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"So it’s been a long time coming. . . the big news about the graphic novel ‘Red Lantern’. We took our time and got our ducks in a row before making this announcement, so that we could be sure everything was settled before we did. As ever, thanks for your patience.
Red Lantern has been an ongoing project for nearly five years now. It’s a massive undertaking. Each page of this comic takes us nearly 40 hours, sometimes more if it’s a particularly dense, detailed page. That’s one work week PER PAGE, if we were working standard hour weeks (those were the days!). Many things over the last few years have slowed our progress down, but the big ones are exactly what you’d expect – major life changes. A few years ago, Myenia started a family, and I began saving up for a house, ending my days of wandering across the US (moving to SC was my 14th move, and I’m hoping this one will stick, because I like it here). Both are serious commitments that unfortunately have outweighed the commitment we made to Red Lantern, simply by necessity, but the comic was merely delayed, not forgotten.
To be real for a moment, the main reason I’ve personally had to take on a lot of other projects and commissioned work over the last few years is strictly financial. Red Lantern is a passion project of mine, and although the comic’s sold well, it does not in and of itself pay the bills. Not even remotely, alas. So I’ve written novels, illustrated for other authors, done a ton of commissions, and focused on things like Patreon, that do in fact keep the lights on. As of this summer however, I got tired of seeing my neglected comic, and decided something needed to be done. So I put my nose to the grindstone and focused on clearing all of my projects, commissions, and commitments to other authors. The goal was simple – by the time 2018 rolled around, I wanted to have next to nothing on my plate other than Red Lantern. As of today, I have but one commission (you know who you are), Menagerie, and most importantly, Red Lantern. And that’s IT.
You may have noticed pages are coming out again! That will continue, and we are hoping to have ‘Conviction’ (Volume 2) ready for print by the summer. But here’s the really big change. Myenia and I have decided to handle the initial print run of ‘Conviction’ ourselves. The reasons for this are that there were many things I would have liked to have done for Volume 1, but it simply never happened because it wasn’t financially feasible. This time we intend to do the things with this comic that we’ve always wanted to do. To make that possible, we are taking the initial run of printing into our own hands, through the use of Kickstarter, a platform that I’ve had a lot of success with and has allowed me to bring many other books to print. Red Lantern – The Crimson Divine was created entirely without crowdfunding, and that meant we just couldn’t take certain risks. But I’ve come to see what can be done with Kickstarter with a few of my other projects over the last few years, and it’s been amazing.
We hope Conviction excites you as the comic picks up speed again, even if all you do is read. Red Lantern is, has always been, and will remain a free comic, but crowdfunding will allow us to put the volume into the hands of collectors and tell the rest of the story in 2018, so if you enjoy seeing the accelerated pace, we hope you’ll support our Kickstarter. The printed release will have additional content, just like the first volume, and depending on how the Kickstarter does, there may also be a few really special rewards that come with backer copies. . . very exciting rewards that we’re going to start sharing with you in the coming weeks.
Thanks for bearing with us while we lived our lives. We’re human beings as well as comic artists : )" -rukis
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