Newsletter start!

This month’s finances and what all got done!

May numbers:

Last month I put out eight comic pages, wrote nearly 15k words of prose, and my paycheck dropped again due to declines, platform fees, and cancellations, down to 345.66. Starting June with less than half the goal I need to hit by December and consistently trending downward is hard to spin optimistically, so I’ll just say I’m sorry I couldn’t get you any better news for now.

Book stuff!

The volume 3 preorders did pretty terribly! Folks seemed excited for them so I’d planned to do little events like that for all three of the new print editions of the old volumes, but it fell hilariously flat pretty similarly to the plans I had for Patreon rewards last year. That sort of stuff is a lot of extra work and there’s no use trying to drum up enthusiasm where there isn’t any, so I’ll just drop the new reprints for 1 and 2 in the shop whenever they get here and call it a day.

^{Summer postcards!}

Postcards! They should be going out on time at the end of July, assuming all the pieces get here when they ought to. Please make sure your address is correct, and contact me if you’ve changed it since you got your last piece of mail from me.

^{New update schedule!}

I’ve noticed a pattern since I’ve been at my desk and able to work regularly for the first time in nearly five years; I can hit three pages a week for a while, but it inevitably wrecks my arm and then the month after ends up being sparse. Two pages a week seems to be a more physically manageable pace and I’m getting pretty desperate to get like. Any traction anywhere at all by December, so I’m going to try posting more consistently, possibly on Mondays and Thursdays if I can get in the groove of it. I’m even gonna schedule them during those Peak Hours everyone likes to talk about! That stuff has never helped in the past, but I may as well exhaust my options.

This is. Too slow, for me to even entertain the thought of ever finishing Kidd Commander, but frankly so is three pages a week. The fact is this thing isn’t getting finished if I don’t get to the point I can hire some help, which is a sobering thought for me given where the financials are at, but harming myself to do one extra page a week isn’t going to get us there and I’m certainly not finishing anything if my body quits on me. I figure if it’s going to fail in one of those ways, I’d rather it be due to lack of support rather than because my arm gave out.

But! Two pages a week is a fairly reasonable goal right now and it’s something I have control over, so let’s see if I can hit it. Maybe my stamina will come back if I keep this up for a few months without yet another Tragedy throwing a wrench in the works.

Thanks!

Take care this month.

-Aria

Upcoming Appearances!

Danny the Comic Shop (Colfax June Art Crawl)
June 7, Denver, CO

Denver FanExpo
July 4-7, Denver, CO
(Quietly, at Conner Herbison’s booth!)

Fort Collins Comic Con
August 16-18, Fort Collins, CO

Anime 307
September, 7-8, Cheyenne, WY

Rocky Mountain Con
Nov. 9-10, Denver, CO

_{I love going to conventions! And other comic-flavored things now I guess! If there’s an event in or around Colorado you’d like to see me at, contact the coordinators and have them get in touch with me.}