Hi Gang!
It’s been too long since we last talked and for that I’m sorry. 2015 had some horrendous events for me and my family that kept derailing my work on the comic. I won’t get into the sordid details but it was real rough. 2016 with it’s renewed hope threw me yet another curveball – getting laid off from the day job. Ugh. But we’ve all had ups and downs but we’ve got to pick ourselves up, brush ourselves off, and carry on. Which brings me to The Graveyard Gang.
With 4 issues under my belt, I’ve been working on Issue 5 (when I could) but this past year has given me pause to the path of comic. Selling my comic at Cons has gone very well overall but watching my primary audience, kids, I noticed they don’t tend to buy lots of comic books. They love the comic format for reading stories but they tend to like them in paperback/hardcover graphic novel book form. And parents seem much more willing to plunk done money for a paperback/hardcover for their kids over comic books. Maybe it’s a durability thing? Persived value?
From a financial viewpoint, selling my single issue comics at $5 a pop meant I had to sell a huge amount to make Con table costs and a small profit. The comics, which look great, thanks to printing help from my wife Monica, cost about $2.50 per comic. So unless I can manage to sell thousands, making any kind of serous money is next to impossible. So what to do, what to do?
After much deliberating I came up with a new plan.
1. Issues 1-4 will be collected, with some new material, into a trade paperback. I hope to launch a Kickstarter to accomplish this.
2. Shifting the Gang’s adventures to graphic novels. My original plan for Issues 5 and 6 of the comic book will be combined and expanded into an original graphic novel. I’m going to try and get an agent and a publisher. (Wish me luck!) I have so many stories to tell, hopefully someday I can afford an artist assist to bring them all to life!
3. So what about the website? I will still be putting up new content online but it’ll be more comic strip style along with some shorter adventures. This is where I’ll introduce the new characters you see in the teaser image I created. Stay ‘tooned’ as I bring their antics to life, I hope you’ll like them!
So again, thanks you so much for your patience, I hope you’ll find it rewarded by what’s to come!
Rich, old buddy, I missed you so much! Great to have you back! Spring has sprung…or has it? We had heavy snow all day Sunday and Monday! Crazy, right? Let me know when that Kickstarter goes live, and I’ll be right there with a pledge. I wish you good luck, and good webcomics. 😀
Thanks so much Pal, it’s great to BE back! I hope after waiting so long for new comics you’ll like what I have coming up! Like I said, the site will have more gag-a-day type comics and short little stories. The Gang’s adventures so far are more plot driven so I want to do some character-building stuff, online and even in an expanded 150ish page graphic novel format.
I like where this is heading!
Thanks Pat! I appreciate you checking in!