The numbers for DWP 28 came in and...

... the book didn't even come close to making Diamond's quota. In fact, It might be accurate to say that DWP 28 was the lowest-ordered issue in the book's history. I did my best to promote the book, but there's only so much that I could have done. At one time, it was believed that creator's were inflating the DWP order numbers by buying up all of the issues featuring their work, so it was difficult to tell who was actually buying the book, readers or creators. However, since DWP 28 had the lowest amount of creators in the book, I believe we earned every order. I know for a fact that I fought for every order-- pitching the stuff to anyone who'd listen, but I must admit that I was responsible for a fifth of the final numbers because I hit up every co-worker, friend, and associate I had to buy an 'x' amount of issues as an early birthday present to me. Sadly, all of their orders ended up drops in a bucket.

How much does a dream cost?

I'm still suffering from creative fatigue, but I might just jump right into my next project called THE COURTSHIP OF ABIGAIL FELLOWS, which is the direct sequel to my ABIGAIL & ROX story. It's an ambitious project, a far lengthier tale than its predecessor, so I might just draft up the manuscript in the same fashion with a skeleton-script and plug in scenes as they pop up. The first story took a few weeks to write, so I could very well finish up the sequel around May-- the summer for sure. I'm aiming for a three-part story-- probably consisting of 96-pages in total (the first story was 22-pages).

Doing the math in my head, 96-pages will have around 500 panels in total. Once I convert the skeleton-script into a full-script, the manuscript, itself, will be around 200-pages. And if I want to greenlight the comic's production, I'll have to hire an artist with a modest page-rate and the desire to stay aboard for all three-issues. Let me see... at $50 per-page, that'll cost me $4800 for the artwork. If the artist can't ink or colour his own work, then I will have to hire two other people for the gig as well. Lets say the inker asks for $30 per-page and the colours asks for $40; combined that will cost me an additional $6720. So far, that's a grand total of (drum roll please) $11,520. I'm not even including the price of a letterer, a copy editor, and advertisements promoting the book, which I will also need. Sadly, that sum is slightly under what I make a year. For that price, I can either vacation in Europe, find an apartment, or buy 96-pages of completed art.

Besides the rant, I did receive a couple of coloured pages from Adrian this week for the original Abigail & Rox. Check them out.