Responding to Bootleggers

a.k.a. DarthScanner Must Die!!!!!!!

This past Thursday I was made aware that a bootleg of issue one was available for download and showing up in rudimentary searches for “Left On Mission” in Google. While the bootlegging of comics is not something that's new, I was shocked to find that the quality of this bootleg was just terrible, much more so than others that I have been shown.

Putting aside the legal and moral questions, I know a bunch of people in the industry look at this practice of bootlegging as a loss leader - the rationale being the book gets a bigger audience and there is the possibility that some of those downloading will actually buy the book.

Of course, as part of our aggressive marketing campaign for Left On Mission #1, we made more than half the book available on line at Comic Book Resources and MySpace. So you can imagine how I felt, when even those pristine pages that were previously released looked horrible in the bootleg.

In the bootleg, the colors are totally off and there are fingerprints, hair and dust on the scan. Not to mention that the page layout has been messed with so if you look at the book 2 pages showing mode in the .cbr readers - it's not representative of the real 2 page spreads contained in the book.

Here's a comparison:

This must be how Dave Sim felt when Cerebus #1 was booted.

So...for the very few that buy books after downloading them - I want them/you all to know this is not the book as intended.

I took time out of my Memorial Day weekend to hunt down these boots and get them taken down. I think I was pretty successful. I posted the following at some of the more active bootlegging boards that I am aware of....

The scan of my book found above, Left On Mission #1 is horribly done - and goes to show this effort has little or nothing to do with “preservation” of any kind. Not only are the covers and the line art badly reproduced, but the color reproduction is just horrible. To add insult to injury, the person who scanned this didn't even clean their scanner. So basically - please be forewarned - this .cbr SUCKS!!!

I don't for one minute condone the theft of something I own and should profit from, but it adds insult to injury to see all the hard work that was poured into this book reflected in crappy scans (by someone who obviously just doesn't give a shit.)

So if you want to actually see the book as we intended, the following 13 page preview is available for FREE here:

part 1 : http://www.comicbookresources.com/news/newsitem.cgi?id=10530

part 2 : http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=138963456&blogID=262634335&MyToken=3f0f7db2-49d0-4e41-ab8b-5b3aab68b321

(Yes, that's right you nimwit who scanned my book - half of it is available in pristine condition for FREE already! Did it not occur to you to use THESE pages you f$@#ing idiot!?!?!)

It goes without saying that if you like what you see, I would really appreciate it if you would buy this book. We need every sale we can get.

Thanks,

Chip Mosher
creator/writer
LEFT ON MISSION
In Stores Now...from Boom! Studios
http://www.leftonmission.com

In the end, hopefully this brings awareness to this issue and adds an heretofore missing element to the debate over bootlegging comics.

Best,

Chip