Hail to the Victors: The Story, The Stories, and The Sponsors Comment Count

Seth

Somewhere in Ohio right now is a printer watching helplessly as thousands of beaming Denards drain their most expensive ink pots. They are Buckeyes, and acted like total Buckeyes at times, probably because to a Buckeye a few months of going to bed with this image on your mind is excruciating:

HTTV2012cover

You are not a Buckeye, and therefore to you it is beautiful. It is Hail to the Victors 2012. It's 8 1/2 inches wide, 10 3/4 inches tall (a good bit larger than HTTVs of yesteryear), and 128 pages long. It is a production of MGoBlog. MGoBlog staffers wrote it, edited it, produced it, published it, and took most of the photos in it. Our regular apparel partner, Underground Printing, is the one distributing it. More importantly, MGoBlog readers supported it through an astoundingly generous response to our KickStarter campaign. There are no ads in it (this time), just a sponsor page at the end to recognize the folks most responsible for this book existing longer than the company that used to publish it.

You can have it. It's $12.50 plus shipping (I think that's $3.00 EDIT: S&H is $4.99 and tax is $1.05, so $18.54 total to get it mailed) and will be put in mailboxes starting June 30. There are plenty to go around. Consume!

Here's how it happened: By about last August last year, frustrated that the old publishers still hadn't paid us or the rest of the contributors for the 2011 book, I approached Brian with the concept of taking HTTV indie. I've been in the publishing business and Brian never lost the contacts that made HTTV a flagship series since 2007. We figured how many copies we sold in years previous, what it would cost to produce it ourselves, and whether we could, at minimum, afford to cover our expenses plus pay back last year's contributors for last year. That concept became deadly serious when it turned out the reason the old publisher wasn't paying anybody was because they were folding.

The Kickstarter was Brian's idea. It took some time for us to come up with a number, finally settling on $20,000, a little less than half of our projected expenses ($44k – which turned out to be close enough), figuring if we have enough to cover up-front expenses we can sell enough to make up the rest; if we raised less, oh well it wasn't going to happen. The kickstart was finally posted in late March. This is when the thing went from omigod I hope our wives are cool with five-figure debt, to omigod you guys! You guys, who committed to your copies so fast if I didn't know better I'd think Mattison was telling you it'll make you a Baltimore Raven. In a day we met our funding goal. In two days we'd doubled it. In a week we had broken even on the whole thing. In the end you did this:

httvkickstarter …!

I'll save you the details of what came next, except to say captioning is like trying to write the great American novel using Twitter, and there was a point when we realized every article was 25% too short because our page size had changed. Also there are two typos that will haunt me forever, and a few Easter eggs for longtime MGoReaders to find.

Here's what you bought yourself, by which I mean here's a preview of what we put in this actual physical book which you can own and put on the coffee table or bathroom rack or read on planes and other places cheap Internet cannot travel:

SECTIONS:

  • LETTER FROM THE EDITOR by Brian Cook. Non-randomly selected words/phrases from the last sentence of each paragraph: Real Talk, fergodsakes, millennium, dysfunctional, song.
  • THE TEAM, THE TEAM, THE TEAM, by Brian. A 30-page, position-by-position look at the 133rd Michigan Football squad, with depth charts, last year's stats, predictions, and a few record books that might be rewritten this year.
  • RECRUITS TO KNOW, by Brian. Doesn't include some of the guys who made it into the position previews. Ojemudia's laser eyes are tame when compared to those of RJS. It was short on space so if you don't like anything from Ringer to Houma, that was me.
  • THE ENEMY, THE ENEMY, THE ENEMY, by Jerry Hinnen of CBS Sports, and MGoBlog's Ace Anbender (Notre Dame) and Heiko Yang (Ohio State). This is a 24-page, team-by-team preview of the 2012 schedule, with extra pages devoted to rivals (not you, Minnesota) and other big games (not you, Illinois). For OSU I enlisted editing assistance from Ramzy Nasrallah of Eleven Warriors, who set us straight on a few things and was ignored on others. Unfortunately Brian's intro page had to be cut from this so maybe we'll post that later.

those who stood FEATURES:

