Okay, off the bat this is purely hypothetical at this point as Ozone hasn't signed off on it and it's not definitely going to be a thing.
That said I think something like this needs preparation and discussion in advance so if it goes ahead we are ahead of the curve and ready to roll.

I've proposed an anthology comic with that talents of a number of DD users that is exclusive to backers of the fundraiser. Possibly even a print copy if that could be cost effective.

I have experience in doing community projects and anthology comics, but I've never done prints or prepared a digital comic in PDF or CBR format, but I assume it's easy enough.

So the real asks are,
1. who would be interested in contributing and in what form?
2. Does anyone have other ideas of things we could do in a similar vein?
3. How can we make something like this really special?

Also for those who perhaps can't contribute, what would you like to see?

Volunteers.
Banes
Bluecuts34
Bravo1102
Damehelsing
El cid
Tantz aerine

In my current tight financial straits doing something for this is about all I can do.

I know that feeling, but our time spent on help may well get the fundraiser closer to reaching goals.

Unlike a lot of other projects like this, there will have to be a markup so that goes into the money raising.
Normally comics projects for DD are priced at cost, but this one would have about $5 or something added to the price for the money raising.
So each copy might cost something like $25 or $30 before shipping… depending on how much a full colour comic costs.

I'm curious about the dollars and cents of this project. From what I've seen of Amazon's self-publishing service, you keep 60 percent of the sell price. So, for a $25 book, that's $15 per book. So, to make a thousand dollars, you would need to sell 67 books. And that's assuming you're making a similar profit margin, as the Amazon model was for black-and-white text paperbacks.

But then I guess every little bit helps! It's not a terrible idea; hell, we should be doing a Drunk Duck anthology every year as an annual commemorative type thing anyway!

If the project's a go, I'd be happy to contribute a short mini-comic. If you're trying to sell more than a couple dozen copies, though, you're going to need to promote it beyond just here on the site. I don't know what kind of a social media footprint this place has, but that's probably the best route for promoting the book, and we'd want to make sure people know it's going to support our art community.

Oh I would not mind participating in an anthology comic since I never participated in any, this would be my first.

1. I could contribute some digital pieces and when everything is decided I wouldn't mind helping with some of the funds when I get the chance. (currently in between jobs so when everything is settled in my life I can help)
2. Idk I'm kind of bad at this XD
3. If this is the first DD anthology I think that's already pretty special. We could always try to do a theme or something.

Also if we're worried about affording physical copies we could always do it where only certain level backers get a physical copy and/or once we reach and can open up new tier levels or something we could offer a physical copy to those who backed up a certain amount!

So far this sounds pretty awesome and will definitely love to be kept up to date with this!

Okay, given the responses I think this could well be a go. Perhaps even if not used in conjunction with a Kickstarter type thing as a reward. Perhaps we should make it primarily as a digital comic that could be a Kickstarter reward or failing that sold via sites like Amazon and comixology and any other similar types of sites as a potential revenue for showing off creators and promoting the site. We can also look at printed options, but as Ozone pointed out we want it to have a mark up so it generates revenue rather than just breaks even or makes a loss. As our efforts will be voluntary the only costs are those of postage, printing and cuts of the sites it's sold through. Given that, hopefully it won't prove too much of a hassle. Research time methinks.

I'm imagining something between 50 and 100 pages with some advertising within it. Maybe we could sell advertising slots as part of the fundraiser?

Another question is, do we include adult content, or perhaps do two and one being an adult version. As part of the DD selling points is the openess to adult content it would perhaps make sense to allow for it, however I think a two tier approach might work best. That said, is there anywhere we could actually sell an adult comic anthology?

In regards to a theme, I'm not sure. I think something with broad appeal might be the way to go.

Stipulations I think should be in place are, the stories should be self contained and exclusive. And of course we will have to consider age rating.

It would make sense to aim for a DD-equivalent M rating or less. If nothing else, there would be less distribution issues in that case.

I'd love to participate in this!

Maybe for the first one (assuming we did it again) something without a theme might make sense. Just short, self-contained stories by as many creators as we can get in there.

Later it'd be cool to see a theme book like Halloween or horror or whatever. If it worked out and continued that is.

El Cid wrote:
It would make sense to aim for a DD-equivalent M rating or less. If nothing else, there would be less distribution issues in that case.

I vote for “teen” as that would get the widest coverage.

And as said above we could offer an “unrated ” edition for extra.

We should promote the site's being friendly to adult content.

I'd love to contribute too.

(I still owe you a script, but it's soon coming I promise despite the delay)

Haha no problem on the script, the nature of voluntary things, gotta allow for time. It's one of the reasons I thought it would be a good idea to get the ball rolling in this.

I quite like the idea of an unrated anthology as well. Definitely would help sell that aspect of drunkduck.

If we were to go about this the kickstarter way, and provide different amounts, we could always attempt to offer something interesting that wouldn't cause a strain on us.

Maybe if someone gives $50 they can request a commission of their choosing artist from DD (those only participating in the anthology obv)
Or maybe book marks/stickers/etc? All vary of course but there are decent places out there that don't cost too much to get. (I myself got around like 100 stickers or more for like $30, if we go about this right way we will gain profit.)

So if someone gives $10 they're guaranteed digital copy.
$20 could be physical book, $30 could be book and bookmark $40 could be book and 2 stickers, bookmark and whatever other goodie that's affordable while the $50 could be a book and a commission. And so on.
Also if we're too worried about affording the goodies we could always offer sketches of characters from our comics for lower amounts and the higher it goes the more special it is??

