Oh, that sly Dave Sim! Looks like IDW got the inside track on this. Smart move. The HIGH SOCIETY edition will be in the new IDW Limited format, meaning it will be rare and expensive. But it will be out there.
Ted Adams, CEO and publisher of IDW, taking a one-day detour on his way to the New York Comicon arrived in Kitchener, Ontario Monday night to take a first-hand look at the hundreds of pieces of artwork being scanned for THE CEREBUS COVERS volumes — now projected to be anywhere between two to four books in total — IDW will be publishing in 2013/14.
“I was coming here more as a decades-long CEREBUS fan than as a publisher,” he said. “Scott was describing all the amazing cover material he’s been scanning since Friday night and — talking to Dave on the phone — I said, ‘I’m the CEO. Why does Scott get to have all the fun?” So I booked the same commuter flight Chicago-to-Kitchener that Scott had taken last week.”
And ended up offering Dave Sim an advance of $30,000 for exclusive comic store rights for five years for the collected HIGH SOCIETY AUDIO DIGITAL which begins its long-awaited serialization tonight at midnight at www.cerebusdownloads.com (issue 26 is a free download, issue 27 is 99 cents).
“I just happened to have George Gatsis’ audio-digital sample pages on my desktop while Ted and I were passing my MacBook back and forth, taking turns writing a press release. I said, ‘Hey, you want to check this out?’ laughs Sim. “The next thing I knew Aardvark-Vanaheim was $30,000 richer.”
“I really think that, properly packaged, HIGH SOCIETY AUDIO DIGITAL could be a game-changer,” said Adams. “I had seen the trailer at the Kickstarter site, but what George Gatsis has done takes it to a whole other level, a perfect marriage of comics and animation, and Dave Sim doing all of his character’s voices! I said, ‘IDW has to have this!’ ”
HIGH SOCIETY AUDIO DIGITAL will be a part of IDW’s new IDW LIMITED division dedicated to limited edition signed and numbered packages.
“I have a lot of confidence in Ted’s plans for the IDW LIMITED program both for the CEREBUS COVERS volumes and HIGH SOCIETY AUDIO DIGITAL COLLECTED,” said Sim. “Scott and designer Randy Dahlk and I will be taking turns posting regular progress reports on the IDW website and at A Moment Of Cerebus and soliciting advice and suggestions from CEREBUS fans, collectors and store owners on both projects. We all want to make sure we get this right the first time.”
Scott Dunbier and Randy Dahlk’s rough preliminary designs for two of the CEREBUS COVERS volumes. “We have to change the byline copy,” said Sim. “It’s more like ‘GERHARD’S CEREBUS COVERS with Dave Sim.’ Dahlk is working on additional proposed designs which will be posted soon to A Moment Of Cerebus for feedback from CEREBUS fans, collectors and store owners.
Dave Sim and Ted Adams shake hands on their “agreement-in-principle” for the HIGH SOCIETY AUDIO DIGITAL COMIC STORE COLLECTED EDITION (regular and signed and numbered) in front of Gerhard’s HIGH SOCIETY cover original at the Off-White House, Kitchener, Ontario October 9, 2012
CEREBUS ATTACKS! variant cover for IDW’s MARS ATTACKS! series. “Any excuse to do my best Ghastly Graham Ingels/Bernie Wrightson pen-work,” said Sim. The cover will be available in January 2013 as the rarest variant cover for MARS ATTACKS ZOMBIES VS. ROBOTS (1 in 20). Other variant cover artists for the series include John Byrne, Mike Allred and Berkeley Breathed.
Anyone know if Gerhard is getting a piece of this now that he’s left the company?
“HIGH SOCIETY AUDIO DIGITAL COMIC STORE COLLECTED EDITION,” the New York Times will love that. Rolls right off the tongue.
But seriously, congratulations and good luck to all involved.
Gerhard didn’t contribute to HIGH SOCIETY–his first issue was #66, about 1/4 of the way through CHURCH AND STATE.
Given Sim’s statements about “Gerhard’s CEREBUS covers with Dave Sim”, I doubt he intents to cut Gerhard out of his 50% share.
So, that whole Fantagraphics thing was officially a waste of everyone’s time and another attempt for Sim to portray himself as a martyr? Good to know. It also looks like his “woe is me” essay about working in the oil fields was an attempt for attention, too. Awesome.
I don’t mean to be dense, but IS this a *book*? Because the piece talks about how cool Ted found the audio digital *adaptation*, and it says it is collection of “audio digital”… which makes this sound like a DVD package, or something?
This isn’t actually HIGH SOCIETY (the comic), is it? Or am I just too suspicious in my old age?
Also, Heidi: your lead para ” The HIGH SOCIETY edition will be in the new IDW Limited format, meaning it will be rare and expensive.” is also extremely confusing — they talk about “comic store rights” and consulting retailers, but the IDW Limited” projects are NOT available to stores, so there also has to be a “regular” edition, yes?
Can someone in NYCC ask Ted for some more specific details?
-B
After Dave Sim’s complete buy out of Gerhard’s share several years ago, he still gives him 4% of the earnings as residual royalties is my understanding.
The 4 percent thing was something Dave had mentioned he thought about after Kevin Eastman sold his half of the Turtles to Peter Laird; Dave’s thinking was that, under those circumstances, a creator should STILL have some sort of stake in their creation. Shortly after is when Gerhard decided to leave Aardvark Vanaheim, and Dave bought out Gerhard’s share of the company. Hence Dave putting those thoughts into practice. I would assume that this project falls into the same category. Maybe this would make a good HARDtalk question!
* For the Cerebus Covers, that is…
Agree with B Hibbs–I don’t really get the nature of the product. What the heck is audio digital? Is it narrated as I read along? Dramatized?
It’s a DVD version of the motion comic version of the story that’s currently being serialized on-line. Sounds like Sim is still doing a new self-published print edition of HIGH SOCIETY that was already solicited through Diamond.
Yeah, AMOC just changed their headline to include the word “DVD”
-B
By the way, my compliments to the digital Cerebus team on the use of the rare 3×4 aspect ratio. That’ll look great on a 16×9 tv…
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