Format:
DEMO is designed to take advantage of the "superhero" label (and really, in all practical terms, it's superhero in label only), and the monthly format comic readers are most used to. I figure 32 pages in all, with a minimum of 24 pages of story per issue. If collected, I propose two 6-issue volumes. I would be interested in talking about a monster 12-issue volume, as well, as a possibility.

I would have probably accepted a two volume collection, but my heart was set on the single volume. See, this was always a plan, my desire anyway, to see this series collected eventually, finances permitting. And at the time of writing this, I had no idea what AIT would think about a monthly series, so I was making an effort to include as many options as possible.


DEMO is suggested as a color book, again to "trick" our market into giving us as much orders and exposure as possible. The coloring therefore should be top notch, best we can get in order to not be dismissed as second-class on the shelves.

Ooops... did I say "trick"? :)

Shortly after this, Becky and I pretty much ruled color out as something we just weren't interested in doing. We like our b/w comics. Probably it would have killed the series, financially. But the thinking behind it was to sort of "dress up" our indie book as much as we could to appeal to the sort of comic shops that wouldn't give a b/w comic a second look. It sounds funny now, but I had no idea who would even give a shit out a book like DEMO. I thought I'd have to resort to gimicks and antics like this just to get by.


(I would happily accept a slick b/w book, with some sort of toned method on nice paper, similar to Paul Pope's 100%, as an alternative to color)

Now we're talking. My secret desire all along. I kept saying, over and over, I wanted it "like Heavy Liquid, like 100%" and finally, as Larry told me, he sent a copy of 100% to the printers and requested that type of paper.


I envision DEMO to be a series of stand-alone stories, with little to no crossover. Characters may re-appear and past situations may be referenced, but it will always be assumed that every reader is a first reader, and each issue will be a starting point (and a finishing point for that matter). I am even thinking of labeling each issue with title and subtitle first, issue number secondary, to further drive home the point. Meaning, one issue might be called "DEMO: Strange Condition", say, and elsewhere on the cover would be a smallish #5.

"Strange Condition"... that Pete Yorn song? Weird. Anyway, as you know, the naming convention came to pass, but I saved the recurring character idea for LOCAL. The stand-alone, "each issue a jumping on point" was a concept I really felt strongly about and refused to be swayed from, even when people like my agent and AIT and some retailers really wanted me to "unite the cast" or do a 13th issue where they all meet up or something. To me, it seemed like doing something like that would invalidate the entire concept of the series, what we spent 18 months killing ourselves for.

And clearly, people responded to this format.


If and when I feel I need two issues to tell a story, the options are to write an arc and clearly hype it in Previews as breaking the single issue mold and to readers and on the cover of the book, or simply produce a double-length issue that month.

I'm glad I never did this.


And finally, I am also open to this being a bi-monthly book, if time and money dictates it needs to be that way.

Ditto.

As a final suggestion, to really give the single issues a fighting chance in the direct market, we should consider a healthy overprint of the issues themselves, keeping as many of them available as possible, for reorders.

A lot of factors made this series work, but this was one of the biggest ones.