2014… and beyond

first off, this isn’t a “woe is me” post, but just more of an honest “state of the union”…

i’d like to think that at this point in my career, i’m still growing as an artist, experimenting and pushing style… and producing some of the strongest work yet.

but after 15! (give or take) years drawing comics (and comics related stuff), I’m realizing it might be time to take a big step back and reevaluate where i’m going in my professional career. 
as editors come and go, so do connections in the industry. paying work has been slowing down considerably… and editors aren’t emailing, banging down my door looking to hire – instead they’re finding new talent. that’s always been the nature of this beast. (and let’s face it, there are some damn good looking books coming out these days.) 
my gig on disney/marvel storybooks as well as covers (and pin-ups) for MARVEL SUPERHEROES magazine has run its course… i was lucky enough to do a 2 part story on my dream project BATMAN ’66 late last year, and i’ve been having a blast doing variant covers for dynamite and IDW, but not much besides that…
creator-owned work on projects like THE PERHAPANAUTS and KYRRA has been incredibly creatively fulfilling, but not exactly financially successful (to put it modestly)… todd, rich, and i all realize this stuff is a labor of love, but spending years producing a body of work we’re incredibly proud of hasn’t been doing much to expand our fan base. we tweet, we blog, and we post to facebook to the same people who already buy our stuff (and you’re probably one of the folks reading this post, so thank you!)
we’d love to keep doing this, telling new stories and creating new stuff… but current sales just don’t pay the bills (far, far from it). we’re exploring new ways of telling stories (digital first, illustrated prose, kids’ books, audio/motion comics, kickstarter)… but with our current sales, the way we’re doing books through image just doesn’t make sense for us… 
i’ve been lucky enough to have plenty of folks interested in commissions, and i’ll gladly continue with those (dark crystal, impulse, legion of substitute heroes, batman/robin ’66, blacksad, steph brown robin and more are in various states of completion the queue )… but as for other work? i’m not exactly sure what’s going to happen. but i’ll keep you posted.
thanks for being along for the ride… 
-c
PERHAPANAUTS
the DANGER DOWN UNDER trade just came out (and available in our webstore, along with shirts, prints, new portfolios)… we’ve got a killer one shot on deck for the convention season (with any luck, we’ll get it done)… another audio comic is in early development, and some other fun projects as well.
KYRRA
chapters 1 – 5 are available NOW only comixology for only $.99 each…
we’ve got this first arc of KYRRA mapped out (and chapter 6 of 10 is almost done)… will we collect it in print? sure, if we can figure out how to not lose money. we’ve got SEVERAL more 10 part arcs mapped out, exploring her world(S), friends, foes, and more.. and we’d love to get to it.