Jamison Stone's Blog, page 21

VIDEO OF FOIL COVERS!

Alright TLA team, very exciting news! Mark Vierra, our printer, made an exclusive video for us of our foil press proofs in China! So exciting! Words truly cannot describe how David and I feel about this project--and all of you! 

As a writer, I am rarely speechless, but seeing this book come to life is powerful in ways I cannot describe!

Mark had been testing the foils and covers for The Last Amazon in China for nearly a month now! We've had delays because our cover art is so detailed, and therefore, very challenging to foil. We actually ran out of test sheets with all our attempts! It's really tricky actually, with this much foil coverage and so much intricate artistic detail. Originally, some of the areas of our faces and noses were not showing the same detail as our file--but with a little love and expertise, it now looks perfect! 

To solve the problems we were having, we changed a bit how we are performing the press, and ordered more sheets--this time of an even higher quality. The sheets then needed to be specially processed in order to be foiled correctly for our very highly detailed art. 

The process is quite extensive. The material is cut and mounted to the hardcover board material. There are then numerous test strips and art checks all before the press even comes down! And then, finally, when it's ready to foil, it's pressed, and triple checked for accuracy! Mark had actually planned to be out of China much sooner, but he stayed an extra 2 weeks just for us! He really went the extra mile for us so we could get the best result on our covers as possible! 

Thank you, Mark!

I'm so proud of everyone involved in The Last Amazon and feel so grateful we were able to make this kickass book together! If any of you have any questions, please let me know! And if any more of you want to upgrade from the Silver Standard Edition to the Gold Special Edition, just PM me! So far we have had a bunch of people request upgrades, and upon seeing the covers printed, I have no doubt in my mind that these Special Editions will sell out. If you want to secure yours while supplies last, PM me directly! 

THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!

FOIL PLATES!

SUCH AN EXCITING MOMENT! OUR FOIL PLATES HAVE ARRIVED!

HUGE thank you to our printer Mark Vierra for shooting this video in China for us!  We are so excited to see these epic plates in action! (Pics below)

Stay tuned for more pictures of them in action! David and I have been working non-stop on final tweaks on the inside pages, making sure that all colors and bleed proportions are correct. It's staggering how much effort is required to make sure everything is perfect. BUT you all deserve the best and we are not cutting any corners! This book, itself, will be a work of art! We have been so fortunate to have our printer Mark Vierra be such an amazing artistic partner along the way! So exciting!

SO EXCITING! It's not too late to snag your pre-order and still get 20% off. Use the coupon code PREORDER before time runs out!

POSTERS, PRESS PROOFS, AND PRINTING!

David and I are putting the final touches on The Last Amazon's press proof files before we send them to Mark Vierra, our printer -- BUT I wanted to give a quick update with our steller POSTERS! 

Poster 1 of Danni Winters:























Poster 2 of LEX:

Pretty awesome, right?! Only the "HARDCORE SUPER HERO" backers are getting these bad boys, BUT if you are at a lower tier and would like to grab them, send me a message and we will add it to your order! 

In our next update, we will have more info about our press proofs, our epic 8 prints, and the signed foil bookplates! So exciting! Also, Mark Verra is headed to China tomorrow to personally oversee our press proof printing! Word on the street is that while his team prints our press proofs he even might shoot some special behind the scenes footage for you all, too! As backers, we want to bring you as close to the action as possible, and while I can't fly you all out to China to see the printing, this will be the best thing! Enjoy!

Last Amazon, Tungsten, and Barcodes, Oh My!

We have been BUSY BUSY BUSY here at Apotheosis Studios! David and I cannot express how excited we are to FINALLY be finishing up the final draft of The Last Amazon and send our proof files to Mark Vierra, our printer extraordinaire! 

SO FREAKING EXCITING!

We submitted our cover art to Mark today and both David and I could not be more proud of how it came out!  Here it is!

STANDARD EDITION:

SPECIAL EDITION BOOK:

 SPECIAL EDITION SLIPCASE:

Pretty epic, right?! These images will look STUNNING foil stamped on both the Standard Edition’s black faux cloth and, my personal favorite, the magnificent “Metal-X Tungsten” material of the Special Edition! Many backers agree and have upgraded their books from standard to special edition, and if you want to join in on the fun, just message us directly and we can upgrade your order, too! EZ PZ!

