Comic Book Tattoo: News From The Amazon Front

Over the last couple days, many of you have written in to let us know that they received notice from Amazon that the copies of the regular harcover and limited edition of Comic Book Tattoo had shipped. However, we’re even happier to report that at least one person, who ordered it after Amazon increased the price to $94.49, has actually received it yesterday! Calloo callay! Hopefully everyone else who ordered the limited edition from Amazon and other big online booksellers will get their copies in a timely fashion as well….

We’re also happy to report that folks who ordered the limited edition from Forbidden Planet have been getting their copies too and, of course, those who ordered it from The Tori Store received their shipments last week.

San Diego Comic-Con International Wrap-Up

Please accept my humble apologies for the belated Comic Con update. Flight delays (not mine) and a birthday (mine) conspired to keep me away from the computer since Sunday. So, with the lame excuses out of the way…

Jason was the first to respond to our call for Con reports, letting us know that he posted the picture on the right over on Molly Knight’s website, which he helps to maintain. Quoth he, “I can’t really say too much right now because I’m utterly exhausted, but the panel was very good and was mostly the creators talking about how the project and their stories came to be, and how inspiring it was to have complete creative freedom.”

Comic Book Resources, which covered the Con extensively, has a lengthy article describing the panel discussion in depth. If you weren’t there, this is required reading for getting the lowdown on the panel! It’s an excellent summary of what was discussed with many quotes from all participants. CBR also included a couple more photos with the piece for your visual edification (thanks Foxy and Devon).

Needless to say, Tori’s dress has garnered some attention. Love it or hate it, it certainly is something — and that’s better than nothing. You can find more photos of the whole ensemble at Collecting Bees’ Image Gallery, Valeri’s Comic-Con Flickr set and krysaia’s photostream. Unsurprisingly, gossip sites such as Absolutely Fabulous, E!, Heat and Yahoo’s OMG! got in the act too. (Thanks Valeri, mayfly, Chrysta, lou, drinian, Mark and Amy!)

UPDATE Rantz has added a number of SDCC photographs to his Flickr. There are a few from media interviews Tori and he did for the book as well as several featuring Tori and the creators from the signing on Saturday.

Finally, several folks who attended the Con wrote in to describe their experience. Jump the cut to hear what they thought of it all….

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Spinning In Their Own Little World ... At SDCC

We haven’t received any reports from anyone who attended the panel and signing at San Diego Comic-Con today so we thought linking to this blog post Google found for us would be a good way to get the ball rolling. ‘Twas written by Kelson from K-Squared Ramblings, a comics fan and a Tori fan, who attended both events and sounds like he enjoyed them quite a bit!

If you were there and would like to share your experiences with the site’s readers, please send ‘em in!

Meebo/UStream Webchat Transcript (July 23, 2008)

A million thanks to toritattoo for transcribing the webchat Tori did earlier this week. Whether you missed the chat and don’t want to watch the video stream or just want to remind yourself about something she said, read on to check it out!

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Amazon CBT Delivery Delays

Several folks report having received an e-mail from Amazon.com earlier this week regarding their pre-order for the limited edition of Comic Book Tattoo. Amazon indicated they were “still trying to obtain” the limited edition and requested confirmation to keep the order open. Not confirming by August 23rd would cause the order to be automatically canceled.

Understandably, those who got this letter contacted Amazon to express their concern. In all cases, Amazon said that, as of Thursday, they have not received copies of any edition of the book (paperback, hardcover or limited edition) due to a publisher’s delay. They also stated that they anticipate receiving the delivery within the next few days and will be shipping them out as soon as they arrive.

We’re not entirely sure what to make of this. The cynic would say Amazon over-sold their allotment of the limited edition, but the tale is consistent across several sources and there was a delay in getting the books to Comic-Con as well. Since the actual street date for the paperback and hardcover for non-comic shops and the limited edition for all outlets is this week, a delay of a few days, given the tight production schedule and rush up to Comic-Con, is perfectly plausible. We’re optimistic but how things play out this week will be the proof in the pudding. We’ll see what we can find out and ask that if anyone hears anything (whether from Rantz at SDCC or Amazon or anywhere), please let us know so we can share the information.

