Mind Control Comics Forum

We're super-excited to announce that we have released the Beyond Rubies Omnibus! (https://mindcontrolcomics.com/special/beyond_rubies_omnibus) The complete run of Beyond Rubies, plus much more!

Nearly 300 pages, including:

• All 17 issues of Beyond Rubies.
• The various Beyond Rubies bonuses and other stories collected together for the first time.
• All of the additional pinups, supplements, and other ephemera.
• New pinups and a complete illustrated story by Daphne exclusive to this volume!
• Only $29.99, or only $9.99 for Mind Control Comics members… be sure to log in before buying!

Ooooh! I'll definitely be picking this up.

Also, come on.  You could have called it "Omnibust" Edition. That's an easy one  ;D

Its awesome but i have one (and only) complain. I think you can add chapters to the left side menu. It will be much easier to read and watch.

Really good stuff.  Some of the between chapter art looks to be new, or at least new to me. I recognized some of them :D

The new illustrated story at the end was a nice extra as well.

One technical issue worth mentioning:

Page 122 in the Omnibus
Originally Issue 8, page 11 here (https://mindcontrolcomics.com/comics/beyond_rubies/i08/p11)

The bottom and right side of this page are cut off in the Omnibus edition.

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And not so much a technical issue, but the Omnibus might be a good chance to correct this if you have the option.  

Omnibus page 42:
The first time Laura shows up, she's referred to as 'Ms. Rampling', but all subsequent times that her last name is mentioned that I could see, it is 'Hess'.

(The re-read reminded me that start to finish, Laura is probably my favourite of HMB's designs of the Ruby girls...though Janice is up there and I love seeing those two in scenes together.  A particular favourite outfit/hair combination with Laura begins in issue 15, where she has her hair up in one of HMB's signature styles, but with bits of it spilling loose, though they're all great :D)

A new version is up that fixes that page issue (thanks!) and adds bookmarks.

Regarding Laura's last name, that's canon now: Her married name was Rampling, but now that she's divorced, she's back to her unmarried name of Hess. That's our story, and we're sticking to it. :-)

Awesome!  Thanks Daphne :D

lol, new canon background details are always fun.  I also would have accepted "Anytime you notice something like that, a Ruby did it."  ;)

Really cool, can I ask how long the new story is, and is the artwork by the original artist? Thanks.

Five pages (ten illustrations total). The line art is by HMB, and the coloring by PortalComic.

Now that I've been mulling this in the back of my head today, I have to hope that if the team ever decides to follow up on the 'Sapphire' cliffhanger at the end of Beyond Rubies, we'll get to meet Laura's ex-wife and see her get Rubied (or Sapphired) too ;)

Funny thing I noticed because of the re-read.  I had for some reason though Elaine and Gabby had the same job, or that Gabby was in charge.  She definitely seems to be the more 'take-charge' of the two once they'd been Rubied.

But looking through the cast list thread (https://forum.mindcontrolcomics.com/index.php?topic=937.15), I saw that it was the reverse. Their pre-Ruby outfits and appearances kind of make sense for that too, since I think Elaine is just walking by Gabby's cubicle in their first appearance. Her outfit seems a bit more like something a manager would wear.

I think I maybe had that impression because Gabby seems to be leading the two once they actually start working on taking the Rubies offline, counter-programming, etc. That kind of makes sense though, if Gabby is the active QA/programmer, and Elaine had that background, but was in management at that point.

Doesn't make much of a difference to the story overall.  Just thought it was neat :D

Is this a physical book?

No, it's a download.

I know the odds are teeny-tiny, but I'd love a physical version some day.

I would gladly cough up $75 for a hardcopy of this masterpiece, and $150 for a glossy hardcover edition.

What does the Sistine Chapel version cost (https://youtu.be/uluzhmkw66A?t=157)?

The biggest problem is that we have pages scattered throughout in two different orientations, making it a bit tricky to print…

I've got it!  The Beyond Rubies Pop-Up Book Special Edition!  Lots of possibilities there...

There's always the option they used for a lot of older manga: cut the panels out of the page and reshuffle them to the desired orientation. Not ideal, but as long as we're pipe-dreaming about a physical copy, may as well mention the option.

I hesitated about purchasing this as I had all the episodes and extras that had come out in the past but I'm glad I did: it's really well (and artistically) put together with some great extras. Looks fantastic on a tablet! Thanks so much for doing it.