Hey, it’s Zack.
There’s a common trope, maybe we’ve seen it in Star Trek or Twilight Zone or other film/tv moments, in which the intrepid human is brought before the galactic alien tribunal and given one final sales pitch to save humanity or risk annihilation. Give us your best elevator pitch and tell us all the reasons why we shouldn’t blow Earth up into a thousand pieces. It’s a really high pressured moment, and this week kind felt like that for me, because I’ve been screaming at the top of my lungs all the reasons why Mindset should be ordered. Yes, I had Vault Comic’s MINDSET FOC.
So if you don’t know, in comics, there’s this thing called FOC. For Onary Carnage. Fickle Old Cats. No, it’s final order cut-off. This is the last chance for comic book shops and readers to pre-order a book. Comic print runs are determined by these numbers, and therefore the success and life of a series. It’s an indicator of a book’s entire run, and therefore, I like to think it also measures my value as a human being. Sure, maybe some people will buy the book, but if they don’t, the galactic tribunal may blow up my humanity. So, I drive myself nuts with these things.
However, I just got word that MINDSET is my biggest book yet, the most pre-orders I’ve ever had. I’ve completely blown away. And it’s a really big deal to me, because this book started as a pitch, with John and I working on it, just the two of us. Even though I had done other comics, I took on Break Out and Mindset as pitches with artists before I had a publisher, so it was nerve-wracking. So, needless to say, I’m on cloud 9, and I’ve been given the approval by the galactic tribunal to exist just a little bit longer.
This year has been a crazy ride with 4 new series coming out, and I’ve definitely learned a lot about project management and making comics. I got invited to talk about all of that in the recent Panel x Panel, and when I tell you that I took a deep dive, I mean, I took a REALLY DEEP DIVE. So if you are curious to hear more about how I mange all my series and see some really “making of” for the books, I definitely recommend it. I think the single issue, Pane x Panel 59 is only $4 and you can click on these graphics to take you to the link.
So MINDSET #1 is about 3 or so weeks away, and I still plan to be talking a lot about it, so definitely stay tuned for more on that. If you missed it, last week, they dropped all sorts of crazy things, from our onslaught of covers, from John Pearson, Martin Simmonds, Dani, Chris Shehan, Jacob Phillips, Christian Ward, Tom Muller and David Mack. And also a James Tynion endorsement/pull quote. Wow! So yeah, plus those amazing reviews we got, I’m feeling the mind control, and I wrote the damn book!
Image/Top Cow’s METAL SOCIETY #2 is coming NEXT WEEK, and I can’t wait for you all to see more of our human v robot fight drama! It’s about to get GOOD! We just dropped this awesome Tula Lotay cover for Issue #4. WOW!
Dark Horse’s BREAK OUT #1 and #2 are out if you want to catch up on that.
Scout Comic’s FOREVER FORWARD is announced and we’ll be talking a lot about that in the next couple weeks and months, so get ready to time travel with us. This cover here is by the hot cover artist Ivan Tao!
I’ve survived the Galactic Tribunal, sure, but you know those pesky Galactic Tribunals, one minute they’re releasing you to exist and the next minute they are testing you again for some new judgement. For now, I’ll just celebrate the wins and keep making comics. And thank you for helping me do it.
And thanks for reading.
June 1, 2022
Zack Kaplan