No Tech Thursday today.  It will be picking up next Thursday where it left off, have no fear.

I’m on Twitter now at http://twitter.com/SStory, so feel free interact with me there.  It’s new, it’s different, and it’s the Big Thing until the next Big Thing comes along.

The end of the month is coming, and with it the end of the big Johnny Saturn 20% off sale.  If you haven’t taken advantage of it yet, now would be your opportunity!

Let me also remind you that this Saturday is the premiere of “Saturnday,” the beginning of serialized prose set in the world of Johnny Saturn and Spire City.  Each installment comes with a piece of original art, and all the stories fit directly into Johnny Saturn continuity.  These stories aren’t throwaways, either—they have solid information about the past, current goings-on, and future of Spire City!  And, it’s free—how cool is that?

Scott.

–Johnny Saturn: Synns of the Father, regularly $19.95, now $15.00 plus S/H

–Johnny Saturn issues 1 to 6, regularly $3.50 each, now $2.50 each plus S/H

–The Johnny Saturn Pinup Gallery, regularly $2.50, now $2.00 plus S/H

–Sixteen Month Story Studios’ Fantasy Calendar, regularly $10.00, now $5.00 plus S/H

–Johnny Saturn 2008-09 Sixteen Month Calendar, regularly $10.00, now $5.00 plus S/H

As a special incentive, we are including a free Sixteen Month Calendar (while supplies last) with every order that includes Johnny Saturn: Synns of the Father!

All books come signed by both authors!

If you want to find out what the buzz is about Johnny Saturn, this is the time!

For an independent comic book, the art, story, and even the colors in this mini-series are high-quality. You’d swear this title were published by one of the larger companies instead of by Scott Story and his wife, Benita.—Comic Buyers Guide

…Saturn is a tour de force and well worth reading.–Silver Bullet Comics

Take tight storytelling and old school artwork, toss them in a blender with the best of what has come before and the hope of things to come and Johnny Saturn is what is born from that volatile concoction.—Byte Marks

Go to www.johnnysaturn.com .

I want to remind you that the current sale we are running, to commemorate selling out the first run of our books, that we are including a free sketch card with each copy of “Johnny Saturn: Synns of the Father” that you buy from this site.  These sketch cards are completely original handmade art, such as these (Shown at actual size):

OK, change of subject.

I was recently asked how long it takes to make an episode of “Johnny Saturn.”  My stock answer is nine hours per episode.  I’ve arrived at this estimate the following way: 8 hours to pencil the page, 6 hours to ink the page, 4 hours to color the page, and up to an hour to letter a page.  For convenience sake, let’s round that off to the nearest even number, 18 hours.  Since each original page is made up two episodes, the individual episodes take about nine (18/2=9) hours.

We post three of these episodes a week, amounting to about 27 hours of work per week, or more than three traditional work days (plus change).

Obviously, we do this comic because it’s a passion: I love drawing and creating comics, and Benita is a natural storyteller.  But, why else?

One answer might be that this ongoing schedule to keep producing quality work on a timetable helps us produce a lot of material for printing.   Another answer might be that we love presenting our story as it comes out, and interacting with readers.  Both would be true.

I would also ad that there is a tremendous level of satisfaction with actually doing something creative, and keeping up with it.  We prove that we aren’t simply dreamers, people who plan to get around to doing something creative someday but never do.  We have something tangible to show for our efforts, and that is psychologically huge for us.  When readers actually get the subtleties in the story, or figure out what we are up to, or come to care for our characters, the emotional pay off for Benita and I is huge.

I’ll end this by writing something that should be obvious to creators of all kinds: Using the imagination at a high level is itself a pleasurable experience.  The more you use the imagination, the stronger it gets and the more pleasurable it gets.  You could probably enjoy this benefit by engaging in highly developed daydreaming, but it’s so much better to have something to show for it.

Scott.