Nexus: The Coming of Gourmando
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To the Exceptional People who continue to support NEXUS
Five years ago, Rude Dude Productions reintroduced something that the world of publishing had thought virtually extinct; the full-page Sunday newspaper adventure strip. For a while, I’ve been asking, “What happened to the American comic strip?” Reduced almost microscopically by the 1970’s, I’ve wondered the same. So, with no one limiting us but ourselves, we began adapting the award-winning Nexus comic book into a Sunday newspaper strip. With over 100 individual strips drawn on 13” x 19” bristol, we printed these new Nexus adventures, four strips at a time, to the exact size of an actual newspaper. For subscribers, we mailed them directly to your front doors.
Though the strips have been finished before we even began printing, the paper itself lasted only 7 issues. With the many strips that never saw print, we’re happy to finally announce that the entirety of these Nexus strips will now be published in one massive collection, which we’re offering in two ways:
1. As an oversized Deluxe Hardcover
2. And in the traditional-sized Trade Paperback
Those of you who subscribed to the Nexus comic strip when they were released in 2016, hopefully saw something more than just an exciting read and old-style service. It was the return to something that people hadn’t seen since the 1950’s. For 60 years, everyone from Wall-Streeters to Dust-Bowlers looked forward to the Sunday comics section, and every newspaper stand in America and around the world carried it.
WHY THE COMIC STRIP FORMAT?
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How many of you miss the simple excitement from these bygone years, and wished it would return? As two creators that entered the comic field in 1981, publisher and artist Steve Rude, along with partner and Nexus creator Mike Baron, wanted to move our industry forward by returning to something that made the popularity of comics what it was. It was time for someone to revive the excitement of the Adventure strips, and we’d begin by adapting it to our longtime creation Nexus.
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Other than a few tried and true strips of yesteryear, such as Prince Valiant and the Phantom, the full page format that comic strips once enjoyed doesn’t exist. The syndicates that still own them have little interest in promoting anything old or new.
Far Side creator, Gary Larson, when asked about the enjoyment people got from reading his zany strip, once told us, "Well, it's not like the people who draw comic strips are curing cancer or anything."
For a long time, I thought about what Larson had said. Here’s my conclusion:
While everyone goes through their daily paces, dealing with everything life throws at us, there are still things, often during the briefest passing moments, that might still considered miraculous. Anything that might temporarily lift our spirits, help us forget life’s trials, and give us a chance to dream again. Along with that might be having something to look forward to.
The weekly comic strip adventures of Nexus is our humble offering to that belief. For those subscribers who wanted to know how the story finally ends, or to the many who have been reading it online at Patreon.com/steverude, these strips are now available.
Look for the Nexus adventure strips now in deluxe hardcover and those always popular TPB’s.
Into the light and forward to the future,
Steve Rude
Artist and publisher Steve Rude
2 comments
Brian,
The Gourmando series is currently up for presale at https://nexus-gourmando.backerkit.com. When the physical books are in house the overstock will be available for sale.
The book is also going to be published by Dark Horse Comics, though with a much reduced page count over the Kickstarter version.
I know it is in bad taste but will your Deluxe graphic novel be in your online store after the Kickstarter has run it’s course. Will not have the disposable funds until after the Kickstarter has ended. Thank you.