What's Happening - July 2024

Welcome to my monthly newsletter, giving you updates on the things I’ve been lettering, reading and writing this month.

Before we get into the meat of the newsletter for this month, wanted to announce a little give away I'm going to be doing for next month. For reasons beyond both my control and comprehension, I've ended up with not just one but two complete sets of the three Saga hardcover omnibuses. I have no use for 2 complete sets of Saga. So, for next months newsletter, I'm going to give them away to one of you, wonderful subscribers of Reed 'em and Weep. You know, I feel like we should have a name that's a bit more fun than subscribers. Reeders? Weepers?

...I'll keep working on it.

Anyway, everyone who is signed up as a paid subscriber (just $2 a month!) and who comments on this months newsletter will be added to a drawing for them. The winner will receive Books 1-3 of Saga in gently used hardcover format, free of charge. I'll even pay for postage! And if none of you guys want them? I guess I'll just commit to collecting as many copies of the same three Saga hardcovers as I can. Shelves and shelves of Saga. Wonder how many I can get before people start to think I have some sort of problem?

What am I lettering?

There is a certain amount of brain fog that comes with having a Kickstarter live, at least for me personally. It's a bit like I'm constantly operating at 60% capacity, and the other 40% is being used for worrying or, conversely, actively trying not to worry about the Kickstarter. Trying not to worry about it is a bit like being told not to picture an elephant. Once you've realized you're trying not to worry about it, it's too late.

I was going to try to do a big breakdown of the Kickstarter for Hero of Legend - Chapter 1, but I've realized that I'm not sure I have all that much to say about it? The experience of doing a single issue Kickstarter vs the Kickstarter for a full graphic novel like Into the Deep was so different that it's a real apples to oranges comparison. I think I want to wait until we do the Kickstarter for Hero of Legend - Chapter 2 before I start trying to put any words to how these things are going. Speaking of Chapter 2, if you're itching to sign up for the prelaunch page for that book, you can do that here.

I only bring it up here because, since I was only operating at 60% capacity for most of June, it meant that I didn't have much bandwidth for lettering any of my personal projects. The new episode of Hero of Legend was finished just under the wire to be sent out earlier this month, and I've been actively working on getting ahead of the next couple episodes so I don't run into that problem again.

One of the aspects of indie comics lettering that's been difficult for me, especially recently as I've been getting quite a bit more work, is that letterers are expected to have a bit of a background in actual graphic design. I don't! Lettering itself is graphic design in a number of ways. But it's such a specific and specialized form of design work that the skills I've learned doing comic lettering don't really extend to most of those other forms of design. It's taken a bit of work, and it's only this year that I feel like I'm finally starting to actually get comfortable with doing those other aspects of the job.

If I had to pick between doing the design work on a comic, creating a logo, or just doing straight lettering, I will almost always pick lettering, though. That's the thing I like doing best. There is a joy I get from doing actual lettering that I don't get from any other part of the comic creation process. If I could spend my days just lettering, that would be amazing (though I'm sure I'd get sick of it eventually.) But in the sort of indie comics I'm mostly working on, all creators are expected to wear a number of different hats.

Anyway! That all being said, there are a couple of cool comic projects I worked on currently live on Kickstarter that you should check out.

Worlds Away Vol. 1

I love this book. Everyone on the creative team (and I'll even include myself in that!) was firing on all cylinders for the four issues we made of Worlds Away. Now those issues are available to you, all in one wonderful package. Damien has written an action-packed, heartfelt story, Christian Prunesti is able to draw some of the most exciting action scenes I've seen in a Kickstarter comic, and Luana Cristini is able to bring those to life with out of this world (get it?) colors. And I did some pretty cool stuff with the sound effects in this book too! Here's what Damien says about this volume on the Kickstarter page:

WORLDS AWAY Vol. 1 is an action packed 100+ page sci-fi/fantasy graphic novel. Collecting issues WORLDS AWAY #1-4, this trade paperback includes exclusive and new content including concept art, cover progressions, and more with all digital and physical rewards. This epic book is a complete story few readers and returning backers alike! For fans of GOD OF WAR, RADIANT BLACK, and POWER RANGERS.

Genuinely loved working on this comic. Check it out before the campaign ends on July 24th.

Some other prelaunch comics:

• The Few of Farbetween #1
• Hero of Legend - Chapter 2

Some fun lettering:

What am I reading?

