One of the many reasons why I love him

SO I'm re-lettering all the balloons in Charm School (well, with the pages I've discovered having *really* jagged digital lettering for some reason), editing my writing for more concise dialogue, and re-touching some bits of art ( a hand I'd always disliked, a bit of eye direction touch-up, some subtle balloon re-direction). I am *not* going to re-draw. I have to tell myself not to do that. The art has a true charm all its own, as drawn by the more younger Me, and that's something that can't be duplicated or preserved once I start re-drawing.

But there is something I've realised as I do the labour I hadn't anticipated: I am a DIY, Indy creator Snob. And I'm not the only one (though that's not much of an excuse). There's a whole generation of comic book artists like me, who were independent, wrote everything, drew everything, coloured everything, lettered everything, maybe went so far as to publish and sell the darn things (I had a publisher for Charm School, but I still did most everything regarding the creation of the book except send final files to Quebecor, the printer in Canada). That also means the publicity hustle, which is the convention circuit, getting tables and booths to tout the books and meet one's growing (and often) loyal readers. When you make the leap to 'just Do It', there's no questioning that this is what you have to do if you want the Stories inside of you to come out and reach people.

Whether one actually makes a living doing this is another sober issue. Frankly, the public attitude towards this much hard work is to devalue it. Yet the new indy writer of today will still leap out of the comfort zone to shoot videos, to learn video editing software, how to obtain music for tracks, hire cover models, create book covers, hire editors, learn how to create e-books, launch Kickstarters, spend lots of money, effort, tears, and labour that may go no where, just because she really believes in her book(s). I may be olde school DIY and nearly comfortable with all that needs doing in this creator-business (though marketing is another issue entirely), but I totally salute all these indy book writers who take the Leap of Faith. You don't know what the heck you are doing or whether it will work, but you are trying. Learning to fly is worth it.