Ken fesses up to the Western being late
You know what was awesome about last year? Everything! I mean, seriously: I met every one of my goals and exceeded all of my expectations. Obstacles seemed to melt away when I stared them down, like I had high megawatt laser beams shooting outta my eyes. ZZZ-ZAP!
This year? This year has been more of a test so far because the high megawatt laser eye beams are acting more like a cheap seminar pointer. It's fun to use to make my artists chase around the red dots on the floor like cats, but the obstacles aren't exactly melting away.
My first goal for 2012 was to expand the Nix Comics Brand. To achieve this, I put aside the Quarterly for the first half of the year to concentrate on launching Nix Western Comics #1 and Nix Comics for Kids #1. After all, a man can't live on one niche market alone.
The Kids comic is one frantic weekend of lettering away from being on schedule to get to the printer in time for its debut at my hometown Small Press and Alterative Comics Expo (SPACE.).
On the other hand and to paraphrase Bob and Doug, the Western has been a real hoser, eh?
"Plan A" was for Nix Comics Western Number #1 to be released as a comic book and record set with a custom laser cut 45 adapter in mid to late March. That deadline was set by a man brimming with the confidence that a year of quick and easy success breeds. I knew that there were a lot of moving parts, but hey... The quarterlies had a lot of moving parts to 'em too. And I only had one artist to reign in. How hard could it be? I'll tell ya how hard...
First off, I gotta apologize to my man, El Blasto. (That's Bob Ray Starker. It's a saxophone thing.) I put Bob in a bad spot. A 28 page full color western is a lot of work by itself. Throw in a couple of posters for promotion and Kickstarter, a picture sleeve for a record and recording two songs and all of a sudden it's a full time job. Turns out Bob already has one of those. And the Pander Bear webcomic. And like three bands he heads up. As prodigious as his talent and rate of work are, there was no way he could accomplish everything I asked him to do in what amounted to four months.
GADS! I don't wanna be that boss. You know... The boss who, despite the best of intentions, sets his people up to fail. A boss with moony ambitions and a sunny disposition can almost be worse than a boss who is just being a jerk.
The second stubborn stumbling block for the western is this record I'm including. The lacquers have been cut, but I haven't even received a test press yet. Don't take that as me complaining about the record pressing plant, Musicol... They are pretty good about doing jobs expediently in the order they receive them. Nope. This one is on me and my blind ambition again. I shoulda taken a more global look at the calendar and realized that April 21st was national Record Store Day. Musicol is busy busting out singles and LPs for every big and small record label, band and store in a four state radius.
So there you have it. Shit's late, and there's no one but this guy to blame. I'm not sitting around kicking myself for Plan A not working... Plan B is in effect and stuff will get done. If the obstacles won't melt away this time around, I'm not too proud to find alternative routes. What I regret is that I fell into a state of hubris and was confident that I could blast my way through any problems that came up. That ain't cool.
Y'know... I suppose no check marks in the "goals accomplished column" yet this year is acceptable when I get to pencil one in to the "lessons learned column."
http://www.theouthousers.com/index.php/columns/indie-insights/18930-indie-insights-on-ambition.html/
by LOLtron » Sat Apr 07, 2012 10:18 am 
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