In 2012, just a few months before my son was born, I was trying to squeeze one last project in. I had registered for SF Zinefest in the fall and needed a book fast. So I had this idea sometime in May that I would do something simple (you know where this is going) and fast. I would do an 8 page book that was all color and all short comics. Each comic would be 1-4 panels. It would be fun. It would be easy. I’d crash the book out and kick back with a nice stiff drink waiting for my son to show up.
Well, I did finish the book, The Business of Monkeys nr. 2, but it wasn’t easy or fast. I hand painted the whole thing which turned out to be really hard to deal with in terms of getting the color just right. I drew all the panels first and hoped great ideas would come to me. The short form is not that easy, turns out and sometimes it’s harder to say more with less. But I finished the book, got it off to the printer and by July I was a parent.
A couple of weeks ago I got an email from Noah over at Zineomatic saying he bought The Business of Monkeys nr. 2 at Mission Comics in San Francisco. What?! Leef (owner and amazing human at Mission Comics) still had a copy? Unbelievable. Anyhow, Noah said he wanted 200 copies for his zine subscription. “No problem!” I said. But there was a problem. We had just moved to Montpelier, VT and everything (I mean EVERYTHING) was in boxes. He needed them fast and when I finally found the comics I realized I didn’t have enough. No problem. Print more. But I also couldn’t find my art computer which had the files on it.
“You know,” I said to my wife, “I wonder if Ken (the original printer at keness.com) has the original files?” “No way,” she said. “Who would keep files for 8 years?” Well, Ken did have the files (THANKS, KEN!) and low and behold another run of The Business of Monkeys nr. 2 was printed.
The comic that just keeps coming back, last minute. Want to see what this comic, that just keeps coming back, looks like? Pick yourself up a copy over at my etsy shop Brian Herrick Makes Art. Enjoy.
