Girlspy
People sometimes write and ask if I have a PDF of a standalone book I did in 2003 (2003!) called "Girlspy". I tell them I will "dig it out". I have just dug it out for you. I apologise if anything in this book offends modern sensibilities. i am too scared to look inside it to find out. Link at the bottom of the post.
The new Steeple PDF will be up on Monday - the penultimate issue, alas. Dark Horse passed on volume four, so after issue 20 it will be time to move on. While this Patreon sustains the daily production of webcomics (thank you very much), I rely on print royalties as well, and I've produced a lot of work now - a few hundred pages of Steeple and Solver - that hasn't been printed. I think Solver is some of my best work and it's on a website in an age when no one looks at websites any more and that's it. I'm very grateful to have an audience at all, but without my work going outside the little webcomics channel, it gets much harder to sustain and build it.
I don't have the energy to do self-publishing the way I did back when Girlspy came out but it is time to rethink my approach. I've had to do this several times over the last 20 years - artistically, business-wise. If you tackle it early enough, it presents an opportunity rather than a crisis. Alongside that, all I can do is try to make sure the work is good. I hope it still is.
Comments (31)
This was the nearly the first post I saw after I saw that you have a Patreon and joined up. Like Warwick Johnson Cadwell I read it as Gir-is-py but didn't care. A pdf of something I hadn't seen before? Heck, yeah!
thank you so much! i re subscribed just for this!! i asked about this and "heavy metal hearts" a few months ago - Jon (no H)
Oh lovely! I bought a digitla version of this Girlspy off of you FOREVER ago and I remember liking it I know it's a big risk but... you are far enough along in your career that I bet you could pull off one of those GIANT print editions. Like The Essential Bobbins Vol. 1 or something 300 pages. Hardbound. Etc. etc. Maybe float a trial balloon Kickstarter. I could see it flying with the public.
Count me among the masses of folks who find themselves downcast by the sad Steeple/Solver situation. I've been following along since the days of Bobbins/Scary Go Round for I don't know how long, probably twenty years or so, and I have always enjoyed your sense of whimsy - I will happily follow along on whatever the next adventure may be.
I enjoyed that, thank you 🙂
Gutting to hear that Steeple and Solver aren't viable to run for longer, but I want to appreciate the time we've had with them. They've been wonderful, thank you. Here's hoping the project (or projects) that replaces them at least gets closer to the amount of recognition it deserves. Also very cool to see Girlspy again! (Or for the first time, personally.) I *think* that just leaves Scare-o-deleria and Heavy Metal Hearts and Flowers as the only SGR comics that aren't available digitally right now. Pretty remarkable in the context of 25 years of comics spread across many different titles, formats and websites.
I put Scareodeleria in the back of one of the PDF editions when I originally started selling them that way in 2011. Don't ask me which one, of course. And indeed, don't ask me if I kept it in there when I did the new editions on Gumroad. I'll have a look for it, Jack. Scareodeleria fact: I didn't pencil or script it, I just drew it straight out in ink into a sketchbook. What confidence! I haven't looked at it in many years but I suspect it reads like I didn't pencil or script it too.
"Link at the bottom of the post." Alas, I'm not seeing the link. What I do? I am confident that Mr Allison will find a way. If there's another writer in England as good as he, I'd be interested to learn it!
https://www.patreon.com/file?h=92210372&i=16429056
Ace! Though I misread the title and was prepared to read “Girispy”
Gerry The Spy, a series where Gerry Marsden digs for the unvarnished truth in 1960s Liverpool.
Good luck John. I’ve heard good things from people who’ve worked with Zoop, and Unbound are also doing something in the graphic novel side of things. I’m not certain exactly how much of the publisher side of things they take up, or at what price, but they do seem to work for some people and I think are less do everything by yourself publishing than going the kickstarter route.
The problem comes with it being volume 4 in a series from another publisher. And I worked on it for five years, on and off. Scary Go Round was only seven. Sometimes you just have to accept your fate.
absolutely adore steeple and solver. your writing has always been a constant joy, and as a trans girl i changed my name to Charlotte in no small part due to Ms. Grote
I still have my lovely copy of Girlspy with a sketch of Zombie Shelly. Cool as hell to see it on my phone
I'm so glad I now have a digital version of Girl Spy to go along with my dead trees version, thanks John!
Steeple was my introduction to your work and I'm sorry to see it end, though grateful you'll be giving a proper conclusion. I've since read much of your back work and enjoyed it and hope to continue supporting your work for some time to come yet. Good luck in your next endeavor and I'll be here waiting for it.
It's time for a new indie comic publisher (sorry it's not going to me I don't have the cash)
I have a good relationship with Dark Horse - they're putting out a GBBO follow-up by me and Max next year. I suspect Steeple was simply not a mega seller for them.
I loved solver and was desperate for more. Sorry to read it isn't going to happen
While I am sad to see Steeple end, I'm glad to follow you to your next story 😌
Heartbroken about this, I think Steeple has been fantastic. I didn't really care for Solver, I have to say, but I honestly thought Steeple might run for years.
I genuinely thought Solver was the best comic I had ever made on my own while making it, but maybe it's just "a deeply personal work" ie self indulgent.
I spy with my little eye something that begins with G.
Hard agree with Jon and Meaghan. I've been reading and enjoying your work for over ten years and happy to support in whatever way I can (print, pdfs, kickstarters, etc)
I would totally support a kickstarter to have a collected edition of steeple or solver. You could always licence your steeple story in particular to the bbc or prime
Steeple was optioned twice - nothing happened.
Would you not consider Image comics as an option?
Not a great fit alas.
I am shocked that DH has passed on vol 4 (and gutted). Solver is some of my favorite work of yours, so happy to purchase in whatever format you persue. I am analogue through and through, so always willing to "double dip" on printed versions.
Hard agree there, Jon and John. I’d love to have a physical copy of both volume 4 of Steeple and of Solver, so I’ll gleefully support that- just give the word!