The Books Have Arrived

The books are here and they look great!  The printers (Art Bookbindery in Winnipeg) did an amazing job — I whole-heartedly recommend them for all your book-printing needs.

Here’s a sneak peek…

Full-colour, hardcover, beautiful heavy paper…  I couldn’t be happier with how they turned out.

In addition, thanks to Rob at Keywest Photo, the prints and bookmarks are also ready!  (Very recently ready.  As in, we spent last night, Saturday evening, finishing them up.  Here’s proof…)

Again, I couldn’t be happier with how they turned out.  Additionally, Keywest Photo is hosting the a print store for Steve’s work.  You can find the link to the store in the menu above.  As I note there, if there is an image in “Unfinished Stories: The Art of Stephen Groves” you would like as a print, and you do not see it in the store, let me know and, if possible, I will have it added.

All that is left now is getting your stuff to you!  If you contributed to the Kickstarter, you will be getting different items, depending on your level of contribution.  You should have recently received an emailed survey from Kickstarter to confirm your shipping address.  Those that have responded will start getting their shipments very shortly.  If you have not responded, I will be following up with you in the coming days and weeks.

For those that have ordered the book since the Kickstarter ended, I will be contacting you shortly to arrange payment and shipping.  If all goes well, and I have no reason to believe it won’t, everyone should have their books and/or bookmarks and/or prints well in advance of Christmas.

As always, if you have any questions or comments, don’t hesitate to send me a note.

Thank you, thank you, thank you… Everyone who helped, contributed, or made suggestions… thanks to you, Steve finally has his book.

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Update! (Finally…)

It’s been quite a while since I’ve provided you with an update, so I thought it about time.

Over the past few months, I have been gathering art for Steve’s book.  Some of it is in hard copy, paper-and-pencil/ink form and a lot of it is in digital form.  I want to thank Betty and Denny (Steve’s parents) for being patient with my on my visits to their place as I dug through boxes of Steve’s belongings, books, and art.  They have been very generous to lend me a great deal of it for this project, including the approximately 300 CD-ROMs and two external hard drives containing Steve’s back-up files.

My time has been spent rooting around in these files, selecting the pieces that will end up in the final book.  It has not been an easy process, but I am pleased with the selection as it currently exists.

The exact pieces that will end of in the book may change, however.  Less than an hour ago, I delivered all the bits and pieces to the designer (minus only one or two documents).  I expect I will see an initial proof of the book by the end of the month.

In short, Unfinished Stories is moving along.  A big piece of the work is out of the way, and I expect that you should be receiving more frequent updates from now on.

“Me Caricature” (2009)

“Unfinished Stories” Pre-orders

I have spent the past few days trying to find the most effective way to take pre-orders for “Unfinished Stories: The Art of Stephen Groves.”

There are a lot of tools and options available, but many of them are expensive or complicated.  I don’t want to deal with either of those factors, so here’s what we are going to do — if you want a book (or print or bookmarks or whatever), just use the “contact” link at the top of the page and let me know what it is you want.

Books will be $50.  Everything else has a price of TBA.

We can do cheques now (very soon I will be able to do credit cards, too), or we can do payment once the books are printed and on hand.  In either case, I’d appreciate it if you could let me know if you are planning on getting a book or not, so I can start to think about how many copies we will get printed.

In other news, I’m meeting with the designer early next week!

More updates will be posted as warranted…

“Art” – a titular character from “The Dumb Guys”

Brandon Sun Article – April 3

A big thanks to Tyler Clarke and the Brandon Sun for following up on this project.  You can read the article in today’s paper (April 3) here:  Groves book hits crowdfunding goal

The text of the article is included below:

Groves book hits crowdfunding goal
By: Tyler Clarke

A last-minute influx of contributors secured the future of a book highlighting the life’s work of local cartoonist Stephen Groves.

The kickstarter.com campaign, led by Groves’ longtime friend T. Keith Edmunds, capped off at $21,388 during the weekend, which notches slightly above its $20,000 goal.

Now that the fundraising is done, the hard work begins, with Edmunds charged with paring several hundred pages’ worth of content down to a 200-page hardcover book memorializing his friend’s talents

Groves died at age 46 late last year as a result of cancer.

With the artist deeming much of his work “not good enough,” or “not perfect,” Groves’ friends and family have long lamented the fact that he never found the audience they still believe he deserved.

The majority of his work has never been seen outside of a small circle of people.

The book idea was sparked during Groves’ funeral, where loved ones inquired as to where they might see the art they’d heard so much about.

Although his comic strip “The Grove” ran in the Wheat City Journal (now the Westman Journal) from 2005 to 2007 and encapsulated his sense of humour, it didn’t demonstrate his range of artistic talent, Edmunds said.

While Groves’ favourite creation was a cartoon raccoon named Puck, his work ranged from cartoon to realistic and also included the surreal.

 

Sifting through hundreds of pages of work, both on paper and digital, Edmunds’ work has only just begun, but it’s an effort that he said would be well worth it.

Relaying what he said at least one kickstarter.com contributor has already offered, he said, “It feels important.”

In addition to Groves’ work, the book will include a forward by comic book artist Kaare Andrews.

Best known for his work on a handful of Marvel titles, Andrews got to know Groves during their time as roommates while attending the Alberta College of Art and Design.

Edmunds interviewed Andrews for his blog, Unfinished Stories: The Art of Stephen Groves (unfinishedstories.ca), where he is chronicling the book’s progress and receiving book orders.

 

“There was only one other guy at art school that would gush over comics the way I did,” Andrews told Edmunds. “Steve’s love of comics was only matched by his love of music and Tim Burton movies. I’d often come home to find him with his headphones on, listening to Danny Elfman and reading the funny books.”

Edmunds said that his goal is to get the book printed by September.

Although he’s the book’s principal editor, he said that there’s no doubt Groves’ friends and family members would be helping out.

“I have no shortage of people I can call in for help,” he said. “A lot of Steve’s friends have been emailing me … and everyone’s pitching in and is excited about the project.”

A September print date lines up with the first-ever Brandon Comic Con, scheduled to take place at the Keystone Centre on Sept. 8 and 9, at which Edmunds hopes to launch the book.

Provided Groves’ reluctance to publicly release his artwork in life, it’s difficult to say how he might have reacted to this project, Edmunds said.

“He’d be enthusiastic about the project, for sure, but whether it would ever happen is hard to say.”

» tclarke@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @TylerClarkeMB

 

Kickstarter Completed

The Kickstarter is officially completed, successfully raising $21,388 for the project of designing and printing “Unfinished Stories: The Art of Stephen Groves.”

If you were distracted by Easter, for example, or you simply forgot about the deadline — don’t worry!  In the next few days, I will be setting up some sort of pre-order system that will allow you to still get a book or some of the other goodies that will be on offer.  However, you will not get the same kind of package that was offered exclusively to those participating in the Kickstarter.

I will also be endeavoring to keep you in the loop as the project moves forward.  Keep checking this site for details.  In the meantime, however, please feel free to contact me at anytime with your questions (just hit the “contact” link above and fill out the form).

Happy Easter, everyone!