Digital PDF of No Cure for the Paladin Blues is now on sale

[The Giant]

For those who have been waiting for the next book in the series to be converted to PDF, the day has arrived.



No Cure for the Paladin Blues Digital Edition is available for purchase on Gumroad.

A new bulleted list of features:

• PDF format that works great on the tablet of your choice!
• Art is still in its native vector format, allowing you to zoom in with no loss of quality!
• Updated lettering to match last year's Blood Runs in the Family and current strip dialogue!
• Includes all-new essay tidbits, "Still No Cure in Sight" looking back on the old material wistfully!
• Fully bookmarked and hyperlinked to each strip referenced in the commentaries!
• No digital rights management—just a single watermark on the front cover!
• Some typos fixed, others almost certainly introduced!
• Digital delivery allows lower prices! Just $17 for No Cure for the Paladin Blues.

Most questions about the PDF have been answered in the previous thread about the release of DCF and OTOPCs, but if you have any additional questions or concerns (or technical issues), then feel free to ask them here. Thanks!


Expected FAQs!
I can't figure out how to buy them!
You can get to the new book by clicking this link above or the big cover picture, or you can get to the Giant in the Playground profile page at Gumroad (which lists all the products we have one page) by clicking here.

Will the rest of the books be coming out?
Yes! This release of Paladin Blues is just the first book this year. Unless sales really fall off a cliff or something, I have every intention of releasing all the regular books in the series as PDFs, eventually. (Snips, Snails, and Dragon Tales will probably remain an Ookoodook-exclusive until we sell out of the last paper copy.)

When will the rest of the books be coming out?
Uncertain, as I need to juggle the relettering with other work, but my goal is to get the rest of the series out before the end of the year, if not sooner.

How do I get my PDFs?
You'll get an email with a download link a few minutes after ordering. Keep an eye on your spam folder, just in case.

What does the watermark look like?
It's on the first page (the cover), and it's a small grey ribbon-shape with the Gumroad "G" logo, next to which it says "Sold to" and then the email address that you gave when you purchased the book. So don't buy using your top secret email.

Why do the listings say that it's 248 pages when the print versions are 244?
The page count includes the front and back covers, inside and out.

Why did you reletter the old comics? I like Comic Sans!
For the same reason I relettered Blood Runs in the Family—because they were created on an old version of Adobe Illustrator, and updating to the new one caused them to burst their balloons slightly. Since I had to touch each one manually to fix it, I decided I might as well use the current font.

Why did you change the typography on the commentaries?
The original layout for both of these books was done in Quark Xpress 3.3—a program I don't have access to anymore, so I couldn't even open them. I needed to lay them out from scratch in Adobe InDesign, which is what I've used for the more recent books. That meant retyping the old commentaries.

Did you make any other corrections to the art?
A few really egregious errors that had slipped by, though I probably missed some yet again. Not much else. I didn't correct all the terrible mouths and crooked lines in the early strips, if that's what you're asking—except for the wavy borders, which I had already fixed for the original print Dungeon Crawlin' Fools.

Why are you using Gumroad instead of (insert name of other company)?
Because they charge the lowest commission, which means I could lower the price more. Plus, most other companies that offer a watermark service add it to every single page, which seemed like overkill to me. One page is enough.

If you have any questions, comments, concerns, or technical difficulties, feel free to post them here (though I don't know how much help I can be with the technical stuff; we may have to wait for Gumroad customer service for that).

[Peelee]

Recently got a friend hooked into this comic by making him borrow my books. He's lamented there's so few PDF versions. Time to go tell him the good news!

[infinityman]

Hot Diggity Dog! I've been waiting for this ever since buying the first two after Christmas... of course, I could just pull the dead tree copy off my shelf, but that seems needlessly complicated.

[Armitage]

Once again: Thank you, Giant!
This one will join the other two on my virtual PDF shelf shortly.

[The Pilgrim]

I don't think it's just a coincidence that Miko gets a cameo in the comic the same day NCPB goes PDF.

