"… and the Prince understood, and the Prince was happy."

Very few of you know this, but these are the last words in "The Prince". As you read them, copies of the book (and bag/card)  are on their way to our KickStarter supporters.

Our state-of-the-art distribution center, aka Phu's floor.

We apologize again for the delay, just as the Prince's clothes became tattered and he grew weary during his journey (*spoiler*!) , Annie and I encountered some setbacks bringing our story to you. But just as the story ends happily (*more spoiler!!*), we are so thrilled to have had support from all of you. We thank you, and wish you all the happiness in the world.

Best regards,

--Phu & Annie

At last !!!

PS: Many people have requested to buy the book after we have finished the KickStarter, so we have put it on Etsy, the same place where The Courtyard Kitchen was sold: https://www.etsy.com/shop/phuvan

The Prince and The Kickstarter: WE DID IT!!!

So... the KickStarter exceeded all of our expectations.

Me reacting to our KickStarter passing $1000: goggles and helmet protected me from the shock. I'm told Annie responded similarly.

People we know corralled their spouses, family and friends to support us (the Thorson and Lear families were particularly well-represented). You have our many thanks: 1,299 to be exact:

I'm told at this moment an army of dedicated craftsmen are putting the final touches on boxes of freshly-printed copies of The Prince to be rushed to your doors.

Speaking of printing, we researched about half a dozen printing companies for The Prince. While we could print very cheaply through comic book presses, we felt that The Prince should be well-made with thick archival paper, full-bleeds and decent binding, even if our small printing run made the book a bit more expensive. So we decided to stay with Pikto, the Toronto-based press who did a consistently outstanding job with my previous photobooks and cookbook.

Now that our successful Kickstarter campaign has ended, and we've finished all the illustrations, we'll be working on fulfilling the orders that you've made! Some previews of what's coming to your doorstep in the near future...

Please stay tuned in the next few days as we ship out copies of The Prince. And again, thank you !

--Phu & Annie

Colouring The Prince

First of all, Phu and I want to thank you for all your generous support! It has only been 3 days, and we have already reached our Kickstarter goal! We've been working hard on this book for a long time, and it's awesome to know people interested and eager to have a copy! ...seriously, Phu has been so excited that he was sending me hour-by-hour text message updates every time another person pledged to our campaign. We are super excited :)

Yay!

Secondly, I wanted to do another process post. This project has been a learning experience with many firsts. So far, I've written about the pencil drawings and inking, and I wanted to update this blog with some more detail about the digital side of these illustrations. This will get a bit technical, so if you don't care for the details, don't feel guilty about just scrolling through the pictures.

KickStarted !

Hi everyone,

After more than a year's worth of hard work (Annie sketching, inking and coloring and me making snarky blogposts), we are finally ready to pitch The Prince to family, friends, and strangers on the Internet !

Without further ado, please come check out our KickStarter page:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1823550875/the-prince-an-illustrated-childrens-book

Our KickStarter goodies. Unfortunately, you can't get our cat, Schrodinger. It's against the rules :(

The cover, featuring our iconic castle at night.

And the winner is...

Thank you for everyone who voted in our mug contest, including apparently, two members of the Toronto Maple Leafs :P

We apologize for the delay. Originally the contest was only supposed to take 1 week, but ended up taking a bit longer than that. Mostly I've been writing my PhD thesis while horribly sick with what people tell me is the flu. It actually felt like this:

A common problem with writing theses while sick.