Deadline at the Photocopy Shop
A Mini-Comic Memoir

About this book:

In the fall of 1997, the only thing standing between a broke cartoonist and his dreams of indie-comics glory was a temperamental photocopier, a dwindling supply of Bristol board, and a hard deadline at the Small Press Expo. *Deadline at the Photocopy Shop* drops you into the fluorescent-lit trenches of 24-hour Kinko's, where every jammed tray, toner streak, and misaligned margin feels like a referendum on your worth as an artist. This is the untold origin story of a mini-comic—raw, sleepless, and gloriously specific—where the real antagonist isn't writer's block but the physics of paper and the cruelty of the clock.

Equal parts time capsule and survival guide, the book captures a vanished era when "self-publishing" meant literal staples, rubber cement fumes, and the terrifying freedom of showing up at a hotel ballroom with a box of your own making. You'll recognize the panic of the blank page, the hubris of the rewrite at 2 a.m., and the strange alchemy that turns panic into a finished object you can hold. Whether you've ever chased a convention table, fought a copy machine, or just wondered how the sausage gets made in the DIY trenches, this memoir delivers the ink-stained truth: the masterpiece isn't the comic. The masterpiece is finishing it.