YEAR TWO!
And lookin' at numbers like a goddamn sucker
I know I’ve said this before, but I generally don’t look at sales numbers or rankings. I think it’s unhealthy and, frankly, I see a lot of creators fall down this rabbit hole where they start equating sales with success. Which, sure, on one level, it is! But jeez, there’s a lot of garbage out there in the entertainment field that makes a lot of money and a lot of great work that makes almost nothing.
So, yeah! I haven’t really looked at sales numbers or rankings in years. Sometimes an editor will proudly tell me what a book has sold and I’ll nod and say “that sounds good,” but I have almost no compass for those numbers anymore, so I just assume it’s good based on how excited they are to tell me! I’m like a sociopath trying to mimic the number-based emotions of the person across from me!
THAT BEING SAID, Friend Of The Stack Matthew Rosenberg monitors the comics industry like a hawk. He sits in a darkened room in NYC with many comic news sites on many monitors, studying them while he sips chocolate milk from a goblet. This is how it looks:
Anyway, he showed me this:
Batman #125 and Daredevil #1 in the top three comics sold in June! That’s wild. I mean, it’s not that wild. It’s Batman after all. And a new #1 for Daredevil. This has very little to do with me, really. But still. Fun!
And I don’t know who the fuck this Mandalorian fucker is but I’m coming for you!!!!!
WOW JUST ENJOY BEING #1 AND #3
See?! This is why I don’t like looking at numbers! It brings out this horrible competitive side of me!!! Fucking Star Wars!!!!!!
In other news, we’re coming up to the one-year anniversary of me being a “Substack Pro!” It’s been a wild time, for sure. Kicking my ass into gear to start putting out Public Domain was a highlight for me. Getting to continue Kaptara with Kagan has been a blessing. I’ve been wowed by the amazing guest strips (and there’s more on the way!) and have really enjoyed the community here. And man, my comic shop The Beguiling has been a champ in dealing with the variants and orders (side note: the Public Domain variants were LOST and returned to Diamond and are now supposed to be at the shop today, so sorry for the delay on those!). This year has been amazing and there’s still two more videos in my Chipclass series on the way! I can’t believe 8,000 of you watched that first one!
STOP LOOKING AT NUMBERS
Ah! Shit! Sorry! Sorry!
All this to say that, heading into year TWO, I’m instituting some changes! Kaptara is still going, and I’ll get back to Public Domain after a little break post-issue five. I’ll still only allow comments from people who pay to yell at me as it seems like the sanest move I’ve ever made. I’ve really enjoyed answering subscriber questions as well, so I’ll probably ramp that up even more. I’ve got more comic content coming up which I’ll still give sneak peeks to and pdf/cbz files for subscribers. Really, not much will change in terms of the newsletter? If you’ve enjoyed subscribing this past year, you’ll probably enjoy doing the same for next year!
The big changes are in my SUBSCRIBER LEVELS and pricing! You’re probably going to SAVE MONEY WOW
MONTHLY LEVEL: We’re just gonna keep on keepin’ on! I’ll post comics as I make ‘em, I’ll do Q&As, you can leave comments, all that good stuff. But! I’ll be dropping the cost from $7 a month to $5! What used to be the price of one outrageously expensive coffee a month, is now a pretty decently priced coffee a month! I would go even lower but Substack doesn’t allow that for some reason!
YEARLY LEVEL: Same deal here! Dropping the $70 a year deal to $40 a year, which is BIG SAVINGS! That’s the price of just two medium pizzas (three toppings, extra cheese), an order of cheesy bread, and two Coca-Cola™s from Domino’s Pizza™! #sponsored #promoted
FOUNDER LEVEL: This is going to change a bit. Instead of paying $250 a year and getting exclusive copies of my Image variants, I’ve raised the amount to $250,000 a year and you’ll get 500 copies of my next Image book with a special variant cover and variant INTERIOR pages with secret dick drawings throughout. I’ll hand-deliver these to you. I’m not allowed to promise sex, so I won’t, but let’s just say I’m open to seeing where things go. Unfortunately, once again, Substack won’t let me go below $5 and the site is telling me that $250,000 isn’t a “valid amount.” So for now I guess just email me that you want to be a Founder and we’ll sort it out.
I’M SORRY DID I READ THAT RIGHT ABOUT YOUR FOUNDER LEVEL PRICE
Yes
…OKAY
So, yeah! It’s a whole new world! I hope you stick around! Oh god I hope you stick around
And now for a couple of sweet KAPTARA pages! It’s just two this week as Kagan decided to take a “vacation” like a “normal person with a normal job”. What a loser!!
And for my PUBLIC DOMAIN readers, I’ve updated our MEGA-POST with issue four CBZ and PDF files!
Have a great weekend!