JepComix8 has landed - I went and picked them up yesterday and am pretty happy with them.
This is the first issue that I’ve had professionally printed, and the first one with a colour cover, and the first one that contains a single complete story (the one about the landlord Elizabeth, originally published here and on facebook). It’s also the first one I took very seriously as a production; with Marjan’s keen editor-eye and a higher standard for what I considered passable, I did a lot of edits on #8. That’s a dreadful process but a good one.
It’s also a half-inch bigger than the others, which are all just folded regular sheets. This one is 6x9 - basically the same size, but not so easily lost on a shelf. I feel good about where I’m at with this comics-writing thing, after 15 years of giving it a real effort, and hope to be a little more confident in my suggesting someone might read it. I loathe self-promotion - but what are you gonna do? I’ve applied to TCAF, and will hopefully hear good news in December. I hope also to perhaps attend other conferences, which seem to be the best way to meet other artists and comics people (despite being overfull with humans). I’ll send it to the usual shops (Chicago’s Quimby’s, The Beguiling, Atomic Comics in Baltimore).
Oddly, right at this moment I am listening to On Being, Krista Tippett’s podcast, and she’s talking to Seth Godin about marketing. He’s saying marketing doesn’t have to be gross. I guess I can sort of believe that - but I still think it’s excruciating. A part of the convo that stuck for me was his saying that when a person says ‘I made this’, they'’re vulnerable to someone responding ‘I don’t like it, and I don’t like you.’ I feel that in a hyper loud way. But. What are you going to dooooo?
All this to say: I’ll be trying to say “I made this” more this year, and if you wish to, you can help by going to a shop and buying a comic. Or you can just watch and see how it goes. I’m curious myself. I’ll share where they are stocked when I know.