  • TULIPS, REAL ESTATE … SEASON TICKETS, by Michael Elkon of Braves & Birds looks at Michigan's rising ticket prices and donation demands versus a home spate that sees every directional MAC school more often than Wisconsin or Penn State, and poses the obvious: where does the bubble burst?
  • SOME OF PART OF THE OTHER SIDE OF THE STORY, SORT OF, by Craig Ross is a response to John Bacon's Three and Out and the closest we'll probably ever come to a Lloyd-angle view of those events.
  • THOSE WHO STOOD, by Seth Fisher, is my saccharine retelling of the careers of Team 132's most prominent seniors while assessing their ultimate place in Michigan history.
  • CONFIDENCE MAN, by Chris Brown of Smart Football and Grantland takes us into the mind of a Mattison to discover how, over the course of one season, he managed to turn Michigan's defense into a Michigan defense (TM), by focusing on playing Michigan's defense.
  • PREDICTING PERFORMACE by The Mathlete of MGoBlog uses the best predictors known to stats to guess at the performance of M's 2012 offense, defense, and overall difficulty of the entire schedule.
  • FOURTH DOWN AND NOWHERE TO GO by jamiemac of Just Cover Blog is a discussion on the astounding level of play Michigan got last year on its 3rd and 4th and short situations, how this was secretly just as important as turnovers in how the season went, and whether it's repeatable for 2012.
  • HARRY WHO AND '32 by Greg Dooley of MVictors takes us back to Gerald Ford's sophomore season, a time when the NCAA made as much sense as the Big Ten's postseason priorities, and an athletic little quarterback named Harry Newman led the Wolverines to a National Championship.
  • THE HUMAN HURRICANE: FIELDING YOST is a long excerpt from John Kryk's next book. The book is on the Point-a-Minute dynasty; the article is the part about how Yost got to be the man who made it.

ETC:

  • HAIL TO THE ROUNDTABLE between Cook, Fisher, Ross, and Dooley discusses the current staff, the defensive turnaround, breakout players, Hokeisms, fusion cuisine, and 2012 predictions.
  • COMIC SECTION: CHARLIE'S FIRST MICHIGAN GAME by Six Zero of The Blockhams

Plus the roster that was sent to print before I could confirm Gardner's # change was the real deal, and a cover and back cover and section images designed by MonuMental, and a table of contents that I wrote and sent off before I realized we could add 4 more pages and thus which erroneously says the Sponsors Page is on the inside back cover when it's actually just the last right-side page of the book. And the Sponsor Page. About that…

SPONSORS:

bending overbackwards

Upchurch | Because they bent over backwards, get it?

The following appear in the back of the book (not on the inside back cover like it says in the table of contents) for going far beyond a pre-order and a t-shirt during the HTTV Kickstarter. If you know any of these folk you should walk up to them at a socially awkward moment and sing Muppets in celebration of them (don't do this):

Temptation Level:

816 Hill ~Class of 2002 Jonathan Giroux Ken Mickey
Andy and Ken Anbender David Glasser Mike Curtis Agency-
Farm Bureau Insurance
Zac Barry John Granger Milty
Alexander Bash Nikki Guglielmo Edward Mitchell
Joe Beaulieu Jason G Heitman Mike O’Byrne
Jeff Becker Kirk Hemmen Paul
Scott Bishop Greg Henchel Pharker
Jonathan Borman Steve Higgs Jeffrey M. Raab, LSA ‘96
Brooks Drew Hill Walt and Connie Reebel
Ben Davis and Peter F. Holland Josh Rockey
Christie Brown Tom Hoover Joshua Ruland
Cory S. Brown Kyle Hubbard Safran Family
David Callahan Nathan Isenberg Brad Schafer
Brian W. Callahan William and Claire L. David Schenk III
Carey Family Johnson Brian Shull
Scott Childers Captain Cory Kastl/
Cadet Garrett Kastl
Damian P. Silver
Michael Cromwell Andrew Kim Frederick Cogswell
Jerry Current Matt Kramer Simmons IV
Matt Duane Donald J. Kunz Malcolm T. Simpson
Eric Dunn Adam Lanseur Bo Snyder
Chris Eagle Kevin “ILL” Legel Hariharan Sundram
Joseph Eichhorn Matt Lenhoff Ben Swihart
Epic Win Apparel Mark Liinamaa Jeff Taepke
A. Espinoza-Diaz, CoE ‘98 The Linn Family Jeff Timberlake
Joseph Fix Lud, LSA ‘05 Jason Tolbert
Dana S. Fletcher Kelly Lytle Trueblueintexas
Will Fluharty Greg Macklem Bill Weiner
Alan M. French Evan Makela Eric M Wilfong
Crew Gary Bob Manza Rahul Yaratha
anonymous Nicholas Marshall  

