UTG 3 - Update

Unstoppable Tuff-Girl, vol. 2, No. 3
Cover.

The third issue of Unstoppable Tuff-Girl is just a bit over 70% done. The independently created and independently to be published comic has been in production for over 15 months.

To all of our fans and followers who have been anxiously waiting for the follow up to the 2010 issue #2, we thank you for your extraordinary patience and support. Co-creator, Merrill Hagan and I especially thank you if we met you this year at WonderCon-Anaheim, Heroes Convention-Charlotte and/or Long Beach Comic Con where we had announced that issue number 3 was “almost done.” Don’t blame Merrill, however, the delay is all my responsibility.

A dummy layout from front cover (top, left) in order left-to-right, top-to-bottom.
Laid out to represent 2-page spreads unbroken.
Inked and lettered pages in red.
Pages to be completed in gray.

For graph-lovers, a progress bar of the 52 pages.

If you’ve been a recent follower of my Instagram feed, @monstergram7, then you may have noticed that since October, there has been an increased postings of art from issue 3 and you may have gleaned that there has been a renewed push in the production of the book. Will that be enough to complete the book in 2017? The math of 15 pages in 27 days around the holidays and measured against my highest production rate says “unlikely.” But I’m not giving up.

I’ve certainly learned a thing or two in the last year+.

#1 – 48 Pages Is a Lot More Work Than 36 Pages. The interior page count is 48 with 4 more added with the cover, equalling 52 actual pages to be laid out and completed. The 50% increase was wholly a decision to reward our eager fans for the six-year wait. It turned out that four months producing 36-page issue #1 didn’t extrapolate well to 6-months projected for 48-new pages.

#2 – Time Management Does Not Scale Up. As a self-initiated project produced entirely outside of a 40-hour-a-week full time job, what happens scheduling-wise is other things get pushed aside or delayed to make room for this project. Projects done over a few days can be completed in this way fairly easily. As more time is required, eventually the delayed things cannot be delayed any longer.

#3 – Things Postponed Eventually Need To Be Done. Bills need to be paid. Things need to be cleaned and repaired. Cons need to be planned and attended (if it’s part of your marketing). And don’t forget that sleep need to be gotten. As time goes on, I cannot rely on all-nighters. All-nighters are certainly not something you want to pack into your production schedule of, say, more than three-months. In my case, after four months and certainly by April, after WonderCon, I was pooped and No. 3 just was’t going to be willed to quick completion.

#4 – Expect the Unexpected. In the back of your mind you know anything could happen to upset your plans, but you mostly hope that they are tiny anythings. For me, I had to deal with installing new floors in my condo.

The hiccoughs: a) as described above, I had three comic conventions where we had a table to offer our product. In each case they’re demanding attention for 3-4 weeks, in total that’s 9-12 weeks not working on the book; b) at least four, non Tuff-Girl art projects, two of which for Disney (the day job); c) Instagram, which has been a great boost in my meager marketing plans, but at the same time much of those relatively quick sketches have not necessarily been “working on the book”; and d) the unavoidable birthdays and holidays and an unexpected wedding.


For those wondering, the cover story featuring Merrill’s One-Armed Bandit adventure, is one of the stories still in production. The Wichita two-part story is also in production and reads better as two-in-one-book rather than breaking it up across two books. They being cover stories, and for other reasons, I had decided to have No. 3 be the planned 48-pages, and not scale down to say 36 pages.

Thank you again for your interest and patience. I’ll post an update in January, when I hope to have a definite print date.

–Bryan.