I called in sick to work yesterday. I’ve called in covid (as part of quarantine procedure, when I tested positive I never felt sick enough to stay home) and called in physically injured (knee, back) but I don’t remember the last time I called in sick. Usually if I’m feeling under the weather I just go and stagger through the day. On Wednesday I had chills and my digestive system was really not happy. Thursday morning I felt better but still sick enough that staying home seemed like a good idea.

I spent most of the day reading. Books. Something that wasn’t my computer. It was a good day.

I’m going back to work today. You can call in sick for a day without needing to justify it. Calling in sick for more than a day could require going to see a doctor and, when one is sick, that’s just another pain in the tuchus. I do feel better. I’d rather stay home and read but, let’s face it, I’d rather do that most days.

I’m continuing to work on the Billi page conversions. The two images bracketing this post are before (above) and after (below) versions of a two page spread in what was the fourth issue of the original miniseries. Staring at his work day after day has really driven home how talented and skilled Tim Sale was.

We’ve commissioned José Villarubia to color a cover for the book. We’ve also commissioned him to color a couple of pages as examples of what a colored Billi edition might look like. This is for the Kickstarter. The Kickstarter that we’re still figuring out. Given that we’ve never run a Kickstarter before I imagine we’ll be figuring it out until it’s over. That’s assuming we run a Kickstarter. We’re still waiting to hear back from the publisher as to whether they think a Kickstarter for a hardback edition would cause a problem with them putting out a trade paperback.

This is the schedule I’m looking at for 2023 –
March – finish clean up of the original Billi pages. Work out budget for all tiers of Kickstarter.
April – Solicit artists for bonus art in the kickstarter edition. Solicit famous folk for blurbs for advertising – get cover colored.
May – Build mailing list. Figure out timeline for Kickstarter – when will backers get their book? Prep solicitation for the TPB.
June – Pre-kickstarter publicity. Send out PDFs for reviews.
July – Kickstarter.
August – Send print files to publisher. Solicit for the TPB.
September – Communicate with fans, reviewers whatever.
October – More communication. Maybe the Special Edition is released?
November – Billi TPB comes out.
December – Sleep.

The sleep part is a fantasy. December is the Christmas mess at USPS.

Busy, busy. I might be able to get some art of my own done after I’ve finished cleaning up the Billi pages.

I hope life is treating you well. Treat life well in return.

See you in seven!