Hawaiian War Chant Level (they gave more, and thus get quotes):

Arthur: Harbaugh, you owe my brother $25.00.
Jeff Baiocchi: Go Blue!
Michael A Barton: F--- the bigger boat! Get more ice and rye, a lot of rye, Drapers coming over.
Matt Candler: Go Blue!
Dahman Law: Dahman Law, unabashedly supporting the legal and blogging interests of Wolverines all across enemy territory, and soon in Michigan. Check us out at dahmanlaw.com.
Jonathan Gaines: “Dad, is it weird that I pity Sparty more than I hate Ohio?”-teenage daughter after 2011 Big Ten Football Championship game. -WFBlue
Michael Hacker: Hacker Bros. BBQ. You can’t drink all day if you don’t start in the morning.
Don Hubbard: Go Blue!
Scott Jacobs: S. Jacobs LSA ‘92
Bob Kennedy: Go Blue!
Jerome Lim: Go Blue!
Jamie MacMillian: JustCoverBlog.Com, providing college and pro football commentary, breakdowns and analysis since 2009. Your 2012 football season wont
be the same without us on your reading list
Jonathan McDonald: I firmly believe this publication will equip Michigan fans with an unprecedented decided schematic advantage. Go Blue!
JP: JP Gaztambide... Puerto Rico en la casa. VAMOS BLUE!!!
Steve Reynolds: Keep that UM fandom growing, Angela!!

Some additional names need to be mentioned here. Courtney Fathers of CorkBoards, our art monkey who held out hope of actually sleeping in the month of May way longer than we thought she would. Eric Upchurch, who provided most of the photographs for the book, and who blew most of what we paid him on special equipment he believes can capture the entirety of a Denard smile without the glare. To other contributing photographers in order of appearance: Drew Hoover of Bama's student newspaper, the Crimson White, Communications Specialist 1st Class Chad McNeeley of the U.S. Air Force, the University of Notre Dame Athletics Department, Shotgun Spratling of Neon Tommy, Daryl Quintaig of Illinois student newspaper The Daily Illini, Mark Boomgaard of Spartannation.com, Derek Tam of NU Intel, "Proud Buckeye" James D. DeCamp, and the University of Michigan Bentley Library. And a special thank you to the players, coaches, staff and fans of 133 Michigan football teams for remaining steadfastly worthy of so much ink.

We're going to try again next year, probably with another Kickstarter, wholesale distribution, interior ads, and I expect 1,000% more Devin Gardner.

Comments

schreibee

June 19th, 2012 at 12:14 PM ^

Fuckface to a MGoBlog reader just tryin to hep out?
Oh wait... you work for that ohio printer right!?
You don't want Brian, Seth, or any of the readers to learn of this createspace Willhouse speak of huh?!

Seth

June 19th, 2012 at 2:30 PM ^

I took the thread off so I could converse with the guy by email, as much to delete my own comments as his, since I didn't think it was fair to his company to have a blogger explaining why we're a terrible fit for him. No malice.

For future reference though if anyone ever has a business suggestion for MGo, email Brian and he'll forward on to me.

ScruffyTheJanitor

June 19th, 2012 at 8:31 AM ^

and I am so excited, especially since this and Scoop by Evelyn Waugh are my reading materials for a cruise I am going on. Also, please bring back the Kickstarter next year: I will gladly donate my 15- 20 dollars again (Grad school), get the discount, and read read read.

Thanks to all the writers from this site and others for making me excitied about a print publication once again-- something which I don't think I have experienced since I were in high school.

Yostal

June 19th, 2012 at 8:34 AM ^

Oh my goodness, I'm doing the Homer Chili Dance looking at that list of articles.  And I thought Steelemas was the greatest of the summer college football holidays.  Hail!