You know what else these covers have….? BARCODES! Now, what’s so cool about a barcode you ask? Well, it means we have an ISBN, can be sold in book/comic shops, and are all official with the United States Copyright department! We have already had several comic and bookstores offer to carry both versions of The Last Amazon and are thrilled to share our passion for epic sci-fi storytelling with many more locations around the world! (More on The Last Amazon going international in an upcoming update!)

I’m going to end this update here because, honestly, I have some final tweaks on our press proofs to perform and I’m just too excited about sending this book off to our printer to not finish them right this second!

Again, from the bottom of our hearts, David and I want to thank our Kickstarter backers. Your support has allowed us to bring our art into the world and for that, we will be forever grateful!  

Thank you. Thank you! THANK YOU!

NEAR-FINAL COVER ART!

Got a fun update for you all! NEAR-FINAL COVER ART! 

David and I have been going back and forth both internally and with our awesome printer, Mark Vierra of onthemark.net and have near-final cover art to share! 

Cover for the Standard Edition Book:

For the Standard Edition, an image of Digital LEX will be silver foil stamped on a 3mm ESKA board on faux black cloth background!

Cover for Special Edition Book:

For the Special Edition, A close up of Digital LEX will be gold foil stamped on our super special Tungston Metal-X over 4mm ESKA board!

Cover for Special Edition Slipcase:

The slipcase will also be gold foil stamped on our super special Tungston Metal-X metallic material and feature all three of our characters models! So excited for this one!

David and I have been working full time for over 7 months now and we are so excited to finally be able to see everything taking shape! Apparently, that feeling is contagious, because in addition to pre-orders on our website, we have recently had a folks want to upgrade their order from Standard to Special Edition, and if any other people are interested in upgrading just message us directly!

Cover Next Steps:

Our next steps for the cover include making sure David's super cool PDF Vector Image fits our cover template correctly so we don't encroach on the wrap around fold edge or bleed too much on the hinge grid. We also are in the process of working on the spine text and back info blurb, too. All in all, we still have a lot more work to do, but everything is coming into shape very nicely! We still are working out exact printing dates with Mark, but feel that our launch date of early fall is very doable.

Other Cool News:

We are particularly excited about a fall launch because there is a very big international fall Comic-Con where we'd very like to officially launch The Last Amazon. Even better, this convention has selected us for a special showcase booth for new and upcoming talent in the comic/graphic-novel world, which is a huge honor. I can't say any more until we finalize the details, but only 8 entries are allowed in this special space, so it's a huge honor to even be considered! 

We are so thrilled The Last Amazon has is making this kind of splash even before it's released and are so thankful you all took the chance to allow us to make this book! We know you will be blown away by TLA's story and art and are so grateful for your support! 

A Symphonic Cornucopia of Art

Hey all! David and I wanted to show you some of the art we have been working on the past few weeks. We have been fleshing out our new pages and wanted to give you a little window into our world. If you ever have any questions about this or anything else please feel free to post in the comments below or message us directly! 

Here is a progression shot, or an "in the making" version of a battle image of Danni Winters post robot fight. 

 And below is the near-final image after we add some HUD and other effects to make it fit into the story flow of the book, itself. In this case, it's robot POV footage which has been attached to an email and sent to a character in the book.

As you can see, a lot goes into making each image not only look good as art but equally as important, also have it mesh into the world of TLA and the specific story/art flow of where that image is in the book, itself. 

We have several arcs through the book, both story and art-wise, and it takes a lot of finesse to ensure that each image merges well into that specific location (and flow) of the book and fits well into the overall narrative of how we are telling that part of the story. Trust us, this is quite a challenge! 

For example, here is an awesome (at least I think so!) draft image CAO did of our near future Denver. 

 Pretty cool, right? As someone who has lived and spend a lot of time in the Boulder/Denver area, I love this shot and it really feels like I am looking at my beloved Denver! But while this is a really cool image, for the section of the book this image will be in, we needed to tweak the image to give it a more gritty and dark feeling. We also wanted to add several world/story specific highlights to ground this future Denver into OUR personal version of future Denver. 

Here is the next draft with edits:

And here is the same image draft placed into our actual page with corresponding header and article text. 

The image captures the same grit and depth of the writing, allowing the text and imagery to flow harmoniously. It possesses the darkness and depth of surviving a nuclear holocaust, but also the emotive resiliency and fragile hope of holding one's head high despite such tragedy. 

I'm proud to say that The Last Amazon is filled with these harmonious text/art moments, ranging from setting such as nuclear wastelands, paradise islands, social media megastars, Artifical Intelligence mainframes, epic fight scenes, and even EDM nightclubs. Because our story is told from so many perspectives, there is a cornucopia of images and voices, all raising their chorus together in artistic harmony, to bring you the visual symphony that is... The Last Amason. 

