What's this book about?
Farlaine the Goblin, along with his magical tree Ehrenwort, have spent years searching the very many Oddlands of Wug for a forest to call his own. He only has 10 lands left.
How is Farlaine pronounced?
Far-Lin. It rhymes with goblin.
How long is the series?
The series is 7 books.
How many books are out?
The first three books came out in the fall of 2013. Then I had to go back to a day job. Book 4 hit stands in the fall of 2015, Book 5 May of 2017, Book 6 in March 2018, and Book 7 is currently planned for summer 2018.
Is the book kid friendly?
Yes! It's an all-ages, kid-friendly series, with no serious violence, no blood, no nudity, no foul language. Very similar to things like Bone, Wizard of Oz, Donald Duck, Asterix, etc.
Is this a comic strip? Is it a webcomic?
Nope and nope. Farlaine the Goblin was created for printed comic books. There's no webcomic and there are no strips. It is simply a 2 tiered horizontal comic book.
Is there a digital version available?
Yes! You can find the series on Amazon Kindle. I put only the first TPB on Comixology and had such a bad experience, I refuse to list any more books on there.
PLEASE NOTE: I still believe this is a book meant to be held, not read on an iPad or smartphone, so while digital may be more convenient, it's still more enjoyable in print.
Who colors the covers?
The Amazing Jean-Francois Beaulieu - http://johnnybleuart.blogspot.com/
Why isn't the inside of the book in color?
Coloring is expensive.
Why is it sideways?
1) Farlaine and his tree are a wide pair. Putting them in a vertical comic would mean I'd often be breaking them apart, and they wouldn't like that.
2) I was inspired by Asterix and Donald Duck and the European 4-tier story albums. I simply cut those in half and printed it a little bigger.
Why is it anonymous?
I think the focus should be on Farlaine and his story. I want people to read the series without any preconceived notions about the author. I also couldn't come up with a good pen name. As of Book 5, I have, and the series is now listed under my pen name Pug Grumble.
Do you attend conventions?
I try! I do Boston every year, and over the last few years have also done Baltimore, NY, Heroes, MICE, C2E2, KidsCon, and MeCAF. I hope to spread further west once the series is complete.
Do you sell the original art?
Sometimes. I sold the first 10 pages of art from the series as part of a Kickstarter in May 2016. I have also listed a few pages with Galerie Laqua. But as of 2017, I have only sold pages from Book 4.
What were the print runs of the books?
The First Issue had an original print run of 1500 copies done in April 2013. That was our original estimate for how many books we would need.
Of those, 300 were sent to retailers as advance review copies. 400 were sent to Studio Farlaine to send off to family, friends, neighbors, bribe politicians, and to be brought to shows(Boston and Baltimore Conventions).
The remaining 800 copies were destroyed in late July due to a fire at the printer(mob hit?), the same week we got orders from Diamond for ~1350 copies.
Since we had no copies left in stock we had to do a full reprint and we took the opportunity to fix a few things off with the first printing - namely the margins, removing the page numbers, appeasing the mob, and the final page of the book, which now displays a B&W version of the cover.
The "Fire Printing", in effect the second printing, was for ~2000 copies and is what everyone that ordered the book or picked it up at their comic shop received. Those 2000 took care of Diamond's orders and left us with copies for conventions and website orders.
A third printing was done in 2016. For this we printed another 2000.
The Second Issue was printed twice - 1000 copies each time - both with the identical files, so in theory there should be no difference. 400 copies were sent off to retailers for review copies but arrived after the order deadline and missed their chance to influence things.
A true Second Printing of Book 2(1026 copies) was done in May 2017.
The Third Issue we tried to print early enough to have for the NYCC but missed on. This was a print run of 2300 that was intended to avoid having to do a second printing for a while. Book 3 was the first chance stores had to order Farlaine since book 1 hit the stands. They had to order books 1-2 blind. And with book 3 they finally got to order with the incentive Buy 5, Get 1 Free.
Book 1
First Printing - April 2013: ~1500 copies printed (300 sent as review copies to shops, 400 to Studio Farlaine for shows, website orders, family, friends, reviewers, etc) (-800 destroyed by fire)
Fire Printing - August 2013: ~2000 copies printed
Third Printing - August 2015: ~1375 copies printed
Book 2
First Printing - July 2013: ~1000 copies printed (400 sent as review copies to shops, 600 to Studio Farlaine)
First Printing Part 2 - September 2013: ~1000 copies printed(2nd Time using same files)
Second Printing - May 2017: ~1000 copies
Book 3
First Printing - October 2013: ~2300 copies printed
Book 4
First Printing - August 2015: ~1650 copies printed(1100 Regular Cover, 550 Charles Paul Wilson III Variant)
Book 5
First Printing - May 2017: ~2000 copies printed(1350 Regular Cover, 650 Skottie Young Variant)
Book 6
First Printing - March 2018: ~1900 copies printed(1400 Regular Cover, 500 Larry MacDougall Variant)
Trade Paperback #1
First Printing - August 2014: 1500 copies printed
What is the "Fire Printing"?
The Fire Printing is basically the second printing of the book, but the first one the public saw. We did our first printing when we submitted to Diamond, and we left most of our books in inventory at the printer. When we got the order from Diamond, we found out there was a fire at the printer and they'd have to reprint them. Because we wanted to correct a few mistakes and make the first public viewing the best we could, we fixed some issues to make the book better, before they reprinted it and sent it to Diamond.
How can I tell the difference between the First Printing and the Fire Printing?
- Flip the book over and look at the dates for the upcoming issues. The First printing says September/October, whereas the Fire printing was updated to October/December.
- It also is indicated on the information page in the indicia.
- The First printing of the book had page numbers.
- The Fire printing has a B&W copy of the cover as the final page.
- The margins are much wider in the Fire printing.
I'm a teacher/librarian/store/avid-purchaser-of-large-quantities-of-books and am curious about bulk. Do you do bulk?
Yes! We sell at bulk discounted rates to libraries and direct to comic shops. Contact us using the form to the right and let us know what you have in mind:)
Who/what are your inspirations?
Asterix by Albert Uderzo, Big in Japan by Seth Fisher, Amazing Spider-Man by Todd McFarlane/David Michelinie, Uncle Scrooge by Carl Barks and Don Rosa,
Red Nails by Barry-Windsor Smith, X-Factor by Whilce Portacio, Akira by Katsuhiro Otomo, Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind by Hayao Miyazaki, Lone Wolf & Cub by Kazuo Koike/Goseki Kojima, New Mutants/X-Force by Rob Liefeld, Bone by Jeff Smith, Winsor McCay, Norman Rockwell, Moebius/Giraud
Hayao Miyazaki's movies: Kiki's Delivery Service, Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind, My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke, Castle in the Sky/Laputa, Spirited Away
Why does the cover to Book #3 seem faintly familiar to me?
The cover is an ode to one of the greatest racing photos ever - the famous Bob Coglianese photograph of Secretariat and jockey Ron Turcotte winning the Belmont Stakes and the Triple Crown:
http://www.championsgallery.com/Secretariat%20The%20Photo%20Double%20Signed.jpg
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