2013

2012 was a hard, heartbreaking year.

But here comes 2013. Sounds like a good year to finish a comic book. 

Here's page 2 (lots more coloring to do on this one):



I've got about 3.5 pages to finish inking, and there's still quite a lot of coloring to do. And the clock is definitely ticking louder now due to the mid-May arrival of this little fellow:


I don't know how I will continue Nonplayer after he arrives, but I can't imagine that quitting will set a very good example for him. So that leaves "not quitting," which means it's time to search for some new tricks.

Step one: start having fun again. It's amazing how different it feels to work on something because you can, rather than because you feel you have to. And in comics, as with most things, the amount of fun you're having correlates directly with the amount of radness that shows up in the final product. So how do I find the fun? I don't really know the answer to this one (your suggestions are welcome), but for me, part of the solution lies in letting go of my guilt about the book's slowness. 

Okay, this is a slow comic. Funnily, my first impulse is still to apologize. Like, I just started a sentence with "I'm sorry, but..." Well, darn it. I don't think it's healthy for me to be sorry. I'm bringing a new thing into the world, and it'll be born in its own time. If you think I owe you something, may I suggest you subscribe to Netflix? There's plenty of stuff there to keep you entertained until the rest of Nonplayer is done. 

So let's assume it's fun to work on the book again. The next step is to find time to work on it. Right now I'm putting in an hour every morning before work and another three to four hours before bed. That, and all day every Sunday. As long as the day job persists (I'll address this in a bit), the book has to happen in these in-between hours. It doesn't really pay to rob myself of sleep, especially when I need my brain fully online to do good work. I also think it's pretty important to give myself one day off per week. There are times when I feel like sprinting, but committing to insane hours is a one-way ticket to Burnoutville. Plus, that's a surefire way to kill the fun.

That said, I've had to learn to say "no" to stuff. I can't go out for a beer every time my friends invite me. I don't get to watch too many movies. Games, especially, are a humongous time-sucker. I try to cram as much goofing-off as I can into my free day, because the only other fun I get to have is comic-making fun.

Next, there's the challenge of working efficiently within the time I've got. This has been the hardest and most counter-intuitive lesson for me so far. The more I try to get done in the allotted time, the less quality work I do. For me, rushing has been absolute poison to creativity. All I can do is assure myself that I'll keep setting aside the time, and that I won't allow myself to get distracted or side-tracked during that time. If I end up sitting and staring at a blank page for three hours, that counts as work. I can't shout a seed into sprouting. All I can do is plant it and keep it watered.

It has also been helpful to bring some friends in on the project to provide feedback and hold me accountable when I stray. I've got two people to whom I send a PDF of the entire unfinished comic once a week. Sometimes I just need to hear someone say "good job." It can be hard to keep moving forward when the attaboys are months (or years) away. Van Gogh had Theo, right?

Now, if we're talking life-goals, we need to address this day job thing. I'm aware that becoming a father means taking a step further out into that quicksand, but let's proceed from the assumption that living a happy life means continuing to believe that your goals can be achieved, even if I can't completely see the path that leads from here to there. 

I have a simple goal: I want the freedom to create cool things without subjecting my loved ones to undue hardship.

That means that I need to make as much money doing what I love as I can make working for somebody else. So how might that theoretically happen?

My friend Coop says "Kickstarter." His proposal is simple: estimate the amount of time I need to finish the entire series, calculate how much money I'd have made at my current job over that amount of time, and set that as my goal. And since I live in the United States, add the cost of the health benefits I'd have been receiving over that period, as well. We're talking about a 6-year delivery time and a fairly astronomical funding goal (something equivalent to the cost of a really nice house). I don't know, but unless some rich dude comes along and just throws half a million dollars at me, I'm not really sure this is a workable model.

There may be a more piecemeal solution, however. Perhaps a two-year project to fund a large-format, hardback collection of every two issues. Maybe with some sort of making-of chapter at the end that collects concept sketches and pages-in-progress, so that the volume comes out to 60-70 pages. This is where I could really use your advice. What would you like to see, and at what price? Would a finished book be enough, or would you expect some frills? Posters? Original artwork?

The other path is the one I'm already taking: spend my days at the office, make my nightly offering, and release each issue when it's finished. If that takes decades, so be it. 

Happy New Year, everybody.

