IDEAS DON'T BLEED episode one hundred thirty-nine | Ethan Sacks, part two

WELCOME BACK TO IDEAS DON’T BLEED!

This week, we’re joined once again by Ethan Sacks (Star Wars: Bounty Hunters, Old Man Hawkeye) as we discuss his comics origin story, how working as a journalist built his skills as a writer, collaborating with his daughter Naomi on A Haunted Girl, and more!

You can support the crowdfunding campaign for A Haunted Girl right here- https://zoop.gg/c/ahauntedgirl.

IDB is an all-new weekly podcast presented by Ashcan Press and featuring Matthew Rosenberg, the Supple Boiz, and wonderful guests from the world of comic books!

Our theme song is “Where’s the Poison” by Summer People.

Enjoy!

Hi again. Part II of our chat with Ethan Sacks. The first issue of his new Image series DARK HONOR just dropped this week and I hope you all picked it up. It’s a fun crime story with a very interesting twist.

And there is of course still time to support the crowdfunding campaign for his award winning book A HAUNTED GIRL.

I really liked getting to catch up with Ethan and discuss his work and career. Hope you all like it.

So with WE’RE TAKING EVERYONE DOWN WITH US #3 in stores this past week, that means Monday is time for comic shops to place their orders for #4. Honestly issue #4 is my favorite issue so I’m excited for it to come out. Check out these badass covers below.

This is of course Stefano’s badass cover.

Chris Matthews did this stunner. If you haven’t picked up Chris’s brilliant crime series MUGSHOTS yet you’re missing out on a truly great one.

Carson Thorn delivered just a stunningly creepy cover. I LOVE Carson’s work and you should too.

And Andy MacDonald took a break from our Top Secret project to do this cover with colors by Rico Renzi. It rules.

But that’s not all. It seems that issue #3 is sold out at distribution and selling out at shops across the country so we’re reprinting it. If you want a copy that is also on FOC monday.

Over on social media I said that it was very flattering to have our book going back to print for the 4th time in 3 issues, but it was also a bit frustrating because it costs us money. A few people asked me about that so I thought I’d explain what I meant here.

First of all, anyone buying our book is just so shocking and amazing. So thank you to all of you that do. Stefano, Jason, Hassan, Becca, Steve, Eric, and all the Tiny Onions who work on the book appreciate it so much. And however you are buying it or getting it, we appreciate it.

Now, with that out of the way, I’ll explain a bit about how comics are made and sold. If this sounds fucking boring I get it. Feel free to skip it.

Comics are printed based on orders from shops. Those numbers are finalized in a period called FOC- Final Order Cutoff. For us, that’s this Monday. Then those order numbers are sent to the publisher, they tally them up, add extra copies to cover late orders, comps, etc, and send the order to the printer. This is why we as comic creators stress preorders so much. It literally determines how many copies of our book exist.

But here’s the part that confused people. Printing is a volume based business. Printing 1,000 comics is very cost prohibitive. Just turning on the machines at the printer is the most expensive part, so you want to print more copies to offset that startup cost. With that, each copy that you print basically makes the overall cost per book go down a bit. It is usually tiered in weird ways but as a hypothetical we may pay $2.50 per book if we print 1,000 and maybe only $2.00 if we print 2,000. Those numbers are made up, but not far off. And that curve continues for a really long time. When you get up into the hundreds of thousands of copies printed, the cost of the books is so much lower that you really start to see your return skyrocket not just from the amount of copies sold.

So, with that logic, when I say that we lose out on money having to reprint the book so much, it’s a bit of a glass half empty way of thinking. But the idea being that if we were going to sell 40,000 copies of issue #3 it is much more profitable to sell them all at once rather than sell 30,000, then 5,000, then 5,000. Doing that makes each book more expensive for us to make (and ship) while still selling for the same. And that doesn’t take into account the number of people who try to buy the book at their local shop, can’t, and just give up.

So, while yes, reprinting the book makes us money and is great. It also would have been better for the orders to have been correct the first time. Which is why I’m here reminding you that if you want to read issue #4, or any of it, tell your local shop now.

And yes, this is all a little bit like complaining too many people came to your birthday party, but here we are. Thanks for coming to my birthday party. We are buying another cake to feed everyone. Next time RSVP when someone puts the invite in your locker. But I’m glad you came.

While I’ve rambled on about preordering my books so much, I might as well tell you about another book you should preorder. My pal

Gerry Duggan

has a fun new Image Comics series with the brilliant Jae Lee coming soon.

I’ve read the first issue and absolutely loved it. It’s gorgeous, funny, and pure chaos in the best way. It is also on FOC tomorrow so call your shop and tell them you want THIS ENDS TONIGHT.

And if you want to know what it’s about I will let them tell you-

“The pulse-pounding comic event of the summer aims for your jugular, courtesy of master artist JAE LEE (Inhumans, SEVEN SONS) and GERRY DUGGAN (X-Men, FALLING IN LOVE ON THE PATH TO HELL). THIS ENDS TONIGHT is the kick-off of three interconnected tales of bloody revenge in Las Vegas. The debut issue stars two sisters hunted by assassins for their shocking family secret. It's an over-sized, action-packed romp, and every panel is crushed with love by JAE. The series is completed, and we've got some special guests, too. Stay tuned for a beautiful ADAM HUGHES variant, and a sketch edition, too...THIS ENDS TONIGHT!

REGISTER PITCH: A Thelma & Louise-like duo barrelling through classic Quentin Tarantino-esque action.”

Sounds fun, right? It is.

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Anyway, that’s it for me.

Stay safe. Take care of each other. Was I too whiny about my book selling out?

-Matthew Rosenberg

NYC 6/1/25