Enjoy!

The Last Amazon Expanding from 96 Pages to 128 Pages!

Over the past two months as David Granjo and I (Jamison Stone) were finishing the final pages of TLA, we kept on having new ideas for really awesome art and story elements. Because of this, we constantly were asking ourselves, "Do we add these super cool new ideas to this book, or postpone them to book 2?" It was a really tough call, honestly. Every extra page costs us more money, especially with the super high-quality printing we are doing for The Last Amazon with "OnTheMark". And because we are using sewn signatures (head and tail bands, case bound) our pages come in bundles of 16 per section, so we can't just add only 1 page at a time!

The dilemma was real, but ultimately, David and I decided to make this book the very best it could possibly be. Our goal is that when you receive The Last Amazon, you are completely blown away. The Last Amazon is a super unique story told in a super unique way, and so we want to make your experience of reading it as memorable and epic as possible. That means not cutting any corners or making any compromises on the story or art. As I've said before, I always put myself "in the other seat" and think about what I would want as a discerning reader. Well, having been working on this project for many months now, I can clearly tell you, as a very picky reader, this is what I'd want! And so, we've decided to expand the story by 32 new pages, making it 128 in total!

In addition to the added printing costs, the downside to this expansion is that every new page means more work for us, and therefore, more time to complete. By our original timeline, we had already hoped to have the rough draft of TLA finished and in the hands of our awesome printer Mark Vierra for review. But with every new page, our internal timeline has slid further and further back and we are hoping to wrap up the rough draft by the end of this month. Luckily, we originally budgeted for extra time, so we are not in that bad of shape, but it's now looking like the book will out late summer and worst case scenario, early fall. We won't have a final pub date figured out until we get all pages to the printer, but we will obviously keep everyone posted every step of the way! Although it might take a little extra time, we truly believe giving you all more epic content will be well worth the wait!

For fear of being verbose, I will wrap this update up for now, but if anyone has any questions, please post them in the comments below or feel free to message us directly. And for those who want to help fuel our epic pursuits and spread the word about The Last Amazon please encourage people to preorder the book at www.TheLastAmazon.com Our coupon code "PREORDER" is still valid, snagging folks a solid 20% off! And if you have not gotten it yourself, please click HERE and preorder now!

Lastly, a big shout out to our model Cynsin who is featured in the image above as a hologram of an Amazon Soldier. This is a new illustration by our team member CAO of Azureus Island and the Lockbae Monstle Headquarters building. We have some exciting new about cosplay suits which both Cynsin and we will share in the next few weeks, but keep an eye on our Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/thelastamazon/ for sneak peeks! 

New Art and Pre-Orders!

New Art!

We have some exciting news! Although we have been working with him for over a month now, we wish to introduce you all to Carlos Andrés Osorio Cardona, our newest Apotheosis Studios team member! Carlos, or CAO for short, is a super talented concept artist and illustrator specializing in environment and ship design. Super stoked to have him do some images with us for The Last Amazon along with our next project the Shadow of the Moon Illustrated Novella.

This image is his first with us, showing a faraway shot of our Azureus Islands. We are super proud of his work, so excited to have him on the team, and stoked about his upcoming images, too. Below is a progress video showing his many drafts of this illustration!

Pre-Orders!

We also have some other awesome news in the pre-order department! Our website is now up and ready to take orders! You can check it out at: 

www.TheLastAmazon.com  

or http://apotheosisstudios.com/store/

For those of you looking to get a second copy for a friend or loved one, we have a limited time 20% off pre-order coupon code for Kickstarter folks. Just enter KICKSTARTER at checkout! We don't yet have our prints and posters up for sale, but have all three versions of the book ready for pre-order along with all RUNE books and prints! 

The Last Amazon: Signed Hardcover PRE-ORDER




49.99









Quantity:













Add To Cart





















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The Last Amazon: Digital Version With Exclusive "Making Of" Section PRE-ORDER




19.99
















Add To Cart

This also includes the digital copy of TLA which can now be bought separately. I've discussed this with some of you via email, but if you have any questions, let me know!

Below, I am going to include the various drafts of Carlos's image so you can see the progress. We love seeing how these images come together, and we hope you enjoy this window into our creative process. If you enjoy our updates like these, follow us on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/thelastamazon/ because we post awesome content nearly every day! 

Enjoy, and once again, THANK YOU!

