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Old 12-22-2009, 11:05 AM   #1
alexdecampi
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Valentine: FREE Episodes - Supernatural Fantasy graphic novel ENG/FRE/GER

Hi folks! I've added Valentine Episode 01 *and* Episode 02 in ePub format to the ePub downloads section of Mobileread.

Get Episode 01 for ePub in English, French or German here
Get Episode 02 for ePub in English, French or German here

I'm an Eisner-nominated graphic novellist who has had five series published in both the US and France, and a friend and I have recently taken the decision to launch our new monthly series, Valentine, not as a print comic but only for e-Readers.

Not only that, but we're launching it in 13 languages (soon to be 14 - we've just taken on a Russian translator). Because the text is embedded in images, we can get around a lot of the issues that readers such as Kindle have with non-Latin alphabets. So if you've been craving a book in Hebrew, Japanese, or Chinese, for example, we do that. And, as noted, soon Russian (we offer the book in Polish and Serbian already). Our full list of current languages: English, Spanish, Dutch, German, Italian, Portuguese, French, Hebrew, Japanese, Chinese, Polish, Serbian, Irish.



It's a real page-turner, full of surprising cliffhangers, great action, and strong characterisation - and only costs 99 cents per episode. Plus, you can check out Episode 01 for free on our website. Here's the English summary:

During Napoleon's retreat from Russia in the War of 1812, cavalry officers Valentine and Oscar are separated from the main army by a brutal blizzard. They think the worst thing waiting out there in the snow for them is Death. They could not be more wrong.

The two soldiers stumble across an ancient conflict between beings more powerful than humanity can imagine, a conflict which now threatens to consume the Earth and all upon it - because those who have stood in the horror's path, the few bastions of light, are going home. The debut episode of the acclaimed fantasy / thriller graphic novel series by Eisner-nominated comics writer Alex de Campi and artist Christine Larsen
.

More here: http://www.valentinethecomic.com

Valentine has just launched; Episodes 01, 02 and 03 are available for iPhone, Android phone and Kindle in 13 languages. I'll be adding ePub and LRF this week once I have the chance to do the formatting (it's difficult for me to use Fictionwise or Smashwords as both services' autoformatting play holy heck with images). We're also working with Stanza to iron out some image-display issues and hope to be launching for Stanza within the next two months.

Here are a few reviews of Episode 01 from Kindle Store purchasers:

"Great art, suspenseful writing, big fat glorious panels in landscape format. Tilt the kindle over on its side with the one previous button and one of the "Next" buttons on the bottom and then flip gleefully through the pages. It's one panel per "page", which means a fair amount of page flipping, but it's oh-so-easy on the eyes, which is a huge plus. Currently my fave comic on the Kindle - as Deputy Director of Robot Comics, I sadly don't have anything to do with this VALENTINE Kindle Edition, but I'm jealous because I really wish I did " - Dave Baxter

"Well written, beautifully drawn and designed/formatted for your device! What's not to love? A supernatural drama set during the war of 1812, creators de Campi and Larson bring their A-game to the story of cavalry officer Valentine trying to shepherd a mysterious package back to France. Recommended for anyone who reads comics on their Kindle." - Jeremy Holstein

...this piece had me at hello, so to speak. I'm big on historical fantasy, but it's gotta be ***accurate*** historical fantasy, and the amount of research that went into this (the writing and the artwork) is obvious, and much appreciated. Looking forward to episode #2.... - Dave Stern

Episode 04 launches on 17 February.

I also make short films and music videos (you can see them here, if you're interested!)


Last edited by alexdecampi; 02-14-2010 at 03:04 PM. Reason: edited to add tags, language list.
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Old 12-22-2009, 12:04 PM   #2
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By the way, here's a pretty fun display from our Android publishing partner on what the opening panorama of Valentine looks like in 12 of its 13 languages.
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Old 01-05-2010, 10:30 AM   #3
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Episode 03 of Valentine is out now for Kindle!

Get it now, and see why Episodes 01 and 02 became the top two selling graphic novels on Kindle in December (and are still in the top three right now)

72 screens of nonstop suspense, thrills and action, only 99 cents.



Also available in Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, and more! (Hebrew, Japanese and Chinese versions of 03 are still processing through Kindle store; Amazon gets a bit spooked by non-Roman alphabet stuff but they should be ready in the next day or so)

And yes, I am sorting out the ePub versions at present. I've been very persnickety about my formatting so it's taken me a *lot* longer than expected, and hopefully by end of day tomorrow (6 Jan) I'll have ePub versions of Episodes 01-03 on the Valentine website in English, Spanish, German and French, and also I'll post free ePub and LRF copies of 01 in the appropriate places in this forum. Non-Kindle users, thank you for your patience!

