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Oh man.
So I’ve written many times before about how this page-a-week serial format requires writing on multiple levels. I try to make each page its own thing, that also collects itself into the flow of an Issue/Episode installment, and then the even longer term flow of conceptualizing a Volume of several issues, and the eventual goal of wrapping up the whole comic in a way that will provide a satisfying experience from start to finish.
That’s immense if I start to think about it too much, so I try to keep to the classic method of breaking down the big task into the smaller tasks so I don’t go blitheringly insane with the scope. On the other hand, even though I’ve done perhaps better than I ever expected at keeping the whole train chugging along this past nine years, I must admit I’m currently fretting over this episode that we just finished. As a day-to-day I think it’s worked well, as an issue it’s good, and it weaves into the overall story fine. But the eventual Volume could be a problem, because this is meant to be the first installment of a future Volume 3 and I feel I may have relied too much on references, locations and callbacks from the previous issue. I fear a theoretical customer picking up a theoretical Volume 3 as their first entry to the story could end up pretty lost as a result.
Well, I was bound to slip up at some point. And fact is we haven’t even put out Volume 2 yet, which isn’t even a given unless we get another successful crowdfunding done next year. A Volume 3 is so much vapor and years down the pipe, and it’s probably paradoxically optimistic of me to even be worrying about it.
And if we do happen to get there, well, folks like a little extra content in their trade collections, right? I’m sure I’ll think of something.