Edit: A few readers have interpreted this post as an announcement of my intention to stop releasing individual floppy issues of Nonplayer. This is not the case. Nonplayer will be released as an Image comic as long as Image has the patience for it. In addition, any theoretical Kickstarter-funded album push would also have to be published by Image, and since I have not discussed any such project with them, this whole notion is completely speculative. I suspect they'd be happy if I found a way to work full-time on the book, and if a Kickstarter helped them move more copies, that would be a win for everybody. But none of the above blog post should be construed as an official announcement of anything. Thanks.

Comments

  1. I'm always amazed by people who work a creative day job and still be able to consistently put time and energy into their personal projects.

    Re: your piecemeal solution, I think Enrique Fernandez's Verkami (http://www.verkami.com/projects/2598-brigada-comic) rewards are a good guide for possible rewards, he's offering lots of funding levels including printed book and a PDF version of the pencilled pages.

    That said, I don't know if crowdsourcing is the way to go if you foresee a long gap between launching the KS campaign and actual delivery of the book, goodwill can turn into impatience quickly once money changes hands. That coupled with the time/work/money to plan/make/fulfill rewards and the added stress that comes with trying not to disappoint the backers might make the proposition more trouble than it's worth.

    I'd definately put money down for a european style (page count and dimensions) hardcover of Nonplayer, but I'd be disappointed if each book doesn't have a satisfying ending. So the pacing and structure of the story would kind of dictate whether I'd get the rest of Nonplayer in that format or wait for a possible collected edition.

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    1. Man, what a gorgeous book. I know I'm supposed to be focusing on the rewards he's offering, but dang. That's some sweet art. But yes! The rewards! This is actually quite informative. I hadn't thought too much about the PDF being a lower-priced option, though I wonder how that jibes with Image's rights. I suspect Comixology would have a thing or two to say about me releasing a digital version on my own...

      As to the delivery delay -- I agree that such a setup could bring about the very situation I'm trying to avert. After all, didn't I just say it's less fun when it doesn't feel optional? But in this situation, we're really talking about releasing the first two issues in a European-style format, which means the Kickstarter wouldn't even "kick off" (ha) until all the material was finished. That way, I could use the money from the first Kickstarter to fund the next two issues, ideally. And people would get what they payed for immediately.

      As to satisfying endings, I think the second issue does have an ending, at least beat-wise. It does raise new questions, but rhythmically, it's a closer. So that shouldn't be too much of a problem.

      Thanks again for your feedback, Tang!

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  2. Congrats on the baby!

    As far as teh comic goes, I don't care how long you take, i just wish you'd keep us updated on the blog more regularly... i have plenty of stuff to keep me busy in the mean time.

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    1. Yeah, I've been pretty absent 'round these parts lately. There's this thing called "task lock" where your bandwidth gets so overloaded that you become completely ineffective. That happened. I actually started three different entries and tossed all of them. As dark as this post might have seemed, the earlier ones were much, much darker. And who needs that?

      Anyway, thanks for sticking around, sirfrancis!

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  3. I think your idea of a European style version of Nonplayer is great.

    I'm a fan of the Powernap comic (don't know if you heard about it). They recently finished successful their indiegogo campaign for their first european style volume of 70+ pages for $30.
    The campaign is still online (http://www.indiegogo.com/powernap), it might help you to give you an idea what people are willing to pay.

    I just pledged $5 for the Powernap comic, but your comic is more of a collector piece that Powernap is for me. I think $20 would be a more fitting price for a European style comic with no extra content.

    So here we are at my second thought: Please add some special content to the book; some behind the scene pages would make a $30 price tag much more reasonable.

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  7. Stefan: I got your email (thank you), but I'll answer you here! First, Powernap is so rad. Thanks for turning me on to a new cool thing.
    Second, I agree about supplementary content. For me, the only way to really add value to such a collection would be to stick lots of really nice stuff in the back. I have mountains of concept art, but I also think it might be interesting to see a couple of the pages evolve from rough sketches to finished artwork. Especially because some of them took a VERY circuitous route to completion. For example, I could fill an entire page with different face variants of Dana from a single panel.

    Another thing to give folks at a higher funding level: 11x17 versions of every page with the speech balloons removed, collected in a custom folder.

    Wheels are turning in my head. Thanks for helping out, Stefan!

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    1. I loved the prints I bought form you last year. They are on my wall of fame next to RASL and PROPHET ;)
      I wish more artist would offer high quality prints.

      You should check out issue #8 from SAGA. It has an awesome extra in it's letter column where Fiona breaks out her creating process of one of her pages step by step (https://twitter.com/fionastaples/status/281489930104995841/photo/1).
      Something like this would be awesome for Nonplayer.

