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Wow. It’s been a week and a half since BrickFest PDX, and I’m just now
starting to get caught up. I went straight from PDX to Enfield and had some
terrific Community Development meetings with the team. Lots of good things
happening!
As mentioned in my keynote at
BF PDX, Greg Hyland and I have been working for
some time on a really cool comic book about you, the AFOL. This was originally
meant to be only for internal usage - I’ve been doing a lot of traveling and
talking within the LEGO Company lately getting colleagues informed and pumped up
about the AFOLs. Some good stuff happening, and you’ll be hearing more soon.
But the comic was such a huge success that I was able to secure a small amount
of funding to put it into print!
As I mentioned in my keynote, I’m very interested in “Activating the Sleepers” -
those folks who just haven’t realized yet that they are AFOLs and there is an
entire community out there waiting for them. From the keynote:
For 2004, I’ve dubbed it the year of activating the sleepers. We all hear
stories all the time about LEGO builders who are fans but don’t realize it.
People who buy sets, build creations, and even have national cable networks
rebuild their LEGO themed rooms. But these folks often haven’t even had the
synapses fire that make them wonder if there are others out there like them. I
call them the sleepers.
So how do we draw them into the community? How do we pull over these energetic
new faces?
One idea is to use this comic as a “recruiting” tool. Imagine you’re out a train
show and people are asking about your hobby. Or you may have friends or
co-workers that are AFOLs who haven’t realized it yet. Or a local hobby shop has
regular customers who you are pretty certain are AFOLs at heart. Perhaps you can
get this comic in front of them to show them how much fun the community is.
I’ve posted the draft comic on my personal site (easier that way) for you to
review.
http://www.bricksonthebrain.com/comic/AFOLcomic-small.pdf
Disclaimer: This is a first draft of an in-progress work. It will be fully
colored, and cleaned up before going to print.
Many many thanks to Greg. He’s an incredible artist and a hilarious writer. Take
a minute to tell him how cool he is!
I’ve posted this draft to get your feedback. We’d love to hear your thoughts on
the comics, or ideas for strips we may have missed. What other types of
information can we put in along with the comics to help pull in the “Sleepers”?
And the idea - is it a good one? Do you see yourself using this?
I’m looking forward to hearing your comments!
Jake
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Jake McKee
Community Liaison (and aspiring comic writer)
LEGO Community Development Team
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Message has 33 Replies:
 | | Re: AFOLs - The comic!
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| FUT: lugnet.general Jake, do you think you could crosspost these announcement type posts to rec.toys.lego as well? "Jake McKee" <jacob.mckee@america.lego.com> wrote in message news:HtnwFt.qC@lugnet.com... (...) (20 years ago, 25-Feb-04, to lugnet.lego, lugnet.general, lugnet.org)
| | | Re: AFOLs - The comic!
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| (...) Heh. Just make sure those grey tones come out nice, or you'll never hear the end of it. Seriously, looks really nice, and very amusing. I can already thing of several people to whom I'll give copies when you've got the final version ready. (20 years ago, 25-Feb-04, to lugnet.lego, lugnet.general, lugnet.org)
| | | Re: AFOLs - The comic!
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| (...) Jake, I'm glad you posted the link and I found the comic book very interesting and will comment more on it later. Your post did remind me of something I wanted to mention sooner. Each time I've gone into either the Palisades or Paramus stores, (...) (20 years ago, 25-Feb-04, to lugnet.lego, lugnet.general, lugnet.org, FTX)
| | | Re: AFOLs - The comic!
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| (...) Very well done! I look forward to getting this in print so I can pass it around and have it handy on my shelf of great comic works (Foxtrot, Dilbert, Robotman, Far Side, Zits... it is a full shelf already). Keep up the good work for our (...) (20 years ago, 26-Feb-04, to lugnet.lego, lugnet.general, lugnet.org)
| | | Re: AFOLs - The comic!
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| (...) It looks marvelous--ought to be a big hit. The current draft repeats pp. 25 and 26 (they appear earlier too)--I assume that'll be weeded out. But if we were meant to have two more pages, gimme gimme gimme! :) Kudos to Jake and Greg! best LFB (20 years ago, 26-Feb-04, to lugnet.lego, lugnet.general, lugnet.org, FTX)
| | | Re: AFOLs - The comic!
