I finally got my shit together and printed up a new batch of these suckers. These ones have slightly less awesome cover paper, and are a new black and white line art design instead of the old color painting… HOWEVER: I am hand-painting all of them. Still $5! And you can request colors on your order! Apologies for those of you who’ve ordered them in the last couple weeks — yours will be going out ASAP.
Indie comics favorite John Isaacson and Henry Chamberlain at Newsarama both listed Nine Gallons on their Tops of 2009 lists. Chamberlain even called it “brilliant”! Whaaaat!?
I think I’ll publish a second issue even though I swore I’d never do another legal-sized comic again (those things are expensive). This is causing some awkward rewriting but I think it’ll be worth it, as it’s more of the ethics and conflict chapter after the introduction. However! There won’t be a third issue, mainly because the first and second issues are taking a lot of things out of order and a third issue wouldn’t make any sense. Pro tip: don’t ever write slice-of-life comics with delicate, overwrought bell-curve narratives that sorely depend on delicate, overwrought senses of timing without clearly rendered chapter endings and then try to chop them up into self-publishable chunks. (Chances are you haven’t and won’t have this problem but just thought I’d share.) So I’m aiming for #2 to be done for Stumptown if not the Anarchist Book Fair in March! And if no one wants to publish the book then the continuation of the Great Recession into 2010 will have to be enough real-life first-person awful shit for you, I’m sorry.
Also, if you’ve ordered a copy of #1, I’m reprinting a new crop with a new hand-watercolored cover next week, along with a new This is What Concerns Me. I know I’ve been leading you on with promises of new comics these past weeks but they’re happening, they just haven’t become acquainted with my scanner just yet… Yet!
So I didn’t get the Xeric grant to publish Nine Gallons as the 96-page paperback book I’d like to. I’m not sure how I feel about the Kickstarter business plan (especially since I’ve already got a Spot.Us project in the works, and one should only have so many hats on the ground) — so I was wondering what my readers might suggest for a next step? Would you like to see the second chapter of Nine Gallons as a minicomic? (The story is kind of disjointed so this would require some storytelling finesse that I’m not sure I have.) Would you prefer to see the whole book by the end of 2010? And if the latter, um, know anyone with about $2500 they’d be willing to part with to publish it?
This seems like kind of an odd public request, but this book takes on some pretty odd subject matter, and I’d really like to get some feedback as to how salable it may or may not be. And FYI, spoiler alert, I don’t draw myself nude or in underwear at any point in the rest of the book, so take that fact into consideration in your answer.
And then I shall reward you all with some new downer This is What Concerns Mes!
It’s been so long since I did one of these that I forgot to compensate for the Flickr wash-out with my watercolors, so it’s a little light ‘n bright. Two more on the drawing board, then I can finally get to some TIWCM updates.
You might know that for the last few months I’ve been hard at work on a big article for a big-ish publisher. This week I found out how much that publisher is going to be paying me… So, to make a long story short, I’m selling originals! All the pages from my minicomics are up for grabs (though some are less Photoshopped than others), as are the Israel diary comics originals (two to a page, or I can cut them down). Or if anyone wanted to commission something, I’d be more than happy to do that too. Get in touch for pricing, but I assure you that I’m pretty cheap. I’ll be posting a full list of pages available and prices soon on the Storefront page.
Also of note: Nine Gallons is temporarily sold out. Though I said I wouldn’t, I’m going to do a second run within the next couple weeks. These ones will still cost $5, but I’ll be painting each cover by hand. Yes, this is totally insane, but I can’t really afford to do another run with the color covers and I don’t want to just go black and white, so there you have it. You can still order them now and I’ll send them out as soon as I’ve got ‘em. If you just can’t wait, I think Microcosm still has a few of the old ones available. (And hey, while you’re over there, feel free to leave a nice comment about me! Or a mean one, whatever, measure it in inches and all that.)
Last three diary comics, plus a few deleted scenes are coming up within the next few days.
Me: It’s like Chicken Fucking Little over here. I’m planting my seeds and sifting my flour and no one’s around til I’m done baking my bread.
My mom: Um, it’s the Little Red Hen, dear.
Me: Oh. Well. Whatever.
My mom: (laughter) Chicken Little was the one who said the sky is falling.
Me: Oh the Little Red Hen had a pessimistic kid and everyone was surprised??
This will be a comic when I’m done with the diaries I’m sure. Four more, so keep your pants on! I know I am!
