- END OF YEAR REVIEW -

2008 has been a good year overall both for Unico Comics and for myself. The low point was having to deal time and time again with a now ex member of staff who thankfully is not with Unico anymore. I’ll not get into the details but I’ll say that if you want to get yourself into this game then make sure you surround yourself with a team who know what determination and hard work is all about. Luckily for me everyone else at Unico Comics works their arses off and gives 100%. The other down side was that when he left his friend went with him which was a shame as he was a hard worker and we believe felt the same as us towards the work but we understand the reasons he left. The plus sides are now that because we don’t have to deal with chasing work about and unnecessary delays we’ve done more in the last few months than we have altogether over rest of the year and we all feel like a family again and everyone has said they are now enjoying the work without the distractions we had to put up with. Also we’ve got a new member of Staff called Mark Bell who’s an artist that worked on UNICO COLLECTIONS. In the short time he’s been here he’s been a magnificent addition to the lads that work currently on Unico.

With the horrible stuff out of the way; the good news is that everything this year has made us go from strength to strength. First up we finally got UNICO COLLECTIONS completed and we couldn’t be happier with the work. The quality was far exceeded by what we hoped and we’ve had very positive feedback from it. The one down side is that it was too expensive (£10 not inc P&P) for us to get in massive bulk orders given our current funds (hey there is a recession on don’t you know). So we split it into 3 smaller volumes (£3 each not including P&P) and added 6 new bits of work including a re-printing of Engine Comic’s THE SEVEN SENTINELS. I must admit they look flipping great and will go on sale in January.

Another massive step forward for us has been contracts agreed with some independent comic shops and online websites to sell our stuff. Also the inclusion into Smallzone’s FRONTLINE online service that will be going live in 2009 which will provide a service similar to DIAMOND PUBLISHING but only for small press comics. This should increase our turnover incredibly and get us in the hands of more comic fans. Also addition in to many of the small press community websites have raised Unico’s profile for the upcoming convention season.