Early 2006
Here is what’s been going through my head with doing the comics self-publishing for the last month or so.
After WonderCon and enjoying a book with more pages and a higher cover price, I’ve been reluctantly thinking I may just have to stop doing single comics issues, and occasionally disappear from the comics scene every now and then for a year or so until I pump out bigger projects. But then have these nice, bigger, expensive books that will sell fewer copies but make better money with the higher cover prices. I’m resistant to this, because I love comics, and I don’t really enjoy trade paperbacks. I don’t like feeling like I’m cracking their spine whenever I read them. I don’t like the heavier feel that you can’t just roll up in your pocket, and then throw out when you’ve had your way with them. They feel more precious, and less like a flimsy piece of meaningless junk. It’s just not a medium I appreciate and love like comics.
However. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.
So I’ve been trying to get myself resolved to the concept of putting out graphic novels. And that means, instead of three 48 page issues of “Limbo Cafe,” or seven 24-pagers, it will be another 200 or so pages all at once, and most likely a year or so before it sees print if I’m realistic. That means disappearing from the industry until I can get all that work completed.
Coming home from Orlando’s MegaCon, I had so much damn fun showing professionals my monster book, and so many other self-publishers seemed to really enjoy and appreciate it, I began feeling like, maybe I should screw this Limbo Cafe project – for now – and just put out another monster book. You figure, I could do a forty-eight pager this time (as opposed to the 56 pages of the previous one), and get a dozen pin-ups, which I think I’ve already got, and which subtracts from the amount of pages I have to draw myself. Then I’m putting out an expensive book with less work needed to get it out. I’m staying on the market with more frequency, since there’s less work for me to actually do. And everyone seems to enjoy the monster book anyways, and most likely they won’t be particularly into Limbo Cafe, since it’s a “serious” comic, with no pin-ups of giant monsters in it at all.
So then I started thinking, well maybe I should go back to my original monster book plan. I’ll release three 24-page issues, then collect them into the second volume giant-sized monster book. Or maybe I could even make them cheap 16-page issues.
But I know I’m dreaming. First of all, no one would want to pay more than $2 for a sixteen page comic, and they’d probably cost me over a dollar to print. That means if I distribute them to shops, I can only lose money, every issue I sell.
Second, sixteen pages only leaves enough room for two and half Doris stories (since I make the stories five pages each), if I’m going to include pin-ups and a letters page, etc etc. And let’s face it. Doris Danger stories aren’t really that good. Who the hell would want just two of them in a book? Somehow, they read funny if you only get one, or if you see three of them in a row. But two stories, that have nothing to do with each other? People would just think it’s weird.
Sigh…So I guess it’s a second volume, giant-sized, 48-page Doris Danger. I can still use my original titles: Doris Danger in Outer Space! Doris Danger’s Greatest Army Battles! Doris Danger’s Secret Origins (if I wind up doing a fourth volume)! Doris Danger in Exotic Locations!