A funny thing happened on the way to the printer…

Actually, I was not on my way to the printer. Plan A, scrapped about the middle of last month, had me shipping a limited-run first edition of Spam and the Sasquatch to A-Kon, the big convention I’m attending in Dallas next week, and gleefully fending off the hordes of fans who wanted a piece of this limited edition coolness, not to mention the movie producers who would want to turn it into an animated feature film. Then came Plan B, which involved having at least a proof copy to show off, so I could talk the book up and show publishers and that sort of thing.

However, even working from dawn ’til midnight for weeks on end (OK, not dawn, I don’t get up at dawn, especially in the summer, but anyway, reeeeeeally long days, and no social life whatsoever) I only finished the text insertion a few days ago. Which didn’t leave me any time, I thought, to get a proof back from the printer, so I was on to Plan C and maybe even D.

Enter my mentor and friend, Ken Steacy. Wednesday evening he came over to take a look at the finished comic with the balloons. Alas and alack, the font I had chosen for the text was, uh, “lame”. It was not a comic-book font. My font choices were rather limited, as I have not gotten around to getting any proper comic-y fonts, nor the even better option of having a custom font made from my own lettering. I thought it looked kind of literary, being a serif font, but serif fonts are apparently the comic book equivalent of wearing black socks with sandals (which I have been known to do too) and it Would Not Do. I despaired. I visibly wilted. More long hours on the computer loomed before me! I would never see the outside again! My brain would be sucked into the monitor and I would live forever in Adobe purgatory!

Then — a miracle! Ken offered his services, not only re-vamping my text-balloons, but designing a cover for me from my own artwork, as well as making sure it got to the printer! What could I say? I hired him on the spot. And of course he did a magnificent job.

So here’s the big reveal — the cover for Spam and the Sasquatch, soon to be seen in proof form, after which I must search for typos and probably make a few minor changes before it becomes the real thing. But — it’s a book, folks. It’s been put to bed, and now I can sleep easy, and dream of having it in my hot little hands.

Ta-Da!

(In case you’re just tuning in: Spam and the Sasquatch is an upcoming graphic novel written by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough with visual storytelling by me! Currently I’m posting several times a week rather than daily; my regular Technique-of-the-Week Saturday posts are on hold until I get this project wrapped up. )