THE TAO OF IGOR: a new Dork Tower collection by John Kovalic

OK. Let’s get this done!
about 5 years ago – Mon, Jul 01, 2019 at 10:47:50 PM

When I missed the February window to get the Tao of Igor out, I knew I’d be running up against four months of crazy travel. 

I understood March through June would be a rough time, but looking back, I can see just how mad it was: five trips overseas in a four-month timespan, across 18 time zones. (I now wish I had hit the last six, just to say I did it). In Madison for a week or ten days, at the most, before the next trip.

Insane.

That’s done, now.

DONE!

Yay!

I’m home, and will be mostly home, now, for quite a few months. 

The vast majority of the rest of the year, in fact.

I’m glad I made progress on Tao, while travelling. The buttons, the posters, tightening up plotting and dialog, and so on.

Unlike the Dork Tower online strip or Munchkin, though, working on actual Tao pages while overseas, was difficult.

Again: that’s done, now.

I have two short trips coming up: a family reunion, this week. Then in August, I’ll be skipping Gen Con, to visit my parents in London. This will be a work week, though. (I’ll pop over to Eclectic Games in Reading for Not Gen Con Saturday, August 3 – but the rest of the time, I’ll be hanging out with my folks, and working.)

Getting the Tao of Igor to press is now, firmly, my #1 priority. With a bullet.

I’ve no more convention appearances scheduled until Madison’s Gamehole Con, at the end of October. There’s another Munchkin deadline, but it is a generous, relaxed timeframe. There’s also the Dork Tower web strip, but again, no problem that I can see.

I’ll be saying “no” to pretty much everything else thrown my way until Tao is off to press. 

The plan is to hit the presses in August. (Late July is possible, but not probable.)

The official solicitations are going to distributors next week. The overseas Kickstarter fulfillment partners are getting the heads-up. We’re doing this!

Fulfillment Guru David and I will be working on getting as many electronic rewards as we can out in the next week or two. 

As we enter the end-game here, I’ll try to post weekly updates, on the progress.

I’m excited about having proper, uninterrupted chunks of time, again.

OK. 

Let’s get this done!

**********

A quick aside – it’s time for my annual Insane Charity Bike Ride once more:

We’re already 56% of the way toward me wearing a duck on my head, again, for a 60  mile bike ride, for a great cause!

(As some of you monsters have pointed out, that’s 28% of the way to me wearing TWO ducks on my head. We’ve never hit $20,000, but we got close, last year.) (There will be other stretch-goals, including me wearing the dreaded tentacles, should we hit $15,000) (Why did I ever think wearing a duck on my head was a good idea?)

There will be also one-off Army of Dorkness buttons for folks who back this Kickstarter and/or the Dork Tower Patreon, who also support 2019’s charity bike ride. (Those haven't been announced on the site yet).

Over the past six Insane Charity Bike Rides, I’ve biked nearly 400 miles, and you folks (YOU FOLKS!) have raised $75,000 for the Fair Share coalition.

Supporting the ride also remains the only way to get original Munchkin art, which I don’t sell. You can get original art at the $250 donation level, or be one of 15 backers randomly chosen from other levels.

Anyway, the Fair Share Coalition is a wonderful local charity, and the Army off Dorkness has made a huge difference to it - so if you get the chance, do check it out!

- John

Updates! Organic and sustainable!
over 5 years ago – Wed, May 29, 2019 at 09:23:20 PM

Hi again!

I had hoped this would be the "the end is in sight" update, but instead it's the "saying 'the end is in sight' is in sight" update. If that makes any sense.

We're getting there. Progress has been steady.

The story is solid. I'm so happy with it. Pages need to go out to the colorist as soon as I'm back from UK Games Expo, in Burningham, Englnd this week.

This has been a busy travel month. Last week I was in Zagreb, Croatia for SFerakon. Now I'm off to Birmingham for another convention. (Hopefully I'll see some of you there). This is essentially a long weekend: I land Thursday, noon. I start flying back home 6 am Monday. 