As always, well played, Giant.

[ti'esar]

17 dollars seems way cheaper than what I remember the physical version costing. Nice.

[Porthos]

And, purchased.

EDIT::::

Read through the new commentary, and thumbs up all the way around.

Did notice one thing that you probably won't care about, but I thought I should mention it anyway.

The next-to-last "page" of the PDF is NOT the "dozens of Roys on a pale blue background" that made up the inside part of the back cover as can be seen on "page 2", which is the inside cover page for the front cover. Instead it is a pure white blank page.

An extremely minor thing, but I thought I should flag it for your attention.

[ChristianSt]

Somehow I can't manage myself from stopping to throw money at you... (and is kinda nice to have them "ready at my pc" when I need to look at some book content for a forum discussion )


One thing that might be more relevant though:

Book 2 (as well as v3 of Book 0 and 1) don't have the watermark you describe in the FAQ (and that can be seen on the product page).

[Porthos]

Book 2 (as well as v3 of Book 0 and 1) don't have the watermark you describe in the FAQ (and that can be seen on the product page).

That's strange.... I have it on mine.

[EmberIce]

Hi Rich, somewhat related question, do you plan on releasing an ebook for Snips, Snails and Dragon Tales? You only promised SSDT wouldn't be reprinted but said nothing about digital releases, so technically you can do it if we interpret what you said literally, Lawful Neutral style.

I'm in Europe, so if you say, nope, SSDT won't get an ebook, I will just bite the bullet and pay the shipping before the current print-run runs out. But if you say there will be a digital release, I would rather wait, even if it's low priority.

I fail at reading comprehension forever.

[Zar Peter]

Somehow I can't manage myself from stopping to throw money at you... (and is kinda nice to have them "ready at my pc" when I need to look at some book content for a forum discussion )


One thing that might be more relevant though:

Book 2 (as well as v3 of Book 0 and 1) don't have the watermark you describe in the FAQ (and that can be seen on the product page).

My version has it. The versions 2 and 3 of the other two books don't have it, though, but I think that has been discussed already.

Oh, and it's great to read it again, with all the small new remarks. Thank you very much. (Oh, and since there was the question, when I bought the paper books I read all the commentaries, the preface, the foreword, the introduction and even the cast of characters. Didn't want to miss one thing.)

[Sgt Pinback]

How about pdf versions of the calendars? I'd like the villains calendar, but unless shipping costs have come down dramatically, buying a single item just doesn't make sense.

[ChristianSt]

That's strange.... I have it on mine.

Mh ok - that IS really strange.
So that means that is maybe a problem on my end (Fedora Linux, tested with Evince and Acrobat) or for whatever reason Gumroad fails to add the watermark to my files. (If the Giant wants I certainly can add screenshots, but otherwise I don't think they add much.)

I can certainly live with that (and I can't spot other problems at first glance - especially the v3 files of Book 0 and 3 solved all previous issues I had), but it is probably relevant to know how many users are affected by this.

My version has it. The versions 2 and 3 of the other two books don't have it, though, but I think that has been discussed already.

I only added the Book 0 and 1 v3 thing in case it is related. From the last thread I too thought the issue was resolved, but since I do not see a watermark in Book 2, I'm not that sure about.

[Porthos]

Hi Rich, somewhat related question, do you plan on releasing an ebook for Snips, Snails and Dragon Tales? You only promised SSDT wouldn't be reprinted but said nothing about digital releases, so technically you can do it if we interpret what you said literally, Lawful Neutral style.

I'm in Europe, so if you say, nope, SSDT won't get an ebook, I will just bite the bullet and pay the shipping before the current print-run runs out. But if you say there will be a digital release, I would rather wait, even if it's low priority.

Will the rest of the books be coming out?
Yes! This release of Paladin Blues is just the first book this year. Unless sales really fall off a cliff or something, I have every intention of releasing all the regular books in the series as PDFs, eventually. (Snips, Snails, and Dragon Tales will probably remain an Ookoodook-exclusive until we sell out of the last paper copy.)

