TEN AWKWARD YEARS
Serenity Rose #1 came out ten years ago this October. (OH MAH GAH.)
It started as a webcomic about a year before, so this whole time period is sort of bathed in the glow of TEN-NESS. I think I’m supposed to go, “YAAARRRR, I CAN’T BELIEVE IT’S BEEN SO LONG!” but you know what? Ten years actually seems about right to me. (And of course Sera’s been with me for a lot longer than that.)
Do any of you guys remember buying that first issue way back in 2003? Me, I’ll never forget when that big box of complimentary copies (my first published work!) arrived on my doorstep courtesy of SLG. I slashed it open, lifted the flap, and was almost instantly overcome by a terrible cloud of black ink vapor. I can still smell it now… Possibly because my sinuses have been permanently damaged.
You just don’t get that experience online, you know?
But you know what? Ten years means CELEBRATION TIME, and there are plans afoot! Along with bringing Break Your Stupid Heart to a close, I’ll also be making new prints, assembling an art book, raiding the archive to post ancient Sera secrets, digitizing the FIRST Serenity Rose student film, releasing various ectoplasmic toxins into the local water system, doing some signings, and a GREAT BIG SPECIALNESS for the really real anniversary this October.
To help things along, I’ve teamed up with the good, ENTHUSIASTIC folks at Hiveworks to help build Sera’s audience and promote all the ridiculous things I’m doing. They’ve got an incredible, diverse lineup of webcomics up in the hive, and I couldn’t be happier to have Serenity buzzing around in there. If you want to see the comics evolve into the future before your very eyes, CHECK THEM OUT. (And please excuse the dust and screaming while we make some changes to Heart-Shaped Skull.)
The big celebration kicks off NEXT WEEK at Seattle’s Emerald City Comic-Con, where I’ll be perched atop a MIGHTY THRONE (or “table”) all weekend with ELDRITCH! artist Drew Rausch. Along with our rapidly-dwindling supply of ELDRITCH! hardcovers, I’ll also have the anniversary print above, loads of original art, and all my other books, too. I’ll be doing other conventions later this year, but I’ve heard nothing but nice things about Emerald City, so hope to see you there!
Here’s where you can find us:
Friday, March 1 – 2:00PM to 8:00PM
Saturday, March 2 – 10:00AM to 7:00PM
Sunday, March 3 – 10:00AM to 5:00PM
Probably step away from the table every now and then to see stuff/ eat folks/ put ectoplasmic toxins in the water supply, but we’ll more or less be there all the time. Should be fun! More convention-type announcements to come.
And I’d just like to say THANK YOU to everyone who’s stuck with me and Serenity over this terribly awkward decade. You guys are total freaks and I love you. (Those of you who came later… Yeah, you’re all right, too.) The coolest stuff is still ahead!
yes i have been here since the beginning….and im talking about the print version
aaron you helped inspire me to make my comic better…and to this day i am still awesomely jealous of your scribblings…happy 10 years…i will read Eldritch as soon as Sera’s story wraps up.
Thank you, Skrappy! What’s your comic about?
http://www.cityofanywhere.com…..heh instead of me telling you…you can read for yourself when you have the time… 🙂
http://www.cityofanywhere.com
Nice! But… Why do I feel the compulsion to paint a giant Rodger Rodent mural on my wall now?
you aren’t supposed to look directly into his eyes….im afraid there is no hope for you….
I’d like to second that, actually, your comic has not only inspired me, but tangibly had an impact on my career as a comic book artist. You see, I was told by a publisher I wanted to work with that I should try and do more creative cinematic layouts with my pages, and I was like, you know who does that amazingly well? Aaron A. I’d been reading your comics for so long, so I dragged out my collection for inspiration and after following the way you break out of panels and the way you storyboard things, I resubmitted it and they accepted it. You’re a fantastic inspiration as an artist, and you always have been for me. Thanks for 10 years of Serenity!
Thank you kindly! And congratulations on finding a print publisher. You have a cool style!
So many congratulations Aaron! I too was with Serenity Rose all the way in the beginning, when it was updating online, and collected all the amazing print issues – the only reason I would go into a Hot Topic. So excited that it’s still going, the art and story are super awesome. Congrats!!
Thanks! If you bought yours at Hot Topic, you might have one of the copies of issue #1 with all references to “witches” removed. Good times.
Whoa seriously? How did I miss that! What a peculiar thing to remove.
I’m a late arrival, only a couple years ago, but fell in love with it immediately. I can’t wait to see what the future brings. 🙂
I popped up somewhere between issues 1 and 2, man… I wish I still had the original copies of the comics. I still have issue #5 somewhere, though. Cheers, Aaron. Here is to ten more years of struggle and starvation, err, mind altering success!
so you mean my “happy publishing” drawing is ten years old now? man oh man. wish i’d improved as much as you have in all this time. i’m waiting for the third book to be printed before i read it. because i am a goon. I BE WAITIN’.
I first encountered it when backpacking around the world, and I picked up the SLG free comic book day special in Chicago, I think. (2004?) Instantly hooked! I then had the honour to meet Mr Alex A at Comic-con, and somewhere I have a signed issue 1! 🙂 if only I knew where the original art I bought is….l
Man I wish I could go to the con. Have a great time, Aaron. Thanks for all the years of great comics.
Not sure of the exact year I showed up. Somewhere between books 1 and 2. My then-boyfriend saw issue #1 in a comic book store and thought I’d like it. I did, so he found and bought me book #1. I loved the hell out of it and was super bummed when I got online and found out book #2 was a long ways off. Been bugging you ever since ^^;;. The boyfriend might be gone but you’re stuck with me. I am still kicking the crap out of myself of leaving my comics back in Ohio when I moved.
