Well, well, well… it’s been a while, hasn’t it? Hello folks. How are things?
It seems as though I’m forever apologising for not posting more regularly on this blog. We’ve had an insane couple of years at Big Punch Studios – with two weddings, two house moves and the culmination of our magazine Extraversal – and all those manic hours can eventually take their toll. As such, we’ve tended to prioritise producing content over actually showing our faces, be it online or in person, and I’m all too aware that we must seem a bit distant or mysterious.
With a new year and a new outlook, however, I want to be better at communicating what’s going on in the world of Afterlife Inc. As such, here’s a quick update on Volume 5: Glory Days and what’s on the horizon.
TL;DR: as of next Monday, we’ll be publishing three pages of Afterlife Inc. a week (on Monday, Wednesday and Friday) as we accelerate towards the end of the current arc.
Glory Days
Incredibly, next week marks the one-year publishing anniversary of Volume 5: Glory Days. It’s an innocuous number, but hitting page 104 means that we’ve managed to successfully publish two pages a week for 52 consecutive weeks. The earth has completed one orbit of our majestic, life-giving star and Afterlife Inc. is somehow still with us.
This might not seem that impressive but it’s a major milestone for me. As a writer, my biggest resource has always been money. I wish it wasn’t… but hey, there it is. Managing an independent comic is expensive, particularly when you believe in paying artists for their time, and I’ve always tried to compensate the wonderful people who’ve helped make the series a reality – even if I’ve never been able to afford Marvel/DC rates.
Following an initial rush of productivity, there was a massive gap between books three and four – the primary reason being funding. Printing the books isn’t so bad – Kickstarter is a fairly reliable resource – but it’s the production costs that can at times feel insurmountable. Volume 4 turned out to be 176 pages long. Faced with the challenge of finding the necessary funds, it’s no wonder that the future of the book felt so uncertain at times.
Getting this far with volume 5 feels like a small but significant victory. For the first time, I’ve been able to produce an entire book without having to resort to crowdfunding or abject begging. For the first time, the future of Afterlife Inc. is secured.
At the same time, I feel I owe readers an apology. Glory Days is an intentionally slow burn. It’s a book about… nothing. Of having reached the top of your game and finding there’s nowhere left to go. As one commenter pointed out, it seems to be nothing but people ‘figuring stuff out’ – and they’re completely right. It’s a particular shock following the bombast of Man Made God and I’m genuinely sorry if people we’re hoping for more content in the same vein. Longer-form stories of this nature aren’t best suited to a page-by-page webcomic format, as it’s only when you view the story as a whole that it starts to make sense. Believe it or not, there is a masterplan, and it’s only in the quiet moments that the loud ones can be heard.
As a small thank you to everyone who’s stuck by us during this strange period of navel-gazing, as of next week we’ll be publishing three pages a week (on Monday, Wednesday and Friday) as we accelerate towards the end of this arc. Things are about to amp up and I hope that you’ll receive all the answers you’re looking for – or at the very least, a better class of question.
Thanks for joining us on this crazy ride, folks. If you’re enjoying Afterlife Inc. and would like to help support it, why not check out our Patreon page and take advantage of some great rewards.
Jon