A Double Dose of Bad News, and Why I'm Still Smiling

I suppose yesterday could have been viewed as a bad day. Before it was over, I got not one but two pieces of disappointing news.

First, I found out that this Spring's Creating Comics: Writing for Comic Books and Graphic Novels would have to be postponed until the fall, due to insufficient enrollment.

Shortly after, I received an email from Zuda Comics, confirming that they were passing on my submission of Tears of the Dragon.

A one-two punch for sure. Both bits of bad news mean a loss of some cash, but more importantly, I was really looking forward to both teaching my class and for debuting Tears. I spent much of Sunday night revising my syllabus, and I was really pumped to teach the course again. And Tears is a story I absolutely love and have no doubt it would have found an audience if given a chance on Zuda.

Two bummers. So, why am I still smiling?

I wrote a blog a while back titled "Big Victories and Small Defeats" and I still feel much the same way. In the grand scheme of things, these are a few more small defeats. As far as setbacks go, they are minor. After some of the things I've had to work through in my personal life this past winter, hell, just about everything seems minor in comparison.

But it's the spring, and I'm all glass half-full. So, I'm focusing on the silver lining of these disappointments.

- Without my comics class taking up 3-4 hours of teaching and prep time each week, I'll be able to devote more time to my graphic novel project, which I hope to debut this summer.
- With Zuda passing on Tears, I'm still able to repurpose some of the art from Tears for use in my graphic novel. This probably would have been a problem had I won a Zuda contract.
- I get to keep all the rights to Tears, and can take full control over how that comic is dispersed.

A rejection from Zuda is only more motivation to make Tears bigger and better and a success. I hope to launch Tears as a webcomic on its own site in the late summer, so you'll be continuing to hear more about it.

And Creating Comics will be back in the Fall, better than ever.