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  8. Dont focus on the finished result. Focus on and enjoy the journey to the end. I learned these lessons by having 4 kids. hehe

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    1. Amen! You ever notice how the lessons you learn when making a comic turn out to be pretty useful lessons for life in general?

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  9. I think a European style format would work great, especially if you have the first two issues done so there's a fast turnaround. Extra material would be great, especially the evolution of your pages and a folder of pages would be amazing, though I don't suppose there's any chance of this page (http://natesonofsimp.deviantart.com/#/d4jd7ab) being a print is there? The thing's I'd pay for that to be a huge poster on my wall...

    Anyway, however you go about I can't wait for what's next with Nonplayer and I hope you have a great year.

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    1. I think it's very likely that a large poster of that spread would be one of the available rewards. I get a lot of requests for that one, and I've already talked with printers about costs.

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  10. I feel your pain since I'm also working a full time job in the game industry, and squeezing in some freelance projects on the side. One of my hopes for 2013 is to make some time for personal projects, but I'm going to stay away from anything as ambitious as long-form comics. I found myself most productive on the side projects during stretches when I would get up extra early to get two hours in before work, but I don't think I could sustain that week in and week out for too long, since I really do want to save the best sauce for the day job (it pays the bills, and I'm enjoying the current project a lot). More power to you if you can do that. I'd like to cast my vote for a European album (I do love larger format comics art!), and I'll cast my dollars in too if you do it. Some exclusive extras might help too, like an additional sketchbook level, or Nonplayer branded shirts or messenger bags. Good luck with whatever path you choose! And congratulations on the incoming family member!

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    1. Wow, John. Your storyboards are very nice. It looks like we're both wrestling with very similar demons at the moment. I, too, find that my most productive hours are the ones I put in before work. Which then makes me wonder if I should just get up at 4am every morning and do a marathon comic sesh before I leave. Hm. Bed by 9, wake up at 4... kinda interesting. Maybe I'll try this next week to see what it does to my brain.

      Thanks for your support, John. Keep up the amazing work!

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  11. The European format idea is great (how can you sell it if Image has the rights?), or you could do a Kickstarter for completion of issue 2. The money in Kickstarter funds completion of issue 2. Include Original art, posters/prints, head sketches, and signed copies and thank yous as rewards. Maybe consider having it for SDCC and go this year, you could meet rewards people there as well. Then profits and leftover money from Kickstarter starts off issue 3, and maybe another kickstarter with SDCC excitement behind it. I would go small and in steps. Big money all at once brings big pressure. I would figure on how much money you need to get to the end of issue 3 and try to generate that. Then start again.

    But anyway, keep at it. Can't wait for issue two.

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    1. Any collection would still have to be published by Image, but I could theoretically buy the books at cost from the publisher and then be my own retailer. I think.

      I do like the idea of meeting rewards people at SDCC or some other major con (possibly NYCC?), though I suspect I won't be traveling too much this summer. Perhaps next summer? All good ideas, though, especially about approaching the problem incrementally.

      Thanks, Fedres.

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  12. Nate,

    George Peter Gatsis here... Long time... and happy new year!
    Congrats on the upcoming fatherhood.

    Regarding your book, why not consider a few models already tried in the past:
    1) concentrate on completing the entire book in black and white... why? Because your art is great in black and white... Color is just an added bonus... gravy sorta speak.
    2) get volunteer help from the great talent on the Internet to help color your pages. (maybe strike a deal for compensation once money comes in)
    3) publish the black and white as an oversized special edition... Maybe the entire story?
    4) publish the color version after, once completed.


    Email me if you want to discuss further... tbdeinc@gmail.com

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    1. All interesting ideas!

      Actually, if you've ever seen my artwork without the color, it's pretty underwhelming. Now, especially, I sort of tailor my style so that it looks best in color. On its own, it looks kinda barren.

      In addition, the coloring has really become my favorite part of the process. It's very much like eating dessert. So if I farmed out the coloring work, I'd be relegating myself to a lifetime of vegetable eating. Boo!

      That said, I could totally see releasing some sort of uncolored, oversized special edition, sort of like that Hard Boiled book. I know Moebius did that, and it seemed to work out for him. But then again, I am not Moebius.

      Great thoughts, George. Thanks!

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    2. Dude, your lines are great. I actually have them saved into a folder of your stuff so I can look at them from time to time. ;)

      You could pull it off. Whether you want to is the thing -- your art looks brilliant coloured, and if it's the most enjoyable part then don't give it up.

