The last page of the series.

A lot of mixed feelings here. When I was writing this, and I say this with no shortage of embarrassment, I thought this was it. I was in. That the world would sit up and take notice of this interesting, intelligent, innovative approach to a stale genre and I’d work my way up to bigger and bigger things, scaling to the lofty heights of a Warren Ellis or Grant Morrison in no time.

I was around 30 years old, but still woefully naïve.

Five years on, I’m still hanging onto the comics industry by my fingernails — a series here, a few stories there, always with an oar in at the cool indie publishers but still three lifetimes away from ever making a living at this.

Which is… fine, really. This series was a huge growth curve for me, and taught me a few things — first, that having a great idea alone isn’t enough to get you noticed. Relentless self-promotion does. Second, that I’m not, at heart, a relentless self-promoter. I’d rather create new stuff than pimp published work, and that’s a barrier to maximum success that I’m willing to live with.

There’s also the “write it all out in advance” lesson, which I’ve gone on about at length.

What it came down to after Dead Eyes Open, though, was a wake-up call about comics, and what it takes to succeed in comics. I had the privilege of working with Dan Vado and Jennifer de Guzman, and continuing that relationship today through Captain Blood and maybe other projects in the future. But I also saw, up close, what I call “the churn” — the mass of thousands, literally thousands, of other hungry comic-book creators, clamoring for a shrinking market, all trying to yell the loudest and wave their arms the hardest to draw some attention. And quality often wins in comics, which is great, but what it takes to succeed in comics, barring an unprecedented set of lucky circumstances, is a life-consuming dedication to message boards, conventions, chatrooms, fan sites, comic shops, and, well, churn.

So the biggest lesson from Dead Eyes Open was that there are two sane ways to approach this:

First, to do everything in my power to Make It In Comics, to the exclusion of all else in life. Live on message boards, invest money in self-promotion and convention travel, kiss ass at every opportunity until the gates of Hell freeze shut, and work, work, work, work, work at it.

Second, to accept that I have a fantastic hobby, and one that may never be a profession. Write comics for love, promote because I believe in my projects, and do what I want with comics when I want to do it. Maybe I’ll catch a bolt of lightning and “make it,” maybe I won’t. But a deliberate decision to accept that this is work of love, not work that must be done so I can make it big.

I chose option two.

I think it’s working out pretty well so far.

So that was Dead Eyes Open. I hope you enjoyed it; if you did, please buy the trade paperback (it’s not too much money, and supports one of the longest-running independent publishers in this cockamamie business). You can also keep track of my and Roy’s current projects through our respective sites (links at the top of the page).

Thanks again.