Yes, I know the Daily Misfortune is supposed to be daily, and I've missed a few lately. Sorry about that! Some news: more Misfortune Cookie mini comics sold at the Desert Island comic store, and I gave them my Daily Misfortune and Flip Book to sell. I hope it sells well there!
Good news! I stopped by Desert Island Comics yesterday to see how well The Misfortune Cookie sold, and the owner, Gabe, said he'd sold 2 more that day! He said one girl (from Japan?) bought one for herself and one for a friend. That makes me super happy! So over about 2 months, I'd sold 4 copies. Not bad - they SOLD! And without me being there in person to show them how great my comics are. I dropped off copies of The Misfortune Cookie 2 and signed an agreement with the store. Before, when I gave the owner copies of my mini comics, we did a trade and I got another comic. But now that he sees my work sells, I have an official contract that says I get a certain percentage of what sells. I raised the price - before, my mini comics were $1 at Desert Island, but since the store would take like $0.40 from that, I put the retail price at $1.50, so I'll get $0.90 for each copy sold. Not much, but hey, gotta start somewhere. I was considering selling The Misfortune Cookie comics for $3 like usual, but compared to the other independent comic prices on the racks, $1.50 was reasonable. Other ones were twice the size and had twice as many pages for $3. Context is everything! When I'm the only cartoonist at an art show, I can sell comics for higher, but not compared with other comics. This is a very curious thing. I both dislike and like it at the same time.
Exciting news! You can now buy The Misfortune Cookie at Desert Island Comics in Brooklyn! This is an amazing step forward with getting the work of mindy indy out into the world! Desert Island is an independent comic store and has lots of wonderful indie creations. Thus, the perfect place for a home for The Misfortune Cookie!
How did this happen? I'd been to the store a few times and got to know the owner, Gabe, a bit. About a month ago I walked in with some of the Misfortune Cookie mini comics to sell there. He liked them, and he took 5 to see how they would do in the store. For such a small amount, we did a trade instead of going through lots of paperwork. (I got an Adventure Time comic for my 5 minis.) He put them in a space on the rack and voila! I went back to the store yesterday to see how many sold, and 2 were gone! I think that's pretty good, because Gabe said sometimes comics can be on the rack for months or years. Even though selling 2 seems like a small number, that's 2 more people I've reached that I couldn't have before :) It doesn't take much to make me happy.
So please stop by Desert Island Comics on 540 Metropolitan Ave Brooklyn NY 11211 and pick up a copy of The Misfortune Cookie! It's easy to miss walking down the street, though, because it looks like a bakery. There is no bakery there, but people never change signs in New York!
And now, your daily dose of daily misfortune!
I've just finished drawing this page! Aeryan boxes as well as surfs. Rocky was my main influence on this aspect of his character :) Aeryan can predict the future sometimes in his dreams, and I wanted to balance that mental power out with physical strength. This comes in handy for Aer later in the series ;)
I wanted to post a recent drawing in time for MoCCA Fest this weekend. It's a smallish comic convention that focuses on more independent cartoonists and small press. It raises money for the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art, the museum I teach at. Last year, I thought "next year, when I have the first book of Aer Head all done and published, I'm gonna get a table!" ... and I'm saying the same thing this year :/ I drew a lot this past year, but I need to push myself harder. It takes serious discipline to focus on drawing at the end of the day when I'm tired from working other jobs. But mark my words, when this comic is finally finished, it will be totally awesome :) Just tonight, I was at a comic book release signing at Desert Island Comics, and I told the owner, Gabe, "when I get Aer Head published, I want to have an event here" and he was cool with it :)