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| (...) Awesome! (...) Wow, very cool! It's a bit rough in places (as you know) and there's a bit of repetition, but I think it shows a lot of promise. An excellent first draft! I look forward to more. I love the badges on pp. 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, (...) (20 years ago, 26-Feb-04, to lugnet.lego, lugnet.general, lugnet.org, FTX)
| | | Re: AFOLs - The comic!
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| -snip- Indeed! I am happy to see that this has been done, and would love to see it continued! oh yes, and GREG HYLAND IS THE COOLEST ARTIST EVER!! i met him at bf03, and talked with him much, and i respected him both as a fellow artist (i do (...) (20 years ago, 26-Feb-04, to lugnet.lego, lugnet.general, lugnet.org, FTX)
| | | Re: AFOLs - The comic!
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| (...) I don't know how humorous non-AFOL's would find it, but I was ROFLMAO!!! My favourite was the birthday gift one ("it burns ussss"), and the plural "LEGOS". I was just busting a gut. Great work guys. I love it. There were a few errors; pg.6, (...) (20 years ago, 26-Feb-04, to lugnet.lego, lugnet.general, lugnet.org)
| | | Re: AFOLs - The comic! ideas
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| (...) Jake, I like the comic. I think it is a good idea. Whilst reading it, I thought of a few more strip ideas: A AFOL meeting a family, and having more to talk about with the 8 year old kid than with the parents. Sigfigs (minifigs that look like (...) (20 years ago, 26-Feb-04, to lugnet.lego, lugnet.general, lugnet.org)
| | | Re: AFOLs - The comic!
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| (...) Just quote price and availability, and bring some (enough!) to 1000steineland in Berlin. Pre-orders? Bulk-orders for user groups? (...) First of all: Great stuff. The repeats and spelling mistakes have already been mentioned, so I skip that. (...) (20 years ago, 26-Feb-04, to lugnet.lego, lugnet.general, lugnet.org)
| | | Re: AFOLs - The comic!
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| "Jake McKee" <jacob.mckee@america.lego.com> wrote in message news:HtnwFt.qC@lugnet.com... (...) thoughts on (...) Jake & Greg, this is great work. And I'm sure it will go a long way towards describing the AFOL community to your colleagues at LEGO. (...) (20 years ago, 26-Feb-04, to lugnet.lego, lugnet.general, lugnet.org)
| | | Re: AFOLs - The comic!
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| (...) (snip) (...) This is a great segway tool Jake...if this was circulated in an effective manner and to the right audience, I think the results would be excellent for the community and the company. This new turn towards 'back to basics' and (...) (20 years ago, 26-Feb-04, to lugnet.lego, lugnet.general, lugnet.org, FTX)
| | | Re: AFOLs - The comic!
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| (...) Thanks Jake, This brought smiles and smirks to my face, and considering I've never been to a Brickfest, and haven't seen the new grey, that's an accomplishment. Thanks, George (20 years ago, 26-Feb-04, to lugnet.lego, lugnet.general, lugnet.org, FTX)
| | | Re: AFOLs - The comic!
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| (...) I love the comics. I think they are well drawn and cute. They can really help to get the point across about adults and LEGO. The megaBlXXks one was very funny. I am, however, rather offended that the artist feels it funny to joke about the (...) (20 years ago, 26-Feb-04, to lugnet.lego, lugnet.general, lugnet.org, FTX)
| | | Re: AFOLs - The comic!
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| (...) These are great!!! I saw a reflection of myself, as well as many people I know in the community on this comic. The "issue" with the new gray was ver, very funny. Can't wait to see the final product, not to mention more new strips. Excellent (...) (20 years ago, 26-Feb-04, to lugnet.lego, lugnet.general, lugnet.org, FTX)
| | | Re: AFOLs - The comic!
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| (...) LOL - very funny stuff and a lot of it hits home - a little TOO close to home actually. Is there an AFOL 12 step program somewhere? (...) Here is where I am supposed to say "Don't quit your day job." ;-) Bob (20 years ago, 26-Feb-04, to lugnet.lego, lugnet.general, lugnet.org, FTX)
| | | Re: AFOLs - The comic!
