November Newsletter!🍂

A long newsletter:

Summary! (TL;DR)

• An update this month, hopefully--but I’m extremely obligated to continue working on penciling and inking. I’m sorry about this hiatus!
• Overtime content will be posted directly to twitter--no longer to samwelluniversity.tumblr.com
• Some travel dates for November (So no streams 16th-18th, 23rd-25th)
• Q&A.

Updates & Progress. Since Check, Please!: #Hockey came out in September and I finished up touring in October, I’ve been throwing myself into penciling and inking Year Four. I’m not only trying to finish a great deal of comics before 2019 because I want to--I have to. You might have noticed that First Second is publishing Check, Please!: Stick and Stones in 2019, and it will include all of Year Three and Year Four. So, I’m left working as hard as I can to get the comic done in time for the publisher to create a book. It’s admittedly stressful.

It might be hard to understand why I’m working exclusively on thumbnails, pencils, and inking, but it’s easiest to explain things this way: switching to different processes-- like coloring or file-prep for assistants--can hinder an artist’s work flow. Bringing a page to finished colors, posting, promoting the update, and writing a blog post are all processes that I love, but I’m forgoing them for the time being to focus on pages. (I’m still having fun reading books and writing fake outlines--don’t worry, it’s not all doom and gloom.) Work flow is also disrupted by travel or other projects. So while touring was a blast, I’m glad to have had time at home.

If you’re wondering about the difference in output:

(tl;dr--i've been able to get more work done since I'm only focusing on drawing comics. For the last month I’ve had nothing to do but work on pages, and my productivity skyrockted! I’ve made more progress on the comic in three months that I could make in over half a year. )

But all of this is to say--I really appreciate the patience and support as I work on Check, Please. I also 100% understand if you wish to unfollow this Patreon until updates become more regular. But I assure you I’m working! Thank you!

Overtime Content on Patreon

Overtime content will now be posted directly to Patreon in weekly progress reports for $5 patrons. I'll try to stuff these updates with as much info as possible. (This is actually still a lot easier that sporadically updating the samwelluniversity blog, if I’m honest!) But yes, that means, no more updates to samwelluniversity.tumblr.com. Hope that makes sense!

Travel! Comix Experience, NCTE, and Miami Bookfair! Thanksgiving.

On November 14th, I will be at the Comix Experience in San Francisco, and then later on from the 18th to 19th at the Miami Book Fair. (Some of you might also be at the National Council of Teachers of English in Houston--I’ll be there too!) I will also be spending time with family for Thanksgiving and doing a signing in Houston on the 24th. While I’m traveling I won’t be able to stream: so no Picarto livestreams the weekend of the 16th-18th and 23rd-25th. Thank you for understanding! (Hope to see you around!)

ngoziu.com/events

Q&A

You guys commented with great questions under the last newsletter! Feel free to drop more questions below. For now, I will address a few here. (I'm sorry I couldn't tackle them all, there's a dozen!!)

How does it feel like to tour? It might seem obvious but it’s a lot of travel! Maybe 75% of it is traveling. Packing and unpacking, checking into and out of hotels--plane rides--catching sleep here and there. The most exciting parts are the signings, panels, and meeting readers, of course and it’s a lot of pouring out energy and gratitude for the people who show up. (Sometimes from VERY far. ;-;) With a graphic novel, I usually talk about my process and when I have equipment, do a demo.

Is everything just a blur, except for a few really really memorable moments at this point? or do you have an amazing videographic memory? Hahah I have an okay memory for events. (I have a good memory for people tough!) EVERYTHING WAS KIND OF A BLUR…so many hotels and planes @_@.

How does it feel to just walk into a bookstore and see your book on the shelf???? Brah it’s weird. Who let this happen. 

Do you have any plans to do a book tour or come to Canada on the west coast at any point? We’re trying to get up to the west coast of Canada! There are certain portions of North America I keep missing. (And like, traveling to Europe? Asia? Africa?--yes. Eventually!)

Did you consider the "touching the stanley cup" hockey superstition when you drew 24 hour celly? Yup! These players have unfortunately given up on their NHL dreams by this point.

Could you tell us some of the gory details of negotiating your unusual publishing contract? So much of working with a publisher like Macmillan and First Second was making them understand that this book started off as a self-published work--completely eliminating that element was off the table. The work would remain online and I would continue to be able to print my self-published options. And they really listened! I’m really glad they respected the readership. The relationship I have with :01 is basically this: they are taking a work they believe it and lifting it to a bigger, wider platform and we both benefit!

On one of your Pillowfort posts (that you linked on twitter recently), you mentioned the diversity in Bitty's teammates, including a Latino character.  Did I miss who that is? If so, who is it?  Whiskey!