Thanks to susan, lol, Paul and Erinn for helping out with this.

Update: Several people have reported receiving shipped notices or copies of the paperback from Amazon so it’s pretty obvious that the sales rep who said they had not received any editions of the book was mistaken. However, to date, no one has reported receiving the regular hardcover. If you have, please let us know!

Comic Shop News Article (July 8-14, 2008)

Remember that we mentioned a massive interview with Rantz about Comic Book Tattoo that appeared in last week’s Comic Shop News? Well, he kindly sent us scans of the article that, now that the issue is no longer available, we’re happy to share.

Note, even though I’ve downsized the scans (while keeping them legible!), they’re still pretty hefty files, so please download for future reference and please don’t hotlink to them! Thanks!

Rantz Spins Indie-ly On The Rack And Other CBT Promo

Rantz returned to the Indie Spinner Rack podcast this week to talk about Comic Book Tattoo. You may recall that he’s been interviewed there before but this visit is devoted entirely to the collection, its genesis and Rantz’s long-time friendship with Tori. Check it out!

And since this is as good a place as any, be advised that Tori and Rantz also did several radio and television interviews on Tuesday in the run-up ti Comic-Con (he has two photos from that on his Flickr photostream as well). We’re not sure what all those media outlets were but if we get wind of any, we’ll let you know.

Also, there will be a book release party for Comic Book Tattoo at Golden Apple Comics in Los Angeles (on Melrose) at 6:00 PM on Friday, August 1st. Rantz and many of the book’s creators will be there for a meet and greet and signing. Tori will not be in attendance, but if you’re interested in meeting the folks behind the book and have the opportunity to attend, it looks like it will be a good time. The party is a benefit for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund so there is an admission fee but it’s for a good cause and there will be drawings for several prizes including one of the limited edition CBTs, one of the Boys For Pele tour programs that Rantz designed, a Boys For Pele-themed original story by Neil Gaiman that has never been reprinted anywhere as well as some other great items.

Today's Webchat Now Streaming On Ustream.tv

Did you miss the chat today? Or do you want to check it out again? Weel, Ustream recorded it and and it’s now available for your streaming pleasure! During the session, that lasted about a half-hour, she talked about her current projects including the Comic Book Tattoo anthology, The Light Princess musical and answered many other questions posed to her by the folks on Meebo. We’ll try to work up a transcript as soon as we can, but if someone beats us to it and send it in, we certainly won’t complain! ;-)

Check out the stream below:

Video clips at Ustream

PopMatters Interview (July 22, 2008)

But when you’re trying to negotiate yourself out of a situation, you really have to hope that the universe is on your side, that certain things fall into place, or you don’t walk away with what you want to walk away with, meaning, rights to your own music. And in order to do that, you better have some clever people on your team—and I do have clever people on my team.

Tori spoke with PopMatters’ Erin Lyndal Martin recently about what independence from the record industry means and Comic Book Tattoo and the interview was posted on PopMatters today.

Thanks to Erin and Stoff for letting us know!

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Amoeba Records Signing

Glo kindly linked us to her Flickr set of photographs taken at the Amoeba Records Comic Book Tattoo signing earlier tonight. Click the photo below to whisk your “browsr” to Flickr to see the rest … and if anyone else was able to attend the signing and would care to share stories or photos from the event, please let us know!

UPDATE

Amoeba Records has posted a photo gallery on their site (thanks Melissa!).

Rantz posted several photos from the signing on his Flickr as well.

Kristopher wrote about the signing on his blog and also posted a snippet of video on YouTube.

Glo also grabbed some video from the signing and worked it up for YouTube. Needless to say, it’s not entirely serious!

Jump the cut for a report about the signing from Lisa and Lori — and any others that folks send in later…hopefully!

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