Terry Pratchett wrote the curse “May you live in interesting times” – and the times have certainly been interesting for the past few years. Pretty much a constant flux of change and uncertainty. We are hoping that 2023 will bring some stability.
As 2022 comes to an end we wanted to lay out what lies ahead. After a pretty disastrous two years with very few shows and our coffers drying up, where we ended up in almost a dormant state just to keep costs low enough to survive, we’re now starting to look to the future with a bit more optimism.
We’re looking at new titles, better ways of connecting with you all, and how to ensure we can keep bringing you the types of weird and wonderful stories we’ve specialised in since 2010.
Things in the pipeline
In the next year we want to release the following:
- Volume 2 of our Dexter’s Half Dozen trade paperbacks. This one will combine issues 4-6 in a remastered format.
- Dolphin Squad book 3. Danny is hard at work on this and from what we’ve seen so far, it’s going to be well worth the wait.
- More 7 Shades (the second issue from season 2 is now ready for release, and Dave Clifford is hard at work on the rest of the season).
- Age of Savagery 2. This was originally due for release mid 2020. It’s a compilation focusing on spotlighting new and rising talent. If you’d like to get involved there’s still time and you can find more info here.
- There’s more… but we need to be realistic about what we can afford to print and promote… so they may fall into our 2024 release schedule instead. Watch out for another blog post in a few months.
Cost of living
It’s pretty difficult to ignore the economic scene around us. Prices have gone up for most things. Petrol, postage, costs for tables at expos and more. We raised our prices in 2018 for the first time ever and now, unfortunately, we have to announce the same again.
From 1st February 2023 we’ll be raising the prices as follows…
- For our colour comics, the cost will increase from £4.50 to £5
- Black and white comics will go from £3.50 to £4
- Our graphic novels will go from £12 to £15
- Our bundle prices will also increase – but you’ll always get a better price buying a bundle than from picking up individual items.
There are a few things that won’t change… a big one is that our ebooks will stay the same price. With no storage or print costs associated with them, we feel we can maintain their current prices for the moment.
Social media…
Right now, we have presences on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter. Those won’t be going anywhere (hopefully! We’re looking at you, Twitter…) but over the years we’ve noticed those sites (particularly Facebook) squeezing us and stopping displaying our posts unless we pay for visibility. They sites are businesses so we can’t really object to them wanting to make money… but with our budget after the past few years that’s something we can’t often afford to do.
As such we’re going to be more active via our newsletter (did you know that if you sign up then you get a free ebook?). This won’t replace our social media – Facebook is still the best place to see our cosplay photos from events, for example – but will allow us to ensure that you receive the really important bits direct to your inbox and saves us having to compete with kittens for the favour of The Algorithm when we want to share something cool with you.
…and Future freebies
In the past we’ve offered select titles as part of Free Comic Book Day and other similar promotions and we’ve had a lot of great feedback from that (after all, free is a fantastic price to pay!). Over a decade of in-person events has also taught us that people like to see what they are buying before they commit, and that isn’t the easiest to do online. To counter that, we are going to make the following ebook titles available for free throughout 2023.
- Dexter’s Half Dozen #1 (the non-remastered, original comic that started the series)
- 7 Shades #S1E1
- New Wasteland Fairy Tales #1
- Dolphin Squad: Heroes of the Sea (but only the main strip. For all the bonus features from the book, you’ll still need to buy a full copy)
That way you can see the artwork and make an informed choice about which series to read next.
Wrapping up
2022 was an odd year for most of us. Many of the events we were due to attend were cancelled, and Covid is still a thing. But the year has also shown us that we can continue, and we intend to.
Happy Christmas, Solstice, Hanukkah and any other festivities. We’re going to wind down for the rest of the year and will see you in 2023!
