Kandora Publishing is a brand new company poised to break onto the comic scene this March. Kandora’s initial offerings will be in genres other than the overloaded superhero market. They promise exceptional quality and increased value for your money. The new company promotes their line as “Story-Driven Comics,” but they aren’t giving you story at the expense of great artwork. From the previews, these books look to be a perfect blend of story and artwork. Plus their comics are bigger than what other companies offer for comparable prices. Not a bad deal.
I recently had the pleasure to sit down with several of the men that make Kandora tick. In this, the first of three parts, Kandora’s Publisher, Ken Choi, allowed me to pick his brain about some of the innovative ideas that Kandora is preparing for readers. Take a look. I’m sure you’ll enjoy.
The Nexus: Kandora is offering 32 pages of story in all of their titles for a cover price of $3.50. There has been a lot of positive feedback about this tactic, but there has been some criticism too. Why did Kandora take this route for their line?
Ken Choi: We plan on producing high page count comic books, starting off with 32 pages and then moving up to 40 pages and hopefully more in the future. Although the initial cover cost of $3.50 seems high, it’s still a good deal because you are getting an extra 10 pages, or almost 50% of story and art, for only 50 cents more. And when we go up to 40 pages and still keep the same cover price, it’ll be even a greater deal for the readers.
The Nexus: Trade paperbacks, especially in the bookstore market, are a growing share of the industry. Trades offer new fans a convenient way to catch up on a title they may have missed. Are plans underway to collect your titles in trades?
Ken Choi: Yes, we plan to print trade paperbacks every four or five issues, but we haven’t finalized out plans for when to release them yet.
The Nexus: It has been mentioned that Kandora will expand beyond 32-pages of story and still maintain a $3.50 cover price. Will this cover all of your titles? When can we expect the larger page counts?
Ken Choi: Currently we are planning to increase the story page counts to 40 pages on all our titles starting with the issue #5s. If possible, we may do it even sooner. We will make an official announcement when it happens.
The Nexus: Your webpage mentions 40 and 60 page titles in the future. What size books do you think are feasible for creators, most especially artists, to produce on a monthly basis?
Ken Choi: Our titles will eventually all be a minimum of 40 story pages per month. As of now, since we are just beginning and in the process of investing and streamlining the production structure, we are going to do 32 pages for the first several issues, but down the line when we are selling books and generating profit and the production is all set up securely, all the titles will be at least 40 pages long, and some may go up as high as 50-60 pgs per month. It’ll all depend on the fans’ reactions and interests.
The artists we’re using are used to drawing titles that are even more pages per month than even 50 or 60 so having them complete these titles is not a concern.
The Nexus: Comics aren’t nearly as popular as they once were. One problem seems to be cost in relation to other entertainment. Kandora seems to be moving in the direction of anime with the vastly larger size, thus giving the consumer greater value. If you’re successful do you think the larger size will help revolutionize the industry?
I feel that once the readers see a good value in comics, something that they can really enjoy and get into, it could possibly bring in some new readers that weren’t happy just reading 22 page monthly comics. In Japan comics are a part of life to them and people buy them and read them regularly. Hopefully with our new line of comics containing a higher number of pages with great story and art, we’ll interest some new readers and increase awareness in the comics industry.
The Nexus: Your first title, Barbarossa & the Lost Corsairs, debuts in March., which is followed by Jade Fire in April. How are initial orders for the first two titles?
Ken Choi: We haven’t received order numbers for Jade Fire yet, but as far as Barbarossa & The Lost Corsairs #1, the numbers aren’t as high as we had hoped. But we are confident that after all four books hits the stores, and the readers see how dedicated and serious we are about our company, we are going to slowly and steadily increase our audience. We are committed to bringing quality, high page count books to the comics industry and low sales in the beginning was something we already projected. We’ll stick around until we make it.
The Nexus: With four titles already on the schedule, can we expect further expansion of your line in 2005?
Ken Choi: Starting June, we’ll have all four of our titles on the market. We don’t intend to add any more titles too soon. One thing that we’ve been advised not to do is to grow too fast. We’d like to make our first four titles solid and strong before we think about adding titles to our lineup. It’s possible that towards the end of the year, depending on how sales are for the initial four releases, we might announce a new sci-fi or fantasy title that will incorporate some heavy 3D renderings. But again, that’ll depend on sales and the fan’s reaction.
The Nexus: You’re aiming to publish titles outside of the superhero genre that DC and Marvel focus on. Already you have pirates, martial arts, fantasy, and sword & sorcery. What other genres might we see Kandora expand to?
Ken Choi: Science fiction, mystery/thriller, romance (geared towards a female audience), historical; we are going to listen to the fans and see what is in demand and carefully come up with genres that will make the reade’s happy.
The Nexus: Since we haven’t seen one of Kandora’s books on the rack yet, it might be interesting to find out a little of what we may expect. What type of paper stock will we see when Barbarossa & the Lost Corsairs launches in March?
Ken Choi: The cover will be a 200gsm art paper with full varnish on the outside cover. Interior pages will be 100gsm matte paper with gloss finish. I’ve seen some printed materials that our printer has done previously and the quality is great. I can’t wait to see how nice our books turn out.
The Nexus: Will there be advertisements in Kandora’s publications?
Ken Choi: Eventually we hope so. When the circulation numbers go up, and if we find interested advertisers, why not? It’ll help us generate more profit and help us produce more quality products.
The Nexus: Will any of Kandora’s titles be interrelated, or will each stand completely on its own?
Ken Choi: Each title will stand on its own. There is no shared universe if that is what you’re worried about. Each title will give the reader a solid, entertaining story and they will not have to read the others to enjoy them. We have left the door open in case we want to do some crossovers in the future between our titles that make sense.
The Nexus: Are you planning any special events around the launch of the first titles next month?
Ken Choi: We’re excited that after months of planning and preparing, we’ll finally see our first issue on the stands. To us, that’ll be very special. And I hope others will feel the same way.
The Nexus: I’m looking forward to reading Kandora’s launch titles. Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions.
Ken Choi: You’re very welcome and thank you for your support!
Kandora’s first offering, Barbarossa & the Lost Corsairs #1, ships at the end of March. Jade Fire debuts in April, followed by Savage World in May, and Monarch of Manhattan in June. Each book will ship monthly with a $3.50 cover price.
Tune in next Friday for Part 2 with Kandora, as I chat with Brian Augustyn about Barbarossa & the Lost Corsairs, Jade Fire, and more!
If you want to learn more about Kandora Publishing, check out their web site: www.kandorapublishing.com.
