3: A slight change of plans.
Greetings and Salutations!
Happy November, everyone!
It's a month for fall vibes and sweaters, but all I can think about is how badly I want the turkey. And gravy. And mashed potatoes. And rolls with butter. Annnnd now I'm hungry.
(By the way, stick towards the end of this newsletter for a secret Camera Man announcement…)
Anyway, let’s get down to the brass tacks!
-/FOUR UPDATES
-/THE FIRST THREE PAGES
-/SECRET ANNOUNCEMENT
-/PUPDATE
/FOUR UPDATES
There’s been a lot of things brewing over here on the comic side of life.
For the first-time ever, I was invited to write for an anthology. A huge honor.
In my research, I came across an old pre-Spider-Man character by Steve Ditko named Dr. Haunt. He is both a host and narrator to suspenseful morality tales in a magazine from 1950’s Charlton Comics, “This Magazine is Haunted”.
I can't really say why this is relevant to what I wrote, but needless to say… Ditko was certainly a character, and I do not subscribe to his awful politics, but the man knows how to design a character and draw a great page.
Second, check out these comics with my name on the cover! Aren’t they gorgeous?! 😍
Xander mentioned to me that more copies are headed to him and then to all of the backers. I also bought a bunch of copies from him so I can have copies to sell at cons. Now I just need to start applying for artist alleys. Stay tuned for my 2025 convention plans!
Third, issues two and three are still chugging along. Exciting developments in the works that I can’t talk about just yet. I'm excited to tell you more soon!
Lastly, I just broke the story on a comic that was giving me trouble for months, and I’m really proud of myself for getting through it. I love toiling away at difficult projects, and with the state of the world today, it’s been therapy. Ironically, it’s a comic about my feelings about the current state of the world. So it's going to contain a lot of FEELINGS. It's also incredibly ambitious, so I still have my work cut out for me.
My writing process for my big and personal comics often involves detangling knotted ideas as I try to understand the story I want to tell and work my way through the knot. This one has been no different.
It’s so easy to overthink and overcomplicate things (and my recent ADHD diagnosis doesn’t help with that), but thankfully I hired a story consultant to help me keep my mind on track. And I’m so glad I did.
Pro Tip for fellow writers: There’s no shame in asking for help sometimes. Just make sure you compensate appropriately.
/THE FIRST THREE PAGES
So I was originally going to do a whole Camera Man behind-the-scenes thing for this month’s newsletter, but decided against it for now. I’d feel a lot better chatting about it once you can get a physical copy in your hands.
Instead, I want to share some pages that didn’t really get shared around too much, but are a great teaser/primer for folks reading the comic in the coming weeks…
Shoutout to Nathan Kempf for the letters, Claire Napier for the edits and of course Xander for everything else you see on the pages.
/SECRET ANNOUNCEMENT
Okay, so you didn't officially hear this from me yet, but…
You can read the digital edition of Camera Man #1 right now!
(gasp)
No, seriously! The physical editions are on their way to physical backers, and we wanted to make sure digital backers got their copy before we made those available for sale to the general public through Xander's store. But the digital backers got their copies like a month ago,* so we’re good to open the floodgates!
Xander will put physical editions up for sale on his website once all of the Kickstarter backers have gotten their comics.
(*If you are a digital backer of the campaign and you somehow didn't receive your email with the comic, check your email’s spam folder or Kickstarter messages.)
And as a thank you for subscribing to this newsletter…
FOR THIS WEEK ONLY, you can take 20% off the digital cover price with the checkout code: CAMMAN20
(Thanks for the hookup, Xander!)
We hope you have a blast reading it! And if you liked it, let us know! We're eager to get everyone's thoughts on it.
/ PUPDATE
As I type this, Ruthie is still at the vet after her knee joint replacement surgery. The surgeon said she was wonderful (obviously), and she is in recovery for the night. And let me tell you… I am relieved. These are going to be tough weeks ahead for her and the two of us at home, but this little butthead is worth all the stress. I mean… just look at her…
Wouldn't you give up tens of thousands of dollars you don't have and weeks to months of your life in stress and worry for that cute and sleepy butthead?
I have no regrets. She’s worth it all. I love her so much.
For the December edition of the newsletter, I think I will be sharing one of my all-time favorite comics that happens to be a Christmas-themed short, but that may change. I had nothing to do with the comic, but want to share some of my favorite things. Also, I will talk about my 2024 and 2025 goals! STAY TUNED.
Thanks for reading!
If you don’t already, be sure to follow my social media pages (linked below) for the latest updates and nonsense.