Adjective Noun, Chris!

in which our hero makes some moves

Dear Readers,

With this issue, I am officially moving this here newsletter to a Friday release schedule. It’s the day I keep accidentally landing on anyway, and it’s an easier day for me to sit down and write this. Most Fridays, I work from home, so I find that I can get the newsletter done in the time it would take me to commute to the office. So there; that’s done.

I hit a bit of a rough patch this week with the mental health and have decided to make the release of The Blood of Seven Queens #3 a quieter affair. Rather than launch a Kickstarter for this issue—which would require a lot more headspace than I currently have, and the creation of a lot more marketing and advertising assets—I’m going to start accepting orders for the issue on my Ko-fi shop next Friday, January 24. I hope, if you’ve enjoyed my past work and the little snippets I’ve shared with you over the past six weeks, that you’ll consider picking up a copy.

I’ll probably do a Ko-fi release for issue #4 as well, then launch a Kickstarter in June for all four of this year’s issues (#3, #4, #5, and #6). I have great idea for a cover for #5 that I think will tie in with Pride Month, and I’ve spoken with some comics industry folks about who to contact at various companies—including Kickstarter—to raise awareness. The idea of doing 1–2 Kickstarters a year feels a lot more doable to me than the idea of doing 4 (one for each issue).

In other news, I spent many hours this week experimenting with new artistic techniques. The idea was to get ever closer to a more “traditional” comic book look (whatever that means), but unfortunately I came up empty. I’m scheduled to start work on issue #4 next week, and nothing I tried this week is ready for primetime—not by a long shot. And so, I’ll be sticking with the tried-and-true methods I’ve developed over the first three issues instead.

It’s all part of the process, right? And it’s not like I’m displeased with the art I’m doing now. I’m just (w)racked with self-doubt (including the persistent fear that I’m never using the right (w)rack when I write that phrase).

Anyway, that’s where I think I’ll leave things for now. Paid subscribers, keep scrolling for your sneak peek at the final four pages of issue #3. Everyone else, I’ll see you back here next week!

Yours,
Chris