The Greys

Here’s a quick list of what we’ve been doing since the previous update:

• The sleeve design has been finished, sent to the printer, and the first proofs received (see below)
• The HTML5 multimedia extravaganza that accompanies the interview on the CD is 95% finished. We just need to add a few more pull quotes and images to fill the areas that don’t currently have any other media content to accompany the audio
• The English language HTML pages have been fleshed out with the original web commentary for each strip
• The remaining sketches and original prints of The Greys, from 1995/6, have all been scanned, cropped, tidied, enhanced where necessary, and attached as bonus media to the relevant comic pages
• We’ve recorded the rest of the commentary audio for the strips
• More Easter Eggs have been sneaked in 😉

The end is now in sight. We still have the HTML pages for the translations to complete, and we have to go through the commentaries to cherry-pick the best of them (believe me, you don’t want to listen to all of them!). Once we’ve decided on the commentaries, there will be a little time needed to edit them and adjust the audio levels. With the minor additions to the interview multimedia, that will be the content of the CD finished.

We have now received the first proofs for the CD sleeve from our good friends at Bluepepper Designs. They were also kind enough to offer us a “spare” slot they had on a run of business cards, so we used the opportunity to create some business card style flyers:

The sleeves need a little colour tweaking to bring them closer in colour to the cards, but once that’s done we’ll be ordering the full print run of 200 sleeves. Next we need to design the image for the face of the CD itself. Remember, once that’s done and we’re ready to order them, the price will go up to £5 per CD, so order now if you want to get in at the pre-order price of £3 Our pre-order offer has finished now, so if you want to order a CD the price is £5. Just donate via the buttons below – or visit our Tip Jar for more details.

£1

Under $2, €2
(Just a tip)

£5

About $8, €6
(1 CD-ROM)

£10

About $16, €12
(2 CD-ROMs)

£20

About $33, €23
(4 CD-ROMs)

Other Amount

Work is progressing well on the Season 1 & 2 CDs, but it is taking a little longer than expected so we thought a little update was in order…

The sleeve has been almost finalised, save for a couple of minor tweaks. We’ve left space on the back for us to personally sign each copy, and to include an individual number for each sleeve from the first pressing. These will be strictly a limited edition – subsequent pressings won’t be numbered – to make them a little more special for anyone buying early. Here’s how the design looks so far:

We’ve also been working hard on the content for the CD, and it’s this that’s been holding us up. We decided to include an interview and some commentaries which – due to our superb ability to waffle – have ended up rather long. So we’ve spent more time than we’d anticipated in the editing room, cutting out the less interesting, or potentially libellous parts, and removing about 30,000 “erms”, “aahs” and “y’knows” in order to bring things down to a sensible length. Here, for example, is a screenshot of the main interview, mid-edit:

Now as dulcet and beautiful as our voices are (and believe me, they really aren’t), we know that there’s a slim chance you’ll get a little bored with the interview. So we’ve decided to spice it up with a slideshow! Doesn’t that sound a whole lot more exciting? We’ve been writing some custom code to synchronise various bits of text and images with the audio of the interview, all thanks to the power of buzzword-of-the-year, HTML5. The slideshow features original photos, archive material, unseen images, links to Wikipedia and other sites in case you want some further information, and lots, lots more. It really does make the interview a whole lot more interesting, even if we do say so ourselves.

And what of that interview? What tidbits can you expect to learn from it? Here are just some of the topics that are covered:

• The history of The Greys
• Secrets of the Easter Eggs
• Licensing and copyright
• Questions from our supporters
• Our favourite sci-fi icons

That’s the main extra that we’re working on at the moment, but it’s probably worth also devoting a few words to the main attraction. It is, after all, a CD of Seasons 1 & 2 of The Greys, so as you might expect it also includes all 57 comics in various formats, plus the original commentary for each one and the Italian translations for more than a dozen of them. We’ve also thrown in scans of some original sketches and artwork, and individual commentaries for some of the comics. And we’ve wrapped the whole lot in a user-friendly (here comes that buzzword again) HTML5 interface to make it easy to navigate:

And finally we’ve saved the best news until last: now that orders have closed on our special Free CD offer, we’ve got a baseline for the number of CDs we need to get pressed – and that lets us work out how much each one will cost us. With that information we’ve worked out that we can afford to let the first batch of CDs go for a reduced price of only £3 each, rather than the normal £5 – and that includes worldwide delivery!

We’ll hold this price until we decide we’re ready to have the CDs pressed – but as you’ve seen we’re making a lot of progress on that front, so don’t hang around as the offer could end any day now. After that each CD will cost you £5, and there are no guarantees that you’ll get one from the limited edition first batch.

To order a CD (or two, or five – you’re friends will love them, really), just make an appropriate donation via our Tip Jar, and don’t forget to supply a delivery address.