Goodbye 2024
Smarg standing over Duluth. Art by Jesse Switters.
What a year! Don’t get me wrong, I’m as ready to turn the page over to a fresh start as the next person, but the end of 2024 provides a real chance to reflect. Jesse Switters and I formally announced the coming of Smarg on September 3. At that time, we had little more than a script, some concept art, and proverbial hopes and dreams. Good thing Jesse also had determination. He brought Smarg to life artistically in what felt like a blink. Just three months after our announcement, we were able to print a real comic book and start fulfilling orders on December 18. Whirlwind.
Smarg #1 is just 20% of our planned story arc. I have an outline for another four issues for our initial run, Jesse is on board for the art, and the script for Smarg #2 is almost fully baked by this point. Jesse and I plan to commence thumbnails and pencils in January 2025. We will provide regular updates on our progress!
Looking back, 2024 was a huge year for us because we got our little alien brainchild out into the market. But in terms of work, the continuation of Smarg’s story will be a larger undertaking during 2025 that will span the whole year. Our goal and expectation is to publish a new issue every quarter, which would allow us to cap off our initial five-issue arc in December 2025. This timeline feels perhaps a bit ambitious for two dudes spearheading their own passion project, but we really think this timeline is reasonable. We learned a ton in publishing the first issue. There are lots of ways to improve our product and process that we look forward to capturing starting with Smarg #2. We hope that our efforts show and that you plan to pick up the next issue when it releases.
I would be remiss if I made it to the end of an end-year retrospective post if I failed to thank a bunch of folks for their support over the last year. First—big ups to Jesse, who has become my friend and creative confidante. Snow Day Press and the Minnesota Comic Exchange gave us encouragement and financial backing needed to bring Smarg #1 to market. We had some amazing advertisers in our first issue, without whom we would not have variant covers. I appreciate your support of the nerdy arts. Huge thank you to the comic shops in our area who took a chance to carry our book. Finally, three cheers for Brent Schoonover and Zip Alegria for investing time and energy into cover art for a previously unknown intellectual property.
Last, something pretty neat was posted yesterday on the worldwide web. Wisconsin-based designer Dann Matthews (Instagram here) provided the first ever Smarg fan art. Check him out!
Art by designer Dann Matthews. Find him on Instagram.
