Phonogram: the singles club

[Tom A.]

Hi,
Does anyone know what has happened to Issue #2 (and following) of Phonogram the singles club ? I haven't seen it in my comic shop and it has disappeared off image comics' website.

Thx.

[dan bailey]

Just really delayed, I'm sure. I gripe a lot about such situations, but in this case I have no doubt it'll be worth the wait. (Of course, I buy so many damned books -- more than I reasonably afford, to be honest -- that I've gotten to the point where I welcome delays, the ends of miniseries & even outright cancellations ...)

[KieronGillen]

Sorry about the delay, basically. We wrote a lot explaining the situation on Phonogram's site (www.phonogramcomic.com) but the blog seems to be down right now. Hopefully it'll be a technical glitch and be back shortly.

The short version is that the orders for PG2.2 would have left Jamie starving to death, so he had to take on some WFH to get some cash. You'll see what he's been up to over in Cable. Issue 2 should be going to the printers shortly and since the cash situation is solved, I hope that we'll be on a monthly tick from then on. We've took a month gap in solicits so we can catch up a bit more.

In doubly short, we're enormously sorry about the delay and as soon as we have something definite, we'll make sure everybody knows.

@phonogramcomic on twitter is a good way to keep up to date updates.

Thanks for your interest, sir.

KG

[dan bailey]

The short version is that the orders for PG2.2 would have left Jamie starving to death,

Criminal, especially considering the crap that does sell.

[Tom A.]

Sorry about the delay, basically. We wrote a lot explaining the situation on Phonogram's site (www.phonogramcomic.com) but the blog seems to be down right now. Hopefully it'll be a technical glitch and be back shortly.

The short version is that the orders for PG2.2 would have left Jamie starving to death, so he had to take on some WFH to get some cash. You'll see what he's been up to over in Cable. Issue 2 should be going to the printers shortly and since the cash situation is solved, I hope that we'll be on a monthly tick from then on. We've took a month gap in solicits so we can catch up a bit more.

In doubly short, we're enormously sorry about the delay and as soon as we have something definite, we'll make sure everybody knows.

@phonogramcomic on twitter is a good way to keep up to date updates.

Thanks for your interest, sir.

KG

Thank you very much for the explanation (my interest is only due to the great comic book you're creating), I'll keep these websites in mind. It seemed that I didn't have the good places to search for.
How come the orders for PG2.2 were so low ? I heard that #1 sold out.
I hope you do okay and I'm impatient to read next issue.

[KieronGillen]

It wasn't that 2.2 was low. 2.1 was low. The sell-out was totally bittersweet in that way.

(Print runs are set according to orders. When the first order was what it was, we were pretty-much expecting a sell out. We knew that demand was underestimated.)

Thing for Jamie's situation, the sell out didn't matter. In November, we knew what money we could expect in early February - that is, from the pre-orders. Since that was basically nothing, Jamie had to find something to ensure he would have money in early February.

(He was basically okay up to then due to previous work)

So production was knocked out of whack from the pre-orders, causing the problems at the moment.

More information than you really needed, I know. I'm sure things will be okay eventually and we're really overwhelmed with the response to the comic. Hopefully it'll be worth the wait.

KG

[Gitaroo_Dude]

Just want to make sure, but adding Phonogram to my subscription list is the same as pre-orders, correct?

I'd hate to think I'm not supporting the title, Pull Shapes was, as a single issue, pretty amazing.

[KieronGillen]

For good shops, yes.

Thanks for your support, sir.

KG

[Tom A.]

It wasn't that 2.2 was low. 2.1 was low. The sell-out was totally bittersweet in that way.

(Print runs are set according to orders. When the first order was what it was, we were pretty-much expecting a sell out. We knew that demand was underestimated.)

Thing for Jamie's situation, the sell out didn't matter. In November, we knew what money we could expect in early February - that is, from the pre-orders. Since that was basically nothing, Jamie had to find something to ensure he would have money in early February.

(He was basically okay up to then due to previous work)

So production was knocked out of whack from the pre-orders, causing the problems at the moment.

More information than you really needed, I know. I'm sure things will be okay eventually and we're really overwhelmed with the response to the comic. Hopefully it'll be worth the wait.

KG

Thanks for the info, it's nice to have an indsight into what's happening even if it's so disappointing to see that it's always the same thing that sell well. I like super hero comic books but that's not the only thing in the world. That's a shame however that a lot of readers (most of them ?) think that way.

[Gitaroo_Dude]

Saw something interesting (and exciting) over at Millarworld.

Issue 2 of the Singles Club was listed in the tentative solicits for March 4th.

Is this true?

[KieronGillen]

Tom A: We do okay in the larger scale of things. I mean, we've shifted over twice what any (bar the first) issue in the first series sold in trades.

(Er... that's a torturous sentence. Excuse me)

We kind of thought we'd get better orders on the singles when we put so much effort into the actual singles and did it in colour. In practice, we just got what we did on the first series. C'est la vie. Compared to a lot of indie books, we do fine, y'know?

(You may sense that I'm not entirely enamoured with talking a downer story about PG2. It's more because I think it's ace. That we're even doing it at all excites me, even through this. The biggest frustration is of course that no-one else has that yet, y'know?)

Gitaroo_Dude: Unlikely. Really, as soon as we know, we'll make some noise about it. The "It'll be coming then" is just Diamond's shipping system automatically saying stuff, I presume.

KG