Bobby Curnow over on the IDW Publishing forums released this image of a variant on the issue #1 comic. This is considered cover "C", which connects to a second cover for a full image similiar to how the others connect to one another.
And in other news, a few more comic tidbits have come out. Head on down past the break for a whole bunch of awesome information on the project!
On Story arcs and releases:
My Little Pony is planned as an ongoing monthly. We'll be breaking story arcs into four issues, at least for the first 8 issues. I kind of consider each four-issue story arc to be equivalent to a 2 part episode of the show, if that makes sense. Gives us a little bit more room to play with 'bigger' stories. So no new #1 are planned. Though if sales take a dive, it's not uncommon to relaunch with a new #1. Hopefully that won't happen.
On slice of life Vs. Action, and borrowing from un-aired scripts:
Already toying around with some more character-centric 'slice of life' stories, stay tuned. And I don't see any reason not to adapt unaired TV scripts, assuming that Hasbro wanted to do it.
On number of pages:
While there are 32 pages, the majority of modern comics are 22 story pages. (A lot of DC books are 20 these days). I'm trying to throw in a little added value, so there's a 2 page back-up story (#1 written and drawn by Katie Cook) which brings our total to 24.
As for "how much story can you fit", that really depends on the writing style of the author. Some comics can be very 'decompressed' focusing on the art, and therefore read quick. Others are filled with tons of word balloons and can take a while. Different folks prefer different styles. As for our MLP ongoing, I think we've struck a nice balance. As noted above, the four-part story arc has the feel of a 2-parter in the TV show.
On the pony comic surviving and continuing on:
As long as sales sustain it! Anything that sells over 10K has a healthy lease on life. Things get a little dicier when you drop below the 8 or 7K number.
Obviously we've got great numbers for the start of the series, and that's EXTREMELY encouraging. Numbers will almost certainly fall down to under 20K. It will be interesting to see where they settle. I'm hoping it will stay nice and healthy, but I guess that depends on how good the books we put out are! (right now I think they're awesome!)
---(Note - We have 90,000 pre-orders and counting according to this. Sounds like pony isn't going anywhere!) --
And buried within the post:
19 Covers total for issue #1, with 11 being retail exclusives
