RASL and the documentary The Cartoonist appeared on a few year end lists around the internet. Here is a fun link I liked… RASL: The Drift made the Top 5 Continuing Books of the Year over at Stumptown Trade Review. I did a podcast interview with these guys earlier in the year when I was at the Stumptown Comics Fest, and enjoyed it very much. Thanks, Brian & Thor! Good time to mention that the new issue, RASL #6 will be in stores on Jan. 20! There is a preview of RASL #6 here.
Also, The Cartoonist documentary made the Booklist Editor’s Choice Best of 2009. Three and a half out of four stars. Not bad, Ken! (Ken Mills is the director) Congratulations!
We had heard that PBS stations might start running the doc sometime next year, but it looks like some are starting now. Apparently individual stations don’t report when they run something. We find out if someone tells us. We’ll post any times we hear about, and hopefully you will let us know if the doc runs in your town. Be sure to check your local PBS listings.
Just got back from the Retailer Summit in Baltimore on Tuesday where I met and talked with over three hundred comic shop owners and managers from all over North America. Got a lot of great feedback on RASL, which was nice. Above is the art for the cover of #7, which will be in the Diamond catalog for items shipping in Feb. Starting with #7 next year RASL will begin shipping bimonthly. The second collection, RASL 2: The Fire of St. George should drop in April. Amazing color from Steve, huh? Wild!
One surprise for me at the summit was learning that so many comic shops were doing well with the BONE color editions from Scholastic. For some reason, I thought those were mostly being sold into bookstores, schools and libraries, but I heard differently this week! So thank you, retailers, for continuing to support for BONE.
Another happy event last weekend was Terry Moore’s win at the Harveys. ECHO won for best new series! Much deserved! Terry has worked hard to bring that story to life, and we’re all crazy proud of him!
The first four issues of RASL were 32 pages and were published on a fairly relaxed 3 issue-a-year plan. When I came up with this format, I thought the extra pages would make up for a slower release schedule, but the demand for more issues gets louder every time a new chapter comes out. I think everyone I heard from liked the extra pages, but they’d rather have less time between issues.
So, starting with RASL no.5, the black & white comic books will be 24 pages, and in the Fall begin a bimonthly schedule.
I have to admit it makes sense to me too, especially at deadline/crunch time when instead of dealing with18 to 22 page stories which is standard, I suddenly found myself wrangling an extra 10 to 14 pages which almost made my brain explode!
I still have to make room for some scheduling conflicts this summer (for a couple of projects that I’m not ready to announce yet,) but, here’s the schedule for the next few issues:
RASL no.5 July [secret project over the summer months]
RASL no.6 October
RASL no.7 December
RASL no.8 March 2010
