Well, the KEEPER team have been teasing some “big news” for a while now, and today is that day. However, it’s not the news we thought we would be telling.
As of yesterday, September 21, 2012, myself, Jeff Simpson, and Jim Campbell, after much deliberation and negotiation, took a step some may see as silly, and declined the contract offer from the only publisher so far willing to take a chance on KEEPER. Yes, being published is a big goal of the team, however without going into details, the deal we were offered, in the end, was not one we felt was in the best interests of the team or the title.
The way the market is these days, smaller, micro published and distributed titles are being rewarded more and more, especially in the digital advent. As KEEPER began as a webcomic, from its genesis til today, we’re already halfway there. Now it’s time for us to go all the way.
We’re compiling the issues for digital, and print, sale, which we’ll release soon. As part of that, Jeff Simpson is currently redrawing Issue 0 (a step we were already going to take in preparation for print had we decided to accept the contract), and once that is complete we will offer it as a FREE digital download, with Issues 1 and 2 following shortly thereafter at 99cents (and whatever the equivalent UK price is!). With that in mind, we’ll also have print copies ready to go too. We already did this in limited number back in April at C2E2 2012, to great success for us, but we shall be announcing pre-orders shortly as well.
In addition, we also realize that a page a week isn’t really satisfactory for us anymore, however real life has gotten in the way of completing more than that. To rectify that, we are preparing a Kickstarter (or Indiegogo, we’re not partial) campaign in order to get Issue 3 produced in a timely manner, both for our sakes and the readers’ enjoyment, in order to keep the title going.
In short, we feel keeping it fully in the family is our best interests at this time, so consider this a rededication to making KEEPER the best title it can be. More detailed announcements very soon.
Thanks as always for your readership and support.
— Geoffrey D. Wessel
