From the Desk of Ed Brubaker...

New Comics Day snuck up on me this week, as I lie around sick. I meant to get this out earlier, to remind you all that our first trade and a new issue are both out this week for KILL OR BE KILLED... 

You can see the trade cover above, and here's a quick look at issue 5 again: 

I was catching up on your newsletters recently and saw a little tidbit from an answer you gave that was curious to me.

"But also I'm very lucky, because I don't have a page limit, other than what Sean can draw in the time allotted."

I've always wondered how parameters like page count were made for comics. With KILL OR BE KILLED it seems like you guys have say on the matter.  How do you guys come to the decision on page count each month? 

Every creative team needs to come to these decisions differently, but the way it's evolved with us, is that I generally aim for 24 pages, but if I end up needing to go to 28 or longer (the finale issues of FATALE and THE FADE OUT were both nearly double length) than that's what has to happen, and Sean and Bettie just do extra pages. Sean is an incredibly consistent artist, so having to do a few extra pages once in a while to make sure the story works, or feels like it has all the right beats, is something he's always willing to do. 

That's the big difference between just doing your own thing and working for one of the "big two" publishers. It's very rare to have stories going outside the editorial set limits there, because they're looking at huge budgets for dozens and dozens of comics, and bottom lines, etc. For us, the only bottom line is how much room does the story need to be told. I like to think of it as one of the things that helps set us apart. We're always trying to make sure every issue we put out is more than worth your time and money, because that's the kind of comics we like ourselves.