..Man, come to think of it, a major part of where I am in my life is partially because of Serenity Rose. It’s because of Bubblegum Noir I discovered the webcomic Natch Evil, where I met Josh who I would end up moving to Oklahoma to be with. There’s a long chain of events that lead me here, but one important link involves your comic, good sir. Thank you 🙂
Congrats on the anniversary, and happy to hear you’ll be part of Hiveworks.
I only discovered Serenity Rose relatively recently (Through an image search of Calvin & Hobbes, of all places…) but it pretty much instantly became one of my all time favorite comics.
I’ve been chugging along at my own graphic novel for just over two years now (Only about five or six more to go!), and your attention to visual detail and characterization is something I really admire, and strive for in my own work.
I’m looking forward to whatever you have in store in the coming months. Good luck, and thanks for all the hard work you do. ^_^
Thank you for all the kindlinesses, everyone! You make great globs of black goo pour from my eye sockets (normal, right?).
Cannot believe it has been 10 years. Lessee… 10 years ago, Thursdays were new comic book days, and the good people at my local comic shop ‘The Storyteller’ had a storage box shelf thingie where they would put everything the regulars like me would order, as well as those things they thought we might like that might have come in or they might have ordered thinking someone like us might want. I had been buying a considerable amount of comics off the SLG catalogue at the time, so when I showed up that day, it wasn’t too surprising to see something I hadn’t ordered in my box. I flipped it open in the shop to find the brain-hemorrhaging, super detailed artwork and love put into each page’s composition (something that made SLG titles really stand out in those days) made it an instant ‘yes’ to my pile of comics, and when I got home and read it, and read it again, and read all the small print and eyed all the small, unique, Chris Ware-like detail put into the pages, I had to go back and get a few more copies- a second for myself, and some for my friends. I remember the thrill when the second issue showed up in my box, the 3rd, the 4th, and the sadness that issue 5 would be the last in that format– and as much as I love the website, I just can’t read the issues online or even in the Vol. 1 TPB (yes, even with the addition of color)– I just have to bust out a copy of the newspaper-paged issues. There’s just something about comics, and Serenity Rose sits right up there with Sandman and some of those others in that clean, crisp webpages and glossy TPB prints just don’t agree with me as much as the dusty, ink-smeared, strong-smelling issues 1-5, via SLG. Dear Aaron, how about a phonebook-like paperback newspaper release of Volumes 1-3, something along the lines of what they did with those X-men/Spider-man omnibuses or the first TMNT collected book? http://www.miragelicensing.com/comics/books/volone1990.html Not cost effective? Just a thought. Maybe I’m just the last of the younger people who appreciate comics that way, but if it weren’t for comics, I wouldn’t be here. I didn’t even own a computer 10 years ago, and it would still be many years before I did, so I wasn’t even online until long after the last issue dropped. But since the first day I opened up a browser on my first computer, heartshapedskull has always been my homepage on each device I’ve owned. To another 10 years. Cheers. And Aaron? 10 years ago, fresh out of high school, Serenity Rose affected me deeply and was there for me in a way that resonates to this day. There are elements of it that I related to when I needed most to relate to something. So thank you. -Joseph
Yaaay! Thanks for helping spread the word way back in olden times, sir.
Doing a big, cheap, omnibus edition of books 1-3 sounds like fun to ME, but I’m not sure how many people like us are left out there. Plus, all the color work in books 2 and 3 would probably look really muddy and gross on newsprint. I recommend you keep those first five issues sealed in a vault, and every year or so open it up, take them out, and breathe deep of the inky, inky fumes.
I still remember the day, back at good ol’ “Spud’s Emporium”… Mr. Spud was showing and telling me about this bizarre little cartoon made by some guy named “Yhonen”, which I’d not heard of since I have no TV but which looked rather intriguing in some indescribable way. And then it was all forgotten when I found a little black first issue with a blue-haired witch on the cover and the words “Dear Diaries Are Stupid” inside. Been hooked ever since, and even got a little bit annoyed with Mr. Whedon when he went and appropriated half the title for something completely unrelated.
It was only later that I found out you’d had something to do with the cartoon as well. Ironic, no? I’d never imagined blue-haired witches and screaming aliens had so much in common.
I still hear someone mispronounce his name at least once at every convention. Every single one.
Hey Aaron, on the off chance the big October anniversary surprise happens to be a Serenity Rose one volume collection, may I be the first to request it be bound in fabric or leather? Such an event would trigger a certain subsection of my brain stem, resulting in an immediate and instinctual pre-order reflex response.
Any collected edition will be bound in demonflesh and sold at the price of one human soul (plus three eyeballs).
I’m going to be honest. I discovered this amazing webcomic last October, and I am so glad that I did. Thank you, Aaron.
Y’know, it occurs to me (while I curse every one of my many kinfolk with the gall to live in the Pacific Northwest) that, while ECCC would be an awfully long trip for me, C2E2 is only a few hours and less than two months away. On the off-chance that I find myself thereabouts, what would you say are the odds that a few of those nifty art-books might also be present?
Man oh man. I’ve been a mindless troll for your comics since near the end of Vol. 1, can’t remember exactly when that was but I was blown away then and I continue to be blown away with every page and print and blog I see. Since that day until now SR has been my absolute favorite comic and I just have to say congratulations Mr. A!