TORC Press 2012 Year in Review

So, how did this year go for our hero?  Good question, and one I'm still trying to figure out.

The Convention Scene was rough this year.  Really rough.  I never had a "Home Run" show this year.  At best, most of my shows were "Good Enough", and a few of the shows I worked at were full-on Bombs.  Still, it wasn't a total loss.  I went out to California and attended APE for the first time, which was nice.  SPACE in Columbus, OH is always a show I enjoy as well.  So there's that.

In terms of comic output, this year was markedly different from last year.  Last year, of course was the completely dreaded, and yet completely glorious 24 Comix in a Single Year Challenge (which I completed, of course).  This year, I decided to cool my jets a little.  And, I was a little sidetracked... fixing some things.  Still, I produced a handful of books.

My big flub up this year was "Pulp Horrorshow" (v.3) #1.  I had been reading a lot of comics with... crude, simplistic artwork, and I wanted to experiment with an art style that was very rough and very freehand.  The end result was the middle story of Pulp Horrorshow, an ugly, clunky, confusing mess of a thing that I'm really not very happy with at all.  To fix the problem, I set the price point on the comic very low (it's only a buck fifty, even if it's garbage it's still cheaper than everything else out there), and I added not one but two back up stories (including a really well drawn aliceislost story that I am very proud of) to pad out the ugliness. 

"Pulp Horrorshow" (v.3) #2 was better.  Better cover art (I love ripping off those old EC covers), better interior art (much, much better), and the stories inside almost made sense.  Overall, it was still a very random, rambling mess, but it introduced some new characters and re-introduced some old ones, so overall not bad, by comparison.

"SDF" #1 was my first attempt... ever, I think... at what I call Robert Kirkman Infinite Storytelling, which is really just 80s/90s style comic writing where nothing ever comes to a conclusion and the story just goes on and on and on with no really obvious overarching structure.  With a lot of the comics I created this year, the watch word was World Building.  Pulp Horrorshow showed us what it was like to be trapped in the cities and at the mercy of living in a world owned by the nightmarish Ortex Corporation.  SDF, conversely, showed us the more optimistic, but just as deadly world of the people trying to escape from Ortex's Control.  Whether any of this was effectively conveyed amidst all of the fighting and bashing is unknown to me.  Besides World Building, the other major element I wanted to explore in SDF was the character of Octopus Jones.  I really like the character, and seeing his slow evolution on the page has been a lot of fun for me.  SDF 1 also gave us the first aliceislost back up story of the year, and I think the art on it is some of my best to date.

"SDF" #2 really just kept the ball rolling.  More fighting, more new characters, more World Building (the concept of Ortex Headhunters was explored more deeply), and more screen time for Octopus Jones.  I introduced the Mystery of the Floating Pregnant Woman (keep your eyes open for more on that one), and got more in the groove with the whole "Set myself up for the Cliffhanger" style of writing this comic demanded.  Also, another aliceislost strip, which was probably the weakest of the three AIL strips I completed this year, although, conversely, it contained the most important story elements.

I probably would be feeling pretty bad about my Comix Output this year if I hadn't completed the next two comix on this list.  "Clown & Penguin" #1 is officially my new High Water Mark for Comix right now.  It's a killer book, and I really feel like I just knocked the ball completely out of the park with this one.  After spending all of 2011 producing a blitzkrieg of Clown centric books that saw our two unlikely heroes travel all across the galaxy and beyond, "Clown & Penguin" #1 gave up on the pretense and simply evolved the Clown into a NuAge Silver Surfer, and threw me deep into the Tom Scioli-esque waters of Kirby-as-Genre.  Towering Death Gods wearing Atomic Bombs as Decorative Necklaces, a One Eyed Demon in a Shabby Suit screaming commands over a Video Monitor jammed into the mouth of an enslaved Angel, Hermaphroditic Angel Whores transforming into sleek, cold, emotionless Machines of Self-Righteous Destruction, Floating Dreamworlds used as an effective means of communication, Swirling Barriers of Mad Colors Locking a Doorway to Unknowable Realms, Tasty Hamburgers, a Smiling Yellow Submarine Spaceship, Four Armed Purple Aliens running for their lives, and a somewhat Nude Cosmic Clown wielding a Ridiculously Oversized Cosmic Hammer and riding on a Cosmic Unicycle being backed up by his best friend, a mute, blue Penguin who has turned Enlightenment into a Subtle Cosmic Groove.  Long story short, "Clown & Penguin" is COMIX!  And, yeah, I'm proud as hell of it.

In the "I'm Incredibly Proud but Also Somewhat Embarrassed" Department, we come to my last Comic of the Year, "Death Moth".  An attempted revival of my twice-over Dead character, Bad Jack, "Death Moth" became an opportunity for me to finally take the gloves and go full tilt with a story that just unleashed all of the F****D up S**T that is always floating around in the back of my head.  Whereas my other stories this year were about the different aspects of the War with the Ortex Corporation, "Death Moth" focused on the hidden, secret, and extremely deadly threat of the Nefarious Dr. Dendull and his Insidious Clinic Group.  The distorted, time jumping story gives us hints of the lives of Jack Hawksmoth, originally a superhero known as Gold Hawk, but who after being killed by his own partner, returns from the dead as Bad Jack,   We get a glimpse at the previously unseen Candy Colored War, and we get a new incarnation of Bad Jack, as he rises from the grave a second time as the titular Death Moth.  Also, we get Giant, Horrible Penises and Sexy Zombie Monster Women.  It was nice to get out of my comfort zone and just cut loose with a story for once, but I'll admit, it was kind of uncomfortable selling this comic on the Convention Circuit.  Especially when people would flip to... that one page.  You know the one.

So, all in all, a slow year for TORC Press.  A weak run on the Convention Circuit and only 6 books produced in a year (geez... only 6?  Really?), was counteracted by me producing two of my Best Books to Date.  Overall, not a bad year.

Next Year:  More of Everything.  Also, next year will find me arriving at my 100th TORC Press Comic!  Be there or be square.