My iPad Pro has made working from the road (or in the air) far easier, but I'm bringing my laptop along as well, which is better for lettering pages.

The prints finally found their was to my house. My goodness they were larger than I expected. A lot larger! They turned out terrific!

So I have a couple thousand os these to satart signing as soon as I get back from Birmingham. Samples of the buttons have not reached me yet (hint hint Fulfillment Guru David Michael), but I'll post photos as soon as they're here.

The only bad news has been that the Dungeon Bastard's Dungeon (based ion the Kickstarter) won't be ready in time to include in the book, At the same time, I can live with this: the book is already huge.  So it will go out as a PDF as soon as its done.

Last update I may have said that we could start getting some of the non-book electronic rewards out to folks...and then promptly forgot about it. So...HEY, FULFILLMENT GURU DAVID MICHAEL! LET'S DO THIS NEXT WEEK, WHEN I'M BACK FROM BIRMINGHAM.

'Now that we're nearing the end - which is ALMOST in sight, but not quite - I hope to post updates more frequently. 

That said, I have enough self-knowledge to realize I am the world's worst correspondent.

BUT I WILL TRY HARDER! 

“The end is in sight” is in sight!

- John

Stay on target...stay on target...
over 5 years ago – Tue, Apr 23, 2019 at 10:13:03 PM

Time for another update? Sure, it’s time for another update.

The prints are back from the printer, and it’s time to get signing! Between the cover print, alternate cover print, and Gilly prints, that’s close to <checks notes> 2,000 signatures needed!?! Eeeek!

The bookplates are at press now. As soon as they get in, that’s more signing needed. With luck, my wrist will get a bit of a rest, first.

The Army of Dorkness buttons are also at press – there are a few thousand of those, as well. And the last touches went on the Army of Dorkness membership cards, so those could be off to press today.

We’re still waiting on quotes from printers. We had to re-quote the book, because it’s grown by many pages. That said, one printer stood out from the rest the first go-around, and I’m pretty sure we’ll go with them again, this time. 

I’ve re-written a couple of parts of the last chapter. More pages, again! A few ideas hit me that really complete the story in a way I adore. I am totally digging where it goes, what it does, and what it says, and I hope/believe you will, as well. I’ve got a few pages left to draw, because of this, but not many.

Thanks to the story edits and touch-ups, the Tao of Igor now ties the comic book storyline directly with the web comic storyline. It’s exciting. I’m feeling the same kind of buzz I did 10 years ago, getting a book ready for press.

I should have a better idea of a print date for the book soon. (Having been so off the first time around, I almost want to wait until it's at the printer to make the announcement. But we're closing in on it!)

I’ve also got a couple of bonus surprises for you, to thank you for your patience as I put the Tao of Igor out. I don’t want to say what those are yet, and I’m not going to start on them before the Tao of Igor is well and truly out the door. But they are fun, and I think you'll dig them!

In brief other news, if you follow me on Twitter or at the Dork Tower Patreon, you’ll know I recently nearly broke my ankle at Taekwondo practice. Fortunately it’s just a bad sprain, and will keep me home for a few while, but it won’t affect work.  (If anything, it’s helping me focus on things like, oh, say, getting Kickstarter updates out).

(I really do want to do a comic about taking up Taekwondo in your 50s…but as with everything else at the moment, that waits until after Tao of Igor is out the door! Tao is priority #1.)

Your support and patience and generosity throughout this journey (and my own learning curve) has meant the world to me.

Limping, but buzzed,

- John

Updates! We got updates! Wheeeee!
over 5 years ago – Tue, Mar 26, 2019 at 01:08:47 AM

Progress on many fronts. 

A lot of little- and not-so-little tasks are being checked off the huge checklist of Things Needed that Fulfillment Guru David Michael compiled, to wrap this project up.

First amongst these were the many, many Army of Dorkness Buttons, Stickers and Certificates that had to be created as rewards, for the various backing levels.

