products. 

AND ONE VERY SPECIAL PLAN

We are also planning a Full Color, Downloadable ADDICTIVE COMICS MAGAZINE!

ADDICTIVE COMICS MAGAZINE will include Articles Artwork, Interviews, Short Stories, Photos and even EXCLUSIVE MAGAZINE-ONLY comic stories that you won’t see anywhere else. 

It will be available only to Newsletter subscribers for the low, LOW price of FREE!

SO WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?  SUBSCRIBE TODAY!

Sorry, we got carried away and lapsed into informercial-speak. 

But really it IS a great deal.  It costs you zip and your gonna enjoy it.  What’s not to love?

Enter you name and email right now before you forget and we’ll see you soon.

Scott & Mark

Note — the magazine is not part of the newsletter and will include advertising.

Tweet This

FROM THE EVIL CLOSET OF SCOTT SIGLER:

There’s not much to look at yet, other than this frickin’ amazing ROOKIE page by Mark Hester included below. This is just to get your pulse up, a little tease before we delve into the hotness of full-on weekly webcomics.

Addictive Comics is the partnership of author and podcaster Scott Sigler (the egotistical bastard writing this), artist and art director Mark Hester, and programmer Paul Rogalinski. Our goals are simple — spend five years giving the world amazing free webcomics based on podcast fiction, build a huge online following, then sell out to a big comic company and become the Pimps of the French Riviera.

This blog is ground zero for all the news leading up to the Launch of Addictive Comics, and once we go live, it will continue to document the trials, tribulations and goat sacrifices necessary to establish an online business.

We plan to turn podcast fiction stories into webcomics, releasing a new page from each story every week until the book is complete.  It’s all free. We string you out — hence the term “addictive.” Normally, pushers like us say “first hit is free,” but unfortunately for our business model, all the damn hits are free. We think it will be an amazing experience for you to be able to listen to a free podiobook and either read the comic at the same time or go back and read it after you’re done. No one else in the world is doing this. That’s why we get to wear the big-boy pants.

FLAGSHIP TITLES
We’re kicking it off live and loud with THE ROOKIE, a scifi/football/gangster story that is also available as a free audiobook at Podiobooks.com.  I wrote it. It rocks.

Here’s that page of PNFL action from THE ROOKIE I promised ya.  Click on the picture below if you want to see a bigger, badder, in-your-face look at the good stuff.

Our other feature title is the amazing BLACK JACK JUSTICE, a 50s hard-boiled detective series from Decoder Ring Theater that also available as a free Live-Action Podcast Drama from their Website.

We’ll be telling you more about both of them right here on the Addictive Comics Blog in the next few days.

FUTURE TITLES
I won’t say much about this now, but I will assure you that we are in talks with some of the biggest names in podcast fiction.  And soon, we’ll be adding a little graphic novel called ANCESTOR to the mix … 

SEE YA, WOULDN’T WANT TO BE YA
That’s it for now. See the little “subscribe” link in the upper right-hand corner of this page? Subscribe already. Watch the fun as we build Addictive Comics from the blog post you’re reading now into a worldwide phenomenon responsible for creating A-list artists, best-selling graphic novels and movies based on the stories you see here.

Start tapping a vein, sucker, because once you see the junk we’re cooking up, you’ll be hooked for life.

Scott

A QUICK NOTE FROM MARK:

Hi,

Most of you don’t know me, but I have been working in comics off-and-on for the past 20 years.  Let me tell you something…

I have never been this excited by a project. 

Scott’s comments above are completely over-the-top as usual (Hey, that’s why we love him!) but everything he says it 100% true. 

We are out to create a whole new, exciting experience in webcomics.

The stories and writers we are lining up for you are gonna blow your socks off.  Believe me, “you ain’t never seen nothing like it before!” 

BUT — WE NEED YOUR HELP

I know it’s a tired old cliche, but we REALLY DO want to hear from you. 

This is a whole new experience for us, also — with all the problems and challenges of any new venture.  We are gonna take it very slowly at first but there will still probably be plenty of stops & starts and a few mistakes along the way. 

You really can Help Us.

After all, chances are you arrived at this page because you heard Scott mention it on the Nocturnal Podcast.  That means that you are already a Sigler Junkie and you are a fan of that in-your-face excitement that only Scott can produce.   You know what this guy can do!

Wouldn’t you love to see that same excitement in a webcomic?

I’m not gonna give you a long list of what we are looking for — because we want to hear ANY ideas you have.  What would you like to see? 

You know Scott, nothing — and I mean NOTHING! – is too far out there.

Mark

Take a Moment to Write to Us RIGHT NOW

Please leave a comment below or email us at addictivecomics (at) gmail (dot) com — Replace the “(at)” with “@” and the “(dot)” with “.”

If you have stumbled upon this site by another means and have no idea who this Sigler character is — Visit Scott’s Website and learn all about his Thrilling Tecno-Horror Podcasts and Novels  — ScottSigler.com

If you are an Artist — or if you know one — who would like to join us at Addictive Comics, please visit our New Talent Search Page.  We’ll have a post with more information on this in a few days.

Technorati Profile 

Tweet This