My Terrible, Terrible Idea

Damn you Robert Kirkman.

It all started when Robert Kirkman brought two of his comics to 100 issues.  Kirkman's "Walking Dead" and "Invincible" have both passed the 100 issue mark.  This is no small feat.  A single creator doing a 100 issue run on a comic nowadays is virtually unheard of in its own right, but on top of that, both of Kirkman's books are non-Marvel, non-DC comics.  And he brought both comics to 100 around the same time, which means that Kirkman has been writing at least two monthly comics consistently for quite some time.  And anybody who knows anything about Kirkman knows that he was writing a bunch of other comics at the same time.  Some of those books haven't had the same longevity, but the point I'm trying to make is that I admire Kirkman's ambition and consistency.  Even if I'm not a Kirkman fan (just could never get into his work).

Of course, after being wowed by Kirkman's impressive accomplishment, my second thought was, quite simply this:

I WANT TO DO THAT.

One of the biggest mistakes I've made as a creator is my tendency to jump from book to book to book.  I just have too many ideas, and it makes it difficult for me to stay focused on a single title.  New ideas always burn brighter than old ones, and I just get so excited for whatever that's new in my mind, I just move on to the next thing.  I sometimes wonder if I just stuck to a title for more than a year then maybe I would start to develop more of a fanbase.  Maybe not.  Who knows?  What I do know is this:  I've made 100 comics, and yet the longest I have went on a series is 16 issues.

Like I mentioned in an earlier blog, things are really starting to Click with me.  I've got three great lead characters in Cactus Joe the Clown, Bad Jack the Death Moth, and Octopus Jones.  I'm starting to develop a great supporting cast of characters to back them up.  I've got two great villains in the Ortex Corporation and The Clinic.  And the three books form a perfect cross section of the TORCverse:  HFSAC is about the Heavens/Space and about Gods and Angels and Demons.  Skull Mob is about the depths of Hell and the horrible things lurking under the sidewalk.  SDF is about all the stuff between those two extremes.

So, I've come to a decision.  I am gonna take "The Hot Fudge Sundae Adventure Club", "Skull Mob", and "SDF" to 100 issues each.

Yeah.

I want to openly state that this is a terrible, stupid, completely impossible idea.  There is absolutely no way I can pull this off.  Even if I have the ability to actually stick with all three books for that long (and I probably don't), I am essentially making a decade long commitment.  10 YEARS (actually, more than that, but let's say 10 just for the hell of it).  That's a long time, and lots and lots of stuff can happen in that time (go Team MeJo!).  So, this is impossible and there's absolutely no way this will work.

Of course, I didn't really think I could actually make a comic in the first place.  I didn't think I'd sell a comic to anyone that wasn't a friend or family member.  I didn't think I could finish a 24 hour comic.  I didn't think I could make 24 comics in a year.  I didn't think I would make it to 100 comics.  But I did all that jazz.  Turns out I'm pretty kick ass.

So, we'll see.  I mean, a guy's gotta have goals, right?