How about pdf versions of the calendars?

Seconded. Obviously further down the road, but I admit I'll be willing to shell out money for digital versions of them, outdated dates and all.

....

Don't judge.

[Ailurus]

Yay! Your link text on the Gumroad announcement e-mail was 100% accurate, Rich. Heck yeah, I want to buy this!

[The Giant]

Did notice one thing that you probably won't care about, but I thought I should mention it anyway.

The next-to-last "page" of the PDF is NOT the "dozens of Roys on a pale blue background" that made up the inside part of the back cover as can be seen on "page 2", which is the inside cover page for the front cover. Instead it is a pure white blank page.

An extremely minor thing, but I thought I should flag it for your attention.

That's weird. It's placed in the original layout file, but it looks like it dropped out when exported to PDF. The same thing happened to the "Order of the Stick Extras" text on the page with the Solicitation Comic. I'll see if I can figure it out, but neither one is really a big enough deal to issue a v2 file solely for that. If people find more errors or glitches, then I'll just fix them all at once.

Book 2 (as well as v3 of Book 0 and 1) don't have the watermark you describe in the FAQ (and that can be seen on the product page).

Eh, I've given up trying to figure this out, since Gumroad has been absolutely no help in trying to troubleshoot it. If it's there, it's there. If it's not, please don't post it on a fileshare site.

[ChristianSt]

Eh, I've given up trying to figure this out, since Gumroad has been absolutely no help in trying to troubleshoot it. If it's there, it's there. If it's not, please don't post it on a fileshare site.

So then I guess I hope that it will be consistent in the future for me (because I would hate to have some files with and some without watermark)...



Also I think putting stuff on fileshare sites is at least as bad as putting DRM on things, so I really appreciate it that you offer your content DRM-free

[137beth]

I absolutely love the new meta-commentary at the beginning of round 8

Spoiler: NCFPB PDF

Show

I'd say what I loved about it, but whoops! Looks like the end of the post is coming up!

[Reboot]

Personally, I'm waiting for the analogue PDF ;)

[israfel00]

Woke up, saw the email.

*clicky clicky*

Just finished it. Bliss! My beloved print versions are..well, beloved, but this PDF version is superb. Just like its predecessors.

Also, just to add to the confusion, mine has the watermark.

[CoffeeIncluded]

Well I know what I'm doing once I'm done learning about the wonderful world of fracture repair for the night. Thank you!

[JT]

Bought.

Now, I just have to figure out how to get it personally signed by the author.... :) :) :)

[Pyrous]

Seconded. Obviously further down the road, but I admit I'll be willing to shell out money for digital versions of them, outdated dates and all.

....

Don't judge.

Thirded.

[Peelee]

I, too, am willing to shell out Porthos's money for some outdated digital calendars.

[Porthos]

I, too, am willing to shell out Portho's money for some outdated digital calendars.

At least I won't have to worry about footin' the bill. It'd be on that poor Portho sap, whoever they may be.

[ArnaudBo]

like many other, got a mail, connect to the link and bought it

waiting for more of the digital version. Shipping to Europe are way too costly

[Raydar]

Thanks for this!


My copy of the PDF has some pages in an odd order. The two-page Author Commentary of Round 5 (p108-) is interrupted by the first page of that round (#198). This might be intentional, but it disrupts the flow of both the comic and the commentary to read as such.

[lothos]

Cool ! Thanks Rich. Just purchased. Will enjoy on my phone during my train commute tomorrow.

It's great to have another opportunity to support the ongoing web comic and to get something of value for myself.
Looking forward to War and XPs.

[Armitage]

How about pdf versions of the calendars? I'd like the villains calendar, but unless shipping costs have come down dramatically, buying a single item just doesn't make sense.

+1

A while ago I considered asking for this, but then life happened and, well, you know, stuff.

[nachoted]

Great another one added to my PDF collection thanks for this Giant, and also thanks for the confirmation that the rest of the books will be eventually added.