It's Been Too Long...
ATF #328
Hello Emberverse!
Sorry for the long silence! It’s been a very busy couple of months.
Remember how last time I said we just finished up our last show until October and it was a lighter schedule from there on?
I was wrong…
If you’re new to Last Ember Press (LEP) and Around the Fire (ATF), take a look around. If you like what you see, consider hitting that button below to get us in your inbox!
Here’s a quick sneak peek at what you can expect this time Around the Fire:
After that show, we sat down and pretty much filled up our card for the rest of the year. We did have a two week break after a craft show in early September, but now we’re back it almost weekly through mid December!
Three shows cancelled (all at the same venue, regular craft show of ours shut down) but we started looking for things to fill up those spots as well.
As it stands, we still have 8-10 shows left this year, the first being today as you’re reading this. We’re at a 1-day show in San Marcos, TX.
It’s been a lot trying to bounce between all these shows after years of not doing shows, let me tell you! And keeping up with everything else has also been a challenge. But we’re managing.
CASA
The next comic book show we’re doing is a one-day event in San Antonio called CASA (Comic-Arts San Antonio).
Some of the guests include Ross Richie from BOOM! Studios, Christopher Priest (Black Panther, Deathstroke), Rob Guillory (Chew, Farmhand), Nick Pitarra (Ax Wielder Jon), and Sean K. McKeever (Blood Hunters, Outpost Zero).
The full guest list can be found HERE.
The full exhibitor list (where you’ll find us) can be found HERE.
Should be a fun time. I’ll get to meet a few people I’ve talked with or worked with in person for the first time, so that’s pretty cool.
Lisa also just had something come out from BOOM!, so it’s great to see them represented.
And that leads me to…
Hex Vets: The River Guardian
Over that past several months, Lisa has been working with creator and illustrator Sam Davies (Stutterhug) on a graphic novel for BOOM! Studios. It’s called Hex Vets: The River Guardian and it just released this week in shops!
Sam was kind enough to basically give Lisa co-credit (under her maiden name “Moore”). Lisa did all the inks and colors for the book and had a lot of fun working on it too.
She’s currently working on the next one as well!
I’m always proud and so amazed at the talent and skill my wife has. She decides she wants to do something, picks it up and in no time is turning it into a profession. It was that way with flatting, coloring, clip art, crochet and now baking.
It’s truly special and inspiring to watch.
Curiouser Update
It’s also why I’m so fortunate to work on stories with her. She doesn’t really consider herself a writer, but I always tell her she’s much better than she realizes.
Curiouser is the first book we’ve written together and her ideas and instincts make the process and story so much better. One of these days I’ll have to write one of these about our co-writing process.
As for where that first issue stands currently, though, we just got new finished pages from Marco yesterday!
While I can’t show a whole lot, here’s a sneak peek:
Marco has done a phenomenal job on this book and really everything he’s ever done for us. His layouts, facial expressions and posturing, detailed backgrounds and overall concepts for each panel are top notch to say the least. We are so lucky to work with him and can’t wait to do more!
Now, the book will be going to colors and letters. We’re trying hard to catch up, but given our busy schedules it’s just taking some time.
Overall Production Status
To say we’re a little behind would be a gross understatement.
We are acutely aware of how far behind things are at the moment.
Trust me.
As I mentioned briefly last time and reiterated above, our schedules have made it very difficult to balance over the past several months. And to be honest, we’ve been hit with a lot of curve balls that we’re still trying to recover from.
Those curve balls come in many areas as well.
Financial, sure. But also emotional and physical at times.
But look, I’m not here to make any excuses. It is what it is and all we can do is move forward and try to get back on track. Which is exactly what we’re trying our best to do right now.
So I’ll run down a little of where things are at right this moment. Rest assured that we are doing everything in our power to speed each of these up as much as we can.
Steampunk Carol
We did start shipping, but it’s been super slow going between traveling, catching up on work and taking care of our niece, doctors appointments, etc.
We also realized recently that we forgot to order a couple of small items that need to be included, so we’re sorting that out this weekend.
The Last Ember Lenticular
We have everything here, so it’s just a time factor. And we’ll likely need to order more shipping supplies.
In the Land of the Dragon #2
Still needs to be lettered and printed. We’re trying to go in order with our campaigns (Curiouser aside), and it’s a little further down. I hope to have a more productive update on this one in my next email.
Pneumatic Cases Vol. 1
As you may have noted above, Lisa has been extremely busy with other projects and still hasn’t had time to color the extra story for the trade. That’s what we’re waiting on. We promised her colors on the campaign, but at this point we may need to consider bringing someone on.
So that’s where everything stands currently, and every single one of those not being delivered already is killing us. We want these out the door just as much, if not more than all of our backers and all of you. We want the next issues and next projects underway NOW. But this is where we’re at.
All I can say is that we’re doing our best, and right now our best is pretty slow going. But we’re getting there and we ALWAYS deliver in the end.
After agonizing over these unfulfilled and unfinished projects so much, we are definitely approaching things differently in the future.
We’ve had to make huge adjustments to our personal and working lives in recent months to accommodate this reality. We’re taking on more freelance work, venturing into other avenues as well as grinding as much as possible with everything we were already doing.
If you all can afford us a little grace, patience and kindness, we’ll get back to the level we were at and beyond.
Until next time, stay toasty!
-Brant
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