MIDNIGHT INK: a bi-monthly sequential art anthology: Note

Note

DEAR READER,
     What you are about to
read, or have read, or only
intend to look at the pretty
pictures of, is the combined
efforts of over a dozen of the
University of Illinois' most
hopeless dreamers. Luckily, 
to counteract this flaw, they
are also some of the
University of Illinois' hardest
workers when it comes to their
biggest dream: seeing their
work published. These comicbook
lovers wanted nothing more than
to see their work in print. And
here it is...
     Now that I really think
about it, that's the most
amazing thing about this
project. Nobody who worked on
this little magazine really
stood to gain a single thing
from it. In fact, this whole
thing is one big black hole,
sucking in resources of every
type. The creators of these
stories put a lot of time(which  
college kids don't exactly 
have a surplus of), money
(same story), and effort
(which our generation isn't
even supposed to be capable of)
into this book, and they get
NOTHING. Not a penny back. You 
think this book was expensive?
If the price you paid even 
fully covered the printing
prices, these Midnight Inkers
made out like bandits.

     See what I mean? There
ain't a cent to be earned
in the underground comics
biz, but none of 'em cared.
They gave part of their lives
away so that you'd have
something to read on the
crapper.
     Of course, that's not
entirely true. These stories
weren't made for you. These
kids made them for themselves.
They love these characters.
They know these characters
better than they know anyone
in the world. At times, they
probably are these characters.
And, for whatever reason,
they want to share them with
you. No strings attached.
Just drop down your, hopefully
under, five bucks to pay for
this book, and you walk out of
the store with a gift.
     That may have sounded
funny, asking you to pay for a
gift, but think about it for a  
second. All you're really
paying for is the paper these
stories are printed on. The
rest is free. That's over
thirty pages of drama, of
comedy, of horror... over
thirty pages of one damn good
time, I hope. All pretty much
for free.
     So that's the story of
Midnight Ink. Something like a
dozen college kids got
together, shared some ideas,

drew some pictures, and
cranked out a few pages of
funnybook. They did it for you,
they did it for themselves,
they did it to do it. Some of
them had stuff done coming into
the game, some of them worked
their asses off to get stuff
done in time to have something
to print in this school year, 
and some of them didn't get
done in time for this issue. But
they all had fun. They all
learned something. And they
can't thank you enough for
picking this book up, for taking
the time to read it. Thanks for
helping this thing work.
     I'm really proud to be a
part of this. We all are. We
hope you liked it, and we really
care what you thought of it, so
please look us up on your
computer: 
http://www.natj.net/midnight
We want to know what we're 
doing right, and we need to 
know what we're doing wrong.
You can help us get better with
just a few minutes on the old
e-mail. We'll love you for it, 
and we'll pay you back with
future(and improved) issues of
this magazine.

Thank you for your time,
MIDNIGHT INK STAFF

composed by Trevor Guthke
Artist for Reach Into The Fire