Also I hear some printers do charge more for NSFW content, so that is something to think about.
We could also offer 2 different versions, a SFW anthology and NSFW anthology. If we do manage to do a print version so backers can get physical copies I would suggest having the NSFW be a higher amount than the SFW, in case it does cost more.

These are just suggestions though.
I've been planning a kickstarter for volume one of Scarred Eden since before releasing it so this is why all of this is coming to mind lol

If by any chance I repeated something someone already said I apologize, I kinda tend to skim fast and or end up skipping lines.

Oh! I'd be really down for this, I'd be delighted to do a mini comic of some kind.

I actually wouldn't bother with Amazon at all - their cut is pretty big and being on their store is probably unlikely to get us any more traffic without a publisher/distributor.

If the book gets kickstarted, the income there can cover a small print run (500-1000) to stock in a store, not just the initial books for the backers. The sales otherwise can probably be managed through an online storefront on the Duck website and out of a living room. I've heard good things about printers in HK/China/Canada for USA based self publishing projects. Books cost dollars to print, especially in black and white, so the margin would be able to fund the run and maybe a good whack of the site redesign, if it gets funded.

Maybe start with a small goal - 1000-2000 dollars? That pays for a fair few books and any extra can go along to the site.

An anthology is a bright idea because it's so many artists with varied levels of fanbases.

I support a black and white edition with maybe a limited color “premium” edition once this whole thing is set up.

And tee-shirts and coffee mugs and lanyards and other promotional items. My wife got some “Bravo” pens from Bravo Wellness (a preventative health care program), that I gave Tantz when I was in Greece.

This sounds neat, I've done zine art but not anything for an anthology. The only thing is I wouldn't know what I'd contribute.

I'd love to contribute a short story. Can't promise it a 100%, but maybe 86% :p Meaning I'd do everything in my power…

Sounds like a great idea. I'd love to contribute.

Sounds like fun, I'll throw my scarf into the ring for this!

If it turns out to be short stories, I wrote a short horror tale with some mildly adult action that might fit the bill (some sex but no nudity - not sure how you'd rate that). I'm not sure how many pages of art it would run to.

What are the page dimensions and margins going to be?

I'd probably not want to be credited as my user, since it's old and there's lots of bad old stuff on it, but I'd be happy to submit a comic story anonymously or via a new account (are we allowed to make new accounts on this website?). I have a script that was originally supposed to be for an animated short film I was making that never got finished that I can send to you via Personal Quacks (Genejoke are you the person who is actually going to be organizing this?) to see if it would be acceptable for use as a comic in this anthology.

I know looking at my past work doesn't exactly inspire confidence but I've been taking art classes and practicing since I finished my old comic in 2016 so what I can make nowadays is significantly better.

What is the time frame of this anthology are you thinking? That is when do we need to make money by for what we are raising funds for? Because for an anthology I'd want to draw as well as I am capable of and would like to now how much time you are planning on allotting for it?

@El Cid, good question. Want to factor in page dimensions for print just in case it does go to print, much easier than trying to make things fit after. I imagine the Ka blame page template would be a useful guide. That said if anyone has any better knowledge or suggestions it's worth mentioning before anything gets fully decided.

@Awesome Owl98 in regards to username etc, that's down to you. If you want to set up a new account there's nothing to stop you. Taking credit for your work is worth while, so if you use this user or create a new one, I'd make sure it's one you plan to use again so anyone who reads and likes your work can follow you.

@Abt Nihil, it would be great if you can, but if you are unable to it's understandable.

@Gunwallace, great to have you aboard.

@Ironscarf, I think shirt stories would be the way to go as they are nicely self contained. As for rating, I think it really depends on the delivery. In theory you could do all the thinks you mention as teen, but most likely it would go to mature if too graphic or sweary.

That all sounds awesome!
I was quite wary of the idea but you guys have really made it sound great.
some points for consideration:

1. Like El-Cid says, it could be mature or at least have a "mature section" specifically marked in the back maybe? Not adult. I'm thinking along the lines of Heavy Metal as to the level, since that's what a DD anthology would resemble.

2. To earn a decent profit; distribution, promotion and profile are key.
To that end we could ask some of our higher profile DD alumni for small comic contributions (for older stories because they'll be busy).
I'm thinking Amelia Woo, Amelius, Jake Richardson, Ashley Witter, Juno Blair, Darren Pearce-
All who have followings for their creative works

-Ashley and Amelia are pro comicers, Amelius is always a DD star, Jake is a powerhouse, Juno is a rock star, and Darren is a very popular RPG writer. I'm sure we have many others.

Back in 2011 Jake Richmond did a story for lite bites that tied in with modest medusa.
https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/Lite_bites/5360577/
If he's too busy to make anything new I wonder if he would be okay with it being rolled out again?

Would be willing to draw a thing or two for you.

If we are in fact doing this will we be posting the pages as we make them in this thread? Or would we just make the entire thing and send it to whoever is organizing it?

That's awesome skreem.

@ awesome owl, I'm thinking it would be emailed or drop boxed to keep content mostly under wraps until release.

bravo1102 wrote:
I support a black and white edition with maybe a limited color “premium” edition once this whole thing is set up.

Aside from knowing page dimensions, we should quickly establish if it's going to be black and white, colour, or a combination of both. If colour work is printed in black and white it usually looks like sludge, so potentially two versions of each strip would be needed.

If it's something we want people to buy my personal preference would be to make it special and go for colour :D

I'm all for color! I love coloring T-T lol but I think it'll also attract a lot more people.