Interesting Erdnase Reprint Kickstarter Campaign

[Richard Hatch]

I just ran across this kickstarter campaign to reprint some of the early Drake hardback variants:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/15 ... e-reprints
While I've only seen the photos online, which are presumably prototypes, they look great to me! And the "Reward 4" gets you 3 variants for $300, which seems reasonable for what will likely be a pretty limited print run. That level already has 5 backers and if it gets 45 more (which seems likely to me!), the project will get funded. I'll be curious to see how this compares to the recent Jerry's Nugget kickstarter!

[Chris Aguilar]

$150 bucks for what is essentially just stock EATCT in a nice hardback binding.

Hard pass.

[Richard Hatch]

Don't know if I misread the original goal as $15,000 or if they have revised it, but it now listed as just $12,000, making it even more likely to reach that goal...

[Bill Mullins]

$150 bucks for what is essentially just stock EATCT in a nice hardback binding.

Hard pass.

The "Centennial Edition" started out at $50, had a higher print run, competes with Chuck Romano's inexpensive facsimile, and still goes for $300 and up.

In a few years, I think a bunch of people are going to wish they had bought this.

[Chris Aguilar]

Ehh, I'm tempted to nicely format a clean copy of EATCT to allow anyone to print (via print on demand) a nice hard copy whenever they want.

Buying public domain books in a new binding for investment purposes has no appeal to me.

[Christopher1979]

I think many people will find these aesthetically pleasing and will be able to afford a copy or two, unlike the authentic Drake printings. I treat this like the Easton Press publishing company. They publish classic works of just about every genre, brand new, in fine bindings. It's not like owning a true first edition but it looks great on your shelf and you can use it!. I have backed this Kickstarter and like Richard said I will be curious to see if it does as well as the Jerry's Nugget's campaign.... I sure hope so!

[Bill Mullins]

Ehh, I'm tempted to nicely format a clean copy of EATCT to allow anyone to print (via print on demand) a nice hard copy whenever they want.

CARC has already done this -- their "bible edition" is a PDF to download.

[Chris Aguilar]

Ehh, I'm tempted to nicely format a clean copy of EATCT to allow anyone to print (via print on demand) a nice hard copy whenever they want.

CARC has already done this -- their "bible edition" is a PDF to download.

It's not formatted for printing as a hardcover type book if I remember correctly.

[erdnasephile]

For those who would like more information prior to investing their hard earned in a creator's first KS project:

According to Kickstarter, the person behind the project is Brett Spurrier of Santa Barbara, CA. I suspect he is probably this person: http://brettspurrier.com/

[Chris Aguilar]

In the past, I have considered an open source project consisting of cleanly reformatted EATCT text married with nicely re-created vectorized versions of the illustrations.

Vectorizing (in this case, re-drawing to a great degree) is painful, but you end up with images that print sharply/smoothly at any size.

Here is a quick test I did about five years ago. It's ok, definitely some room for improvement if I ever decide to take the time.

[Richard Kaufman]

The redraw does not represent M.D. Smith's artwork. I don't think that would be preferable to the originals.

[Chris Aguilar]

The redraw does not represent M.D. Smith's artwork. I don't think that would be preferable to the originals.

How so? It's pretty much the same (clean autotrace from the original source) with some of ink bleed and paper texture aberrations removed?

I think it's pretty respectful to the original art.

Print it up on on a nice printer at the same size as the original (i.e. relatively small) and it looks really nice.

[Erdnase1902]

Absolutely valid points. While these are a classic text rebound, this is meant to be a collectors item and something for those that appreciate the Erdnase mythos. Never before has a 1905 Drake cover in any variant been published. What’s even more interesting is that I will be aging copies to look like a true 114 year old 1905 edition that has lived in the wild passing from hand to mysterious hand.
It’s not a book, it’s not words, you can get that anywhere and multiple places for free.
This is for those that truly love the look, style, and history of Expert at the Card Table.

I’ve included a photo of an aged copy that I just started to work.
It will feel, look, and smell 114 years old.

Chris Dickson
Erdnase1902

[Erdnase1902]

1905 Drake tan hand aged edition

[Chris Aguilar]

Perhaps the size and white background vs. aged paper background is a bit jarring.

A bit better comparison perhaps:

[Chris Aguilar]

Or if the black of the vectors is too saturated, one can easily remedy that to make the tones a bit closer to a scan from an actual copy.

As before, the bottom image (except for the textured paper background) is all vector information.

[Richard Kaufman]

Not to my taste.

[Chris Aguilar]

Not to my taste.

