Humans plan. God laughs. So it’s been said.

We’re working on a new collected edition of Billi 99. It looked easy. We’ve got scans of the original art. We had someone who had enthusiastically volunteered to design the book. And then …

Tim Sale’s artwork was done on Duoshade board. The stuff is no longer made. Digital technology killed off the market. The scans were made back in the early nineties. When printed they have a slight moire pattern. The designer was trying to figure out ways to make the moire go away and was having some success.

Then he got sick and dropped out the project with the work undone. I wish him well.

We could go ahead and print from the original scans. The TPB printed in 2002 did that. The moire is mostly only noticeable to folks with a bit of OCD. Still, we’d like this collection to be an improvement on the previous one.

So I’m taking on the job of making the corrections. And, for the moment, designing the book. That’s a lot of work. That means all the other creative projects I was working on are getting pushed back. Billi needs to have priority.

The cover at the top of this newsletter is a mock-up I did for fun last year using a sketch that Tim had done in 2020. I can’t put out a newsletter without some sort of image, can I? The actual cover will feature a different illustration and a different design. We’re aiming to have the book available toward the end of this year. In order for that to happen all the work needs to be done before June.

Fun. Fun. Fun!

I hope your week has gone well and your plans are coming together like clockwork.

See you in seven!