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| (...) Like those Christian 'comics' with little morality plays and a sermon at the end? I don't think I'd like that. A comic should be just that - comical. The effort should be put primarily into making it funny. (...) Hey greg. You're cool. (...) I (...) (20 years ago, 27-Feb-04, to lugnet.lego, lugnet.general, lugnet.org, FTX)
| | | Re: AFOLs - The comic!
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| (...) Jake, I consider myself a AFOL "Sleeper". Perhaps The Lego Company should concentrate their efforts in developing better designed products rather than comic books. If so you would definitely wake me up from a very long Lego snooze. Recent Lego (...) (20 years ago, 27-Feb-04, to lugnet.lego, lugnet.general, lugnet.org, FTX)
| | | Re: AFOLs - The comic!
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| (...) (sneep) (...) (snoop) (...) Man, I wish I also got in on the ground floor marrying two my big interests: LEGO and cartooning...but Greg is really awesome and this project is looking fantastic! I identify with this characters very easily, and (...) (20 years ago, 28-Feb-04, to lugnet.lego, lugnet.general, lugnet.org, FTX)
| | | Re: AFOLs - The comic!
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| Jake, I think the comic is great. I had a really good laugh at a few of the strips. Even though the colour change is a bit of a stinging point with me, I found myself reacting very positively to the strips. Humour is a wonderful tool. As you (...) (20 years ago, 29-Feb-04, to lugnet.lego, lugnet.general, lugnet.org, FTX)
| | | Re: AFOLs - The comic!
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| (...) Hey Jake, I responded more to the content of the comic in a thread over on FBTB, but just to give a personal testamony, for me it was Cool LEGO Site of the Week that got me out my dark ages, just seeing all the things that AFOLs were building. (...) (20 years ago, 1-Mar-04, to lugnet.lego, lugnet.general, lugnet.org, FTX)
| | | Re: AFOLs - The comic!
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| Thank you for providing us, the AFOL community a chance to review your internal comic. Overall, I believe that it does a good job of explaining us to its originally intended audience. One concern I do have regarding the eventual distribution to the (...) (20 years ago, 1-Mar-04, to lugnet.lego, lugnet.general, lugnet.org, FTX)
| | | Re: AFOLs - The comic!
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| This is a great series of comics!!! It takes a bit too long in the introduction of each word perhaps, but all the jokes are so spot on it's not a major issue. And it's for everyone else anyways. I was rolling reading these! And yes, I even thought (...) (20 years ago, 2-Mar-04, to lugnet.lego, lugnet.general, lugnet.org, FTX)
| | | Re: AFOLs - The comic!
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| Well I don't post (or even lurk) here all that much anymore, and I don't even know what the PDX thing was Jake wrote about, but I just looked through the PDF file and thought it was absolutely great. Nicely done, Jake! Lou Zucaro lou@pause.com (...) (20 years ago, 19-Mar-04, to lugnet.lego, lugnet.general, lugnet.org, FTX)
| | | Re: AFOLs - The comic!
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| Loved the comic, the expressions and everything are so real. My only comment is that there are no female lego collectors in the comic. The females are either working or being very supportive of their lego enthusiast boyfriend. Maybe the pirate (...) (20 years ago, 25-Mar-04, to lugnet.lego, lugnet.general, lugnet.org, FTX)
| | | Re: AFOLs - The comic!
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| (...) Hilarious, great stuff - and it helped this recently awakened AFOL understand the scene a little better, too, which is part of your goal, right? Thanks for the peek - looking forward to more. (12 years ago, 9-Jun-04, to lugnet.lego, lugnet.general, lugnet.org, FTX)
| | | Re: AFOLs - The comic!
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| (...) Jake, Hi. Way to go on AFOLs - the comic! You and Greg did a tremendous job on this first edition. I just got my printed copy from an AFOL friend of mine and I laughed out loud at the turn of every page. I saw a little or A LOT of myself in (...) (20 years ago, 31-Aug-04, to lugnet.lego, lugnet.general, lugnet.org, FTX)
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