High Fives for Small Wins

Hey yo! Welcome to another edition of the newsletter. Happy to see you! It's been a productive week but one of those weeks where when I look back at it-again, not a lot of ink was put to paper-but a lot was actually accomplished! Thursday I mailed out Etsy orders that come through during the week. Kudos to me. I managed to finish coloring another new panoramic panel for the new After Death book. More kudos to me. I've been trying my hardest to not get burnt out from marketing, making reels and posts for the Kickstarter. High five. And I even got on the roof of my house and cut back tree limbs that are trying to destroy it. Then, I napped. It was amazing. Okay, let's talk about comics, etc.

As I mentioned above, I finished the colors on a new panoramic panel for The After Death. This...may be the last one for the book? I may have one more left to draw. I still have a handful of single panels I still need to draw to plug in some gaps. And...after that, it's back to figuring out what to draw for the back cover. I'm pretty settled on the idea-just got to sit down and make it happen!

Kickstarter

Okay. Real talk.

This week the Kickstarter is only up $216 compared to last week. Oof. Not good metrics. And this newsletter will be the last update before the Kickstarter ends, which is at 8pm on Saturday, August 31st. So, yeah, I'm starting to sweat a bit. I'm not saying it isn't possible but things aren't looking great. Which means, I've got to start to pivot my thinking towards what plan B might be should we not hit our goal. Which is actually pretty simple. Printing book two will be put on hold until I'm able to fund a small print run myself. Aaaand I'm not sure when that will be. At the moment, I need to re-order a small print run of Book One since I sold out at my last show. The plan was to use the funding from this Kickstarter to get inventory of both books back up. Fulfill Kickstarter orders first, and then have extra to sell at shows to help continue introducing The After Death to new readers. But should we not hit our goal, then it's back to just peddling book one around until I can save enough money to pay for book two out of pocket.

It's not ideal, but it's doable, and it's going to set back publication to an undefined date. But, y'know, those are the breaks sometimes.

I'm not giving up, but I think it's only smart to not get disillusioned. I have heard that the second book is a harder sell. I've also heard that even with big publishers that a series of books might take the third or fourth installment for things to pick up-for the book to find it's intended audience. So, I'm aware I'm here to play the long game. And I'll still be making The After Death. How I share it may change. I'm thinking-after this-about ditching Instagram altogether. I'm not quite sure it does me any favors, and simply focus on the things I think do work: this newsletter, Patreon and Substack. How the pieces eventually fall into place is still a little beyond my third eye. For now, I'll just keep plugging the Kickstarter up until the last day and we'll see how things play out.

My Cartooning Origin Story

I recorded a ramble podcast for Patreon and Substack and it went live this week. And-it's free to listen to! In it, I talk about how I came to be a cartoonist, some of the influences along the way, and the origins of that first After Death zine. If you need someone to keep you company on a drive, or while you're at work give it a listen! Find it here.

What's Making Me Happy This Week

• My wife and I have been taking one day a week to go and explore public parks that have trails we can walk. It's hot, but it's been a highlight of each week to get out of the house with the intention to sweat and see what the city of Fort Worth has to offer as far as public walking (and biking) trails are concerned. It's a nice break from the week's usual chores and errands. It's also been fun to see a side of the city we don't often see as they have several trails that run alongside the Trinity River that runs through the city. We look for turtles in the river, and wildlife along the trails, and it's been a highlight of every week. Really enjoying this new tradition!

That's a wrap for this week's newsletter! Hope everyone's had a great week. It's been a super hot past few days in Texas but the next few days looks like temps will be staying in the double digits, so that's something to look forward to! As always, thanks for reading. Thanks for being here. See ya' back here in a week!

~b

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