Sunday Mailbag- CLAPTRAP Q&A!

Today’s mailbag is a series of questions about Desmond Devlin and my upcoming book of movie parodies:

Q: Now that the project CLAPTRAP is funded, I’m curious to know when You and Des started the process? When did Desmond actually start writing the script for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker the spoof?

A: Des and I first started talking about doing something like this back in the early summer of 2019, when MAD told us they were cutting new content in the magazine down to about 20% in each issue, and that movie/TV spoofs would NOT be part of any new content. We discussed doing it as a Patreon, where we’d produce spoofs regularly, but decided that was unworkable. Plus we really wanted that printed debut. It wasn’t until January of this year we decided on a crowdsourced book and Des wrote up the script for the “Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker” splash page. Then the pandemic hit, and things got a little crazy. Des worked on the Star Wars script and actually had it done in April, but we didn’t have our ducks in a row quite yet to launch the campaign. Plus we thought doing so in the middle of a “shelter in place” lockdown where people were out of work and struggling was a bad idea. We got serious in July.

Q: How long does it take to do one parody, roughly (as the number of pages has to be considered)? 

A: I’m not sure how much time it takes Des to write a script, but I get the feeling it’s at least a week or more with research and editing. For me, it takes about 3 days per page between roughs, pencils, inks and color. So an 8 page parody would take 24 days.

Q: Explain the lead time between sending the material to the press  and having that process complete before signing and sending it out to us and to stores.

A: It will take roughly two months from the time we deliver the press-ready book file to the printer, and delivery to us here in the U.S.. That includes the receipt and approval of the initial dummy copy and F&G proofs, plus approval of the bound proof copy. After that it will probably take 2-3 weeks for fulfillment to be complete, depending on the final number of backer/pre-orders we need to ship. Since Des lives in NYC and I live near Minneapolis, having us both sign copies will mean coordinating either shipping the copies needing signatures or having Des come here to MN and us having a signing-fest for a day or two. All of that takes time. Our goal is to have the books out to everyone within 3 weeks of the shipment landing in MN.

As to being in “stores” meaning brick and mortar bookstores, that probably will not happen. The Mad Art of Caricature is found in bookstores, but that is a different animal. CLAPTRAP will have an ISBN and a Library of Congress control number, so it’s a real book. It will sell online both through my website (once the fulfillment is done the Indiegogo Indemand store will probably be shut down) and through Amazon. We may distribute it through comic-book stores, but it will likely not be distributed through book wholesalers like Ingram or Baker & Taylor. That means it will not be in brick and mortar bookstores. We COULD do that through my distributor here in Minneapolis that handles my The Mad Art of Caricature book (which IS in bookstores through traditional book wholesalers) but that would be kind of pointless. We aren’t prepared or equipped to attempt the promotion/soliciting needed to make that work. Just having your book listed with wholesalers doesn’t put it on bookstore shelves. The bookstore’s buyers need to know about your book and want to stock it. That’s where publishers come in (with varying degrees of effort) and it’s very difficult for independent publishers to get their book in front of prospective bookstore buyers.

Thanks to Andreas Ulanowsky for the question. If you have a question you want answered for the mailbag about cartooning, illustration, MAD Magazine, caricature or similar, e-mail me and I’ll try and answer it here!