Gardener Pre-Order Store

Still at the Printers, But Some News!
over 2 years ago – Fri, Oct 15, 2021 at 11:35:23 PM

Hey Everyone!

I wanted to try and keep the updates to a minimum and wait until I had more news, but global supply chain delays being what they are news is very slow. The book is still at the printers in process now that everything has been approved, and I'm waiting on a concrete schedule of when they will be finished printing and shipping to the US for distribution. 

The other plus side is that the t-shirts, prints, pins, etc are all done already so it really is just waiting on the book to finish printing. I'll be getting some nicer photos of the shirts and can share those in a future update if people want to see them as well.

I will of course update you all when the books are finished printing and I have concrete shipping dates, but for now I can at least show the dummy copy I received to approve the materials!

The cloth spine looks so good, and even though the pages of this copy are blank, it makes it feel a little more real. The pink in the photo isn't the right pink for the ribbon, but we've got that squared away already, and I think the part I'm most excited by is the way the colored edges look. 

Thanks everyone for the kind words so far from those that have read the digital, and I promise the print copy will be worth the wait!

- Matt

Gardener Shipping Update
over 2 years ago – Wed, Aug 25, 2021 at 12:16:49 AM

Hey Everyone!

I finished formatting the entire book at the end of July, and have been communicating back and forth with the printer since then to make sure everything is formatted properly for printing. Unfortunately, the state of shipping right now is very slow, so there is a new projected delivery date. The new projected delivery date for Gardener is now November 2021. I would have loved this to be in your hands by late September, however, this is one of those unforeseen circumstances that comes with launching a physical book.

Another change with the book is in regards to gilded edges. It turns out my preference of rose gold or a gunmetal gray turned out to not be options. Because of this, I'll be going with colored page edges in either gunmetal gray or a pink to match the ribbon. I understand it's different than my original plan, but it's still going to leave Gardener with a very nice finished look!

If you have any specific questions about Gardener that are not in these updates, please message me through Kickstarter only, as it is easier to keep track of. I will not answer any messages through social media regarding Gardener.

Normally I'd leave a few more preview pages, but you all have the full PDF already so you can take a sneak peek whenever! Instead, I thought I'd share a link to my college thesis film, that was my first attempt at this story. Don't worry about spoilers though - none of this relates back to the actual book as I changed a lot of it afterwards. It's from 2016-2017 and I am decidedly not an animator so it's nothing ground breaking, but hopefully a bit of fun to see where I first started brewing the idea!

- Matt

The Book is Done! Surveys Incoming
almost 3 years ago – Mon, Jul 19, 2021 at 01:22:43 PM

Hey Everyone!

Bernardo just sent over the final lettered pages, meaning the book itself is essentially done. I've got a bit of formatting to do to put together the final PDF to send to the printer as well as for digital backers but that will be coming together shortly. 

Since the book is about to be going off to the printers, I'll be sending out BackerKit surveys starting this week, so be sure to check your email for those to get your shipping all squared away. One thing I noticed from previous Kickstarters is if you sign into Kickstarter using your Apple ID, then the email added to your profile is a weird "appleuserid" type email, which doesn't actually direct your BackerKit survey to you. If you happened to sign in that way let me know and I can update your BackerKit info with your proper email so your survey makes it to you!

For now I'll leave you with a preview of the first two pages of the book, but you'll be seeing it in it's entirety soon!

- Matt

Post Campaign Update
almost 3 years ago – Mon, May 24, 2021 at 12:03:44 AM

Hey Everyone!

I can't believe it's only been a month since Gardener's Kickstarter campaign ended, somehow it feels much, much longer than that but that may be because I've been plugging away at coloring the book nonstop since then. As of tonight I have 66 pages left to color and have been moving right along with that. Once I finish the colors I'll be heading to the epilogue and then it'll be off to print!

I also sent out a shirt size survey through Kickstarter for everyone that backed a tier with a shirt so we can get the shirts printed well beforehand and keep the whole process of shipping moving as smooth as possible. You'll have until July 12th to get that answered, otherwise the cost for your shirt will be refunded and you won't get a shirt!

I'll leave you all with a few non-consecutive pages from chapters 5 and 6, I'm excited to be getting so close to finishing the artwork on the book to get it one step closer to being in your hands.

Thanks again everyone,

- Matt

The Campaign is Done!
about 3 years ago – Sun, Apr 25, 2021 at 06:20:41 PM

It still feels so surreal to have received this massive outpouring of support for Gardener. At risk of repeating myself, thank you all so much for making this happen, and making every single upgrade to the book happen as well. I've finished drawing and inking the entire book aside from the epilogue and a few bonus drawings I'll be including in the back-matter section, and will be diving into colors so I can send Bernardo as much as I can at once to give him plenty of time to work on lettering while I finish the rest. We should be right on track for shipping out in September, and I'll keep up an update or two with some new page artwork so you can all know how it's progressing.

With that I'll end this one with some inks from Chapter 4 that are spoiler free. Can't wait to show you all the finished book!

- Matt