Publish three comics in three months??!!
It’s sounds much more ambitious than it is. Dr. DeBunko will be 32 pages, and each Doris Danger book will be 16. So to start, that’s only two issues worth of pages.
I’ve got twenty-four completed pages of Dr. DeBunko stories that were already published in Tabloia, and five more from the two mini-comics I threw together for Soup-Con (Super-Con). That means, all I need is a cover, back cover, and one more two-page story. Then compile already-written letters about Dr. DeBunko from Tabloia, and throw together an ad, and I’ll be there. One issue completed. That’s easy.
As for the two sixteen-page Doris Danger comics. Long ago, I did a five-page story that I planned for Dick Ayers to ink. It was going to be in the sixth issue of Tabloia, but the comic was cancelled at number five. I never ended up sending Dick the pages, so all I would have to do was ink them myself. When I’d finished that, I threw together another four page story. Add to that, I’ve got ten pages worth of pin-ups – five pages per issue I can subtract from my drawing schedule. So that doesn’t leave much work to do by the end of the year.
With just a few pages of work, and some clean-up and coloring and laying-outs, it should be very doable. And along the way, I’m slowly getting more proficient with Photoshop.
Let me tell you about my day job as a guitar instructor. I now charge my students for four lessons a month. If there is a fifth Monday in the month, for example, we take that Monday off. I began this new policy in March (so my first month with the new policy, I immediately had a heavenly five-day weekend.) April had miraculously NO FIFTH DAYS, but this last weekend in May gave me another five-day drawing-spree. Between those two humongous weekends, I’ve managed to crank out some serious work, so I’m to the point I only need a Dr. DeBunko back cover, one monster cover and back cover, and six more monster pages. No problem, right? Right?
I had dinner with Wayne Jones, my former “business manager” for Salt Peter Press. I told him my plans for finishing out the year. I asked if he thought people would be able to read more than three Dr. DeBunko stories before they got sick of the predictable format. Because let’s face it, the Dr. DeBunko stories are just the same joke over and over again.
He said, Look at Danielle Steele. Look at Grisham.
I asked if he thought it was a bad idea, market-wise, to do basically an “only thirty-two page trade,” and tiny little pathetic 16-page comics. He made a suggestion. He said I should scrap all these ideas, forget drawing comics, and start an “advice and counseling agency” for aspiring comics guys. I’ll set up a phone number and have people call, and I’ll bill them $500 for advice. People can ask any advice about the comics industry, and how I can help them to make it in comics, and what I’ll do is, no matter what their question, I’ll shout in their ear, “THAT’S AN ABSOLUTELY STUPID IDEA! IT’S IDIOTIC! DON’T EVEN BOTHER WITH THAT HAIR-BRAINED THEORY! MY ADVICE TO YOU IS TO GIVE UP WITH THIS MORONIC DREAM OF GETTING INTO COMICS! THERE’S NO WAY TO MAKE ANY MONEY IN THIS INDUSTRY! FIND A REAL JOB! FIND SOMETHING WITH BENEFITS, THAT WILL HELP YOU PAY YOUR RENT AND GET YOU SOME FOOD! THAT’S MY ADVICE! NOW DO YOU WANT TO PAY BY CHECK OR CREDIT CARD?”
And of course this is this some sad, sick joke, because I’m beginning to wonder how anyone makes money in this industry. Nothing I’ve tried so far has done me any good in generating interest or additional sales.
That’s why I’m going to try and “flood the market” with three books in three months. My wife encouraged me to pound it out, hard and violently, right now, and for the next few months. Just get as much out there as I can, while I can, before my son Oscar arrives into this world and wipes out any hope of spare time I may have.