Hellkitty.com

I've avoided thinking about issue 60 over the last few years mostly to keep myself from thinking about how much more work there's left to do. Stay in the present, plow through and some day that cozy promise of fulfillment will just show up on my doorstep.

At the con this weekend I had several dozen people ask me the same question: "So what's next?" and with a shrug I would answer "Dunno, we'll see when I get there."

Just as I haven't let myself dwell on issue 60 I've sidestepped the whole what-happens-after part. I supposed I would take a break, have a look at all my back-burnered projects, consider any proposals that might come in (hopefully from creators I've always wanted to work with) or possibly try something completely different.

After a fun and inspirational weekend at the con I started to think about putting together a booth for next year and what that would entail. Maybe a table or two to sell some art and the ever popular sketchbook, or a self publishing venture, make up some funky t-shirts to sell. Maybe all of that. I started getting excited, ideas began spilling out of my noodle and I was scribbling furiously in my notebook.

And that's when I began to look at the future. Specifically, my schedule.

For some reason my brain locked onto the idea that the end would be around December of 2006. At the very latest February of 2007 which would have left me time to put some projects together in time for next year's San Diego con. I started counting out how long I'd have left after finishing issue 49 this week and was horrified to learn that I wouldn't be done until summer. A whole year. Egads.

I became quite depressed. Now, don't get me wrong, I love working on Y, the story is brilliant and I feel so lucky to have done as much as I have. It's also a lot of work and the idea of trying something new just jazzed me up so much. And that's when I came up with this idea for the blog and my spirits lifted.

Y the Last Year. T minus ten issues. So leading up to issue 60 I'll be blogging as much as I can about it. The fun parts, the hard parts, the couple of issues I'll probably be off in the middle, anything I can write about the experience including the huge bash we're planning for the finish.

Today I opened my e-mail to find the script for issue 50.

Here we go.