Last edited by alexdecampi; 01-05-2010 at 12:20 PM. Reason: not enough coffee too early can't spell yet blah
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Old 01-05-2010, 12:16 PM   #4
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My compliments, very impressive.
I can't wait for a color reader, my prs 505 doesn't do this justice.
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Old 01-05-2010, 12:19 PM   #5
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Ooh, did you get the Dutch version or are you reading in English? And I presume for the PRS you just converted the .amz book in Calibre?

Also, if you have an iPhone or an Android phone, you can get Valentine in colour that way. The Android and iPhone interfaces are *really* excellent.
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Old 01-17-2010, 10:41 AM   #6
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Just to say the ePub versions of VALENTINE Episodes 01-03 are now up in our store! 7 of the 13 languages are available; the rest I'll add over the next week. Episode 01 is free in all languages; Episodes 02 and 03 (circa 70 screens long) are 99 cents each.

Episode 01 (English) is also available for download here on Mobileread and can be read for free in colour here on our site.



Valentine Episodes 01-03 are also available at the Kindle Store. Here's what it looks like on a Kindle: (yes, we turn things sideways to maximise screen real estate on the Kindle and on e-ink devices - so you get nice big images and nice easy to read text sizes)


Last edited by alexdecampi; 01-17-2010 at 10:42 AM. Reason: too early can't code send coffee
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Old 01-17-2010, 01:31 PM   #7
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I seem to have missed welcoming you due to all the new owners posting, so welcome to MR, Alex

I checked it out and love the full color, full screen view on my laptop. I went over to your thread with the epub version and download it to try on my 505. I know that I'll miss out on the color, but I am curious to see how it looks and works on the 505.

Thank you.
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Old 01-17-2010, 01:36 PM   #8
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Thanks, dreams! I'd love it if you could post a snap of Valentine on your 505 - we beta'd it on a friend's and it looked pretty good but we never got a photo. Our formatting's quite simple so the ePub should convert easily to LRF on Calibre.

We have a full colour web version coming soon, and I'm thinking about a colour epub version for Stanza / Aldiko - the different formats just take me a wee while to process as I still have a day job and stuff.

Does anyone know if Feedbooks accepts books already formatted as ePubs? Their formatting instructions/help pages are just beyond unclear.
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Old 01-17-2010, 01:40 PM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by alexdecampi View Post
Thanks, dreams! I'd love it if you could post a snap of Valentine on your 505 - we beta'd it on a friend's and it looked pretty good but we never got a photo. Our formatting's quite simple so the ePub should convert easily to LRF on Calibre.

We have a full colour web version coming soon, and I'm thinking about a colour epub version for Stanza / Aldiko - the different formats just take me a wee while to process as I still have a day job and stuff.

Does anyone know if Feedbooks accepts books already formatted as ePubs? Their formatting instructions/help pages are just beyond unclear.
They don't accept them as far as I know, and they have as yet not implemented the embedding of graphics. As far as I know. You can contact Hadrien (co-founder of Feedbooks) on MR, he's one of the moderators and ask him personally.
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Old 01-17-2010, 03:42 PM   #10
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Alex, I don't have PRS plus on my 505 for the screen capture. I'll see if someone wants to try it and post a picture for you.
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Old 01-17-2010, 04:17 PM   #11
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As requested by dreams, Sony 505 shots.
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Old 01-17-2010, 04:33 PM   #12
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Thank you, daffy. It seems the right margin is cut short. Was it slow on page turns?
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Old 01-17-2010, 04:36 PM   #13
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Thank you, daffy. It seems the right margin is cut short. Was it slow on page turns?
A little but not bad. The LRF I made with an embedded font was slower.
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Old 01-18-2010, 10:08 AM   #14
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Hmm, yes the 505 *is* cutting off a tiny bit of the right margin. Let me fool around on Thursday in Calibre and see if I can make an LRF which doesn't do that. I wanted to do LRF and Mobipocket versions of Ep 01 anyway to throw up in the requisite sections of MR...

I've found when working with images, one often has to change a couple minor, automatic Calibre settings... the thing is, e-Readers do show optimised images very well, but there is generally a lot of muppeting about on my end first to get things formatted juuuust right.
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Old 02-14-2010, 03:07 PM   #15
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Dreams, daffy4u: I finally got a chance to work on tweaking the Valentine ePub formatting and I think I've managed to sort out the slight cropping issue on Sony readers.

Thanks so much for your help/patient beta-ing/constructive comments! I've put up the revised version of the Episode 01 ePub in the existing uploads thread here; and as a thank you I've added Episode 02 as well here. I've also put up the French and German versions.

- Alex
http://www.valentinethecomic.com
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