I’m currently aiming to get Multiplex: Book 2 (not the final title, of course) ready for Summer 2012. That may or may not change, of course.
I’m not currently planning on including a long, exclusive story like the Prequel in Book 1, but there will be at least 25 pages of new material interspersed between the five chapters (6 through 10) included in the collection, some of which might be exclusive to the print collection.
Since Multiplex takes place in real time and generally update twice a week, I occasionally have to paint the story in relatively broad strokes. And, unfortunately, sometimes a story thread gets lost in the shuffle. It happens.
For Book 1, I used much of the new material to flesh out Devi and Gretchen, strengthening the narrative in the process, although it still lacks an overriding thrust over the course of the book. But adding a few finer brush strokes to the book, I think, adds a bit more dimension to the characters than you get from just the archives.
Book 2, on the other hand, has a stronger narrative in that it’s centered around Jason and Becky for chapters 6–8 and, in some ways, Jason’s absence in chapters 9 and 10 (although the book ends happily, with Jason returning to the theater).
So, like I did in Book 1, I’ll be using the bonus comics to expand on things between the characters — in chapters 6–8, between Jay and Becky, as well as Jason and Devi’s break-up. And in 9 & 10, I’ll be expanding on things in and out of the Multiplex 10 during the period where Jason had quit working at the theater.
To that end, if there’s a story thread from this period that you’d like a little more neatly tied up, or a movie you’d like me to touch on — basically, a deleted scene you’d like see added into the extended edition — feel free to make a suggestion! I, of course, reserve the right to disagree with you, since it’s my comic. ;)
(Please keep the suggestions to the range of strips included in Book 2: numbers 103 through 216 (November 2006 – March 2008). If you’d like to look up what movies came out in that time frame, ComingSoon.net’s release calendar is always a valuable tool; you just need to manually edit the URLs to find older dates.)