Image Progress Shots:

Draft 1

Draft 2

Draft 3

Draft 4

Draft 5

Draft 6

Draft 7

Draft 8

Draft 9

Draft10

Final draft (11)

Again, for more epic progress shots follow us on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/thelastamazon/ Enjoy!

Step By Step of New Image Creation!

Hey folks! Super stoked to say that we are making great progress on The Last Amazon! We have completed a few more backer illustrations and thought you all might enjoy seeing a step by step guide on how David Granjo our Illustrator extraordinaire does it!

01: Original ImageJamison (author) and David (illustrator) plan out the shot in advance so it meshes with the storyJamison takes a super high-resolution image of our subjects, in this case, our editor, Becca, as a stand-in for Raiyne (left) and a super backer (right)Photographer has to make sure lighting angle is correct, arguably most important aspect of the shot.























02: Changes are focused on the characters Blur the background to add motion to the pictureChange female model's outfit to match the visual of the character RaiynAdd smoke and muzzle effect flashes to the gunsAdd dirt texture to the face and the outfits to add more story























03: Changes are focused on the backgroundAddition of smoke elements in the backgroundSaturate the colors and bring the yellows and red's through the addition of fire the colors bring a sense of danger of danger























04: Changes focused on the foreground and final touchesFire Particles and additional smoke are added to blend the characters with their new environmentDark color overlay on the bottom and the top of the image to bring the attention in the center of the image, it also creates a panoramic and cinematic feelingAn orange light is added on the right side of the image (where the guns are) to balance the saturated colors of the characters/ background and the yellow & red colors of the firing guns























Before and After

And there you have it! The final draft of the image is done! This takes David several days to do, but the finished product is really fantastic! Then we blend that image into the overall story presentation -- which in this case, will be the dangers of a post-WWIII environment where those living in the badlands must train anyone old enough to hold a gun how to defend themselves in order to survive. In the story, you will see the harsh reality of such training, but I don't want to give any spoilers! 

We hope this was a fun way to see how one of our illustrations is made! There is a ton of added detail, and back and forth and little tweaks between Jamison and David, which we don't have room to show, but wanted to give you all a taste of how we do our work! 

We will do a few more of these step by step illustrations over next next few months. If you have any questions about the creation process, please feel free to ask in the comments!

The Last Amazon Update - Printing Details Finalized!

David and I are starting 2018 with a big update and some very exciting news! We just finalized our book specs with our printer, Mark Verria, the CEO of “Onthemark”, and sent him our down payment which secured our order, making it "official!" Yay!

Now, you might be thinking, “Finalized? What do you mean, Jamison? I thought the book specs were done before you started this Kickstarter.” And yes, they were, BUT David and I decided that The Last Amazon is too good to not be better, so we, like any sci-fi lovers, got UPGRADES!

We went back and forth on this for a while with Mark of "Onthemark". Months in fact, because Mark and I went to work the night The Last Amazon hit its Kickstarter goal and have been in weekly, and sometimes daily, conversations about every last detail regarding printing these fabulous books for you all. Before we dive into our final upgraded book specs, here are some additional details about Mark Vierra and his company, "Onthemark Printing". 

Mark has been printing extraordinary art books for nearly twenty years, with luminary titles right here on Kickstarter such as Steve Lichman: Volumes 1 & 2, Scurry: Volume 1 & 2, and many others! (We hope to follow in these two titles' footsteps!) Mark will also be printing our posters and prints at the same factory where our hardcovers are being made to ensure we have an identical match of color, paper quality, and gloss coating!

Speaking of amazing quality, let me now tell you about our printing upgrades! First off, these upgrades come at NO EXTRA CHARGE to our fabulous backers! I’ve had some folks tell me I’m “Ants in my Eyes Johnson” crazy for giving backers things they have not paid for. But, if David and I are crazy for making The Last Amazon something we will cherish and feel proud of for the rest of our lives, then I don't want to know what the rest of the world is. I digress...

Here is a list of our full specs with UPGRADES BOLDED! 

The Last Amazon - Regular Edition: 96 pages + end sheets + hard cover Size: 9" x 12"

Printing and Materials: Printed 1 overall matte varnish + 1 foil (large coverage area) + over 3mm ESKA board on faux cloth. Inside pages: Printed 4/4 on 157gsm gloss art paper with overall gloss coating. Finishing: Silver edging on book block.End sheets: Printed 1c + varnish - both sides on 180gsm woodfree/offsetwoodfreeBinding: Sewn signatures, head and tail bands, case boundBumper boxes, 2 sided at head/foot of book using 2mm corrugated.Individual shrink wrappingBookplate labels: Size 3" x 4" Printed 1 Pantone color + 1 foil on 80gsm.

