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

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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.

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