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  13. I'm trying to do something similar to you. My day job is being an electrical engineer and I'm trying to do comics in my free time. It's harder than you're making it sound. I'm ready to just give you money. ^_^ It's very, very hard to juggle a day job and draw comics, so I can't imagine also being an expectant father. Stay strong and do whatever you feel you need to do. If you crowd fund your book, I'll kick some money in.

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    1. Man, it's hard. And having read your two blog entries, I can see we're both grappling with similar feelings of failure, as well. When I was a kid, I got in this habit of quitting things whenever it became apparent that I wouldn't be instantly perfect at them. And that even haunts me today.

      I remember when Nonplayer 1 came out, I read this one review where the guy said "yeah, the art's okay, but I wish someone else had written it." And I swear, for about an hour I just wanted to quit comics forever. I had all these shame and failure chemicals coursing through my brain.

      These days, I work through that stuff by reminding myself that failure isn't actually a tangible, objective thing unless you accept that it is so. Failure is just you surrendering to everybody else's negative opinions. The true greats, when you look back at their early days, most of them went through phases where everybody counted them out. But they kept going, and that's why they're greats. Being great doesn't mean being perfect. Being great means turning setbacks into teachable moments.

      Which I guess is my way of saying "get back to work on your comic, Kenny." And send me some samples so I can see how it's coming along.

      You're not alone!

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  14. Nate,
    Happy New Year and Congratulations on the baby! I've struggled for years to work a day job and do a comic on the side, and I can tell you that it is incredibly frustrating. The progress of comic work is so slow when it is done part-time that it is easy to lose enthusiasm for the project. I'm going to suggest something that no one else has....what if you focused on building a comfy freelance business during your free time instead of working on the comic? Bigger pieces of finished work get much more attention (and improve you artistically) than sequentials. If you did more of the kind of art you like and started selling them as prints or originals, you might build up enough of an income stream that you could back away from the day job and free up enough time to work on the comic (and be a great dad!). Just a thought. My thoughts are with you!

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    1. That's an interesting option, Dave. There was definitely a period during which I tinkered with the idea of drawing covers for other people's comics and making a living that way. What I learned was A) even the publishers that said they wanted me to do covers had absolutely no follow-through and B) it's still a pretty small amount of money, especially compared to working in games.

      In fact, the unhappiest people I know, even unhappier than comic creators, are freelance artists. It's really scary not knowing where your next meal ticket is coming from.

      All that said, your art is gorgeous. So I guess I should ask you why you haven't attempted a career as a freelancer?

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    2. Thanks, Nate! Sorry for not replying earlier. I suppose I had a different sort of thing in mind when I said freelancing. I actually meant doing whatever kind of art popped into your head...and then selling it to someone. That means you may not get paid for each piece, but if you price them to sell, you'll attract someone who is interested. Even have some prints made up and put them up on Etsy.
      I've been "planning my escape" from the dreaded day job for years now...but it was put on hold to pay for my wife's culinary degree. Now that she has a solid paying job because of her degree, and we've nearly paid off her student loans ($32,000 in two years), it could be that the time has finally arrived. Currently, I'm working on producing and selling pieces, and I'll have an Etsy shop online in February with prints and originals. I figure it will be easier to let go of the day job if I have built up some steady, monthly sales. I'll know by June.......

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  15. One word to consider seriously: Interns. I go to the academy of art university, and many artists with project less significant than yours has come to us for interns. Interns will do all the minial details on your work, especially the inking stuff, that you wouldn't have time for. Your coloring is something that you should definately do, because it's a huge part of your art, but all the little digital inking details you could easily get an intern to do. Not only would it help you but it would help them. Your book is such a huge deal, especially at AAU for example, that you'd literally be helping a student of two get their start in the comics world. Hell man, i'd love to intern for you, and if not me, anyone in the Comic book club that i run at the school would love to do it. Trust me when i say this, NONPLAYER is such a big deal that you would have people fighting each other to get the chance to help you out, even if it's doing something like flatting out the colors to save you the time of filling in between the lines. If youre interested in seeing if me or anyone else that I know has the chops to help you out, you can email me at DrawTheLineStudios@yahoo.com.

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    1. Lovely, lovely artwork, Matt. It is terrifying that people with your talent are coming out of school now and competing with us old farts for art jobs.