The Hunger and the Dusk - Book 1

The Hunger and the Dusk is a fantasy comic from G. Willow Wilson, Christian Wildgoose and Simon Bowland. The basic premise of the story is a world where Orcs and Humans have been at war for generations, but are forced to form a rocky alliance after a group of horrible, cannibal Elves return from the seas and start murdering everyone. A fun twist on some basic fantasy tropes!

I have mixed feelings about this book. There's a lot to love about it! I hope that Wildgoose continues drawing fantasy comics for a long, long time, because the characters, environment, and action that he draws in this book are all great. Bowland is one of the best letterers working right now. And there are a lot of small choices he's making in the lettering that perfectly marry the lettering to Wildgoose's artwork. It's a small thing, but I love how the caption boxes are rendered in this book, and I'm a big fan of connecting balloons that overlap rather than just merge perfectly together.

Unfortunately, the story is a little bit less compelling, my biggest hang up being the pacing. I read the book in trade format, and I think might have been worse off for it because reading the story in trade really highlights the awkward pacing of the single issues. I don't know how to describe it other than that it feels like each issue is 1 or 2 (0r 3 or 4...) pages shorter than the creators expected it to be. Each one ends on a cliffhanger that just... appears. There's no sense of the story winding either up or down toward the end of an issue. Each chapter just hits the end point, and you get a sudden jump to the thing that is suppose to be ending the issue.

I'm writing about it because this sort of pacing is something I've been thinking about quite a bit. How do you build individual chunks of a story that feel satisfying both independently and together? A lot of writers get shit for writing for the trade, but frankly a lot of readers are going to end up reading your story as part of a trade paperback. Is prioritizing the single issue experience worth it over making sure the collection is able to sing? And if you aren't prioritizing one or the other, do you end up in this strange middle ground that The Hunger and the Dusk is in, where I don't think it quite works in either format?

No answers, but a lot of questions. There is a lot of cool fantasy world building here, the premise itself is something I think is really fun, but the story just isn't quite working. I think the pacing issues are the biggest problem, but there are also a number of strange character motivations and decisions that just don't add up. The book really looks great, and the premise is really cool, so I'm a bummed that I didn't enjoy this series more.

What am I writing?

This month, I've been spending a lot of time working on the script for the Into the Deep sequel, Below the Depths. I'm hoping to have a completed draft of the script by the end of this month so that Felipe can get started on the art, and based on how it's going so far, I think we'll be able to do that.

One thing I've noticed, moving from Hero of Legend into another script in the world of Into the Deep (I need to come up with a name for the series, now that there's more than one. Maybe The Irualian Chronicles?) is how much easier it is for me to write. I think that's partially because I've spent more time with the characters. Maybe having completed an entire story with Sai, Kor and Squid makes writing them again feels a bit like coming home?

But I also know that it also comes down to what I'm trying to do with each of the stories. Hero of Legend is built to be denser, more novelistic and purposefully serialized. Thinking about it as individual chapters and individual episodes, along with making each of those pieces feel like a meaty enough chunk just takes more energy. Below the Depths is built to be a single, long story. Less dense and also a single story that only has to work in a single format.

But I also think the format of Into the Deep, and the format I'm writing this new book in, is probably my preferred writing format. 80-100 page graphic novels are my sweet spot for a single story. There is plenty of room to pace things out without having to rush or pack the pages too densely. The story has space to breath while still feeling complete and (hopefully) satisfying.

If it was economically viable, I'd probably write most of my work at about this length. Unfortunately, it's not! I've considered serializing this book the way I am Hero of Legend in single issues so that there are more points for me to recoup costs. But chopping it up into single issues leaves two options.

1. Write the book as a graphic novel and just awkwardly break it up into single issues ever 20 or so pages.
2. Change how the story is written to pace it for single issues

It's a trap I've created for myself, because I could easily just say that option 2 just makes more economic sense. But I'm too committed enough to my ~artistic vision~ that I don't want to change the way I write the book to pace it for single issues. Writing it for single issues would, at least from my perspective, fundamentally change what the book is, and I love the smell of my own farts too much to be willing to do that. It's a trap I've created for myself that I intellectually know I could just avoid, but I refuse to.

Anyway, who needs money when you got comics, right?

Hmm, bit of a bummer to end things on.

Sorry! Well, maybe less of a bummer. You have the opportunity to be the proud owner of 3 lightly used Saga omnibuses! Just make sure you're signed up as a paid member of this newsletter, comment below, and they could be yours!

Anyway. Bye!