These upgrades will really shine! Literally, because there now is a massive foil stamp on EACH cover and even silver foil on the edging of each page, too! For those who don't know what a silver edging book block looks like, it's silver foil on the edges of each page, making it look like a solid silver block when closed! Here is a pic below! So cool!

We have also upgraded the size, paper, and gloss finish of our prints and posters, too! And they all will be polybagged so they stay safe and secure at no extra charge! Yay!

Prints/Poster:

Prints: Size - 11" x 17" - 8 versions. Printed 4/0 on 200gsm gloss art paper with overall gloss varnish. Polybagged.Posters: Size - 18" x 24" Printed 4/0 on 200gsm art paper with overall gloss coating. Polybagged.

And now the creme of the crop, the SPECIAL EDITION! So, for this epic version, we wanted to do something truly magnificent. Because we upgraded our “normal editions” to foil stamped covers (man, we rock!), we wanted to do something that has NEVER BEEN DONE BEFORE IN THE HISTORY OF BOOKBINDING! 

Special Edition Book: Special Edition Cover Image is printed 1 foil on Metal-X over 3mm board.Special Edition Slip Case: Printed 1 matte varnish + 1 foil with brass die (Same art as special edition cover) on Metal-X Silver over 4mm ESKA board.Bookplate labels: Size 3" x 4" Printed 1 pantone color + 1 foil on 80gsm label stock.

Mark and I went back and forth on this for so many weeks, and finally, through Mark pulling in some favors and making some magic happen, we were able to get a very special foil book cover (instead of the normal matte black) for our special editions called "Metal-X" Foil for BOTH the books themselves AND the slipcases! (See picture below!) 

Moreover, Mark had to pull some strings to upgrade our entire printing facility to a new plant in China which can handle this metallic material--it's really that special! This not only helps with the special edition, but upgrades the technology surrounding all the page dyes and printing, too, which we are really grateful for! No book has been printed like our special editions before, and we are so excited to be pioneering new artistic ground with our fabulous backers! We will have a proof coming to us in the next month or two and will show you all exactly what it will look like! How exciting! 

Because of these epic upgrades to both the normal and special editions, we are foregoing stickers and bookmarks and will have only 2 poster variations instead of 3. We, however, will be doing 8 print styles instead of 6. And to help make up for one less poster, we will be giving these two extra prints to folks who would have been receiving poster #3. Although it is sad not to have stickers or bookmarks, the book upgrades are much more expensive, and in the long run, David and I are having to add a significant amount of our own money to make this happen, but, again, we wanted to create something truly fantastic which we all will cherish for the rest of our lives!

If folks have questions or concerns about these upgrades, please message me directly here on Kickstarter and I will get back to you ASAP. But ultimately, the team and I wanted, instead of spending money on bookmarks and stickers, to make the actual book as awesome as it could be, and we hope you agree! The book (and the prints) are the real art, and so we wanted to be good stewards of funds and focus on, as Mark Vierra puts it, “The power of wow” and have you all be truly blown away by our books! 

We know when you get The Last Amazon shipped to you in its special corrugated protective bumper box, rip off the cellophane wrapping and see the foil edging and cover (whether it's the normal or special edition), you will be astounded! THEN when you open the cover and see your limited edition, numbered, AND signed foil bookplate, your breath will catch in your throat, and you will think to yourself, as you wipe away a single silent tear of joy: 

“How did they get those bookplates, which were printed in China to both Jamison and David, based in USA and France, so they could be signed, and then back again to China so they could adhere inside my book which was then individuality cellophane wrapped?" 

The answer to that, dear backers, is Marks Vierra’s “The Power of Wow.” Speaking of wow, here is a super cool video of his work. (We will be having a few videos made of our printing process when the time comes! How exciting!)

Additionally, as seen in our first image above, we have a new illustration of the wonderful @MJ_AND_SPIDEY and @whoanerdalert as badass Amazon Soldiers. To see more art as it's made by David, please follow us on Instagram @TheLastAmazon and @ApotheosisStudios We release lots of sneak peeks of prints, illustrations, and other awesome art so throw us a follow and like! 

Again, from everyone at Apotheosis Studios we want to say THANK YOU for making this book a reality! Although David and I still have a good deal of work to do to get them in your hands, we know you will love The Last Amazon: Volume 1 and it will be a book worthy of forever holding an honored place in your beloved hardcover collection!