Everything went well at InvestComics but after our failed attempts to get JOSEPH! into newspapers all across America I began to realize that strip humor was too limiting. I wanted to expand our story-telling and the best way to do that is in graphic novel format. There was some interest in this possibility from a potential publisher and I thought what the heck! Let's give it a try. I talked with Jay Katz and he encouraged me to pursue the endeavor. So Gary and I started production on "JOSEPH! The Family Album", an original 68 page graphic novel.
To start with I began writing the script. I found it liberating and burned through several pages a day. The difference between strip writing and long-form graphic novel writing is the fact that in strips the "joke" must be contained and the punchline delivered within three panels while at the same time maintaining a cohesive story-arc over the course of four weeks (shorter or longer in some cases). I'll have to admit here that while I wrote the strips during my tenure at InvestComics I sometimes struggled with the format. Writing JOSEPH! as a graphic novel does keep with some similarities. I attempt to deliver a joke (or at least some bit of humor) with each page, everything leading toward a big punchline at the very end of the book.
When production started this gave Gary a break in the workload. Previously he had been turning out two to three strips each week. The schedule now frees him to make only one page a week. This is in addition to everything else he does, including work on his own original series Mazscara.
NEXT: IndieComiX and the future of the series!
