Hey everyone!
I've written personally to each of you by now, but I wanna reiterate that I'm really excited to have you on-board. There are a few more invites that I've sent out that have not come back yet, but with 8 artists in, I figure we've enough to green-light this project (WOO!) Anyone who signs up after this will just get added to the list!
I looked over at lulu.com regarding publishing, and their rates for a full-colour, 6x9, 32-page, perfect-bound book are about 8 bucks/copy, depending on how many copies we get (there's a bulk discount for 25 copies+). That said, the size will go down a bit to 6x9 portrait pages.
The theme is Chaos, but all that means is you start with that word and go anywhere you want afterwards. This means you could go with different meanings of chaos, different contexts, or even talk about order. It's really just a prompt.
As for deadlines, the absolute latest I want this done is March 1, BUT if you guys think it's reasonable, I'd much prefer to aim for mid-February. This is a whole lot longer than we've had for any comparable-length VN assignment, but we will have schoolwork to do at the same time, which is why working on planning and sketches/roughs during the holidays is probably a really good idea. I think we can and should share ideas and roughs with each other. Speaking of roughs, I think we should aim to have them done mid-January; that is, complete plot/idea, rough page layouts, rough drawings/prepaints or whatever.
The business side: I believe that with the talent we have here, we can get this book to sell. That said, I'm willing to plunk down the capital for publishing costs myself. (25 copies at lulu with the above specs is about $215) If you guys all want to pitch in for publishing costs, that's (so far) about 27 bucks per person. Assuming this does sell, the way I imagine it working is we'll cover the cost of publishing, then once we're in profit range (11 x $20, 9 x $25), we'll divide the profits evenly across the board. Donating to gallery fundraising is open for discussion. Anything, for that matter, is open to discussion. If you've got a better idea for publishing, a cheaper way to do it, etc, feel free to share! (keep in mind that after a while, changes to our page size will become annoying to implement)
FINALLY, to get the ball rolling...
Chaos (derived from the Greek Χάος, Chaos) typically refers to unpredictability, and is the antithetical concept of cosmos. The word χάος did not mean "disorder" in classical-period ancient Greece. It meant "the primal emptiness, space" (see Chaos (mythology)). Chaos is derived from the Proto-Indo-European root ghn or ghen meaning "gape, be wide open": compare "chasm" (from Greek χάσμα), and Anglo-Saxon gānian ("yawn"), geanian, ginian ("gape wide"); see also Old Norse Ginnungagap. Due to people misunderstanding early Christian uses of the word, the meaning of the word changed to "disorder". (The Ancient Greek for "disorder" is ταραχή.).
See: Chaos theory ("Butterfly Effect")
