Drago Bentley’s stepping out: the trade is getting a new book jacket cover, and soon will be available for sale on Amazon!
When Joe Kisch and DRAGO BENTLEY: SPACE DETECTIVE first signed on with Red Stylo, the creator had already put years of blood and sweat into eight issues of the graphic novel. DRAGO debuted in trade paperback form at San Diego Comic Con–a small behemoth of a book, collecting all of the issues.
All the components were there. Gutsy creator, a charismatic hero, comedic cast, great art, great story–even a motion comic: this book seemed to have everything! What it didn’t have? A spine and back cover.
“I feel so naked.”
“Seriously, guys, huddle up. I feel a draft.”
So much work goes into a book, the final touches can sometimes elude first-time creators. We at Red Stylo, though, knew we’d have trouble selling the book online and to stores without these key elements. Also, the glossy black finish took a little bit of a beating on the sea voyage over. There was a particularly bleak discussion about what it would take to *perhaps* reprint the books before a genius idea finally struck: we could print a jacket!
Ken Loyd from Keness.com (an excellent printer, and the best we’ve ever worked with—we highly recommend this guy!) was all over it. He deflated our genius balloon the littlest bit by pointing out that Manga and other Asian market paperbacks have jackets all the time. He made up for it by very generously providing an InDesign template with the book dimensions we provided.
“Do you wear the suit, or does the suit wear you?”
One month later, DRAGO BENTLEY has a brand new cover, complete with barcode for store and Amazon sales! Look out world.
The DRAGO BENTLEY:SPACE DETECTIVE trade paperback (with brand new jacket!) debuted at C2E2 with great reception! And now anyone can pick up a copy in our online store!
Drago Bentley: Space Detective is a sci-fi crime tech-noir story about a gifted and blind Private Detective who must solve the case of a missing billionaire, and in the process expose the truth behind a militant group of high level androids and a corrupt senator hell-bent on controlling the world. Written by Joe Kisch, with art by Dave Acosta.