My goodness, were there a lot of backing levels.

Lesson learned.

Happy to report these are now done, and ready to go to press!

A year ago, there were but four Army of Dorkness “buttoned” ranks: Private, Corporal, Sergeant and Lieutanant.

Two were added in 2018: Patreon Scout (For Dork Tower Patreon backers I meet in-person, at cons), and Right-Hand Man (for the 2018 Charity Bike Ride).

Thanks to the Tao of Igor Kickstarter, these now number 28.

Here are the buttons:

(Right-Hand Man not pictured, as that one's done forevs.)

And here are the certificates:

Prints, bookplates and bookmarks are also ready to go to press.

Here’s the bookplate, ready to be sketched on. I think I love it:

WOW THAT IS A LOT OF ROOM FOR SKETCHING! :-)

March has been a huge travel month. I’ve managed to get an enormous of work done, on the road. But I’ve been on the road a lot. I’ll have had ten days home, the entire month.

So I’m hoping to get a huge amount finished in April, when I’ll be home the whole month (Gasp! Shock!) with (wait for it) NO…TRAVEL…PLANNED...AT ALL.

I don’t want to promise a definite print date, yet, as I’ve done that once already, and missed.

But I am *so* excited about finishing this off. 

I think you'll love it. I am very, very, very happy with it, Literally ridiculously happy with how the story plays out.

Electronic rewards (minus the actual Tao of Igor itself) will be getting to backers at the appropriate levels shortly.

If you’re interested in the DOUBLE AGENT button, that will be available up to and including the publication of the Tao of Igor, so you can check out the Dork Tower Patreon at patreon.com/kovalic.  Backing even at the $1 level qualifies you for it. 

That is a very officious way of me saying THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Anyway, after publication, the DOUBLE AGENT button is done forever.

OK…so…more updates to come. 

But there’s a ton of stuff finished, and off to press, and wow, this was a larger project than I expected but…things are going great, and the end is in sight!

- John

Igor Update (or, "So, John, what's the 'sitch?")
over 5 years ago – Thu, Feb 28, 2019 at 01:54:28 AM

Let’s get straight to the point:

The Tao of Igor did not make it to press in February.

There are a number of reasons for this, but no excuses. 

The (re)learning curve of getting a trade paperback finished and to the printer is something I underestimated, and I apologize. 

I am neither as fast at this, nor as good at remembering the scheduling tricks for this, as I once was. 

Lesson learned.

The other delay is more positive: the last chapter turned out larger than I expected. I’ve redrawn some pages, rejiggering the last 15 or so, and added more. What was to be a 20-page wrap-up is turning into an almost 40-page mini-epic.

This is a Good Thing. I’m excited with the way the ending changed and evolved - this is what stories sometimes do - and I believe/hope you will love it. It’ll take the collection from a solid ending into what I consider a Dork Tower classic. You know: the kind where you scream/curse “KOVALIC!!!” after you turn the last page.

It’s been ten years since I’ve sent a book to press, though, and getting back up to speed took longer than I anticipated. Logistically, there are a ton of little things I forgot, each one needing to be completed before other things could happen. They are being done now.

Again: reasons, not excuses. I have nobody to blame for this, but myself.

BUT the Tao of Igor is back on track, and it’s exciting. I can’t wait ‘til you see it! This is the feeling I loved, when I was putting books, a decade ago.

So right now, the goal is to have The Tao of Igor to press in April. There are fantastic, talented folks helping me get this over the finish line.

I also apologize for not keeping you updated better – I’ll try and post weekly, from here on out, letting you know how things are finishing up, keeping you in the loop.

I am so hugely and deeply grateful to you:  I want to make the Tao of Igor the very best book I can. Working on it now, I feel like I felt 10 years ago, and it feels amazing. This is fun!

I am deeply sorry about this delay. I can’t overstate that.

I also can’t overstate my gratitude to you. 

Thank you for your patience and support – it’s because of you, this is happening!

John