New Franks and Beans DVDs!

We at Franks and Beans have made DVDs before. We have! We’ve even sold a few of them. When Comic-Con rolled around for us this year, though, I wanted to do something different and simpler than before. The DVDs the first time around were in a standard-size clamshell case (I’m sure you can picture it), and those things take up a lot of room, which was at a premium since we were flying out to San Diego and most airlines think it’s okay to charge extra for taking things with you (thank goodness for Southwest!). Also, what’s the deal with airline food? But I digress.

Space wasn’t the only concern this time around, though. While the original full-size DVDs were bulky to be sure, I wanted this new batch to look a little bit different to reflect an image, too. The Wagon Wheel Comics booth was in the small press section at Comic-Con, and these DVDs are about as “small press” as you can get. The show isn’t going to compete with network programs on any level, so the need to make them similar to standard releases just wasn’t there. If anything, I wanted to make these DVDs stand out because of the differences in play.

With that in mind, we ended up with this:

This is obviously the disc for season two; season one has a solid black background with a silver “1” painted on. I’m happy with the results. They’re unique and they don’t just have the name written on them in permanent marker or anything. I used regular DVD-RWs: I laid them all out flat on cardboard, took them outside, and spray-painted the heck out of them. For the season two DVDs, I used two coats of green as a base. For the red, which apparently looks like blood splatter, I held the can paint sideways and just barely pressed down on the nozzle. It was a lucky moment. I used an X-Acto-knife to cut out the numbers in a comic book backing board (versatile little buggers) and used them as stencils.

The DVDs themselves went into paper sleeves. To complete the ensemble, I modified the original case artwork to fit, added quippy new taglines, and ended up with the compact, squarish pieces that you see directly above and at the very top of the post. These were printed out on sticker paper and slapped on the back.

As I mentioned before, the focus for the show was on selling comics like Teddy and the Yeti and FUBAR, and some of the other stuff, the DVDs included, took a back seat out of necessity. But we did sell a good handful of them! I wonder if those who bought it realize how giddy that makes both Larry and me. Even if they sit in the Comic-Con swag bag for months on end before being sorted. Even if someone takes it out of the bag, looks it over quizzically, wondering “where the hell did I get this?”. Even is someone throws the disc like a Frisbee, trying to stick it into a watermelon. Someone has it! And they might even watch it. To those people, I apologize for the episodes that are a little bit dumb.

This is a close approximation of what the booth looked like. I say “close approximation” because it was taken at the show and is exactly what it looked like. So perhaps “close approximation” is the wrong phrase. Whatever. Regardless, you can see the DVDs on the table, in their place of honor, waiting to find a home. We still (a hem) have a few left, and would be willing to part with them, if anyone is interested. If such a person exists, leave a comment! And I might be willing to send them to you for free, and also take a picture of you and post it on this blog as our first official “fan of the millennium.” Think about it.