[A&E] Chapter 3: Painting Myself in a Corner...

One of this mini series “Achilles’ heels” has certainly been its uneven and protracted publishing schedule.

Mistakes made by all (including me) from the very beginning, contributed to make this series chronically late.

These were mistakes made out of excessive enthusiasm and lots of good intentions, which, as we know, are the stones that pave the road to hell. Here’s what happened:

Following the initial negotiation stage, I had two urgent priorities pulling me in opposite directions. One was completing a story for Egmont I had already started. (8 pages had been completed which left me with pencil and inks for 24 interior pages and a cover to go) The other was producing as much promotional material (poster, covers and interior pages) as possible for this new project. By then, we were at the end of March.

This was the issue I was working on (for Egmont) at the time I accepted the assignment  from Hermes Press.

September 2014 was designated as the release date for the premiere issue of the Hermes mini series. A special presentation was also planned for the San Diego Comic Con, which was going to being held July 21-24. Given my circumstances, these dates were rather premature and would eventually reveal themselves as a gross mistake in judgment and planning. By the same token, these dates had been determined before I even came on board, and didn’t account for some intervening complications with Mr. Herman’s health situation, which delayed the choice of the series’ artist. (Me)

The mini-series was originally scheduled to debut in September 2014.

So, I found myself in a quandary. Had I given my full attention to the Egmont project, I could have completed it in three months. (Yes, I know, I am notoriously slow). This would have eaten all the time I needed to produce the bare minimum material for Hermes Press. Therefore I decided to complete 8 of the remaining 24 Egmont pages during the following month and ask my Swedish editors for an extension on my deadline. (They were not very happy about it, nonetheless they obliged)

Of course, those 8 pages ended up taking more than just one month, and I realized that I had painted myself in a corner even more. We were by then at the end of April, which left us two months before San Diego and five months before the release date of the first issue. In normal circumstances, by then we would have needed all the promotional material already sent to the distributor and the pencils of issue 1 fully done. Instead, we were (I was) still at the starting blocks.

Coming up next: Promotional Material.