      This intern idea is pretty awesome. I have a couple of friends who use interns, and I can certainly see the benefits (at least for me). I guess there's some part of me that still feels like it's kinda exploitative. I could probably get over it, though.

      The flatting, especially, is something I could easily hand off to an intern. But it's hard, thankless work, and my artwork is specifically designed to drive flatters crazy. What could I offer them in return? Would they get some sort of class credit? I suppose I could give them a little exposure through this blog. And a credit on the book, of course.

      Wait. I think I don't really know what an intern is. Please enlighten me.

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    2. Hey, sorry it took me awhile to respond. Basically an intern is just someone that would help you out with whatever you need as long as it counts towards their major. For instance, I'm a illustration major attempting to make a carrer in comics and concept art, so as long as the internship helped me reach those goals by getting real world experiance helping you with your comic, then I would recieve school credit for helping you out. I'm pretty sure that the required amount of work would be about 4-5 hours a week, doing whatever you'd need done to help get the comic out. Also, if this is something you're interested in, I'd do cartwheels across burning hot coals to get a chance to be an intern for non-player. I've been a fan since I bought my first copy at Wondercon a few years ago, and since then have bought a digital copy and a 2nd printing. In other words, I'm a huge fan. Either way, the internship idea is a very serious option that would help you out a lot, as well as the student or students that would be doing the interning, just by having their name on book. Why dont you email me at DrawTheLineStudios@yahoo.com, and I'll set you up with some more info, and the contacts for the people you'd need to talk to.

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  16. Earlier this year, I ran a Kickstarter. Nobody except a microscopic fanbase knows who I am, and yet I was able to raise an ultimate total of $5k to do a really nice print job on the first collection of comic. People were willing to pay $25 or more for a 120p 5.5x8.5" book. In terms of story it's really more of a 60p book, since I use spreads as the fundamental storytelling unit.

    Nonplayer was big news. There are going to be a TON of people who will be willing to give you a modest sum of money for it to continue. Some of them will be *quite* happy to give you more than the basic price for the book for simple trinkets, sketches in the book (careful with this one, that's turned out to be what's making the fulfillment of mine take forever, more than half my sales ended up being with sketches because I priced that too low), and their name in the list of sponsors.

    I personally would probably just go for the basic "here's my money gimme the book" level. Maybe the "and sign it please" level depending on what it was.

    I don't have any personal experience with the "fund my whole next year and I'll do this book" level of comics kickstarters, but I think you have enough market share to make that happen. DO IT.

    (note: be sure to do a video that properly conveys your excitement for getting back to this thing, throw around some of the existing art with some music. Kickstarters without videos almost all tank.)

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    1. Man, Peggy. Your color and design sense are absolutely killer. I'm happy to hear your book got funded. What's it called?

      I appreciate your encouragement and enthusiasm, and I completely agree with you about the importance of creating a video. Perhaps I can find someone better looking than myself to play me? How about Michael Cera as Nate Simpson? How could people not give all their money to that earnest, slightly bewildered face?

      But yeah. The video is key. Thanks for reminding me of that.

      Congrats again on getting your book funded!

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  17. Whichever route you decide to take I look forward to seeing more from you in the future.

    Congratulations on the baby news, all the best

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  18. Do you do any art just for fun anymore?

    Let's draw stuff. Have a weekly theme. Ryan Ottley's doing it with James Harren:

    http://the-bog.tumblr.com/

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    1. Hey dude. Long time no see!

      Yes, I do art just for fun even now. But not a whole lot of it!

      That tumblr, though. Man, it's the best ever. Like, literally the BEST. EVER. I love both of those guys with a passion. And they both just keep getting better, too. It's totally unfair.

      Thanks for the link, Eagle. I hope all is well in your life.

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    2. That's one way to decline. :P

      Ryan is such a mad king.

      Things are going well!

      Always good to see you posting.

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  19. First up, congratulations on your little one.