Sure, understood.

However, I've decided that I really like the idea/look and think I'll pursue it for the rest of the illustrations and (eventually) offer the whole thing up (at no charge!) to anyone interested (even if it's just me ) via an open sourced project. I've even got a nice vectorized, nearly finished, cleanup of the cover illustration floating around somewhere that I should find and polish up.

[Chris Aguilar]

It will feel, look, and smell 114 years old.

Chris Dickson
Erdnase1902

Smell? Is there some kind of "Antique paper smell" scent out there that one can buy to achieve this level of verisimilitude?

[Ted M]

Chris, the rest seems pretty close to my eye, but the 3D index differs jarringly and jumps out as aberrant.

[Chris Aguilar]

Chris, the rest seems pretty close to my eye, but the 3D index differs jarringly and jumps out as aberrant.

Yeah, that definitely falls under "needs improvement", which I'll fix by going in and hand tweaking it (to be a little larger, softer image) to match the base image better.

A project like this will take forever, probably appeal only to me, but damn if I don't want to do it anyway. There's a certain zen like tedium on working on this stuff which is strangely relaxing.

[Bill Mullins]

I hope you aren't seeking this as an inscription for your headstone -- "He devoted his life to Zen-like tedium. "

[Spurrier]

Bringing this back to the content of @Richard Hatch's original post, this Kickstarter is indeed intended to be for three copies that look and feel as close to the original as possible. That means covers, and content to represent the ~1905 Drake editions as respectfully as possible, all the way down to printing of the ad pages for each specific edition. There are certainly aspects that are being actively worked out, but that's the point of the Kickstarter; there's no point in making these editions perfect if there is no interest, and there is every point in making these editions perfect if there is interest.

To @Chris Aguilar's comments, I agree, there is an audience for different qualities of reprints. This Kickstarter is aimed at high quality with realistic imagery. @Christopher1979 and @Erdnase1902 nailed that above in their comments. For example, the images and text of each page were scanned and cleaned for printing; so the artwork in these will be original. That said, @Chris Aguilar, if you produce an on demand copy, I'll happily purchase a copy.

I'll be writing an update talking about the process soon (on the Kickstarter page), so stay tuned there.

Also, @erdnasephile, thanks for posting my info and my career-CV website. Yes, this is my first Kickstarter campaign, but now people can see that my PhD in molecular biophysics taught me how to build projects out with precision, depth, and intense detail. That's what PhD's do, and this project is no different.

Cheers all!

[Brad Jeffers]

There are people who collect any and all editions of Erdnase.

For these people there is a need to own at least one copy of every edition ever printed, or else their collection will be incomplete.

How many of this type collector are there?

I don't know.

Perhaps a hundred.

Therefore, I feel that if you were to print 100 copies of each variant and priced them at $100 apiece, you would quickly sell out.
The 100 obsessive collectors will simply have to have them (even if they own copies of the originals).

And then there are the vultures, who have no interest in the book, but will buy one or two copies of each, in the knowledge that they can sell them later for a hefty mark-up, to the unfortunate collector who was late to the game.

Paradoxically however, I think there is a good chance that you will not make your $12,000 Kickstarter goal.

Although the obsessive collector will quite readily part with $300 for three copies of new editions that exist, he may not be so ready to pay $300 to bring three new editions into existence.

It can be kinda like ... "Oh crap! Another edition of Erdnase. Who do I make the check out to?"

[Spurrier]

1905 Drake tan hand aged edition

@erdnase1902 - The picture never came through. But for those interested, you can see the aged copy on Chris' Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/erdnase1902/

(turned out amazing, but I admit I'm pretty biased).

[Jonathan Townsend]

Fine arts, impressive!

Have you explored "other" for that book? Something out of Dream's library?

[Bill Mullins]

The deadline for this passed without it meeting the funding goal. Too bad -- these would look good on my shelf next to the Centennial edition.

[Spurrier]

For those interested, as Bill mentioned above, the Kickstarter (fairly old at this point) failed. I have one full set of prototypes still on my shelf, and am auctioning them on ebay here: https://www.ebay.com/itm/303702385285 https://www.ebay.com/itm/303702385285

[Kent Gunn]

They're beautiful. You'll sell them easily.

[Bill Mullins]

For those interested, as Bill mentioned above, the Kickstarter (fairly old at this point) failed. I have one full set of prototypes still on my shelf, and am auctioning them on ebay here: https://www.ebay.com/itm/303702385285 https://www.ebay.com/itm/303702385285

$1,259.75. Holy cow.