What you missed: Planning the Incredible Doom relaunch (2023)
What what went on during the first few weeks of our new comics project.
This post was originally Patreon-exclusive. Want early access to behind-the-scenes content like this as new projects develop? Join my Patreon to see works-in-progress before anyone else.
The plan with this Patreon is both to give you extremely early access to the new comic as we make it and to provide you with real-time views into how we're putting the thing together—showing all of our thoughts, hopes, triumphs, and setbacks.
If this is going to be a complete record, I should let you in on the few weeks you missed because we didn't share them and why we didn't.
Dec 2nd was the first day I met with Jesse to discuss re-launching the series. After we finished Vol. 2 for Harper Alley, we'd covered all the stories we had hoped to get to with those charecters. But, for reasons I got into in the last post, I was excited to dive back in. But I was also frightened of what would happen if Jesse wasn't into the idea. He reacted with cautious optimism but said he had to think about it to make sure he balanced his work life, this project, and his mental health.
If you haven't picked up Incredible Doom it's now in bookstores and comic shops everywhere.
While I gave Jesse time to consider what he could and couldn't offer, I wrote our literary agent and editors. Although I technically don't need to notify them if we're doing something like this, they've been an exceptional part of the team for two books, and I didn't want them to feel blindsided. So while waiting for a reply, I continued to work.
On the 19th and 20th, I attempted to design an auto-posting system for social media posts to help make it easier for me to notify folks about future new comics. This system would allow folks to easily follow the comic from various platforms with posts formatted correctly for each destination, with less ongoing maintenance for me. The plan outlined in the flowchart above, unfortunately, failed for boring technical reasons. However, I may come back to try it a different way.
From Dec 21st to Dec 23rd, I dug into finances. To make anything close to a living from this, I'd need to be conservative with my spending. Using the book Profit First as a guide, I created several checking accounts, one for taxes, another for business expenses, and so on. Then, I made a personal and professional budget and cut out several costs.
Between Dec 27th and Dec 30th, I worked on a new site for the project. I've grown to love the blogging software Ghost and wanted to transfer Incredible Doom from its current Squarespace base to this new platform. At first, I explored Webflow and Udesly in an attempt to design my Ghost theme, but then abandoned this plan and chose to modify a pre-made theme from fueko.net.
Dec 31st, Jesse and I had our first story meeting! To get the ball rolling, I shared several clips from movies, and TV shows I thought had aspects we could bring to the new series, such as Portrait of A Lady On Fire, The Shawshank Redemption, Little Miss Sunshine, Bottle Rocket, and Freaks and Geeks. We also discussed excerpts from a few articles, including "Stop talking to each other and start buying things" by Catherynne M. Valente and "My secret life as a 12-year-old sysop" by Benj Edwards. Finally, we left the meeting with a possible idea for where the story might head and a potential plot for our inaugural issue.
We agreed we couldn't spend a year of prep on this new series and wanted to get it out the door as fast as possible. Would two months be enough time for the first issue? We weren't sure.
On Jan 3rd, we met and discussed the project's finances, including who should be paid what if the project makes a profit.
Then, on Jan 8th, we met about the story again. We threw out our brief idea for a first issue but continued concentrating on the characters and themes I'd brought to our previous story meeting. We ended excited, with a possible structure for the series, and I went away with a problem to solve for how the first issue might unfold.
On Jan 9th, I drove from Portland to Eugene, partially to drop something off with a friend and partly to have some time alone to think about the story. Driving can give me the right amount of focus to make real progress. I can't stop every 10 min and do something else, and staying on the road occupies just enough of my brain that I don't get into my own head too much.
I stumbled across an approach for the first issue that I dictated into my phone in Wendy's parking lot in Albany, Oregon, and I developed it into most of the first draft of a script for issue 1 on the 10th.
NEXT
Here are some things on my mind to work on next:
- Finish the 1st draft of the script for the first issue.
- Meet about the script.
- Re-figure the Patreon for this in-between phase where the new series isn't out yet, but we still plan to post a lot here.