    Second, I'm just glad to hear you're still at it. Balancing work and life is difficult enough, when you throw making comics into the mix it can be overwhelming. I'm finishing up a diary comic/blog that deals with this theme (as well as having a new born) here: http://lifeinjapan-comic.blogspot.jp/

    I hope you find a way to make it all work out...
    (and when you do, be sure to let us know) ^_^;

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  20. If you go the Kickstarter route, be sure not just to figure out how much money you need for your salary, but also include the cost of producing (and shipping!) all those nice European-style books. It's not difficult to find stories of people who went into debt fulfilling their obligations after a Kickstarter "success".
    There are people who profit directly from Kickstarter, but the typical successes I see are from people who already did most of the work on their own without pay, and/or expect that they will continue to get lots of sales after the Kickstarter "preorders". For example, after Amanda Palmer's million-dollar campaign, she posted a breakdown showing how all that money was needed to pay for publishing, touring, hiring her support staff, etc. At the end, she hoped to break even, but with a pile of additional CDs left over. The profit would come only after she was able to start selling those.
    Kickstarter can work well. Just make sure that before you go into it, you take an honest (and slightly conservative) look at the costs that will go with it, and also make out a plan that figures out what other revenue streams you hope the Kickstarter will lead to. The Kickstarter money will probably only work if it's being supplemented by Image's single sales, future GN sales, or something similar.

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  21. When you last posted about your intended schedule it made me think about my time on the Burnout Train. I wanted to write something encouraging but it got eaten by the server.

    I would add: one's "bad" reactions do have a point to them. You're frustrated with slow progress because you still have some passion behind the project. That's good. And as long as you have drive then you haven't given up, and you haven't failed.

    The guilt is a drain on creativity, though. I think beating guilt comes down to choosing what you can do best at the moment. Like, if you're not making progress on the page layout, and you know you're just totally mentally logjammed there, do something else. There are so many aspects to telling a story, you can find something to do that gets you closer to completion. It can be doing research, it can be looking at things that inspire you, it can be having a conversation about the direction you want to go -- it's all valuable.

    See, I have chronic pain, which really sucks the life out of you. But, irony, I've made the most story and art skills development progress in this last year when I've been sicker than ever before and unable to get out of bed for weeks at a time.

    Sometimes my hands hurt too much to even type, let alone hold a stylus or pencil. So I can't spend all my time obviously producing. I had to accept that (which sucked). But I got back to why it mattered to me. I stopped feeling guilty and started to appreciate when I made some small breakthrough. Now my projects are fun again.

    I realized discipline is not about self-denial and fortitude in the face of suffering. Discipline is sticking with something because it's worth it to you. It's not just working through fatigue or avoiding distractions. It's feeling satisfaction even while you're tired, and getting into the zone because you've managed your surroundings well.

    No one else will get out of this project what you will. It's not a value judgement, it's just the way personal projects work. You're labouring because you love it, not because someone's gonna break your legs. It's a gift to other people. It's a game for them to join in. So I'm not gonna say "don't feel bad about not meeting your schedule." I'm going to say "feel good about what you're doing."

    People can wait a little longer for that page to be done while you're spending quality time with the wee one. They can wait over a year. I mean, would you expect the standards you're holding yourself to from other people?

    I really like your project. I'm excited to see it. But I can wait. ;)

    Also, if you'd like another person to help out, even if it's just having fresh eyes or flatting a page or two, I'd be really happy to. I'm not in school this semester and I'm stuck in bed, so my time is up for grabs! Plus, that kind of support is something I love doing.

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  22. I've been checking in on this blog hoping you would update it! I really don't have much to add, but I'm glad that you are still working on the book! Keep the good work!

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  23. Hi there Nate,

    First of all congratulations on becoming a father, that's way more important than anything else going on. That should be (and will be) your number one priority from now on - enjoy it!

    Secondly, Nonplayer is one of my favourite comics ever but I don't think it's worth sinking your life into like this, especially with a child on the way.

    The comic is so good that the first issue stands on it's own. It's a fantastic achievement and you should be really happy about it, not feeling guilty because you haven't followed up with a second issue.

    If you're not enjoying it, drop it and focus on your family - or else, what's the point?

    I definitely support the comic and have no problem waiting years for a new issue or contributing to Kickstarter for more issues or special editions of #1 (I regulary pay over the odds to get nice Europeam format versions of Moebius comics and I rank Nonplayer #1 along with those - I'd love to have it in a big hardback edition with extra art thrown in). As far as I'm concerned even if you never followed up with another issue, or any other comics work it wouldn't take away from that comic.

    Step back, enjoy life, see what works and what doesn't, get rid of your expectations and see what ends up happening.

    Best of luck and thanks for Nonplayer #1!

    Paul

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  24. Hey man, I'd just like to say I love your work. I followed you on deviantART, saw the first pages of nonplayer you uploaded, impatiently waited for the first issue to come out, snapped it up as soon as I knew it was available, and desperately wished it would continue soon (even though I knew there was so much work to do and you were doing it by yourself!). But don't continue the comic for people like me. Continue because the art you're crafting is phenomenal.

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