Also, yes, please bring back the Kickstarter next year.  It was a great thing to see that total blaze through the finish line like Denard on a broken play.

jamiemac

June 19th, 2012 at 8:44 AM ^

Looking good....except is my name really going to be spelled wrong? Again?

I should change permanently to just jamie mac.....

And I agree w/ Yostal. The article roster sounds great. Looking forward to reading it and finding those easter eggs. I have loved the history pieces in the past and sounds like I will love them again.

Thorin

June 19th, 2012 at 8:45 AM ^

Is it possible to ship a copy to CRex and have the sisters hand deliver it to me in Korea? Failing that, is there any way to purchase a digital copy?

GoWings2008

June 19th, 2012 at 9:25 AM ^

Going to Japan and Korea, they'll probably be on the same plane on the way over.  And unless MGoBlog Shipping, Inc. has issues sending to APOs, you should be fine.  The address (zip code) is technically California, so I don't think its any additional cost to Brian.

CRex

June 19th, 2012 at 10:41 AM ^

There is likely a typeset PDF floating around somewhere.  Or some collection of Satan's spawn, I mean InDesign, files.  The trick would be getting it under somekind of DRM so people couldn't distribute it freely.

Or I guess since this material is kind of time sensitive, maybe just toss the PDF up at some point and ask for donations on the honors system if you download it.  As cool as HTTV is, it isn't like I'll buy a 2012 copy in 2013.

Seth

June 19th, 2012 at 10:37 AM ^

If you're in Ann Arbor you should be able to purchase a copy at UGP directly. The post office does ask a sizeable cut, but much of that S&H is UGP's fare for handling. I'm a sworn enemy of "hidden fees" as much as the next guy but if anyone outside of production or editorial deserves something it's Underground Printing. This is all they're getting for it, and they're holding all of these issues and shipping them in 7,000 different directions, and eating all sorts of extra costs -- for them it's exposure and the good will of MGoBloggers, and the hopes you'll buy a t-shirt or something while you're looking around.

As for the Post office, their fees are ridiculous for this sort of thing. Every time they think they need more money because people are mailing fewer things, they up the price again on commercial publications, doing their part to kill off the last thing people get in their mailboxes they actually want.

M-Wolverine

June 19th, 2012 at 10:44 AM ^

...what does an envelope package usually cost to mail to Korea? Could you have it shipped to someone you know in the US, then have them just mail it to you at a cheaper shipping rate?  Not saying this is a solution...don't know.

Edit: Nevermind...USPS seems to want $38 for their large priority envelope to Korea.

Feat of Clay

June 19th, 2012 at 10:52 AM ^

Seems like for $30 in shipping someone who loves you ought to just make up a bigger package and include something non-perishable from Zingermans in there too.  What else can't you get in Korea that you miss terribly?  I mean, for serious, I would do this for you and we're not even related.  As far as I know.

CRex

June 19th, 2012 at 10:30 AM ^

Shipping is likely cheaper than what it costs to get Little Sister to do something.  You'd be on the hook for something Gucci at the mininum level.  It goes up from there.  

Plus you'd have to wait six months or so, we just flew to Korea in may and my bank account was sucked dry by the airlines.  So it would take me awhile to get to Korea and hand it off to LS.  

CRex

June 19th, 2012 at 11:14 AM ^

OS is married and has a kid, so LS is the only one on the market.  I get in enough trouble for talking to the doumi girls, I don't need to take it up a notch.  

I know we have some other Koreans around here, we could arrange some kind of bulk shipping if people want in on this though.  

M-Wolverine

June 19th, 2012 at 11:31 AM ^

Considering that she's always out partying with CRex and models, and there's never any mention of a husband, it was an easy assumption to make. And she sounded just as cute, but in a less Ohio State head tilting fan way than LS.

TrppWlbrnID

June 19th, 2012 at 10:26 AM ^

is tribute not only to Michigan sports fans, but to the product that brian and the rest of the MGoStaff put together every day. i would gladly have donated 2 or 3 times as much as i did, and will be hitting that beveled guilt went it comes back.

thisisme08

June 19th, 2012 at 9:11 AM ^

I am kinda disapointed Tacopants was not a Temptation level donor...

 

That said; I'm excited for this mag and even more so of the community for stepping up when needed.