Zub Tales

About a year and a half ago, Erik and I discussed the fact that Udon needed to diversify. The comic book market is unsteady, even as it grows in certain areas. It’s still profitable, but being able to cover ourselves with a strong variety of other creative design work would definitely keep us healthier and more viable into the coming years. It took a while, but the Udon Entertainment site finally became a showcase for the many types of things the studio can do, showing off our impressive client list and skills.

Between the summer and now, it’s gotten kind of nuts. Major clients we would’ve had trouble getting a hold of a couple years ago are calling us, offering us some great projects – toy companies, movie productions, video games, all kinds of stuff. It’s really becoming a matter of picking which ones are viable based on time and budget. That doesn’t even include our own projects or the entire line of manga and artbooks we’re translating for release next year.

I talk to people and they ask me if the company is alright because our comic output is slow and we’re not doing a regular series for Marvel or DC anymore. Let me assure you – we’re fine…. more than fine, bursting with ridiculous things on the go.

I received an e-mail last night from a client I would’ve eaten my left leg to get when I started managing projects at Udon. They want us involved with design on their 2007 line of products. It’s kind of surreal and awesome.

I’m not posting this to brag – it honestly seem important for me to mark this point in time. We talked about diversifying and now we’re doing it. When you’re in the midst of things you can lose track of progress like that. This industry (now entertainment, not just comics) is so chaotic that you can forget accomplishments because you’re always overlapping into the next set of tasks that need to be completed – you’re never done.

So, I guess what I’m trying to say is, take stock of what you’ve done this year and keep building.