PUSHED

In the May newsletter I talked about my intention to have Pix book 2 published before 2017.

However, looking at my calendar I realized that to get the book in stores by mid-December, I'd want to have books in hand by mid-November, meaning I'd need to have the finished book off to the printer by mid-October...which would mean less than four months to finish this book...and on top of that, I'd want to get pdf review copies out six months prior to publication, meaning, well, middle of THIS month, which, while not impossible, would pretty much be...is unhealthy the right word?

I've spent the past three and a half months drawing pretty furiously, and in the process NOT doing a lot of other stuff, be it social engagements, work-for-hire jobs (aka paying work), and just general leisure activities (i.e. I've not been to a movie theater in a month and a half, if not more, I'd say).

So the idea of continuing at that pace that for 3+ more months, being payed zero dollars,  is...unappealing as a human person.

And that's still 3+ months of working on the book...leaving no time for promotion, sales, marketing, etc. So, in the end, I've decided to push back the publication date for Pix book 2. Now I'm looking at February or March of 2017. By doing this I'll be able to generate a better review copy, spread the word more effectively, and overall just produce a better book while living a better life. So...there's all that.

As far as news goes, though, it's not so bad a thing. I apologize to any of the kids out there slowly aging out of the audience for this book, though...dang it!

All of the above said, however, I CAN say that Pix book 2 is penciled! Hooray!!

That's 177 pages drawn (half a panel of which you can see in the banner image above)...which now need to be inked and colored, so...still plenty to do. But, arguably, the "hard" work - writing and drawing, is done. I think. We'll see how much I start re-drawing when I'm inking.

At the risk of tooting my own horn, the book looks good. I'm happy with the pages and the process of drawing digitally has shown some real advantages, especially when it comes to perspective and incorporating some photo reference (these things make drawing a parking lot, for example, much less tedious a thing).

Next steps for me are making some corrections to the penciled book (some name changes, hair-style adjustments, etc), and then putting it in front of some other eyes to see if there are any critical issues I need to resolve before proceeding. In the meantime, I'm going to work on the cover and some of the book design and start the process of getting printing quotes, etc. Making comics is very glamorous, let me tell ya!

I want to post art from what I drew in June, but it's totally all pages from the last third of the book, whih means it's super full of spoiler-y stuff and, well...no one wants spoilers, right? So here's something not Pix-related at all, a drawing I did of the superhero Invincible (alongside a drawing of The Rocketeer by Franco and I HATE FAIRYLAND's Gert by Chris Giarrusso) for Aw Yeah Comics in Harrison's weekly raffle:

As always, PIX: ONE WEIRDEST WEEKEND is available at better local comic shops (if they don't have it, tell them to order it), on amazon.com (where at last check they had one copy left in stock - buy that copy and they'll have to order more!), and of course at pixcomic.com/store, where you can get a signed and/or personalized copy (signed by me, to be clear). Enter the coupon code July16 to save 20% on pixcomic.com (offer good through end of the month).