Will I stop making comics?

Differences between creating a novella and comic

Good day to you my followers, subscribers and supporters.

The short answer to the question if I will stop creating comics is “No.” . More about that later. But I’m expanding my journey as a writer. After my four comics in Mrs.G series , I have published my first novella - “Mummy Issues”. It is out in digital, the print edition should be out any day now, it is waiting for the approval, but if you want all the way with support, you can get the digital now, it is just a dollar, and if you like it, then you can get the print - that will be $5.

I said to myself - “Just finish the darn book”

I have written the first part of it in 2023, but as I started working on the comics, I left the manuscript unfinished. The thing is though… the comics weren’t why it wasn’t finished.

The biggest hurdle was that I didn’t know how far I want to go with the book. The story about Sami, the 13 year old boy who is left all alone in his home and a mummy that he finds in his attic, gave me so much possible paths to explore. Yes, I’m exploring the coming of age of the boy and how he deals with all the mixed emotions that appear in him. He is in a need of motherly love, but he also has those other more mature emotions towards the beautiful mummy. I explored also how the mummy herself is experiencing a similar coming of age, because after millennia of being mummified, her mind has atrophied. She starts like a girl in a grown up woman’s body.

In addition to this, there is the question of the identity of the mummy - who is she, why does she seem to have some certain powers? And those people who are trying to get to her - who are those? What could Sami do to protect her? And what happens if those feelings of protectiveness go too far, and become feelings of possessiveness?

So, I had all those things that I’ve been exploring in the book, but then I had this idea that this low fantasy coming-of-age dark drama could transform into a proper fantasy story… But…, I was kind of stuck there, because that would require a lot more world building, plotting, introduction of new characters, and so on and so on... It was only the last month that I decided to actually finish it, to resolve the open questions of this part that I have already written and publish it in this form. Yes, it is little on the short side - around 90 pages, making it a short novella rather than a proper novel, but as they say perfect is the enemy of the good - if I didn’t do it, I might have never finished it. I think it is a very interesting story, thought somewhat dark and disturbing, but I hope you will like it!

Novella vs. Comics

Now that I have finished four comics (the fifth comic is on the way, and should be out soon), and one “standard” book, I couldn’t but think about the differences between the two forms of entertainment.

You might say it is apples and oranges, but in fact people have limited time and money, so it is not just that comic books are competing with standard books, but those two are competing for people’s attention with all the social media, youtube videos, movies and tv series, and what not… So, in that sense, all the entertainment media are on the same market. Having said that, I think “standard” books, have a lot of advantages on that market over the comics.

The first obvious difference is the comic book panels - the standard books contain just words, and the comic books have their panels. You would think this gives the comics a clear advantage - Each of those panels is a piece of art. I have said multiple times - it is just amazing what one good comic book contains - hundreds of pieces of art, connected to a cohesive story. It is almost like a movie made by just a couple of people. But the trouble is that this objective value is hard to “translate” to value to reader. Like it or not, scarcity is something that affects how we value things. The more rare something is, the more value we attribute to it. But now the reader has hundreds of little art pieces in front of him. Just that fact will affect his evaluation - each of those art pieces may be amazing art, but most readers won’t give it the attention they would give to an actual singled out art piece.

Scene from Mrs.G #2 - “Archeology Goes Deep”. Each panel seen separately is beautiful art.

And then there is another very important aspect in this comparison between the two mediums, where value to the reader is concerned, namely “value for the buck” - or how much entertainment do they get for a dollar.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but reading the comic panel doesn’t take time that it would take to read a thousand words. It will take a second or two. So, even the content is there hidden in the panels, the comic book of let’s say 40 pages, will take only 15 minutes to read. Of course CREATING those 40 pages is so much work. Writing aside, it takes a highly experiences, creative and talented people to pencil, ink and paint those pages. Each page is a multi day work for multiple people. And it takes just few seconds to read it. The written word on another hand is much easier to create. All it takes is just single writer. And writing requires talent, but it is so much easier to write single page , than to draw one. And at the end, when that page is written , it takes much longer to read it. Combine that with the price of publishing - The comics require better quality color paper for the physical editions, and also the downloads are much much bigger for the digital editions, and now you have a situation where the readers have to pay much more (because of production and publishing costs) for something that they will give them entertainment for much less time. So, my novella which will give you couple of hours of reading, is maybe three times cheaper that my comics which you can read in 15 minutes.

The other thing is - because comics are shorter form of entertainment, they are fighting for people’s attention with other short time-span entertainment forms. And those are much more prevalent - youtube videos, tiktok videos, instagram stories and posts… The entertainment market is much more saturated on that short span end. On the other side, if you are looking for a longer entertainment - yes, there are movies and tv series, but I feel like there are not as much alternative forms of long-term entertainment there.

And the last thing is - the very fact that there are pictures in comics is actually experienced in a negative way by lots of people. Casual readers might not see those pictures as an art, but a sign of something childish. And other people prefer realism, so when they see those “picture books”, they now don’t think of the story inside as a “real story”, but like a childish story.

Will I quit making comic books then?

Absolutely not!

If my novella is success I will consider writing a sequel, but it is not a given. On another hand I’m planning to write and publish a bunch of new comics in the Mrs.G comic book series! And as you probably know by now, it is not about money for me… I spend on creating comic books, a lots more than I get from selling them. It is just that I simply love creating those comic books, working with the fantastic artists, and I love when someone tells me that they liked them. So that you to all of you for reading them, you make all the difference for me!

In addition to that, even with all that I said in the comparison, I think the specific genre of my comic books—situational erotica—greatly benefits from the inclusion of pictures, which serve as a clear value differentiator. Erotica is about eliciting arousal, and visual stimulation is particularly effective in this regard, especially for men, who are the primary audience of my comic books. And then, in lots of scenes I have very specifically choreographed events, which are much easier to show then to explain. Think of the Mrs.G entanglement in the yoga silks in Mrs.G #1 , or Richard applying the suntan on Mrs.G in #2, or the setting up of the camp or sliding down the rope in #4 , all of those scenes I think get a lot from being seen, rather than described.

Few examples of panels from my comics that I think are better seen then described

That’s it from me this time, dear readers and followers - hopefully I was not too boring with this newsletter, and I provided some interesting insights and thoughts. I tend to send those very rarely, just so that you don’t feel like being spammed by me.

If the story of Sami and the mummy tickled your imagination, or if you missed some of my comics, please check them out at my site: mrsgcomics.com . You will find links to buy any of those there. While some of the comics are on the goofy side, I can promise you that the journey that Mrs.G takes in this comic series is an epic one, and the things that are coming will blow your mind :). It is not just “picture books” story.